The Legal and Practical Challenges of California's Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation
On June 27, 2025, the California Office of Administrative Law (OAL) approved the amended Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) Regulation, submitted by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to the OAL on May 16, 2025....more
As stated in Holland & Knight's recent alert detailing Gov. Gavin Newsom's package of 11 bills to amend the venerable California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), meaningful reforms to CEQA have eluded all past governors in...more
In August 2021, the First District Court of Appeals issued an opinion in Pacific Merchant Shipping Association v. Newsom, where the court held that Public Resources Code section 21168.6.7 does not impose on the Governor a...more
Senate confirms Biden’s pick to lead EPA - The New York Times – March 10 - The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Michael S. Regan, the former top environmental regulator for North Carolina, to lead the U.S. Environmental...more
While a number of court decisions have considered how CEQA lead agencies should assess the significance of a project’s greenhouse gas emissions, few have examined mitigation measures for those impacts. In Golden Door...more
ACEEE highlights 10 building energy performance standards to help meet climate goals - Bullet Utility Dive – June 24 - The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released a white paper this Monday...more
Appeal in POET II could complicate California Air Resources Board’s proposed LCFS amendments. In the case commonly referred to as POET II, petitioner POET, LLC, a biofuels manufacturer, challenged the Low Carbon Fuel...more
A court of appeal has held that the California Air Resources Board violated CEQA when it issued a “regulatory advisory” notifying small trucking operations that they need not meet ARB’s regulatory deadline for retrofitting...more
Recent guidance published by the California Air Resources Board (ARB) clarifies the treatment of diesel fuels under the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) in light of the Court of Appeals’ May 30, 2017 decision in POET I....more
POET, LLC v. State Air Resources Board (POET II) is the second chapter in the California Air Resources Board's (CARB) troubled history meeting its California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) compliance obligations while also...more
In two recent posts, we discussed how California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) had been thrown into a state of potential upheaval by two interrelated legal challenges commonly known as POET I and POET II, including a...more
As the sands shift on federal climate change policy, California’s cap-and-trade program survives to fight another day. Yesterday, a California Court of Appeal upheld the program because it does not impose a tax subject to...more
Big changes appear to be imminent for California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). As discussed in greater detail in our recent post, the LCFS currently is the subject of two interrelated legal challenges commonly known...more
Two related cases, advancing in parallel, have the potential to upend California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), whether via full suspension of the LCFS or carving out diesel fuels from the deficit and crediting regime. ...more
Welcome to the first edition of CEQA News You Can Use, a quarterly publication of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s Natural Resources lawyers. This resource will provide quick, useful bites of CEQA news that we hope can be a...more
After a lengthy process of policy review and revision, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) re-adopted the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) on September 25, 2015. The LCFS is expected to contribute approximately...more
On September 2, 2015, the California Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case involving fully protected species that may have important state-wide implications. (Center for Biological Diversity v. Department of Fish and...more
Environmental and Policy Focus - Federal judge in South Dakota issues eleventh-hour order blocking implementation of EPA/COE’s new definition of 'waters of the United States': The Hill - Aug 27: A federal judge in North...more
In Poet, LLC et al. v. California Air Resources Board et al., the Fifth Appellate District held the Air Resources Board (“ARB”) violated CEQA and the APA with its approval of the Low Carbon Fuel Standards (“LCFS”)...more