Scroll down to learn about WELC's work IN THE WEST and NATIONWIDE to prevent global climate change. 

CALIFORNIA:

WELC monitors the questionable implementation of California's groundbreaking greenhouse gas emissions limitation legislation, AB 32.

In 2006 the state of California legislature adopted a landmark measure, AB 32, which, among other things, instructs the California Air Resources Board (ARB) “to achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective greenhouse gas emission [GHG] reductions,” AB 32,  Section 38560.  This is the most far-reaching greenhouse gas legislation on the books and we hope that this measure will be emulated in other states.

With our partners, WELC attorneys have been closely watching ARB’s process of implementing the direction given by the California legislature in AB 32.  Unfortunately, ARB has not been focusing on the comprehensive mandate issued in Section 38560, but on an interim provision of AB 32 which, while laudable, is not nearly as far-reaching as the mandate issued in Section 38560.  We are concerned that this tack will not provide California with the maximum feasible reduction in greenhouse gasses and will impair the likelihood that other states will recognize and adopt the principle of Section 38560.  Please click here to visit our AB 32 page for details on this precedent-setting legislation, our efforts to see it properly enacted and related studies and analyses. 

IN THE WEST:

WELC Pushes BLM to Consider Climate Impacts of Oil & Gas Drilling

Representing a coalition of local, regional, and national citizens groups, WELC recently challenged the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) decision to open up more than 174,000 acres of Colorado and another 100,000 acres of New Mexico to oil and gas drilling without first taking action to reduce the impact the drilling will have on the climate.

Sloppy industrial practices make oil and gas drilling the second-largest largest source of greenhouse gas pollution in New Mexico and one of the largest in Colorado. In a formal protest, WELC has asked BLM to adopt climate safeguards as conditions for drilling, many of which could help industry save money. Currently, BLM does not require energy companies to use the latest technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

NATIONWIDE

WELC Petitions EPA to Limit Greenhouse Gas Emissions Generated by Non-road Vehicles and Engines

WELC recently placed a formal request the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from non-road vehicles and engines.  The non-road sector includes machines such as loaders, excavators, dozers, tractors, combines, generators, compressors, forklifts, mowers, pleasure craft, snowmobiles, ATV’s and offroad motorcycles.  This sector is the fastest growing source of GHG emissions and already exceeds emissions from aircraft, boats and ships, and rail.  WELC is joined in the effort to reduce emissions from non-road vehicles by several public interest and environmental organizations and several states, led by California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown, Jr.

Click here to read our press release, petition to EPA and associated background documents.

WELC attorney Dan Galpern joins California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown, Jr. in presenting the petition to EPA.
 

WELC Attorney Dan Galpern authors paper on climate change 

“We have only just begun to awaken to the unfolding calamity inherent in human-induced global climate change.”

With that as an opening statement, WELC attorney Dan Galpern proceeds to dissect the most dire environmental threat confronting human civilization and nature, and the inadequate response to date by the United States. His article, “Climate Change 101: Urgency and Response,” was recently published in the Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation.

Publications

Click here to read Dr. James Hansen's Statement to Congress on Climate Change, an excellent, 4-page discussion of why we’re heading into troubled waters due to climate change and why our work is more urgent and more important than ever.