UCLA School of Law’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, the leading environmental law and policy program in the country, has received a new $5 million commitment from the Emmett Foundation. The contribution includes a matching opportunity and is the latest of several transformative gifts that the foundation, which is led by Dan and Rae Emmett, has made during nearly 15 years of dedicated engagement with UCLA Law.

The Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law has established the Emmett Family Environmental Law Scholarship.

On October 19, 2022, as part of the Frank G. Wells Clinic in Environmental, clinic co-director Sean Hecht and Emmett/Frankel Fellow Gabriel Greif filed a brief in the California Supreme Court supporting local government authority to limit specific oil and gas extraction-related land uses. The people of the County of Monterey enacted a County General Plan provision, by voter initiative, limiting these land uses. Businesses engaged in oil extraction activities challenged the law, asserting that California state law preempts this local regulation.

A candidate’s messaging, charisma and likability may all factor into a voter’s decision on election day. But the rubber hits the road when those candidates get sworn into office and begin to write, pass and block legislation that affects citizens’ everyday lives. Beyond the legislation that elected officials may pass, other issues loom large in the midterms, including election integrity and the evolving role of social media.

Here, UCLA School of Law’s faculty experts share what they’re paying attention to.

UCLA School of Law Professor Ann E. Carlson has been named the acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NHTSA is the federal agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation that has joint authority with the Environmental Protection Agency over car and truck greenhouse gas standards.

UCLA School of Law graduates helped local residents score a big win in May, when Los Angeles County transportation officials axed a decades-long plan for a multibillion-dollar expansion of the 710 Freeway. As the principal corridor diesel trucks use to haul goods from the ports to Southern California, the 710 has been a major source of pollution in the predominantly Black and Latino communities nearby.

This report seeks to introduce California’s experience in emissions trading to Chinese regulators and researchers in the context of broader debates over emissions trading. The report introduces California’s experience with two emissions trading systems (ETS): a statewide carbon ETS and the Los Angeles-area regional emissions trading system for SO2 and NOx, known as the Regional Clean Air Incentives Market (RECLAIM).