Editorial: Biden wisely rejoins global climate fight
Chronicle Editorial Board
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President Joe Biden signs executive orders during his first minutes in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on Inauguration Day, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. Biden recommitted the United States to the Paris climate agreement, the international accord designed to avert catastrophic global warming, and ordered federal agencies to start reviewing and reinstating more than 100 environmental regulations that were weakened or rolled back by former President Donald Trump. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)Doug Mills / New York Times
President Biden moved quickly to have the United States rejoin the global effort to slow a warming planet that is already bringing rising sea levels, devastating wildfires, record storms, serious crop damage and species extinctions. One of his first executive actions was notification to the United Nations that the U.S. would be recommitting to the landm
California’s Bill for Fighting Trump in Court? $41 Million So Far
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed 100 lawsuits against the Trump administration. Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr (Creative Commons license); Anne Werrnikoff, CalMatters
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California has spent $41 million over the past four years fighting the Trump administration over its regulations and rollbacks involving climate change, immigration, consumer rights and more.
During Donald Trump’s presidency, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed lawsuit after lawsuit, challenging the various federal agencies that set new national policies.
The costs are “almost entirely” personnel hours, which include work by Justice Department attorneys, legal secretaries, paralegal analysts and special agents, a Department of Justice spokesperson said. Also included were costs of printing, travel and facilities. It’s unclear if there were any outside consultant or expert witness costs, too.
I m not interested.
The justice department calls it money well-spent. In a case won against the Department of Energy for delaying four energy efficiency standards, state officials say the victory will generate $8 billion in energy savings for consumers over the next 30 years.
“It’s not just a lawsuit for the sake of filing a lawsuit,” said Paul Nolette, a political science professor at Marquette University in Wisconsin and an expert on U.S. attorneys general. “There are some really important policies that are linked to them and policies that hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars are at stake.”
California Opens Civil Rights Investigation of LA County Sheriff s Department California Attorney General Xavier Becerra s announcement comes on the heels of allegations of excessive force, retaliation and other misconduct.
Published January 22, 2021 •
Updated on January 22, 2021 at 1:12 pm
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A civil rights investigation will seek to determine whether the Los Angeles County Sheriff s Department has engaged in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional policing, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced Friday.
The investigation of the nation’s largest sheriff’s department was prompted by allegations of excessive force, retaliation and other misconduct, the Justice Department said in a statement.
The statement did not identify any specific incidents.