Trump Administration
Gorsuch is (Partly) Right
Justice Gorsuch is wrong about the cure, but delegation has gotten out of hand.
Justice Gorsuch has made it a personal crusade to revive the nondelegation doctrine, in part because of concerns about the rising tide of presidential power. The nondelegation doctrine tries to limit the ability of Congress to delegate authority to the executive branch. That’s an unworkable solution, but Gorsuch is right that Congress has put far too much trust in the good faith and sound judgment of the President and his subordinates. That’s especially true of national security and emergency powers.
CONTINUE READINGSome (Very) Modest Progress on EV Charging Policy
Three new bills address challenges, but bigger opportunities await
Last week, Governor Newsom signed a batch of legislation intended to promote installation of electric vehicle (EV) chargers around the state. California is home to over 200,000 publicly accessible EV chargers, which is both an outstanding infrastructure achievement and a far cry from the million chargers that the California Energy Commission estimates we will need …
Continue reading “Some (Very) Modest Progress on EV Charging Policy”
CONTINUE READING“National Security” is Becoming a Punch Line
Whenever he wants to roll back environmental protections, Trump cooks up a new national security justification.
A recent NY Times article recounts how often President Trump has invoked national security. It earnestly dissects his latest and most absurd claim: that the Arc deTrump he wanted to build will be filled with snipers, ammunition, and drones. It turns out that the snipers would be in an excellent position to shoot out the crosses in Arlington National Cemetery but not to protect anything of strategic importance. The environment has been one of Trump’s most fertile grounds for pretextual national security claims.
CONTINUE READINGWhat Explains Trump’s Energy Policy?
There’s no plausible economic explanation. It’s all about politics.
Trump’s energy policy rests on promotion of U.S. fossil fuel production and use. The instruments include orders forcing coal-fired generators to keep operating, relaxed air pollution standards for power plants, and repeal of as many energy efficiency standards as possible. Trump’s overall economic policy centers on mercantilism, the belief that countries get rich by exporting more than they import. That fits pieces of his energy policy but not others. There’s also some rhetoric about free choice by consumers, but Trump clearly is not a believer in free markets as a matter of principle.
CONTINUE READINGThe Polluter-Pays Principle and Its Enemies
An essay by Alejandro Camacho and Robert L. Glicksman on corporate fraud, weaponizing preemption, and the survival of climate accountability.
This post by Alejandro Camacho and Robert L. Glicksman is an excerpt from an article first published in the University of Chicago Law Review. On the morning of December 30, 2021, the Marshall Fire ignited in Boulder County, Colorado. Driven by hurricane-force winds and fueled by vegetation desiccated by years of drought, it burned more than six …
Continue reading “The Polluter-Pays Principle and Its Enemies”
CONTINUE READINGThe Rise and Fall of an Energy Emergency
Frantic federal efforts to keep uneconomical coal plants from closing met their doom in a new court decision.
According to the Department of Energy, decrepit coal-fired power plants had to be kept open to avoid “unacceptable reliability risks within five years” unless something changed. You could be forgiven for thinking that calling this hypothetical situation an emergency was something of a stretch. The legality of the orders reached the D.C. Circuit in a Michigan case involving a coal plant that seemingly everyone except Trump wanted to close. The court found no basis for the order. The opinion avoids directly calling out the government’s abuse of power. Instead, it keeps focused on basic issues of statutory interpretation. The statute clearly didn’t give DOE anything like the authority to take over the power system that it was claiming.
CONTINUE READINGThe Dim Outlook for Trump Energy Dominance
About the best he can hope for in the long run is to maintain the status quo.
U.S. oil is seeing a future of declining U.S. and global demand for gasoline and diesel, with U.S. production also remaining stagnant. The future for natural gas production is looking rosier given increasing energy demand and possible growth in U.S. exports. From the perspective of the oil industry, this is probably an optimistic forecast. It assumes that there are no major advances in battery technology that would further accelerate adoption of EVs or sharp decreases in the price of solar. It also assumes that nuclear power doesn’t expand globally, and that other countries are willing to trust the U.S. as a source of a vital energy resources.
CONTINUE READINGThe National Security Scam
Just about everything gets labeled an emergency or national security threat these days. The courts may be starting to catch on.
The Trump Administration invokes national security and declares national emergencies to justify all manner of actions such as excusing violation of environmental laws. Past Administrations have gotten strong deference for their emergency claims. But this one may be quickly using up its credibility. You can pass a certain number of counterfeit bills, but a flood of counterfeits is hard to hide.
CONTINUE READINGStrictly Ballroom
How will the Supreme Court’s opinion impact environmental standing?
There’s a lot of concern about how the Supreme Court’s opinion in the ballroom case could impact environmental law. In the majority’s view, the problem was that the plaintiff lacked standing. The concern is that the Court may have cut back standing doctrine in a way that will block many environmental cases. You never know what the Court might do down the road, but I think the opinion itself is much more limited.
CONTINUE READINGThe Logical Next Step After Renaming Lake Ontario
How does the “National Oceanic and Manospheric Agency” sound?
Trump: The air resource is a tremendous asset to the United States and part of our Nation’s heritage The air has long been an integral asset to American exploration, settlement, commerce, and defense. American men pioneered air travel, starting with the Wright Brothers. Moreover, we have exploited the air’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide more than any other nation on earth. Under my Administration, the Secretary of Defense has taken steps to ensure the world’s highest testosterone levels for our great Air Force. I claim the manosphere for America.
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