Union of Concerned Scientists

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

Photo credit: NASA A new climate policy for World Heritage The debate over whether climate change should ever be a criteria for In Danger listing has also been a point of contention in the development of a much-needed climate policy for the World Heritage Convention. degrees Celsius.

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Legal Planet

APRIL 12, 2024

Environmental Protection Agency. That ruling upholds EPA’s delegation of authority to impose regulatory caps on GHG emissions from conventional vehicles, and to lead California’s policy to steadily-increase its reliance on zero-emission vehicles. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit Courthouse (credit: U.S.

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Legal Planet

OCTOBER 10, 2022

Supreme Court will hear arguments in an animal welfare case from California that could have profound, negative impacts on a host of the Golden State’s environmental laws and policies. Specifically, the trade groups claim that the California law violates so-called “dormant” Commerce Clause principles. Constitution.

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Law Carbon Dioxide 2006 Greenhouse 224

Legal Planet

OCTOBER 13, 2023

California’s new income-graduated fixed charge (IGFC) policy makes two major moves. This post, the second in a series exploring California’s new IGFC policy, surveys the history of fixed charges and income-graduated charges in rate design to contextualize how much of a break the new policy represents with past practice.

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Legal Planet

DECEMBER 23, 2022

Meet Reed O’Connor , a district judge in Fort Worth, who is the “go-to” judge for right-wingers attempting to block Democratic policies. This is where fossil fuel producer brought Louisiana v Biden , which temporarily struck the Biden Administration’s social cost of carbon policy even though it wasn’t even a policy yet.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

State and federal governments have a solid foundation for a broad range of government policies that combine the public interest with electric utilities building the power grid. Electricity is necessary for reading this blog, phoning your family, and buying milk at the store. Grid reliability is part of FERC’s authority and responsibility.

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JANZEN AG

APRIL 26, 2024

The result of those discussions was the creation of a document called the Privacy and Security Principles for Farm Data, what later became knowns as the “Core Principles” for ag data. Over 37 companies quickly pledged to uphold these principles in 2014 (many failed to live up to that pledge).

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Legal Planet

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

Fully realizing the Plan’s projected benefits and equity principles will require that developers and stakeholders collectively identify how to implement the Plan. Fully realizing the Plan’s projected benefits and equity principles will require that developers and stakeholders collectively identify how to implement the Plan.

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Circle of Blue

APRIL 11, 2022

The Interior Department gives tribes more control over water policy on their reservations. The nation’s high court issues an emergency order that revives, at least temporarily, a ruling that constrains the ability of states and tribes to protect waterways from pollution. And lastly, the White House seeks a large budget increase for the U.S.

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Circle of Blue

OCTOBER 5, 2021

The Paris Pact for water has sound principles but there has not been a formal assessment of its outcomes. They said that though the agreement’s core principles are sound, there has been no formal assessment of outcomes. The Tigris River watershed is shared by Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Carl Ganter/Circle of Blue.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

What can it tell us about China’s foreign policy goals and what its ideal global community looks like? China’s new Foreign Affairs Law, which went into force on July 1 st , formalizes its foreign policy practice, codifying the goals, priorities and guiding principles of its engagement with the world.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

FEBRUARY 3, 2023

Last December, the European Union (EU) agreed on a comprehensive battery policy that aims to make electric vehicles (EVs) more sustainable. These regulations set a precedent for battery policy; an area where the US needs to do more. Why does the EU need new battery regulations?

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Union of Concerned Scientists

MAY 2, 2023

According to scholar and advocate Dr. 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.” Donald McEachin Environmental Justice for All Act (EJ for All Act). The bill, introduced in the House by Reps.

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Legal Planet

JULY 27, 2023

Texas , which involved an attack on the Biden Administration’s immigration policy. But in our system of dual federal and state sovereignty, federal policies frequently generate indirect effects on state revenues or state spending.” The principled arguments are more significant. against an executive agency or officer.

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Legal Planet

MARCH 14, 2024

That makes the question of who will replace Mitch McConell as GOP leader all the more important for climate and energy policy. Who will lead the Senate in 2025? The odds are that it will be a Republican. Democrats have a slim margin and face some close races, while all the GOP seats seem secure. Here are two top possibilities.

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Renewable Energy Nuclear Power Biofuels Fossil Fuels 212

Union of Concerned Scientists

JANUARY 24, 2024

The Principles of Environmental Justice, adopted at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991, states that “environmental justice demands the right to participate as equal partners at every level of decision-making.” The concept of being able to meaningfully access a process is known as “procedural equity.”

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Legal Planet

APRIL 14, 2024

I explained the factual background and relevant regulatory takings principles in a previous Legal Planet post published when the Supreme Court granted review last fall. The county implemented this policy by creating a “traffic impact mitigation” (TIM) fee program. The Supreme Court decision is Sheetz v. County of El Dorado.

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Energy & the Law

APRIL 18, 2023

A basic principle of Texas insurance law is that a separate contract may be incorporated by reference into an insurance policy only if that reference is clearly manifested in the terms of the policy itself. A court will consult the separate contract only to the extent that the policy requires it. It did not.

Law 130

Law 130

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 26, 2023

It’s proxy season, that time of year when investors have a chance to influence corporate policies and make direct asks to corporate decisionmakers, and in 2023 an unwelcome guest is making its presence felt in the boardroom. The paragraph appeared in a section on risk disclosure.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

To keep such episodes from happening, states need to put in place laws and policies to safeguard the integrity of science used in policymaking. It was originally published in the blog STAT on November 10, 2023. By Jacob Carter and Martha Kinsella In late August 2017, Hurricane Harvey brought Texas rain that just wouldn’t stop.

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Union of Concerned Scientists

JANUARY 26, 2024

Advocates for scientific integrity commented on new draft scientific integrity policies. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the Biden administration finalized updated procedures for conducting cost-benefit analysis and encouraging public participation in meetings about regulations. At the end of the year, they released final versions.

Regulations 188

Regulations Clean Air Act Sea Level Politics 188

Law Columbia

DECEMBER 7, 2023

Environmental Democracy and Rule of Law: The comment emphasized the importance of transparency, citizen participation, and accountability in climate policies and suggested including guidelines to ensure these policies respect human rights. It suggests outlining the principles of State responsibility to reinforce the legal framework.

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Climate Change Law 123

Union of Concerned Scientists

JANUARY 9, 2024

The United States, he said, should abandon its traditional policy of strategic ambiguity towards Taiwan, and commit publicly to defending it in case of military action by China to regain control of the island. In February 2022, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a bold statement. In a recent poll (shown below), 47.1%

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Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 16, 2024

Much of our electricity system is 50 to 70 years old, yet current plans for domestic manufacturing, electric vehicle fleets, community solar gardens and more clean energy all depend on a modern grid. New demands for electricity and the need to reduce climate-changing emissions are driving new grid planning efforts.

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Electricity Renewable Energy Clean Energy Law 207

Law and Environment

OCTOBER 26, 2023

The report identifies trends, barriers, and gaps in Massachusetts climate policy, establishes guiding principles for whole-of-government climate action, and offers recommendations to strengthen the “climate-related practices and policies of executive department agencies.”

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Government Fossil Fuels 2024 Clean Energy 130

Law Columbia

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

Within this context, the request explores the principles of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) and international cooperation. This submission responds to the Request for Advisory Opinion presented by the Republic of Colombia and the Republic of Chile, focusing on the intersection of the climate emergency and human rights.

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Climate Change Law Carbon Dioxide 2023 122

Union of Concerned Scientists

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

Energy equity also means thinking about the unequal distribution of energy system costs in our country and how that directly reflects historical harms enacted through policy and siting of polluting facilities that have sacrificed communities of Black, Latinx, Native, low-income, and immigrant groups for decades.

Electricity 234

Electricity Fossil Fuels Air Pollution Renewable Energy 234

Law Columbia

APRIL 9, 2024

With regard to the climate crisis, Article 8 requires “that each Contracting State undertake measures for the substantial and progressive reduction of their respective GHG emission levels, with a view to reaching net neutrality within, in principle, the next three decades” (KlimaSeniorinnen, para. In the other two cases, Carême v.

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Legal Planet

JULY 24, 2023

The MQD is often framed as an attack on the power of bureaucrats, but in every case where it has been used, the policy decision was actually made by the president. The exact contours of the MQD are still unclear, but the upshot is a restriction on dramatic administrative actions that lack clear congressional authority. electricity system.

Fossil Fuels 239

Fossil Fuels Paris Agreement Conservation Politics 239

Union of Concerned Scientists

JANUARY 26, 2024

Advocates for scientific integrity commented on new draft scientific integrity policies. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the Biden administration finalized updated procedures for conducting cost-benefit analysis and encouraging public participation in meetings about regulations. At the end of the year, they released final versions.

Regulations 130

Regulations Clean Air Act Sea Level Politics 130

Union of Concerned Scientists

OCTOBER 12, 2022

Since the summer of 2021, five Republican-controlled state legislatures have passed bills banning their state governments from doing business with financial institutions that they allege have divested from fossil fuel companies as a result of ESG investment policies. Another six statehouses are considering similar bills.

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Fossil Fuels Climate Change Carbon Emissions Politics 349

Union of Concerned Scientists

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

In December, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service proposed regulations governing implementation of the 45V Clean Hydrogen Production Tax Credit , passed as part of 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act. In particular, emissions loopholes related to biomethane and fugitive methane (i.e.,

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Fossil Fuels Waste Regulations Electricity 246

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 10, 2024

In a pivotal week for environmental justice, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France, delivered rulings on three climate cases. The other two cases were dismissed due to procedural issues, not due to the merits of the cases. Below, I detail some of the key aspects of each case and outline how the courts ruled.

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Legal Planet

AUGUST 3, 2023

” NEPA’s goals and policies are reaffirmed in section 105. That principle clearly does not create any enforceable rights but it does provide support for the view that special attention to groups with the least healthy environments would be appropriate. NEPA Section 102. This is a point worth making. NEPA Section 106.

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Regulations Law Government 2023 243

Union of Concerned Scientists

NOVEMBER 17, 2022

We agreed to organize their assessment using 15 principles identified in the UCS report Towards Climate Resilience. Those principles fall into three buckets: policy life cycle, long-term planning and policy revision, and equity and community needs. So how are New England states and their leaders doing?

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A Greener Life

DECEMBER 24, 2022

If you’ll excuse a little policy wonkery, it’s worth looking at the plan and what it contains. How are they adapting circular economy principles to their specific context? Last week Rwanda hosted the World Circular Economy Forum, and at the event, they launched their first national action plan for a circular economy.

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JANZEN AG

JANUARY 23, 2024

The Ag Data Transparent organization recently undertook a review and update of the Core Principles for Ag Data Use. One of these core principles is “Transparency.” Here is the entire principle: Transparency: [Ag Tech] Providers shall inform farmers about the purposes for which they collect and use ag data.

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Law 59