Chaos on the Public Lands?
Congress has begun applying the Congressional Review Act to federal public lands management plans. The impacts might be significant.
The Congressional Review Act (CRA) creates a streamlined process by which Congress can disapprove rules issued by federal agencies – it is one of the few legislative actions that are exempt from the filibuster in Congress, along with reconciliation legislation. This Congress has been aggressive in using the CRA, perhaps because polarization in Congress has made any high-profile legislation impossible as the minority party regularly resorts to the filibuster in the Se...
CONTINUE READINGPesticides, Cancer, and Failure-to-Warn at the Supreme Court
The pro-business Roberts Court considers whether to preempt state law failure-to-warn claims. Will corporate and agency malfeasance on glyphosate matter?
Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court granted cert in an important case involving a preemption question under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (aka FIFRA). The question presented: “Whether the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act preempts a label-based failure-to-warn claim where EPA has not required the warning?” The case involves glyphosate, which is the active ingredient in Roundup, the most popular weedkiller in the world...
CONTINUE READINGNew Trump Nuclear Reactor Policy: “Trust Us”
The Administration is eliminating safeguards and courting greater skepticism about nuclear safety
The Trump Administration is quietly dismantling safeguards for nuclear power and seeking to limit transparency and public input. Trump’s Department of Energy wants us to blindly trust them to protect the public. But blind trust in federal agencies is in scarce supply these days. Trying to sneak through regulatory changes may speed things up in the short run but is likely to cause delays later and magnify distrust of the industry. The Administration's lack of tr...
CONTINUE READINGKeeping Coal on Life Support
Trump is doing everything he can to boost coal. And still, the industry is on life support.
There’s good news and bad news for coal companies. The good news: Trump has nearly doubled the price of coal stocks since he took office. He’s been doing everything he possibly can (including some actions of dubious legality): cutting the price of coal leases on federal land, reducing environmental reviews, mandating that unprofitable coal plants stay open, and exempting them from some environmental requirements. His Interior Department has even come up with a n...
CONTINUE READINGDoes the Unitary Executive Theory Exist? Not really.
It's just another ideological confection to impose right-wing policies: the Supreme Court's argument last week shows it
At Legal Planet, we often bemoan and gnash our teeth at the Unitary Executive Theory, which supposedly holds that because “the Executive Power shall be vested in the President of the United States,” Congress can not circumscribe the President’s removal authority or even his ability to manage federal agencies in any way. But last week, the Court demonstrated that we have all gotten this wrong: when it comes to the Unitary Executive Theory, we have made a catego...
CONTINUE READINGThe 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...
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