Lessons from the DACA Ruling
The Court’s ruling could have important implications for environmental cases.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Department of Homeland Security v. UC Regents was great news for 700,000 “Dreamers” who would otherwise face deportation. It also has important implications for administrative law — and for environmental law cases in particular. Here are three main takeaways. Requiring Reasoned Explanation. Chief Justice John Roberts reinforced the principle that agencies must give reasoned explanations for their orders. As Roberts put it, i...
CONTINUE READINGA New Report on Governing Climate Geoengineering
I suggest steps toward global governance of carbon dioxide removal and solar geoengineering
A new report on the governance of climate geoengineering -- that is, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and solar geoengineering (or solar radiation modification, SRM) -- has been released. International Governance Issues on Climate Engineering: Information for Policymakers was coordinated and issued by the International Risk Governance Center, edited by IRGC's Marie-Valentine Florin, and commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment. Its four chapters were...
CONTINUE READINGNo, It’s Not Over
The threat of COVID-19 continues to loom over us.
We’re all sick of being locked down, and the economic downturn has been brutal. There’s a palpable sense that it’s time to put the coronavirus behind us and move on. Unfortunately, the coronavirus does not agree. People now seem used to the idea of hundreds of new coronavirus deaths a day. Yet, even 500 deaths per day would equate to a 9/11 event every week. And we're still well above that death rate in this country at an average of around 750 deaths daily...
CONTINUE READINGDC Circuit Restricts “Housekeeping” Regulations
The Trump Administration likes to justify policy initiatives based on vague grants of authority. That's just become harder.
Earlier today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decided two cases that add to the legal difficulties the Trump EPA will face in court. The difficulties relate to two proposed EPA rules that attempt to hamstring future efforts to impose tighter restrictions on pollution. Both EPA rules rely on vague, general grants of rule-making authority from Congress. That just became more tenuous. One of the EPA proposals is the so-called “science transparency rule,” which...
CONTINUE READINGWhat Does Today’s Decision Holding that Employers Can’t Discriminate Against LGBTQ Employees Have to Do with Climate Change?
The case provides potent ammunition for using the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon pollution
Today's blockbuster opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, holding that employers can't fire LGBTQ workers under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, may seem far afield from the regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. But its reasoning could have huge implications for climate change action. In saying that discrimination on the basis of sex under Title VII should be read to include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, Justice Gors...
CONTINUE READINGDeja Vu All Over Again
There's a new GOP Platform, same as the old one.
It appears that the GOP won’t have a new platform this year. Instead, they’re going to stick with their 2016 platform. You could see that as steadfastness or a lack of new ideas. In the environmental arena, 2016 is still where the GOP is stuck today, celebrating fossil fuels and rejecting climate action. Here are some key provisions from the 2016 Republican Platform. Climate Change “The Environmental Protection Agency has rewritten laws to advance the De...
CONTINUE READINGSurprise! Major Land Conservation Bill Poised to Pass Congress
Republican-Led Senate Prepared to Preserve Public Lands--and Political Careers?
Over the past decade, we've become resigned to the sad fact of congressional gridlock: a hopelessly partisan and paralyzed Congress, seemingly unable to pass major legislation on the environmental protection, natural resource conservation or, indeed, any number of other policy fronts. So it has to come as a shock to most observers that this week the U.S. Senate is poised to pass the first major federal public lands bill in decades. The legislation will then move t...
CONTINUE READINGGuest Contributors Matt Lifson, Camila Bustos, and Natasha Brunstein: Redressability of Climate Change Injuries after Juliana
Juliana Litigation’s Disappointing Result Leaves Room for Future Climate Plaintiffs to Allege Redressable Injuries
In the landmark Juliana litigation, the youth plaintiffs sought a judicial decree telling the federal government to develop and implement a plan to do its part to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations to 350 ppm. The Ninth Circuit dismissed Juliana, holding that the youth plaintiffs’ constitutional and public trust claims were not redressable by an Article III court. The panel concluded it lacked the power to order a carbon-reduction plan because the judiciary would ne...
CONTINUE READINGThe Conservative Assault on Presidential Administration
Are they afraid of “faceless bureaucrats”? Or Democratic Presidents?
Conservatives are on a campaign to reduce agency discretion. They don’t seem to realize that in today’s world, that really amounts to an attack on presidential power. These days, it’s generally not bureaucrats or even cabinet officers who make the real decisions about regulation. It’s the White House. So the campaign against the administrative state really amounts to an effort to neuter the President’s authority over domestic policy. This conservative ef...
CONTINUE READINGTapping the Earth’s Power
Geothermal power could play an important role in decarbonization.
There's been a lot of recent interest in geothermal energy. It can complement other renewables as they become a bigger part of the power mix. A recent study by DOE suggests that geothermal capacity could reach 60 Gigawatts by 2050. The basic technology is pretty simple: drill down into a reservoir of super-hot water (up to 700 °F), then use the water to run turbines. The wells have various depths, sometimes up to two miles. If the water is below 360 °F, it’s often...
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