General
The Overlooked Fast Track for Cutting Planetary Warming
Guest contributors V. Ram Ramanathan, Durwood Zaelke, and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco write that we can cut the rate of warming by 30% to 50% within 15 years. “And we must.”
This guest post is authored by V. Ram Ramanathan, Durwood Zaelke, and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco and is informed by a presentation that Ramanathan is set to give at the Vatican on September 26. Among the three of us, we have 15 decades of high-level experience in climate science, policies and actions, and we have never been …
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CONTINUE READINGGood News from Turkmenistan! Bad News from the UN
The Drain is a roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times — this week, like most weeks. The UN Environment Programme’s new report, “Limiting Overshoot: Navigating exceedance of 1.5°C and pathways toward return” was simultaneously big news and yet met with stony silence in many quarters of the media. The report narrates what it …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat We Know About Trump’s Impact on Clean Energy
U.S. clean energy has taken a major hit but not a fatal one.
Biden’s climate legacy has taken serious hits but more has survived then we feared. There’s a general impression that Trump has wiped out Biden’s ambitious climate statute and with it brought the energy transition to a halt. It’s become clear that the situation is a lot more complicated than that. Politico has unearthed new evidence about funding under Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. That new evidence complements some of the other pieces of the puzzle. Here’s what we know at this point.
CONTINUE READINGThe Attack on California’s Coast Puts Us in Uncharted Waters
The Drain is a roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
California’s coast faces danger from which of these threats: a) Increasingly likely Super El Niño b) Super king tides c) Rising sea levels d) The Trump Administration e) All of the above If you answered “e,” congratulations. California is staring down a rare convergence of El Niño, climate-fueled sea level rise, and big waves that …
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CONTINUE READINGDon’t Mess With Solar
A new clean energy PAC has become a big player in GOP primaries. But what happens in November?
Congressmember Andy Ogles of Tennessee is a zit on the face of American politics: a white nationalist and Islamophobe who started out as a flunkie for the Koch Brothers and lied about his credentials when he first ran for Congress. Unsurprisingly, he is also a climate denier, (in)famously stating during a 2024 House debate on …
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CONTINUE READINGTurning Methane Pledges into Action
Inside Canada’s 2025 Enhanced Methane Regulations
While transitioning away from fossil fuels and accelerating renewable energy deployment remains the ultimate goal, we need to minimize the climate impact of the existing oil and gas industry. According to the Global Methane Budget, human activity is responsible for roughly 60% of the 580 million tonnes of methane entering the atmosphere every year. The …
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CONTINUE READINGRenewable Energy Policy After the Federal Retreat
Which states are stepping up to fill the void?
With little resistance from Congress, the Trump administration is doing what it can to discourage the further development of renewable energy resources, showing a special lack of affection towards solar and wind. Through various executive orders and through direct payouts to some potential developers, the administration has worked to block and reverse permits on federal …
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CONTINUE READINGWhich way is the wind blowing in wind energy litigation?
The latest court decisions and legal challenges are shaping the future of wind energy development across the United States
Guest contributor Adelaide Duckett, Legal Fellow at the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center at NYU School of Law Across the country, wind developers and state governments are successfully navigating new legal challenges facing wind energy, fighting to keep projects moving forward despite mounting obstacles. Hostility to wind development has manifested in various ways …
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CONTINUE READINGCanada in Flames
What’s causing the fires? What harm do they do? What should we do?
One of the world’s great disasters is unfolding, as fires have covered millions of acres in Canada, destroying pristine ecosystems and poisoning the air for millions of people. Something like seven million acres have already burned. The U.S. government’s response is to threaten Canada with tariffs, apparently as punishment for allegedly having poorly managed its forests. Instead, we should be partnering with Canada on forest management, and we should cut the greenhouse gas emissions that are ramping up the fire risk.
CONTINUE READINGRough Sailing
The Clearwater, the Coast Guard, and the First Amendment
The Coast Guard forced a sail boat to leave a maritime parade because it had environmental slogans pinned to its mast. This sounds like outright censorship, but we need more facts to be sure of what was going on. This interview explains the issues.
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