Region: National
Public Lands Watch: ANWR and Monuments Updates
Updates on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and National Monuments
Two updates on issues that we have been following. First, the Senate passed a tax bill that opens up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development – though an initial version of that provision which would have relaxed environmental review of development in the refuge was stripped out. The bill likely will …
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CONTINUE READINGPresident Trump’s national monument rollback is illegal and likely to be reversed in court
Authored by Nicholas Bryner, Eric Biber, Mark Squillace, and Sean B. Hecht
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Supporters of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments during a rally Saturday, Dec. 2, 2017 in Salt Lake City. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer On Dec. 4, President Trump traveled to Utah to sign proclamations downsizing Bears Ears National Monument by 85 percent …
CONTINUE READINGRick Perry, PJM, and the Polar Vortex
Michael Wara posted previously about Rick Perry’s proposal to subsidize coal and nuclear. In its current incarnation, the proposal is aimed purely at ISOs and RTOs that operate capacity markets, which largely means a single entity, PJM. Why the focus on PJM? Oh, I guess I had better explain. OK, to start with, what did …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Federal Government Has *Always* Shaped the Energy System
Obama was criticized for intruding the federal government into energy policy. But that’s nothing new.
To hear some of the debate, you’d think that the Obama Administration breached some longstanding barrier that left energy policy to the states and the market. If there ever was such a barrier, it disappeared over a century ago, with the onset of World War I. Ever since then, the federal government has been actively …
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CONTINUE READINGBringing South Carolina into the Sunshine
A dedicated state legislator, against the odds, opened the door to solar energy in the Palmetto State.
Solar energy is poised to make an appearance in the state, in good part due to the efforts of a single Republican state legislator. That will be a big change: South Carolina has had essentially no wind or solar power, although nuclear accounts for half of its electricity. The state senator, Chauncey (“Greg”) Gregory, hails …
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CONTINUE READING‘Let the Sunshine In’: The Fight for Solar in the Tar Heel State
Despite utility opposition and conservative state legislature, the law is slowly shifting toward solar energy.
In North Carolina, renewable energy is more a distant dream than a reality. The state has a modest renewable portfolio standard (10-12% by 2018 or 2021, depending on the utility). Right now, the state is at only about 7%, with the remainder split more or less equally between coal, gas and nuclear. It has old-fashioned …
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CONTINUE READINGPublic Lands Watch: National Park Fee Increases
Park Service proposes to more than double fees at popular parks for peak times
On October 24, the National Park Service published a proposal to hike entrance fees in 17 of the most popular parks—including Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon—during peak visitation seasons. The per-vehicle fee during peak season would rise to $70 from the current range of $25 to $30. The plan would also raise the per-person …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Growing Schism Between Coal and Oil
They’re both fossil fuels, but their producers don’t always have the same policy views.
Bush’s environmental policies were bad, but Trump’s policies are way worse. One reason is that Bush and Cheney were oilman, and Trump is obsessed with coal. Yes, oil and coal are both fossil fuels, but they have different economics and different policy stances. These are two very different industries. The U.S. coal companies are in …
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CONTINUE READINGOfficially-True Lies
Administration policy is based on a series of falsehoods.
There are some falsehoods which the United States government has now adopted as dogma. They aren’t true but they’re repeated day in and day out. Sadly, they’re sometimes not even deliberate falsehoods, because the people who repeat them have been brainwashed into believing them or are just too ignorant to realize the actual facts. “Greenhouse …
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CONTINUE READINGPublic Lands Watch: Resilient Federal Forests Act
Bill to reduce environmental protections for timber management on federal lands passes House
The Resilient Federal Forests Act (RFFA), H.R. 2936—which would curb environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for a variety of forest management activities on National Forest and BLM lands—passed the House November 1. (We previously wrote about a version of this bill in committee here.) NEPA requires agencies to consider whether proposed …
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