The Tangled Web of the Boulder v. Suncor Cert Grant
Pass me some aspirin. Attorney General Rob Bonta might want some, too.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up the Boulder v. Suncor Energy case, one of the growing set of state-law nuisance and consumer protection cases filed by states and municipalities against fossil fuel companies for harms from climate change. The Court will review the Colorado Supreme Court's decision to allow the case to proceed past a motion to dismiss. For a few reasons, we're in for a real ride on this one. In this case, Boulder County alleges tha...
CONTINUE READINGHas Trump Actually “Driven a Dagger Through the Heart” of Climate Policy?
Lee Zeldin
Don’t jump to conclusions based on the Administration’s spin operation.
In announcing the repeal of the EPA Endangerment Finding, EPA head Lee Zeldin said, “we are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion.” It's odd to see the word "religion" used as a pejorative by an Administration that spends so much time demanding religious freedom. But of course, Zeldin knows perfectly well that the endangerment finding was based on science, not religion . Putting aside the phrasing, is he right in substance? Has the...
CONTINUE READINGMore Pesticides Please!
Trump’s 'Toxics First' Agenda continues with a new executive order mandating the production of glyphosate . . . as a matter of national security!
Late last Wednesday, sandwiched between all of the news about the repeal of the endangerment finding and the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Trump tariffs, the White House issued a new Executive Order invoking a Korean War era statute, the Defense Production Act of 1950, to ensure that chemical companies can continue to manufacture a dangerous pesticide without having to worry about liability. In keeping with President Trump’s infatuation with his emergency power...
CONTINUE READINGWhat Happens to State Regulation if the Endangerment Findings are Gone?
Answer: State authority wouldn’t suffer from the change and might expand in some ways.
If the Trump EPA successfully repeals the endangerment findings for vehicles and stationary sources, states will be the only resort for climate action. A key question is how the repeals would impact state power relating to carbon emissions. The bottom line answers are: (1) the impact on state power to regulate tailpipe emissions seems unclear but could be positive; (2) there would be no effect on state power to regulate stationary sources like power plants; (3) plain...
CONTINUE READINGPolitical Extinction Risk
Species may be vulnerable not just to changes in climate or habitat, but also to changes in politics
Conservation biologists have long studied many different kinds of risks to endangered species: Risks from climate change, or from habitat fragmentation, or from having small populations for extended periods of time. But there is another key component of risk that has not been analyzed yet, but may matter as much or more to many endangered species: political risk. That risk – what we call “political extinction risk” – remains generally unstudied and unexamined...
CONTINUE READINGThe Tariff Decision and the Major Questions Doctrine
The scope of the doctrine is even more confused now than before.
The tariff decision is good news in terms of checking arbitrary presidential actions, but the opinions fell short in one important area. A key argument against the tariffs was based on the Major Questions Doctrine (or MQD). That doctrine applies whan a government action has “vast political and economic significance” (whatever that means). If the government claims that Congress gave it the power to take such an action, it must point to clear statutory language....
CONTINUE READINGThe Most NIMBY Man In The World
As ICE moves to warehouse tens of thousands of immigrants, can locals fight back?
Good piece in the Grey Lady on Wednesday about Trump voters suddenly deciding that some of his policies aren't so great after all. ICE is trying to build huge detention facilities in order to drag legal immigrants off the streets -- specifically, those who are waiting for asylum decisions and those waiting to receive their green cards. It's a way to build the new US concentration camps. And that has some of Donald Trump's voters not so happy, including this soon-to...
CONTINUE READINGThe Overlooked Precedent Supporting EPA Regulation of Greenhouse Gases
Even Roberts and Scalia agreed that Mass. v. EPA is the law
An important precedent has been overlooked in the coverage of the Trump EPA’s repeal of the 2009 Endangerment Finding. The 2009 finding was based on Massachusetts v. EPA, in which the Court had held that the Clean Air Act covers air pollution and directed EPA to determine whether greenhouse gases are harmful. One reason to worry about the forthcoming litigation over the repeal is that the conservative Justices all dissented from Massachusetts v. EPA. But there’s an...
CONTINUE READINGA.I. Pollution in the Air — and the Public Comments
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
Artificial intelligence has already replaced some artists, translators, and podcast hosts. Now it’s coming for… concerned citizens? That’s right. AI-assisted campaigns have started flooding the inbox of government agencies that seek to engage with the public. Do you remember last June when the South Coast Air Quality Management District Board killed two common sense clean air quality rules? I do, because I sat on the Zoom and watched hours of IRL public comm...
CONTINUE READINGRecapping “Our Climate Future”: A California Gubernatorial Candidate Forum
How four top candidates plan to tackle affordability, environmental justice, and clean energy and continue California’s leadership
Californians will elect a new governor in November. The race presents state voters with a wider variety of potential outcomes for climate policy–from increased ambition to continuity to changed priorities–than any election since 2010. To help voters understand where the candidates stand on our most pressing environmental challenges, the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment (CLEE) recently co-moderated a gubernatorial forum organized by California Environmental...
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
