Climate at SCOTUS, Electrification Victories, Media Moves
The Drain is a regular roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
It’s not every year that climate change looms large at the U.S. Supreme Court, but it will this coming term. The Supreme Court will begin its 2026-2027 term with a case brought by a Colorado county seeking millions of dollars from oil and gas companies for their role in exacerbating climate change. The justices announced recently that they will hear argument in Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County on October 5, the first hearing of the term. ...
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Interpreting the Clean Air Act After Chevron’s Demise
A recent Ninth Circuit case requires states to do more to achieve clean air goals.
Last week, the Ninth Circuit decided Committee for a Better Arvin v. EPA, which is both a significant air pollution case and an interesting case study in how the Supreme Court has changed judicial review of agency actions. The case was brought by a group in Arvin, CA, a small city near Bakersfield. When an area has failed to attain the air quality required by the Clean Air Act, special “nonattainment” provisions go into effect. In particular, the state is required t...
CONTINUE READINGScience Wins A Skirmish
The Senate's Continuing Resolution Blocks Russ Vought's Odious Politicization of Science -- Temporarily
Thank heaven for small favors: Senators on the Appropriations Committee on Sunday released a stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown by Oct. 1 and temporarily block a White House proposal that would fundamentally change how the federal government awards and manages grants. In late May, the Office of Management and Budget released a proposed rule to overhaul the Uniform Guidance (2 C.F.R. Part 200) that reshapes how billions of dollars in r...
CONTINUE READINGWhat the Disappearing Danube Could Tell Us About the Colorado
Today’s drought may not be the worst-case scenario for the Colorado
The Colorado River is suffering from the worst drought in at least 1200 years, raising fears about the fate of its shrinking reservoirs. According to the Wall Street Journal, if the drought continues through the winter, the entire system of managing water along the river may break down. This may not be the worst case scenario. Across the Atlantic, the situation on the Danube is truly dire. The “Blue Danube” memorialized by the Strauss waltz is now only nine inc...
CONTINUE READINGElection 2026: Three Months to Go
Gerrymandering has given House Republicans a boost, and the Senate leans toward the GOP, but it still promises to be a real horse race.
Given partisan polarization on climate change and other environmental issues, the composition of Congress makes a big impact. We’re three months from election day. This post scopes out what things look like now. Obviously, things will change between now and the election. It’s worth reflecting, however, on how it would impact policy if current trends continue. President Trump will continue to have a huge amount of power either way, but a new Congress could still ma...
CONTINUE READINGEnough With The Doomscrolling
Environmental Progress Does Exist - And So Does Good News
So much is awful nowadays, that we need to share good news at Legal Planet, and there actually is some. For the first time ever, German solar and wind electricity production outpaced that of fossil fuels. In 1987, forest cover in Costa Rica, one of the famously most biodiverse nations on the face of the Earth, had collapsed to just 21% of its original amount. But now, thanks in part to a gasoline tax that goes to pay for ecosystem services, that number ...
CONTINUE READINGWhither Permitting Reform for NEPA?
Engaging with the key questions for NEPA in any permitting reform bill
This interview by Heatmap News with a leading actor (Daniel Palken at the Arnold Foundation) in the permitting reform debates is informative and productive – both on the status of those talks right now, and on their history and why they are important. Here I just want to focus on one aspect of the interview where I have written the most before, and where I know the challenges are hard: Changes to NEPA. As the interview describes, there are good reasons to pursue N...
CONTINUE READINGStrategies for the 2030s
We lost the Battle of 2025. But we haven’t last the fight for sustainability.
As we look ahead, recent models suggest that the pictures for the rest of this decade isn't so bad. The big question is what happens after that. The two recent models have some welcome news: Trump’s rollbacks and assault on the Inflation Reduction Act have not been as cataclysmic as feared. At least not yet. The models come from different sources — an MIT researcher and the Rhodium firm — using different methodologies. The models also have implications about...
CONTINUE READINGThe Limits of Implementation for BACA
Potential practical limits on the scope of the initiative to rewrite CEQA
I’ve done a lot of analysis of the potential scope of the Cal Chamber initiative on the ballot this fall to fundamentally rework CEQA. However, I also want to highlight a range of constraints that I think will limit the practical impact of the initiative. In doing so, I do not want to minimize the substantial changes the initiative likely will have, both to the law and on the ground. But legal changes will not always have practical impacts and there are key compo...
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