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Category: Climate Change

Update: SEC Voluntarily Stays Climate Regulations

by Sedina L. Banks and Samantha T. Pannier on April 4, 2024
On April 4, 2024, rather than waiting for the Eighth Circuit to issue a ruling on plaintiffs’ pending emergency motion for an administrative stay of the SEC’s final rule regarding the Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors , the SEC opted to issue its own stay , preventing...
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CARB and the Attorney General Defend California's Groundbreaking Climate Change Disclosure Laws in Court

by Sedina L. Banks and Samantha T. Pannier on April 3, 2024
As previously posted , in a landmark legal challenge, a coalition led by prominent business federations is challenging California's pioneering climate disclosure laws, Senate Bill 253 (the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act) and Senate Bill 261 (the Climate-Related Financial Risk Act). These laws mandate unprecedented disclosure of climate-related financial...
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Going Verde: Mexico Passes Climate Change Law

April 26, 2012
Last week, Mexico’s Senate passed a rather ambitious climate change law. And it did so with a 78 to 0 vote – something not seen too often in our country! This makes our neighbors to the south only the second nation in the world (the United Kingdom is the other) and...
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IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN: EPA RELEASES 17TH ANNUAL U.S. GHG INVENTORY REPORT

April 24, 2012
Just as we did last year at this time, we are pleased to bring you the results of the 17 th  annual U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). And… drum roll please… we here at GREENberg bLAWg (along with pretty much everyone else that reported on the topic) correctly predicted...
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READY, OFFSET, GO: A LOOK AT THE FINAL CAP-AND-TRADE REGULATION’S OFFSET PROGRAM

January 27, 2012
 The time has finally come… California’s cap-and-trade regulation finally went into effect in January of 2012 (not without its litigation drama along the way).  The crowning jewel of California’s AB 32, the regulation establishes an overall cap on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for all covered sources.  There are two “compliance instruments” contemplated...
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Greenhouse Gas Data Just a Click Away

by Sedina L. Banks on January 25, 2012
Earlier this month, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released for the first time comprehensive greenhouse gas (GHG) data through EPA’s GHG Reporting Program. The 2010 GHG data includes publicly accessible information from sources in nine industry groups that directly emit large quantities of GHGs or supply certain fossil fuels. The...
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Quebec Joins California In Adopting a Cap-and-Trade Program

by Sedina L. Banks on January 3, 2012
 As our readers know, we have been following the cap-and-trade regulations both domestically and abroad. Quebec recently joined California in adopting a cap-and-trade regulation for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission allowances based on the rules established by the Western Climate Initiative (WCI). WCI is a collaboration of independent jurisdictions, including California, working together to “identify, evaluate and implement emissions trading policies...
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San Francisco Superior Court Clears the Way for Cap-and-Trade Enforcement in 2013

December 8, 2011
On Tuesday, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ernest H. Goldsmith, issued an order that removes one more obstacle from the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) efforts to implement its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through an unprecedented cap-and-trade program adopted by the agency in October and slated for enforcement in 2013. The court’s...
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Breathing Room: EPA Given More Time For Greenhouse Gas Power Plant Rules

November 1, 2011
In a letter to the Department of Justice late last week, California and 10 other states, the cites of New York and D.C., as well as the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council agreed to give the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) an extension until November 30th of this year to create regulations limiting the emission...
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CARB Adopts Pioneering Cap-and-Trade Regulation

October 28, 2011
Last week, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), in an unanimous vote, adopted the final regulation for its controversial cap-and-trade program, which serves as the centerpiece of the state’s landmark greenhouse gas reduction law, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, Assembly Bill AB 32 (AB 32).The program, which has had to overcome hurdles...
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Supersized “Green” Projects May Now Enter the CEQA Litigation Fast Lane

October 14, 2011
Stating that it was “time for big thinking and big projects that put Californians back to work,” Governor Jerry Brown recently signed into law two bills, AB 900 and SB 292, aimed at streamlining the judicial review process for large-scale development projects. Introduced in the final days of the legislative session, AB...
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California Supreme Says Stay: Cap and Trade Work Allowed to Continue Pending Appeal

October 6, 2011
Last week, the California Supreme Court ruled to allow the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to continue to work on the cap and trade regulations contained within AB32’s Scoping Plan. We have brought you the blow-by-blow action in this case, and as we blogged, CARB’s implementation of the Scoping Plan was temporarily halted earlier...
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EPA Says 2008 Ozone Standard Back In Play

September 23, 2011
Testifying before a House subcommittee on Thursday, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson said her agency would move forward with enforcing the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards(NAAQS) for ground-level ozone, the main component of smog, which, thus far, has been held in abeyance as EPA worked to introduce a more...
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SMOG Standard On Hold: Obama Orders Withdrawal of Proposed Rules On Ground-Level Ozone

September 7, 2011
Last week, the White House announced that it would ask the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw the proposed rule which would revise the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone, the main component in smog. The proposed rule would have strengthened the 8-hour “primary” ozone standard to a level within the range of 0.060-0.070...
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CARB Greenlights AB 32 Scoping Plan…Again

August 26, 2011
On Wednesday the California Air Resources Control Board (CARB) unanimously adopted a supplemental environmental analysis of its 2008 Scoping Plan and reapproved the controversial plan itself. The Scoping Plan is a blueprint for how the State will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020 as called for in...
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CARB’S AB 32 Scoping Plan Environmental Analysis – Take Two

by Sedina L. Banks on June 15, 2011
On Monday, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) released a Supplement to the environmental analysis (known as the Functional Equivalent Document) of the 2008 AB 32 Scoping Plan. The Supplement provides CARB’s revised analysis of the alternatives to the greenhouse gas reduction measures proposed in the Scoping Plan, including alternatives to the cap-and-trade program. The Supplement comes...
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Dear Jerry, Break Up With Cap-And-Trade: Sierra Club’s open letter to Governor Brown criticizes AB 32’s cap-and-trade regulation

May 23, 2011
Earlier this month, the director of the Sierra Club of California, Bill Magavern, wrote an open letter to Governor Jerry Brown asking that his administration “re-evaluate” the cap-and-trade regulation adopted by the California Air Resources Board (ARB) in December of last year. The cap-and-trade program is one of the strategies being employed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to...
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The Results Are In: EPA Releases the 16th Annual U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory

April 19, 2011
And the winner is… the American people! We can all give ourselves a (small) pat on the back because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just published its 16th annual U.S. greenhouse gas inventory and it shows a decrease of overall emissions during 2009 of 6.1% from the previous year. That means...
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Bill Introduced to Delay Implementation of the Global Warming Solutions Act

by Sedina L. Banks on February 17, 2011
California Assemblywoman Shannon Grove recently introduced Assembly Bill 333, which seeks to delay California’s AB 32, commonly known as the Global Warming Solutions Act. Adopted in 2006, the Global Warming Solutions Act aims to reduce California’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The act tasked the California Air Resources Board (CARB) with...
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Panel Concludes Carbon Capture and Storage Part of the Answer to California’s GHG Emissions

by Sedina L. Banks on January 21, 2011
In a final report released last week, a review panel consisting of experts from industry, trade groups, academia and an environmental organization concluded that there was a public benefit to utilizing carbon capture and storage (CCS) for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in California. CCS refers to the capture, or removal, of CO2...
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California Air Resources Board Adopts Cap and Trade Regulations

by David E. Cranston on December 27, 2010
Recently, the California Air Resources Board or ARB adopted its long-anticipated regulations for controlling greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) through a market-based cap and trade system. California’s regulations represent a significant development in the regulation GHGs. California could well set the model for similar controls in other states and will certainly stoke the...
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States – Clean Up Your Act: EPA Issues A Final Rule Requiring Certain States To Revise Their Permitting Regulations To Address The Effects Of Greenhouse Gases

December 6, 2010
On December 1st, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule requiring several states to revise their state implementation plans (SIP) such that New Source Review (NSR) Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permits will cover greenhouse gases (GHG). Identified in the “SIP call” are 13 states including: Arizona, Arkansas, our own California...
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