Climate Change
Streetsblog LA
Transportation Priorities Jostle for CA’s Cap-and-Trade Revenue
A series of hearings in Sacramento have been revisiting California's Global Warming Solutions Act, Assembly Bill (A.B.) 32, which calls for a statewide reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) to 1990 levels by 2020. Two recent hearings have opened discussions of Governor Jerry Brown's proposed spending plan for the revenue received so far from the state's cap-and-trade program, implemented as part of A.B. 32, and another recent Senate hearing discussed the program's impacts to date.
March 21, 2014
New Report Outlines How CA Can Kick Its Addiction to Oil, Foreign and Domestic
The government is encouraging you to drive a car, and if California is truly serious about reducing its oil dependency that needs to change. This is the unequivocal conclusion of Unraveling Ties to Petroleum a new report commissioned by Next 10 California and written by UCLA researchers Juan Matute, Director of the UCLA Local Climate Initiative, and Stephanie Pincetl, Adjunct Professor and Director of the California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA.
June 20, 2013
Brown’s Budget Sends Cap and Trade Funds to Black Hole of General Fund
When California passed it's land-mark Greenhouse Gas reduction laws in 2006, residents and businesses were assured that funds raised through the controversial "cap and trade" program would be invested in programs and projects that would further reduce emissions.
May 15, 2013
The Keys to Beating, or at Least Fighting, Climate Change: Bikes, Transit, Parks, Trees
Much is being made, and rightly so, of “Mid-Century Warming in the Los Angeles Region," the report released today by UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. The report breaks down the impact of Climate Change on Los Angeles down to the 2 square mile level using new technology over the coming decades.
June 21, 2012
Amidst Budget Impasse, GOP Tries and Fails to Gut Clean Air Act
With budget talks reaching a critical pass to avert a government shutdown, House Republicans have been busy passing an ideological wishlist, including an attempt to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from "raising taxes." H.R. 910, which they are calling the “Energy Tax Prevention Act” would undermine the EPA’s ability to restrict greenhouse gas emissions from industrial and manufacturing plants and gut the Clean Air Act.
April 8, 2011
Get Rich While Reducing Emissions: Smart Growth Keeps Looking Smarter
Just when you may have been looking for ways to counter that Pew report which poo-pooed the environmental impacts of transit and smart growth, here’s more evidence that reducing driving has an essential role to play in meeting economic and environmental goals: A new report from the Center for Clean Air Policy concludes that compact development will build wealth and cut carbon emissions.
January 24, 2011
California’s Climate Laws Undermined by Weak Transpo Policies, Investment
A new report from NRDC and Smart Growth America -- which examines what all 50 states are doing to curb greenhouse gas emissions from transportation -- lauds California as the most progressive state on policy, but points out that its transportation and spending priorities don't match the bold blueprints, particularly as it relates to public transit.
December 15, 2010
Transit Industry and State DOTs Agree: Senate Climate Bill Needs ‘Rewrite’
The transit industry's leading D.C. lobbying outlet joined the
umbrella group for state DOTs yesterday and two major construction groups to
protest the Senate climate bill's failure to set aside all of the
revenue from its proposed new fuel fees for infrastructure projects --
specifically, to the cash-strapped highway trust fund that is generally
split, 80-20, between roads and transit.
May 20, 2010
Transit Industry to Join State DOTs in Blasting Senate Climate Bill
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is set to join
the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
(AASHTO) and two construction interests tomorrow in protesting the
Senate climate bill's proposed diversion of new fuel fees away from
infrastructure -- an argument that puts the transit industry's leading
D.C. lobbying group squarely in the transportation mainstream.
May 19, 2010
Behind the Transport Industry’s Lament About the Senate Climate Bill
While transport reform advocates hailed last week's long-awaited Senate climate bill for directing
an estimated $6 billion-plus towards local land use planning and green
infrastructure, state DOTs and construction interests criticized the
legislation -- suggesting that the measure's sponsors could face stiff
resistance from the transportation industry's mainstream despite making
concessions to win over all sides.
May 17, 2010