Politics
Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge: More BS on Electricity Prices
In his State of the Union address, President Trump announced a new “ratepayer protection pledge” from technology companies.
Last night, in his State of the Union address, President Trump announced a new “ratepayer protection pledge” from technology companies as his latest effort to respond to rising electricity prices across the country. In his brief remarks on the pledge, the President said that it “obligated” the technology companies to provide for their own power, …
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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 …
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CONTINUE READINGIn the Cross Hairs
The Right has taken umbrage at some of the important work of environmental law professors and centers.
The fossil fuel industry and its conservative allies seem to have taken notice of the important work done by environmental law centers. Their response is to try to repress this valuable work. This is a backhanded acknowledgement that law schools are making a difference.This campaign has targeted some of the law schools with the most prominent environmental law programs. Climate scientists have long been the target of harassment and public attack. It appears that people who work on climate policy are now also in the crosshairs. What we’re seeing lacks the drama of other attacks on free speech and academic freedom. But it is capable of being no less harmful. McCarthyism writ small is still McCarthyism.
CONTINUE READINGTrump Will Kill Climate Regulations, But How Exactly?
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
The Environmental Protection Agency will officially revoke what’s known as the endangerment finding tomorrow and in so doing try to erase the basis for virtually all that agency’s regulations cutting greenhouse gases. It’s not really a surprise — we’ve been waiting for this announcement for a year. But seeing the agency’s precise justification will help …
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CONTINUE READINGA Lot Fewer Climate Reporters at the Washington Post
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
I cancelled my subscription to the Washington Post earlier this week. Not to protest billionaire owner Jeff Bezos or anything. Just because I felt like I wasn’t getting all that much for my $3 a week, and it was time to downsize my media subscriptions. I had signed up for the WaPo a couple years …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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CONTINUE READINGAnother White House Power Grab: PJM
Why emergency power auctions for the AI overlords will do little to reduce electricity prices.
Fresh on the heels of the White House takeover of Venezuela and its “uninvestable” oil sector, President Trump, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and the rest of the National Energy Dominance Council have turned their sights on the largest wholesale electricity market in the United States – PJM. Their concern is high prices, which continue to …
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CONTINUE READINGNightmare on Penn Ave (Part 2)
After a year of Trump 2.0, here’s how things stand.
Eight years ago almost to the day, I wrote a post titled, “One Year and Counting.” I was writing at the end of Trump’s first year in office. And here we are again, one year into a second Trump Administration. Trump’s basically deregulatory strategy has remained largely unchanged. But there are some notable differences in the situations then and now. I closed my 2017 post with this: “One characteristic of the Trump Administration is a ceaseless stream of controversies and dramas. But generally speaking, the amount of actual legal change has been much more limited, because the system is designed to provide checks on administrative and legislative action.” It remains to be seen how well those checks will function this time around.
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