California Court of Appeal Decision Could Allow for Greater Consideration of Impacts of Climate Change in Environmental Impact Reports

By Adam Riedel, CCCL Associate Director and Fellow How and to what extent predicted future, physical impacts from climate change should be considered in environmental impact reports (EIRs) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has never been entirely clear. A recent California Court of Appeal decision invalidated CEQA Guidelines […]

New CCCL Paper On Bundling Solutions for Energy Efficiency Retrofit Projects

By Michael Kerstetter The Center for Climate Change Law has published a working paper on bundling solutions for energy efficiency (EE) retrofit projects in residential and commercial buildings. The paper provides a brief discussion on the EE retrofit market generally, touching on the current efficiency gap and barriers to EE […]

Massachusetts Leads the Way in Ensuring Biomass Facilities Reduce GHG Emissions

By Julia Ciardullo Fellow On April 27, 2012, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) published a proposed final regulation regarding the use of forest biomass for generating energy in Massachusetts.  If adopted, the regulation would be the first to set greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for determining the eligibility […]

PJM Announces Plans to Keep Outdated Coal Plants Open for Reliability Reasons

by Shelley Welton Deputy Director & Earth Institute Climate Law Fellow Earlier this month, citing reliability concerns, PJM, the mid-Atlantic’s regional transmission operator, asked FirstEnergy Corp. of Ohio to keep three coal-fired power plants in operation for the next three years that the company had previously scheduled to be shut […]

The Scream and Climate Change

By Michael Gerrard Director, Center for Climate Change Law Yesterday Edvard Munch’s 1895 painting The Scream sold for a record $119.9 million at auction. The painting is famous — not so its potential link to climate change. Mount Krakatoa in Indonesia erupted in 1883. It was one of the largest […]