Region: National
The Most Important Law Most People Have Never Heard Of
Here’s how the APA bolsters the rule of law and protects the environment.
Even the title of the law — the Administrative Procedure Act or APA — is a guaranteed yawner. Yet this law is central to the rule of law and, among other things, to environmental protection. We are learning from the current Administration’s efforts to evade the APA just how important it is. The APA requires reasoned decisions by government. More fundamentally, the requirements of legal and procedural regularity prevent the arbitrary use of government power to reward friends and punish foes.
CONTINUE READINGWhy Do Heat Pumps Have a Bad Rap? Lies
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
I just listened to dozens of people tell me that heat pumps don’t work, may cause homelessness, and can bankrupt small businesses. This was shocking news to me, in no small part because I’m currently in the process of installing a heat pump in my condo. Obviously, I don’t want to waste money, sleep on …
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CONTINUE READINGCan Trump Save U.S. Coal? Not likely.
“Beautiful clean coal”, as Trump calls it, is inexorably declining.
The title of one of Trump’s executive orders is “Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry.” That order says, “it is the policy of the United States that coal is essential to our national and economic security.” But Trump’s efforts seem unlikely to make a dent in the long-term, global malaise of the coal industry, or its sharp decline in the U.S.
CONTINUE READINGPay to Play
The reconciliation bill has a new approach to try and change substantive law
I posted earlier about a provision in the House reconciliation bill that attempts to effectively repeal NEPA by allowing sponsors of projects to pay a fee to avoid any judicial review of NEPA documents. That provision is not unique, and indeed it looks like House Republicans are trying to develop a new tool to use …
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CONTINUE READINGReconciliation and public lands
Most changes would be to the leasing process for oil and gas development and reflect a partisan response to ping-pong governance
As the Senate takes up the House’s version of the reconciliation bill, I wanted to briefly summarize the main provisions that relate to public lands – in part so readers can be aware of the state of play as to what might (or might not) come to pass in the Senate. The bill as passed …
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CONTINUE READINGGiving Away the National Parks?
Another Trump Administration idea that probably requires Congressional action, and thus probably won’t happen
Another national park idea the Trump Administration had recently was to offload hundreds of national parks to states and local governments, in order to trim $900 million from the Park Service budget. The proposal is spare on details, only calling for the “transfer [of] certain properties to State-level management.” Secretary of the Interior Burgum stated …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Rock
Public lands law stands in the way of Trump’s proposal to reopen Alcatraz
About a month ago, President Trump floated the idea of reopening the federal prison at Alcatraz. The prison has been closed for decades, and it is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, managed by the National Park Service, and a major tourist attraction. While a lot of the press coverage focused on …
CONTINUE READINGAbundance and the Seven County case
The Court’s decision will facilitate fossil fuel projects much more than clean energy
I’ve seen some posts on the social media site formally known as Twitter arguing that the Seven County case is a win for an abundance-focused policy – in that it will facilitate more construction of infrastructure by eliminating or reducing environmental reviews. I think that statement is somewhat accurate in general. But I think it is …
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CONTINUE READINGGovernment Hires Shouldn’t Have to Take a MAGA Essay Test
Schedule F was bad, But Trump’s latest move is even worse.
The Trump Administration has adopted new hiring procedures that will impose ideological litmus tests in federal hiring. Job applicants will be graded on essays about their allegiance to “America’s founding principles” and their commitment to implementing Trump’s executive orders. These new essay questions have little to do with the jobs of most government and employees and more to do with ideological conformity. They violate both the Civil Service statute and the First Amendment.
CONTINUE READINGImplications of the Seven County Decision
Possible limitations on NEPA analysis for climate effects and indirect effects
This is the third in our series of posts on the Seven County case. The first post was here, summarizing the key points of the opinion. The second post is here, providing our assessment of the analysis in the opinion. In this third post, we discuss the implications of the case for what have been …
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