Trump’s Offshore Wind Ban vs. China’s Wind Juggernaut
Why is the Trump administration kneecapping the U.S. offshore wind industry while China becomes a global giant?
This January, when I was in Beijing for a workshop at Tsinghua University on offshore wind, presentation after presentation from Chinese experts revealed just how China has become an absolute juggernaut in offshore wind. Professors from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Tsinghua walked us through the governance structure — state planning, targets, industrial policy, and legal frameworks — that have allowed China to build an impressive vertical supply chai...
CONTINUE READINGTariffs and Clean Energy: What You Need to Know
The effect of tariffs on energy markets is complex, and a lot depends on the details.
“Tariffs are the most beautiful word to me,” enthuses Donald Trump. The tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China that he imposed today may well turn out to be the policies with the largest impact on the economy, including energy markets. They could hold back clean technology in the U.S, as well as harming other industries. But a lot depends on the details and the responses of exporting countries. The Economics of Tariffs Economists generally believe that ta...
CONTINUE READINGThe Green-State Playbook
Here are five ways states can save climate policy despite Trump.
Nearly half of U.S. states, with more than half the U.S. population, have made climate pledges. Trump’s election is a body blow to U.S. climate policy, but there are ways that those states can fight Trump and, importantluy, also move forward on their own plans. I’ve posted a new paper on states as havens for climate policy. The paper goes into a lot more detail about the strategies and legal issues. But to cut to the chase, here are five key strategies for green ...
CONTINUE READINGProject 2025 Envisions Congressional Override of Biden Era Regulations
Paper #2 in Monograph Series
UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, & Environment (CLEE) is sponsoring a series of papers evaluating aspects of Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation publication, entitled “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” which is being followed to a significant degree as a blueprint for the Trump Administration. CLEE published excerpts from the 922 page Project 2025 document related to climate change and environment, here. Monograph Paper #1 on Over...
CONTINUE READINGWhat is a species?
Revisiting a key case in the history of the ESA
This article in the NY Times covers a recent scientific article that concludes that the snail darter, a fish species in the Tennessee River basin that was previously listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), is not a species after all. Using a range of genetic analyses, the authors conclude that the snail darter is closely related to another darter species (the Stargazing Darter), and that the genetic “distance” between those two species is much...
CONTINUE READINGSaving Disaster Law From the Imperial Presidency
Trump's efforts to deconstruct disaster relief have serious legal flaws
In recent days, Trump has said that he won’t provide relief for the LA fires unless California changes its voting laws and its water regulations. And he also suggested that he’d like to abolish FEMA entirely. The first of Trump's proposals is likely unconstitutional. The second one is both a terrible idea and beyond his legal authority. Although he and Gov. Newsom made nice at an airstrip encounter, there's no reason to think Trump's view of his own power has chan...
CONTINUE READINGTrump Goes to War Against Environmental Justice
Apparently it's "woke" to worry about excessive pollution in minority communities.
An executive order dating back to Clinton requires all agencies to make environmental justice part of their missions. They are required to consider whether their actions have “disproportionately high” impacts on minority and low-income communities. Those last two sentences were true all the way through Trump’s first term and the Biden years. But no more. President Trump just revoked the Clinton order, making it clear that agencies should no longer consider how t...
CONTINUE READINGTrump’s War Against NEPA
One of Trump’s Executive Orders Heralds a Revolution in NEPA Practice
A sleeper provision in one of Trump’s executive orders attempts to revolutionize the way NEPA operates and cut environmental review to a minimum. Since Jimmy Carter’s presidency, agency compliance with NEPA has been governed by regulations issued by the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Trump aims to end that practice and replace it with agency-by-agency NEPA rules designed to reduce environmental considerations to the barest legal minimum. This slee...
CONTINUE READINGSurfing the Wave of Executive Orders
As an old song says, “Mama Miá, here we go again!”
To much fanfare, Trump has issued a slew of executive orders, many aimed at killing environmental regulations. As he portrayed his actions the day before, “Starting tomorrow, I will act with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country.” True, many people will see the executive orders in that light. But few executive orders have any immediate impact. They’re basically nudges to various agencies to carry out his agenda. Presidents l...
CONTINUE READINGAre Climate Pledges on Life Support?
A Q&A with Catherine McKenna, who led the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Expert Group on Net-Zero Commitments of Non-State Entities.
Catherine McKenna knows firsthand how to persist in the face of pushback on climate policies. She was Canada's Minister of Environment and Climate Change during the first Trump Administration, and she led negotiations of that country’s first national climate plan over intense oil industry opposition. “The oil sands sector and the politicians they sponsor aren’t just greenwashing a product,” McKenna wrote recently in a biting Op Ed. “They are working ...
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