(This article was first published in The Sacramento Bee on July 17, 2019.)

Last week, two public watchdog groups revealed that the state agency in charge of regulating California’s oil and gas industry is rife with conflicts of interest. While the incoming administration was still learning the ropes in Sacramento, agency employees quietly doubled the rate of hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) permits issued to oil companies. It turns out that several of those employees have investments in the same oil companies they are supposed to regulate.

In response, Gov. Gavin Newsom took swift and decisive action, firing the head of the agency and vowing to appoint a replacement who shares his opposition to fracking. That’s a good start.

(Continue reading the article on The Sacramento Bee’s page here.)

A leading environmental litigator, Deborah A. Sivas, JD ’87, is director of the highly regarded Environmental Law Clinic, in which students provide legal counsel to dozens of national, regional and grassroots nonprofit organizations on a variety of environmental issues. Professor Sivas’s litigation successes include challenging the Bush administration’s gas mileage standards for SUVs and light trucks and holding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accountable for regulating the discharge of invasive species in ship ballast water. Her current research is focused on the interaction of law and science in the arena of climate change and coastal/marine policy and the ability of the public to hold policymakers accountable. She is a frequent speaker on these topics.