The Decline and Fall of the “Regulatory Czar”
Now, the office doesn’t even have a home page, and its boss is lawyer who faces possible disbarment.
OIRA, the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, was known as “the most powerful agency you’ve never heard of." That was only three years ago. Under Trump 2, however, OIRA seems to have become a minor outpost of the Office of Management and Budget run by Russell Vought. The main purpose of the office was to oversee the use of cost-benefit analysis by regulatory agencies. The Trump Administration has all but abandoned this analytical tool by r...
CONTINUE READINGAnother White House Assault on Federalism
Trump’s Executive Order about rebuilding in LA is a huge federal power grab.
Yesterday, Trump issued an executive order that attempts to eliminate the need for building permits in the LA burn area. The argument is that the permitting process slows down the rebuilding that FEMA grants are supposed to assist. (Never mind that Trump wants to get rid of those federal grants anyway.) The idea seems to be that whenever Congress chooses to subsidize an activity, it authorizes agencies to eliminate all state regulations that might be barriers. This ide...
CONTINUE READING“OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!”
Trump's new wildfire Executive Order purporting to pre-empt state and local permitting is the latest insanity emanating from the White House.
The Mad King strikes again, or at least is claiming to: President Trump has announced an executive order to allow victims of the Los Angeles wildfires to rebuild without dealing with “unnecessary, duplicative, or obstructive” permitting requirements…. The order calls on the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to “preempt” state and local permitting authorities. Instead of going through the usual approval process, re...
CONTINUE READINGWhere and What Are the Most Affordable New California Homes?
New CLEE Policy Brief Finds Major Cost Savings With Infill Homes
No issue defines both the affordability and climate challenge in California more than housing. High housing prices have pushed many prospective homebuyers to what some consider to be “affordable” outlying locations far from jobs and services, necessitating expensive commutes, and often in areas of heightened climate risk. As policy makers seek to stabilize housing prices and improve home ownership opportunities of all types by increasing supply, where are the best...
CONTINUE READINGAbolishing ICE has Environmental Connections
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
Does your heart hurt from watching agents of the U.S. government execute a law-abiding citizen in the street while he is helping others try to stay safe during an authoritarian takeover of an American city? If you work on environmental and climate issues, you probably have felt this rage over what’s happening but also thought that it has little to do with your work or your field. That’s not true. Here are at least five connections between the brutal ICE attack...
CONTINUE READINGMaintaining California’s Environmental Leadership
California's 2026 Gubernatorial Race
California will elect a new governor in 2026. The primary is June 2 and the top two candidates will face off on November 3. If you are in California, make sure you are registered to vote! This election comes as a pivotal time for California’s environmental leadership. California’s next governor must be ready to step in and, from day one, continue the State’s leadership on climate and environmental issues. California has made progress over the past two decades ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Trump Administration is Squandering Our Natural Heritage
Proposed Endangered Species Act regulations are designed to stifle protections and provide developers even more power.
The world’s ecosystems have been subject to an increasingly dangerous cocktail of stressors from land and ocean over-development, invasive species, and pollution. But rather than stem the tide of these harms, the Trump administration has resurrected several regulatory changes to the Endangered Species Act designed to stifle species’ protections and provide land developers even more power to destroy invaluable ecosystems. Unlawful Changes to the Endangered Spec...
CONTINUE READINGMilestones in State Climate Policy
The first efforts to clean up the grid date back forty years, but state climate policy really got moving at the turn of the century.
The federal government's interventions in climate policy have been erratic, driven by political polarization and alternating control of the White House. In contrast, state governments have engaged in steady campaigns to reduce carbon emissions. Some people seem to think this has been a recent innovation, but it has now been ongoing for a generation. Here are some the key milestone along the way. 1983. Iowa establishes the first Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), ...
CONTINUE READINGWant to Fight for Science? Look to South Dakota. No, Really.
We need a permanent grassroots strategy for science before we are buried in Idiocracy.
Nature this week offers a series of terrifying, interactive graphs detailing the Trump Administration’s Idiocratic War on Science. Not only has it butchered federal scientific research grants, but as you can see in this graphic, it has hollowed out the federal scientific workforce – the dedicated professionals who develop data to allow for science-informed policy in the first place, and monitor and audit the grants to make sure that they do what they are supposed to....
CONTINUE READINGOne Year of Energy Emergencies
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
This past Tuesday — on the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump taking office and immediately declaring a national energy emergency — the new governor of New Jersey took office and immediately declared a state energy emergency. But these two approaches to executive action on energy couldn’t be more different and the results will help define the affordability debate in 2026. During her inaugural speech, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill signed two executive ...
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