I grew up in the L.A. area and am a die-hard Dodgers and UCLA Bruins fan. My wife, Lynn, is a sculptor and painter. We have two grown daughters who we’d like to call us more often. I also play guitar and bass in a klezmer band.
Posted May 22, 2012 by David Pettit in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably
Sports/entertainment company AEG has proposed to build a new football stadium in downtown Los Angeles. The stadium, if built, will be in an ideal location for accessibility by public transit and will create thousands of good jobs. NRDC supported the...continued→
Posted April 23, 2012 by David Pettit in Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the injunction against California's low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) that was issued by the trial court in late 2011. This decision means that California is able to enforce the rule that’s on...continued→
Posted April 18, 2012 by David Pettit in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Moving Beyond Oil, Reviving the World's Oceans
It’s hard to believe it’s been two years since the worst environmental disaster in US history: the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill that claimed the lives of 11 drilling rig workers and polluted the Gulf of Mexico, Texas,...continued→
Posted April 9, 2012 by David Pettit in Curbing Pollution, Greening China
Was that Paladin (Richard Boone) down at the stables? Marshal Dillon (James Arness) over at the saloon? Lanzhou is in Gansu Province in China's Wild West, a two-hour plane ride from Beijing. Last week I spent five days there giving...continued→
Posted March 6, 2012 by David Pettit in Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, U.S. Law and Policy
There was a partial settlement last week in the case against BP and others arising from the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout in April, 2010. The settlement was between BP and the class of business owners and others who were injured...continued→
Posted February 13, 2012 by David Pettit in Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment, Moving Beyond Oil
Rumors are flying that the feds and BP are about to announce a deal on what damages BP will pay for the April, 2010 blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. I have zero inside information on what the settlement terms...continued→
Posted January 19, 2012 by David Pettit in Curbing Pollution, U.S. Law and Policy
The process to implement California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard has had an interesting month. In mid-December we achieved a great victory when California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) unanimously agreed to move forward with implementation of the low emission fuel standard...continued→
Posted December 5, 2011 by David Pettit in Curbing Pollution, Greening China
Last week, I was in Beijing and Hefei, China, giving talks on the assessment and cleanup of marine oil spills and other insults to the natural environment. In some ways, the developing areas of China may seem a paradise for...continued→
Posted October 5, 2011 by David Pettit in Curbing Pollution, Environmental Justice, Green Enterprise, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably
For years, NRDC, working with allies in labor, have disproved the myth that environmental protection and good jobs can't co-exist. We are not alone in this: NRDC, Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation and Union of Concerned Scientists are members of...continued→
Posted September 29, 2011 by David Pettit in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, Moving Beyond Oil, U.S. Law and Policy
The air in Los Angeles got some good news this week. The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided the American Transportation Associations vs. Port of Los Angeles case in favor of the Port’s Clean Trucks Plan. I’ve blogged about...continued→
Posted September 8, 2011 by David Pettit in Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably
Over two hot Sacramento days, something unusual happened in the California State Capitol building. Assembly Speaker John Perez and his staff brought together the California building trades unions and two major environmental groups, the California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV)...continued→
Posted July 29, 2011 by David Pettit in Curbing Pollution, Green Enterprise, Living Sustainably
Entertainment giant AEG wants to build a new football stadium in downtown Los Angeles. My colleague Damon Nagami blogged about the AEG project here, and the Los Angeles Times had a long editorial about the project here. This week, the...continued→
Posted June 21, 2011 by David Pettit in Curbing Pollution, Environmental Justice, Health and the Environment
Today, NRDC and two of our community partners, East Yards Communities For Environmental Justice and the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice sent letters to California’s two major rail yard operators regarding illegally disposing hazardous waste thereby increasing the...continued→
Posted June 6, 2011 by David Pettit
Masquerading as regulatory reform, a new proposal now circulating in Sacramento would create an unelected administrative dictatorship with unchecked powers over every California regulatory agency. Here is some context for this proposal. There is a little-known administrative agency in California...continued→
Posted June 6, 2011 by David Pettit in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably
A couple hundred people spend their Saturday morning last week at a meeting, organized and chaired by Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry, with Commissioners and staff of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). The meeting was...continued→
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