News
*courtesy of the UCLA Law Environmental programs newsletter
This summer and fall, UCLA Law's environmental programs have continued groundbreaking work on climate, land use, sustainable technology, and environmental justice issues. Here's some of what we've been up to. Enjoy!
Sustainable Technology Policy Program at forefront of green chemistry initatives
The Sustainable Technology Policy Program, an interdisciplinary project of UCLA School of Law and the UCLA School of Public Health, strives to create effective, balanced, prevention-based chemical policy. STPP brings together an innovative team of policy experts, faculty members and scientists in the fields of sustainable technology, public health, law, and economics. Professor Timothy Malloy is one of the center's co-founders and faculty directors, and Sean Hecht is an affiliated faculty member.
As part of this work, Professor Malloy has drafted chemical policy regulations for the State of California; met with Congressional staffers to advise on reform of regulation of toxic chemicals; participated in a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workgroup to evaluate chemical exposures and chemical management and identify methods and policies for reducing these exposures; and served on California's Green Ribbon Science panel. He regularly involves law students in this work.
STPP has attracted significant grant funding, such as a recent award from the Public Health Trust to support California's Green Chemistry Initiative.
New white papers on renewable energy opportunities, building retrofits, local government and agricultural industry opportunities on climate
UCLA Law teams with research partners to produce policy papers on how to create the best conditions for California's individuals and businesses to reduce greenhouse gases. Some recent works include:
Plan for the Future: How Local Governments Can Help Implement California's New Land Use and Climate Change Legislation
Plan for the Future looks how California can improve land-use planning to meet the increasing demand for sustainable development and the state's greenhouse gas reduction goals.
The Power of Energy Storage: How to Increase Deployment in California to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
In this report, we look at policies that California and other decision-makers can develop to expand the amount of energy storage capacity in the state in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through cleaner electricity production.
Saving Energy: How California Can Launch a Statewide Retrofit Program for Existing Residences and Small Businesses
Saving Energy addresses the critical need to provide incentives to make existing buildings more energy-efficient.
Room to Grow: How California Agriculture Can Help Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
We recommend best practices for our agricultural industry to remain sustainable and to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years.
Oil and Water conference brings together social and environmental justice voices from the Gulf
Five years after Hurricane Katrina and in the wake of the BP oil spill, a diverse group of scholars, advocates, and other experts met last month at UCLA Law to explore the interconnectedness of environmental, economic, and cultural damage and recovery on the Gulf Coast. The program examined the role of law and social forces in constructing the vulnerability of ecosystems and communities, the ways in which these events have impacted Gulf Coast communities, and the prospects for a sustainable, community-based recovery.
This program included two panel discussions, a special screening of the award-winning documentary Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans, and conversation with the film's writer, producer and narrator Lolis Eric Elie.
Debate on Proposition 23, report on Proposition 26
Two of the initiatives on today's California ballot would have profound effects on state environmental programs, and we're working to educate the public about them both.
Proposition 26 would expand the definition of a tax under state law. Our recent report, Paying for Pollution, analyzes its effects and concludes that it would significantly harm funding for state environmental and public health programs.
Another measure, Proposition 23, would suspend California's landmark Global Warming Solutions Act until California's unemployment rate drops to 5.5% or below for four consecutive quarters. Supporters call Prop. 23 the California Jobs Initiative. Opponents label it the Dirty Energy Proposition.
Together with the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, KPCC Southern California Radio and the LA Times, we presented a public debate on Prop. 23. The debate presented both sides of the issue and was broadcast on KPCC. It can be heard online here.
Mary Nichols and Sen. Fran Pavley join students, others for roundtable discussion on California climate policy
In June, we were very pleased to host Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board, for a fascinating discussion of the past and future of California climate regulation. State Senator Fran Pavley joined us for the evening and shared thoughts on ways forward. The law firm of Morrison & Foerster co-hosted the event.
Students win stellar post-grad and summer placements
While the overall legal job market is still disappointing, UCLA's students have had remarkable success in the environmental law job market.
Recent graduates have been placed in the honors attorney program at the United States Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division; in the honors fellowship at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Region 9 office; at Earthjustice in Washington, DC; at the Sierra Club in San Francisco; at the elite environmental boutique firm Shute Mihaly & Weinberger, in San Francisco; at the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) in its Seattle office; and at many private law firms.
Summer and semester internships this year included a full-time position at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, in DC; posts at nonprofits including NRDC and the Center for Biological Diversity; wide-ranging government positions, such as at the California Air Resources Board and the U.S. DOJ; and positions at many law firms.
Welcoming our new, two-year environmental policy fellow
This fall, we are happy to welcome M. Rhead Enion to the faculty as our Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy. Rhead's research interests include cap-and-trade policies, coastal science and policy, and environmental modeling. He will help increase our programs' capacity for policy work and will also assist with our Frank G. Wells Environmental Clinic.
Enion earned a Master's degree in environmental management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and he is a 2010 graduate of Duke Law School, where he was an Articles Editor of the Duke Law Journal and graduated magna cum laude. He has worked as a research fellow at Duke's Nicholas Institute and has interned with Oceana, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the ACLU of North Carolina.
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