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Making Fossil Fuels Pay for Their Damage

Legal Planet

Production and combustion of fossil fuels imposes enormous costs on society, which the industry doesn’t pay for. The closest we’ve ever come to a carbon tax is a limited fee on methane emissions under the new IRA law. A more promising alternative might be a clean-up tax on the fossil fuel industry.

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How Will EPA’s Proposed Power Plant Carbon Rule Impact Public Health?

Union of Concerned Scientists

The power sector is the second highest source of climate pollution in the U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently published a proposed rule which would limit carbon pollution from fossil fuel burning power plants, a move which is critically important, statutorily required, and long overdue.

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Ask a Scientist: Gas Plants Disproportionately Harm Marginalized Communities

Union of Concerned Scientists

Municipal zoning laws, meanwhile, allowed companies to build power plants and other industrial facilities in those same neighborhoods. First, there’s air pollution. Gas plants and infrastructure emit nitrogen oxides (NOx) during combustion, which degrade local air quality.

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Emerging Local Legal Pathways for Building Electrification: Air Pollution and Land Use Regulation in New York City & Brookline, Massachusetts

Law Columbia

Building electrification requirements – at times called “natural gas bans,” including on this blog – are subject to a complicated interplay of federal, state and local law, and many local governments have been found or determined themselves to be preempted from one or more approaches.

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Why Congress Should Pass the A. Donald McEachin Environmental Justice for All Act

Union of Concerned Scientists

Robert Bullard, “environmental justice embraces the principle that all people and communities have a right to equal protection and equal enforcement of environmental laws and regulations.” A myriad of studies since have validated these findings across a number of exposures, such as soot air pollution (PM2.5

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Diesel is the Reason for the Sneezin’: Cleaner Holiday Deliveries are on the Horizon

Union of Concerned Scientists

Upcoming research from my colleague Dave Cooke shows that electric delivery trucks can reduce climate-warming emissions from driving by up to 92 percent and reduce lifecycle public health impacts by up to 85 percent compared to today’s average fossil-fueled delivery trucks.

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Shell called out for promoting fossil fuels to youth via Fortnite game

Corp Watch

Shell faces lawsuit from climate change activists over fossil fuels Reuters | April 5, 2019 Environmentalist and human rights groups said on Friday they had started a lawsuit against Royal Dutch Shell in the Netherlands to force the energy firm to cut its reliance on fossil fuels.