Here again is my analysis of legal issues with wildfire smoke, including perverse effects of the Clean Air Act in inhibiting prescribed burning, an important preventative; efforts to establish state liability for harm from smoke crossing borders (no success); employer responsibilities; many more.

Michael Gerrard@michaelgerrard.bsky.social · last yr.

Wildfire smoke poses great health hazards, and will increase as climate change worsens. My analysis of the legal issues, "Wildfire Smoke and U.S. Law": bit.ly/45by4BE

Ever wily and amoral, Elon Musk just spent $1 billion buying a company that makes mobile gas turbines. Those are the polluting and noisy devices that can power data centers that can’t connect to the grid. Some are of questionable legality since they aren’t seeking the required Clean Air Act permits

How a Colorado tribe beat the federal solar permit freeze A 170 MW solar and 80 MW battery storage project has broken ground on tribal lands in northwest New Mexico www.pv-magazine.com/2026/07/07/h...

How a Colorado tribe beat the federal solar permit freeze - pv magazine Global

By utilizing the legacy grid infrastructure of a demolished coal plant and racing to secure regulatory signatures mere days ahead of federal permitting freezes, the Ute Mountain Ute tribe successfully...

pv-magazine.com

Congestion Pricing and EMS Response Time: Evidence From New York City | NBER www.nber.org/papers/w35414 "congestion pricing reduced passenger vehicle traffic by roughly 21 percent near the boundary and improved total EMS travel times by 63–70 seconds, approximately 5–6 percent. "

Congestion Pricing and EMS Response Time: Evidence From New York City

Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

nber.org

This is no joke. Climate change will cause large-scale internal migration in the US, and we need to building much more housing in the north. Here is my legal analysis, soon to appear in the Stanford Environmental Law Journal. bit.ly/4p9Dlla

Greg Van Belle@gvbsea.bsky.social · last mo.

This map is why Seattle needs to build housing as fast as possible. Climate refugees are coming, folks. We better be ready for it, because they’re coming whether you like it or not.

Several states are considering laws to require data centers to provide their own no-emissions power, called the BYONCE (Bring Your Own Clean Energy) laws. EPA is now proposing a rule designed to tailor the permitting processes to speed up project approvals. I call these the Tailor Swift laws.

Sea surface temperatures are already surging to record high levels for this time of year in key El Niño monitoring areas. ➡️ Sign up for our next monthly state of the climate webinar to learn more: climatecentral-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi.... We'll also be talking about the hurricane season outlook.

1985-2023, loss of wetlands added “up to about a $10 billion increase in flood insurance claims (nationwide). In Charleston, along the lower Ashley River, the destruction of upstream wetlands has resulted in the loss of about $20.7 million in flood damage reduction since the 1980s.”

Wetland destruction has cost Charleston homeowners millions of dollars, study finds

A new study finds that wetland destruction has cost Charleston homeowners millions of dollars in additional flood insurance payments since 1985.

postandcourier.com

"France passed a single law and instantly unlocked 11 gigawatts of #solarenergy — without using new land. In 2023, France's government mandated solar canopies over all car parks larger than 80 spaces. The scale was enormous: There are 400,000 parking areas across France #ActOnClimate #Renewables

A little over a year ago, HHS paused research activities at a NIAID facility and placed the director on leave. It just so happens that this particular facility focused on Ebola and other infectious diseases... silencingscience.org/actions/hhs-...

As I told the NYT in this article, Trump sees fossil fuels as manly and renewables as woke.

Jeff Colgan@jeffcolgan.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Pleased to contribute to this NYT piece along with @leahstokes.bsky.social @michaelgerrard.bsky.social @janrosenow.bsky.social and other smart energy experts

🌟 Congratulations to LDEO climate scientist Maureen Raymo, awarded the prestigious Nemmers Prize in Earth Sciences for pioneering development of hypotheses that explain climate change across Earth’s history and her educational leadership in the Earth system sciences. ➡️ https://bit.ly/3Pa7t21

"If scientific uncertainty was the real reason for disregarding benefits, a good-faith response would be to conduct more research to reduce the uncertainty. Instead, the Trump administration has... attacked the scientific enterprise.” @michaelgerrard.bsky.social www.csldf.org/wp-content/u...

by my tally we are now spending ~$2B to companies to NOT build more energy infrastructure. in the middle of an energy crisis

The Associated Press@apnews.com · 3mo ago

The Trump administration has announced two more payouts for energy companies to walk away from U.S. offshore wind projects under development.

Want to understand the Supreme Court's latest shadowy shenanigans, and what they mean for climate? Join me on Zoom today at 12:30pm PT! Talking with some of America's' best climate lawyers, including @michaelgerrard.bsky.social. Register here: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/ccg-live-s...

Today at 12:30pm PT: The Shadowy Supreme Court

Join me on Zoom!

climatecoloredgoggles.com

Join me tomorrow at 12:30pm PT to talk climate and SCOTUS, following the bombshell NYT investigation into the "shadow docket." John Roberts really did not want coal plants to shut down! I'll have some of America's best climate lawyers on Zoom. Details: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/ccg-live-t...

CCG Live: The Shadowy Supreme Court

Join me on Friday at 12:30 p.m. PT to hear from the nation's top climate lawyers.

climatecoloredgoggles.com

The Trump administration is revoking or weakening many environmental regulations. In doing so it looks only at the costs of the regulations and completely ignores the benefits. It tries to justify this by claiming there is too much uncertainty to quantify the benefits. If that ...

American combat deaths in World War I: 54,000. American soldiers killed by flu in World War I: 45,000. They would have given anything for a flu vaccine.

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 4mo ago

Breaking news: The military will no longer require U.S. troops to receive the annual flu vaccine, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, rolling back what he described as “overreaching mandates that only weaken our war-fighting capabilities.” https://wapo.st/4eAG2sx

This is the latest loss by the Trump administration in the lawsuits challenging its attempts to block renewable energy projects. The courts are repeatedly finding them to have acted arbitrarily and capriciously.

Justin Gerdes@justingerdes.bsky.social · 4mo ago

"A federal judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump's administration from enforcing a series of permitting policies that ‌wind and solar energy industry groups say have stymied the development of new energy generation projects." www.reuters.com/legal/govern... via @nateraymond.bsky.social 🔌💡

Letting the perfect be the enemy of the necessary. I strongly support community solar (and rooftop, and ...), but this kind of purism leaves the fossil fuel incumbents in place counting their money while the climate pollution continues to accumulate in the atmosphere

James O'Malley@jamesomalley.co.uk · 4mo ago

I see the Greens are opposing (checks notes) solar power now.

Trump's Department of Justice sued the state of Hawaii to try to block it from suing the fossil fuel companies over climate change damages. Hawaii sued anyway. The federal court just dismissed DOJ's suit with prejudice. The court: "Plaintiff United States’ theory ...

Americans DO care about #ClimateChange! Don’t listen to the partisans who lie about this. 72% of Democrats & 46% of independents “worry a great deal” about climate. And 68% of Democrats & 47% of Independents expect global heating to threaten their way of life NOW or in the future.

"If a very blue state like New York moves backwards on climate change as well, that’s a negative sign for the country. If you can’t do it here, can you do it anywhere?"-- @michaelgerrard.bsky.social [gift link]

Hochul Moves to Weaken Aggressive New York State Climate Law

Citing concerns about affordability, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed revising the state’s 2019 climate law, asking to delay regulations to implement it and to adopt a different greenhouse-...

bloomberg.com

This is insane.

Ørsted's 704MW Revolution Wind offshore wind project started delivering power to New England's electric grid yesterday: orsted.com/en/media/new... 🔌💡

Revolution Wind begins delivering power to New England

Built by more than 1,000 local union workers, the project is expected to power 350,000+ homes with affordable, reliable electricity.

orsted.com

The Trump administration has removed the chapter on climate change from the "Reference manual on scientific evidence", an essential handbook for judges as they weigh evidence in court. The response of the American Meteorological Society has just been published (below). And...[1/2]

Statement on Public Availability of Scientific Information and Scientific Evidence on Climate Change

The AMS is a global community committed to advancing weather, water, and climate science and service.

ametsoc.org

To support oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the Department of the Interior is launching the procedure to allow it to drive species into extinction. The Endangered Species Act creates a body called the Endangered Species .....

Endangered Species Committee Meeting Announcement

The Endangered Species Committee will meet regarding an Endangered Species Act exemption for Gulf of America Oil and Gas Activities.

federalregister.gov

Oil prices are soaring, thanks to the war that Trump started. However, today the U.S. Department of Justice sued California to try to block a program that would advance adoption of electric vehicles. EVs are the top way 🧵

The U.S. Supreme Court just agreed to hear an appeal from Suncor and other fossil fuel companies in a lawsuit brought by the City and County of Boulder seeking money damages related to climate change and the companies' alleged deception. The Colorado Supreme Court had ruled that the case could 🧵

A coalition of public health and environmental groups has just filed a lawsuit against EPA in the DC Circuit court challenging revocation of the greenhouse gas endangerment finding. They are represented by some of the country's leading environmental litigators. aboutblaw.com/bkXr