NEPA as participatory democracy
NEPA might provide an opportunity for community-level engagement that advances public participation
This is the sixth in a series of posts on the reasons we might have environmental review. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. The fourth post is here. The fifth post is here. The last major category of potential benefits from NEPA that I want to cover is the argument that NEPA’s public participation requirements create a space for community organizing and engagement that advances a more equitable vision of democracy. ...
CONTINUE READINGField Notes from India: Climate Adaptation from the Ground Up
Two days with climate educators in Ahmedabad, India changed my understanding and appreciation of climate resilience.
I spent last week in New Delhi, participating in the conference, India 2047: Building a Climate-Resilient Future. Academics, civil society, and government officials were divided into groups focusing on science, health, labor, and the built environment. It was fascinating to explore the daunting challenges India will face as many of its regions confront daily temperatures well over 100 degrees. The two days spent before the conference, though, were even more fascin...
CONTINUE READINGNEPA as a veto point
Environmental review can empower a wider range of actors to block or hinder government projects
This is the fifth in a series of posts on the reasons we might have environmental review. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. The fourth post is here. Judicial review to enforce NEPA ensures that agencies actually take environmental review requirements seriously, as opposed to producing meaningless, general statements with little or no information. But judicial review of an environmental review statute also creates the po...
CONTINUE READINGJust How Endangered is Clean Energy?
The Trump administration wants to slow the U.S. clean energy transition. Will it put energy investments in a deep freeze or a temporary chill?
Business investment decisions rely on stability. And stability is in short supply so far in this Trump administration. Instead, we’ve seen an erratic blitzkrieg of activity on tariffs, federal funding, and deregulation that has spooked all sorts of industries. That’s partly why Heatmap News has declared Trump “Degrowth Donald,” and why my Legal Planet colleague Jonathan Zasloff has cheered the tariffs as a stupid but potentially effective way to reduce emissions....
CONTINUE READINGSuccess! Removing the Klamath Dams
A "Good News" Environmental Story (For a Change)
Most of the environmental law and policy matters discussed on Legal Planet--especially over the past few months--have dealt with natural resource crises, environmental rollbacks, hostile political actors and actions in Washington, D.C., etc. So let me take this opportunity to share an upbeat and inspirational environmental story in these otherwise troubled environmental times. In 2022, after literally decades of debate and negotiations, an historic agreement was for...
CONTINUE READINGCorroding the Separation of Environmental Powers
“Who decides?” is the first question to ask about a policy issue. Trump’s answer is “me.”
Who has the power to make an environmental decision? Foundational legal rules address this issue, allocating authority between the White House, federal agencies, federal courts, and state governments. Trump is trying to corrode those rules to take effective power over the environment into his own hands. The President v. Agencies. One of the allocations of powers has been in the executive branch. One reason for giving civil servants some degree of independence is to ...
CONTINUE READINGCan NEPA change agency decisionmaking?
Environmental review can change agency incentives or culture
This is the fourth in a series of posts on the reasons we might have environmental review. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. Another pathway by which environmental review might change outcomes, even with no legally binding substantive components, is through changing internal agency decisionmaking. The simplest version of this argument is that environmental review, by producing previously overlooked information about envir...
CONTINUE READINGTransmission Tangle, Transmission Tango
A new report maps out recent federal actions to improve planning for future electric transmission
On the macro level, just about everyone is a big fan of a rapid, aggressive build-out of new long-distance electric transmission lines – to help meet the anticipated rapid growth in demand for electricity due to the electrification of transportation and energy use in buildings, and the growth of AI. In addition, new big bulk power lines could help move renewable power from sunny and windy places to other locales where the power is needed. On a micro level, we all know ...
CONTINUE READINGNEPA as a political tool
How NEPA can change environmental outcomes through political and public pressure
This is the third in a series of posts on the reasons we might have environmental review. The first post is here. The second post is here. A frequent critique of NEPA is that it is paperwork without purpose, and thus a waste of resources. How can a statute that has no substantive requirements, and only requires analysis and public disclosure of the effects of a proposed agency action, have any impact on the environment? A partial answer is that the information...
CONTINUE READINGNEPA as an environmental back-stop
NEPA can provide analytic coverage of environmental harms that are not covered under other statutes
This is the second in a series of posts on the reasons we might have environmental review. The first post is here. Why might we have an environmental review statute such as NEPA when we already have a range of other environmental protection statutes such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and more? What does NEPA do that these other statutes are not already doing? One possibility is that NEPA serves as a back-stop for other environmental laws, filling i...
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