GHG Emissions

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By Chris Garrett, Daniel Brunton, Taiga Takahashi, Andrew Yancey, and Natalie Rogers

On October 29, 2014, the Fourth District Court of Appeal of California upheld the Sierra Club’s challenges to the County of San Diego’s (“County”) approval of a climate action plan (“CAP”) and related significance thresholds under the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”).  In Sierra Club v. County of San Diego, No. D064243, 2014 WL 5465857 (Cal. Ct. App. Oct. 29, 2014), the Court held that the County’s CAP did not ensure the necessary greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions reductions and that the County failed to meaningfully analyze the environmental impacts of the CAP.  This opinion was certified for publication on November 24, 2014.

By Joshua T. Bledsoe and Christopher W. Garrett

The strongly worded opinion in Center for Biological Diversity v. California Department of Fish and Wildlife (Case Number B245131)(CBD v. CDFW) by the Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District has confirmed that analyzing a project’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) via a threshold-of-significance derived from California’s GHG emissions reduction goals is appropriate.[1]  This approach commonly has been referred to as “break-from-Business As Usual,” though that or similar terminology has been used for other approaches as well.  Public agencies and developers should take guidance from the Court’s comprehensive endorsement of this threshold-of-significance as a legally appropriate approach under CEQA.[2]

By Joshua T. Bledsoe and Christopher W. Garrett

In Friends of Oroville v. City of Oroville, 218 Cal. App. 4th 1352 (2013) (Friends of Oroville), the Court of Appeal of California, Third Appellate District, recently confirmed that analyzing a project’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) via a threshold-of-significance derived from California’s GHG emissions reduction goals is appropriate.[1]  However, the Court held that this threshold-of-significance was applied improperly and remanded the case to the trial court to grant the requested writ of mandate.  This case contains lessons for the analysis of GHG emissions under CEQA that project proponents should be sure to keep in mind.

Latham & Watkins is pleased to present a complimentary 60-minute webcast on Wednesday, July 24 at 9:00 am pacific/12:00 pm eastern. The webcast is presented by the Air Quality and Climate Change Practice and will address the following current air quality and climate change regulatory and policy updates:

  • The recent decision in the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard case and its implications for the implementation of the LCFS 
  • Greenhouse gas emissions trading for airlines
  • How climate change issues are being handled by

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On June 25, President Obama issued the Climate Action Plan to expand the federal government’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and combat climate change.  In addition to focusing on regulating GHG emissions from new and existing power plants, the President’s plan reinforces support for fossil-fuel generation combined with  carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies.  CCS is the process of capturing CO2 from large industrial facilities, such as power plants, and storing it permanently underground, usually via…