How To Beat A Jackass
Trump's destruction of the federal government poses a hard question: how to quickly stand up robust institutions?
Sam Rayburn served nearly a half-century as a Congressmember, and still holds the record for the longest tenure as Speaker of the House. So he knew a thing or two about government. One of his aphorisms speaks powerfully to our age: “Any jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build one.” Despite the symbology of American political parties, the current federal regime is one of jackasses (in so many ways). It is smashing things, whether it be US...
CONTINUE READINGThe Environment and the Rule of Law
Without the rule of law, environmental protection has no chance of succeeding.
Trump is on a rampage. He has big plans for a mass repeal of existing regulations; he’s trying to use emergency declarations to short circuit normal environmental protections; and he’s savaging environmental agencies. He’s also at war with the rule of law, dodging court orders, ignoring statutes, and punishing lawyers and law firms that have dared to challenge him. In area after area, Trump has tried to sweep aside legal constraints. Part of the point of Trump...
CONTINUE READINGWhat does ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ Mean in California?
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
A court fight over oil drilling off the coast of Refugio State Beach near Santa Barbara. Proposals to drill around public schools in Ojai and Los Osos. The potential for oil operations directly adjacent to popular national monuments. New risks to our ecosystems that sustain imperiled species like the California condor. This is what “Drill, Baby, Drill” looks like so far in California and action is coming this week. Welcome to The Drain, a weekly roundup of en...
CONTINUE READINGWhen Did Property Rights Drop Off the Conservative Agenda?
Property used to be a central conservative concern. Not so much these days.
One of the pillars of conservative thought used to be protection of property rights. But now it seems to have lost its pride of place. The word “property” doesn’t even appear in the 2024 Republican platform. And I can’t remember Trump ever speaking about property rights. The Court hears cases involving property rights from time to time. For example, it struck down a California law that required landowners to give union organizers access to farmworkers. B...
CONTINUE READINGWe Built This City On Urban Form
California's CEQA reforms will require rethinking how we code our cities
I am one of the relatively few observers who is not convinced that the California Legislature’s recent CEQA reforms are some sort of major transformation. They are a positive step toward building more housing in this state, but the idea that they will unleash housing construction and affordability is a classic case of overpromising – which should be unsurprising, since they are basically a vehicle for Gavin Newsom’s Presidential campaign (making the assumption that...
CONTINUE READINGTrump’s Funniest Executive Orders
Yes, they’re destructive and often cruel. But sometimes, they're also unintentionally funny.
Trump’s executive orders are no laughing matter. He’ll sometimes bring the tremendous power of the entire executive branch to bear on some petty issue. And usually, at least from my perspective, harming the public interest and sometimes democracy itself. And yet…it’s sometimes a little hard to keep from laughing. Sometimes it’s the mismatch between the dignity and sheer power of the office of the presidency and the topic on which that power is deployed, like...
CONTINUE READINGWhy is EPA at War with Its Own Employees?
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
While many of us prepared to celebrate Independence Day last week, a group of employees from the Environmental Protection Agency were bravely speaking out about what they see as their boss “recklessly undermining the EPA mission” of protecting human health and the environment. In a now-infamous letter sent to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, hundreds of current and former employees outlined five main concerns about the agency's direction (undermining public trust...
CONTINUE READINGA Landmark Geoengineering Conversation in the Global South
The UCLA Emmett Institute helps sponsor and organize the Degrees Global Forum, the largest event of its kind to date.
I post periodically about developments in the debate over solar geoengineering (SRM) and its potential role in response to climate change. News accounts may suggest that this debate moves fast, but it has three enduring, large-scale themes. First, SRM presents high stakes for climate risks and response – which most governments thus far have been reluctant to acknowledge. Second, it is crucial to build effective and legitimate capacity for global governance of these...
CONTINUE READINGFilling the gaps from CEQA reform
California has long leaned heavily on CEQA to cover gaps in other environmental laws. That will have to change when we reform CEQA.
California has enacted a major reform for CEQA, creating a substantial exemption for infill urban housing. I’ve written why this is, on balance, beneficial for housing and the environment. But I also want to highlight a pitfall as the state continues looking at future reforms for CEQA. California has long relied on CEQA as a gap-filler for its other environmental laws. As the state pares back CEQA, it should look at where it needs to update other state environm...
CONTINUE READINGShortchanging the Environment While Making NEPA More Chaotic
Trump replaced a coherent set of rules governing the executive branch with a welter of agency-specific regulations.
In one of Trump’s first executive orders, he eliminated a centralized system that Jimmy Carter initially set up to issue regulations governing environmental impact statements. Instead, he called on each agency to issue its own regulations, which seems to have caused the predictable amount of confusion. I've examined the new regulations from three agencies: the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Energy (DOE) , and the Department of Transportation (DO...
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