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Center for Law, Energy & the Environment

The Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE) channels the expertise of the Berkeley Law community – faculty, staff, and students – into pragmatic, creative policy solutions to critical environmental and energy challenges.

BLACK LIVES MATTER

A MOVEMENT NOT A MOMENT

The past few months have starkly highlighted the systemic racism and racial injustice interwoven into the fabric of this country. We must not only condemn it; we must act to change it.

The university has a public interest mission; the legal profession is responsible for seeking justice; and our center and our program are focused on ensuring a sustainable world for all. Working at the intersection of those values, we must humbly look inside and examine if we are doing all we can to combat systemic racism, because the answer is almost certainly no. Yet we cannot successfully combat climate change and environmental degradation without addressing the inextricably linked roots and consequences of systemic racial injustice.

Because words without actions ring hollow, we are engaging in a process to develop a concrete action plan addressing our research, program, and curriculum. We will reach outside our organization for diverse input in order to finalize our action plan and move immediately to implementation.

Research Areas

Upcoming Events

 

Engineered Carbon Capture

Tuesday, May 25
12:20-1:30 PM PT

 

Sustainable Transportation and Smart Cities

Wednesday, May 26
10:00 am PT

Learn more about CLEE Events here!

In the News

Civilian Climate Corps Can Help Stem Rural-Urban Divide
(5/1/21) Ken Alex in The Hill

Beefing Over Beef: What Ways Can The United States Limit Its Cattle’s Carbon Footprint
(4/30/21) Ethan Elkind in AirTalk

The US Needs to Choose its Climate Battles with China Carefully
(4/21/21) Fan Dai in Quartz

Clock’s Running Out on Climate Change. California Says It’s Time for Giant Carbon Vacuums
(4/19/21) Ken Alex in Los Angeles Times

Crime Rates, Vendela Vida, and the Push to End Single-Family Zoning
(4/19/21) Ethan Elkind in KALW

One Planet: The Future Of Electric Cars Under President Biden’s Infrastructure Plan
(4/19/21) Ethan Elkind in KALW

Solar Canals in CA Could Save 63 Billion Gallons of Water a Year
(4/18/21) Mike Kiparsky in Freethink

 

See our complete list of media mentions here.

March 2021

Priorities for Sonoma County’s Wildfire Settlement Vegetation Management Funds

In 2017, the Sonoma Complex Fires burned hundreds of thousands of acres in the county, destroyed over 5,000 structures, and took two dozen lives. After reaching a legal settlement with Pacific Gas & Electric (whose equipment sparked the fires), Sonoma County allocated $25 million of the settlement funds to vegetation management in order to reduce future fire risk and protect ecosystems and agriculture.
 

The County retained CLEE to gather expert input and prepare recommendations for how to allocate these funds most efficiently and effectively. Considering the long-term and recurring nature of vegetation management, the diversity of County landscapes and ecosystems, and the scale of the need relative to the amount of funds, a range of strategies will be required to leverage the funds into long-term investments and ensure sustainable practices. CLEE convened a group of statewide experts and a group of County stakeholders to identify spending priorities. Our report, Priorities for Sonoma County’s Wildfire Settlement Vegetation Management Funds, outlines these priorities and offers specific strategies for the funds to achieve them. 

 

February 2021

Data Access for a Decarbonized Grid

California’s electricity infrastructure is entering a period of profound change, with state leaders striving to achieve 60 percent renewable sources by 2030 and 100 percent zero-carbon power by 2045, while increasingly severe heat waves and wildfires threaten the reliability and resilience of the grid. Developers are introducing a range of flexible grid technologies to meet these challenges. While these technologies are becoming increasingly mainstream and affordable, effective and efficient deployment relies on a key resource—energy data—that can maximize the flexible use of diverse energy resources. Abundant energy data already provide the information needed to operate a modern, flexible grid. However, state regulators, electric utilities, technology developers, and customers face a thicket of regulatory, privacy, and incentive-based challenges to optimizing the generation and management of this data.
 
To identify solutions to these challenges, CLEE and UCLA Law’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment convened a group of energy data experts in August 2020. Our new report, Data Access for a Decarbonized Grid, details the challenges facing optimal energy data access and a set of high-priority solutions.
January 2021

Building towards Decarbonization

California’s drive toward statewide carbon neutrality by 2045 will hinge on shifting as many energy sources and fuels to electricity as possible. Accordingly, transitioning buildings from natural gas to electricity is among the state’s highest priorities for the coming decade.
 
To identify challenges and solutions to this transition and the high-priority communities in which state leaders should target policy and investment support, CLEE convened a group of building decarbonization experts in September 2020. Our new report, Building toward Decarbonization, highlights a set of criteria for high-priority communities including those with the least financial resources and the most to gain from improved air quality; those currently investing in new building construction; those with existing gas infrastructure already in need of replacement; those with an expressed willingness to transition; and those rebuilding from recent wildfires.
December 2020

Capturing Opportunity 

California has enacted ambitious climate goals, including a statewide carbon neutrality target by 2045. While much of the required greenhouse gas reductions will come from clean technology and emission reduction programs, meeting these targets will necessitate new methods of actively removing carbon from the atmosphere and capturing difficult-to-mitigate emissions, including via technologies broadly known as engineered carbon removal. These processes — such as carbon capture and sequestration from industrial and fossil fuel facilities, biomass energy production with carbon capture, and direct air capture of atmospheric carbon — can complement nature-based solutions but are mostly still in the early development stages

To address key barriers to engineered carbon removal, CLEE convened a group of state energy and environmental regulators, carbon removal project experts and developers, and advocates to discuss state priorities for engineered carbon removal deployment and policy needs to advance those priorities. Our report, Capturing Opportunity, identifies a suite of high-priority policy solutions.
December 2020

Redefining Value and Risk in Agriculture

In June 2020, the Berkeley Food Institute and UC Berkeley School of Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment convened farmers, policy experts, advocates, investors, and other stakeholders in the farming community for a virtual roundtable on public-private solutions to advance regenerative agriculture. We agreed on the problem, yet our diverse perspectives necessitated discussion of the broad range of potential and existing solutions. From reforming crop insurance and promoting regenerative practices to implementing policies that prioritize equity, explore these recommendations and more in Redefining Value and Risk in Agriculture. 

December 2020

Insuring Extreme Heat Risks

Extreme heat is a leading climate-related health risk, responsible for thousands of deaths and hospitalizations per year in the United States, a number that will grow significantly this century. Local governments are developing resilience plans that include comprehensive extreme heat elements to help address the expansive risks posed by extreme heat, including not just physical health but also mental health, educational success, birth outcomes, worker productivity, transportation networks, and utility infrastructure. But extreme heat impacts are especially diffuse and difficult to address, and they disproportionately affect vulnerable and disadvantaged communities. CLEE’s new report, Insuring Extreme Heat Risks, studies the potential for insurance and other financial risk-transfer mechanisms to help local governments respond to and mitigate the extreme heat risk they will face with increasing regularity in coming decades.
September 2020

The California Roadmap

The increasingly clear impacts of climate change, the growing urgency of social justice movements, and the COVID-19 pandemic are all demonstrating how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues shape local and international economies. California, as one of the largest economies in the world and a hub of innovation in business as well as climate policy, is uniquely poised to lead the push for greater consideration of ESG issues.
 
CLEE’s Climate Risk Initiative, led by Dave Jones, has partnered with the Principles for Responsible Investment on a policy roadmap to spark this effort. The California Roadmap includes recommendations for state policymakers, public pension funds, and private investors to better integrate ESG issues in their investment decision-making. The recommendations, ranging from corporate reporting of climate-related risks to ESG-related disclosure for publicly financed projects, promote financial health and stability for California governments, companies, public employees, and private investors. They also offer California public and private sector leaders an opportunity to lead the nation in another urgent area of public policy.
 
 
September 2020

Civic Engagement and Water Data: How Can California Make Data Work for Decision Makers?

As California water resources continue to face pressing challenges, such as climate change and population growth, data will play a critical role in empowering decision makers to adapt quickly. Building on our 2018 work with stakeholders to improve the usefulness of water data, this new issue brief focuses on the role of civic engagement in water data availability and system design. Based on interviews with public, private, nonprofit, and community thought leaders, the research identifies different approaches to civic engagement in water data and how it can be part of solving pressing problems.
 
July 2020

Sustainable Drive, Sustainable Supply: Priorities to Improve the Electric Vehicle Battery Supply Chain

The global transition from fossil fuel-powered vehicles to battery electric vehicles (EVs) will require the production of hundreds of millions of batteries. This massive deployment frequently raises questions from the general public and critics alike about the sustainability of the battery supply chain, from mining impacts to vehicle carbon emissions.

To address these questions, CLEE and the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) are conducting a stakeholder-led research initiative focused on identifying strategies to improve sustainability and governance across the EV battery supply chain. The new report “Sustainable Drive, Sustainable Supply: Priorities to Improve the Electric Vehicle Battery Supply Chain” identifies key challenges and possible responses that industry, government and nonprofit leaders could take to ensure battery supply chain sustainability.

June 2020

Clean and Resilient: Policy Solutions for California’s Grid of the Future

California’s electrical grid is both at the core of the state’s aggressive decarbonization goals—with targets of 60 percent renewable power by 2030 and 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2045—and a major source of community vulnerability. Technologies like distributed renewable generation, microgrids, energy storage, building energy management, and vehicle-grid integration will be essential to promote community safety and resilience while advancing the effort to decarbonize the grid. But these investments will require significant policy and financial support to achieve these dual state goals over the coming decade.

To address this need, CLEE and the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA Law convened a group of California state energy regulators, local government leaders, grid experts, and clean energy advocates for a convening on California’s electrical grid of the future. Our report, Clean and Resilient, is based on this expert group’s findings.

April 2020

Legal Grounds: Law and Policy Options to Facilitate a Phase-out of Fossil Fuel Production in California

California is the seventh-largest oil producing state in the country, with a fossil fuel industry that is responsible for billions of dollars in state and local revenue and other economic activity each year. Yet continued oil and gas production contrasts with the state’s aggressive climate mitigation policies, while creating significant air and water pollution, particularly for disadvantaged communities in areas where much of the state’s drilling occurs.

As a result of these risks, many advocates and policymakers seek ways to enhance regulation of and eventually phase out oil and gas production in California. To provide legal options for policy makers to facilitate this transition, CLEE’s report Legal Grounds outlines steps California leaders could pursue on state- and privately-owned lands to achieve this reduction.

Recent Publications

CLIMATE & ENERGY

LAND USE

OCEANS

From the Blog