Region: National
The Chevron Doctrine: Is It Fading? Could That Help Restrain Trump?
The Supreme Court may be shifting the rules for reviewing agency interpretations of statutes.
In June, the Supreme Court decided two cases that could have significant implications for environmental law. The two cases may shed some light on the Court’s current thinking about the Chevron doctrine. The opinions suggest that the Court may be heading in the direction of more rigorous review of interpretations of statutes by agencies like …
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CONTINUE READINGPublic Lands Watch: Sage Grouse Plan Revisions
BLM and Forest Service produce draft environmental impact statements for plan revisions
I wrote in the fall about the Trump Administration’s efforts to weaken protections for sage grouse on federal public lands. The next step in that process is currently ongoing – draft environmental impact statements (EIS) for revisions to land management plans for BLM and Forest Service lands. Those EISs are required by the National Environmental …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Strategies for the Post-Kennedy Era
How do we make environmental progress despite an increasingly unsympathetic court?
Ann Carlson wrote an excellent post about how Kennedy’s departure might impact some key environmental issues. His retirement means that the Supreme Court will move even further to the right and stay there at least until one of the conservatives departs (maybe Thomas, the oldest). The new pick is likely to be another Gorsuch, which …
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CONTINUE READINGMemo to Staff: Eliminating Cl***** Ch****
Also, please delete all references to global w***ing.
MEMORANDUM To: All Department Staff From: The Secretary Re: Eliminating Cl***** Ch**** As you know, it is this Administration’s policy to eliminate all references to Cl***** Ch**** from government documents. This policy has been unevenly implemented, but I have informed the President that we are adopting a zero-tolerance approach. All use of the “double-c …
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CONTINUE READINGGetting to Zero Fatalities
Eliminating traffic deaths and vehicle emissions by 2050? Not as crazy as you might think.
Could we have a transportation system with zero deaths from car crashed and zero emissions? That seems utopian but it’s not as crazy as it sounds. Even if we don’t get all the way to zero, we could get much closer than you might think. In The Road to Zero, RAND researchers provide a roadmap …
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CONTINUE READINGAgency U-Turns
Policy reversals are likely to be more frequent in an increasingly polarized society. How should courts respond?
The Trump Administration is doing its best to wipe out Obama’s regulatory legacy. How will the courts respond to such a radical policy change? The philosophical clash between these last two Presidents is especially stark, but this is far from being the first time that agencies have taken U-turns. This is the fifth time in …
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CONTINUE READINGSenate Races and the Environment
Eight races will determine the balance of power in the Senate.
There’s a lot riding on the 2018 elections. The midterms will decide whether the GOP has a large enough majority to pass legislation weakening environmental protection, whether either house of Congress is willing to investigate misconduct by Pruitt and others, and who Trump can appoint to agencies and the judiciary. I’ll post more detailed information …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Puzzle of Capacity Markets
What are capacity markets and why do they matter?
If you live in the Midwest, East of the Mississippi and North of the Mason-Dixon line, or in Arkansas or Louisiana, the companies that generate your electricity are covered by what are called capacity markets. I’ll bet you didn’t know that. That’s actually part of the problem, because there’s very little transparency and hence little …
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CONTINUE READINGA Trumped-Up Bailout Plan
Legally deficient? Arbitrary? Disguised special interest favors? All par for the course in this Administration.
You couldn’t ask for a more typical example of the Trump Administration at work. Nuclear and coal plants are being closed across the country, unable to compete with cheap natural gas and increasingly cheap renewables. In a desperate effort to support the coal industry, Trump wants to force consumers to subsidize these plants. It’s not …
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CONTINUE READINGScenarios
We live in an uncertain world. Scenario planning can help.
When Shell Oil produced a sophisticated scenario of the path to a carbon neutral world in 2070, a lot people took notice. Shell concluded that the “relevant transformations in the energy and natural systems require concurrent climate policy action and the deployment of disruptive new technologies at mass scale within government policy environments that strongly …
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