Category: California

Model House and Blueprint
California / Legislation
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Could Rollback of Environmental Impact Law Help California Fight Its Housing Crisis?

Earlier this summer, as part of the state’s annual budget deal, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation that alters how the existing California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) would apply to certain housing development projects in the Golden State.

A landmark law signed in 1970 by then-governor Ronald Reagan, the CEQA was intended to reduce environmental harms by requiring public agencies to identify and mitigate potential environmental impacts of the implementation of building activities and governmental policies. Throughout the decades since the CEQA was enacted, a …

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California / Emissions
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‘Berth Control’ – California’s War on Idle Emissions

California – as part of effort to reduce the environmental impact of maritime shipping, particularly within vulnerable port-side communities – has implemented one of the most ambitious port-emission control programs to date.

California’s At-Berth Regulation (ABR), implemented in 2007, is a key environmental policy created to reduce air pollution from nonvehicular sources. Since 2014, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has enforced the ABR for container ships, reefer ships, and passenger ships, requiring the use of shore power or CARB-approved emission control/capture systems while at …

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California / PFAS
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California Bill Expands Definition of ‘Intentionally Added PFAS’

Our blog has reported previously on California PFAS regulations, including its watershed laws with novel definitions of PFAS and the noted problems with the total organic fluorine testing method. (Prior CA blog posts on PFAS).

We have also written on California’s PFAS ban in many children’s products and in disposable food packaging (here), California’s requirements on carpet and rug manufacturers to consider alternatives to PFAS, and bans (except under specified circumstances) on any cosmetic product that contains any of several specified …

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Semi trucks parked
California / EPA
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California Withdraws EPA Waiver Request for Zero-Emission Advanced Clean Fleet Regulations

California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) on Jan. 13 sent a letter to withdraw its request to the Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to Sections 209(b) of the Clean Air Act (CAA) for a federal waiver that would require commercial truckers to switch to using zero-emissions vehicles in accordance with the CARB’s Advanced Clean Fleets regulation (ACF).

Had it been granted a waiver, CARB would have been allowed to put into effect the drayage and “high priority fleets” provisions of the ACF. CARB first requested this wavier …

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California / Wildfires
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California Suspends CEQA and CCA Requirements to Fastrack Rebuilding Efforts after Wildfires

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Jan. 12 issued an executive order in response to the devastating wildfires, suspending environmental reviews required under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and permitting requirements under the California Coastal Act.

CEQA  requires for any “public project” — defined broadly as an action requiring a “public agency’s discretionary funding or approval that has the potential to either (1) cause a direct physical change in the environment or (2) cause a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment” — that …

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oil refinery
California / Regulations
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Law Gives California’s Energy Commission Ability to Nudge Oil Refiners to Make Better Inventory Decisions

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on October 14 signed into law Assembly Bill X2-1, significantly increasing the authority of the California Energy Commission (CEC) to create requirements for the state’s oil refiners to preserve minimum inventories of state-compliant refined transportation fuels.

Authored by assemblymembers Gregg Hart and Cecilia Aguiar-Curry in conjunction with Sen. Nancy Skinner, the law take effect in January 2025 and expands the powers of the recently created Division of Petroleum Market Oversite (DPMO) within the CEC.

DPMO was created last year as …

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Town-with-smog
California / Climate Change
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California Retains Jurisdiction Over Fossil Fuel Companies Named in Climate Change Lawsuits

The ELM blog has covered several lawsuits filed over the past several years against major fossil fuel companies by plaintiffs seeking damages due to climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions. The claims in these lawsuits have been based on not only common law principles such as public nuisance, but also state laws, including California’s consumer protection laws.

While these lawsuits have had slight differences, one common theme running through them is the defense raised by the oil companies that state courts, like California’s, lack …

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Flag of California Republic in San Francisco
California
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California May Put Its Historic Climate Disclosure Laws on Hold

In an update to the Environmental Law Monitor’s continuing coverage of California’s historic climate disclosure laws, California State Sen. Scott Weiner put forth on August 13 proposals to Senate Bill 219 that would delay the effective date of the Golden State’s 2023 emissions and climate-related financial risk corporate disclosure laws.

As our readers may remember, signed into law back in November 2023, the legislation at issue were SB 253 and SB 261, which created landmark greenhouse gas emission and climate-related financial risk reporting requirements …

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Cargo train rolls through the desert
California / Clean Air Act
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Emissions, Interstate Commerce, and Locomotives: California Seeks to Limit Older Trains from Doing the Loco-Motion

The California Air Resources Board has requested that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant California an authorization pursuant to § 209(e)(2) of the Clean Air Act to, among other things, prohibit locomotives that are 23 years of age or older from operating in California starting in 2030, a rule many in the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology subcommittee believe could cripple the railroad industry.

Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA has exclusive authority to set emission standards for new locomotives, whereas …

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California / Emissions
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Appeals Court Rules Californi-missions Standards Can Stay High

It all started in the early 40’s, when the smog was so bad in California that visibility was measured in city blocks, and people suffered from nausea, stinging eyes, and difficulty breathing. By the 50’s, the California government had shut down some refineries and smoke-stack power plants, but the smog persisted. Finally, chemists discovered that some of California’s most famous and hallowed assets were combining with California’s disproportionate share of gas-powered cars to create the problem; the ubiquitous ‘golden’ sunshine was reacting with the compounds …

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