A Rock and a Hard Place
Reform of hard rock mining law is important to both protect the environment and ensure we have access to critical minerals
One issue that has come up in recent permitting reform proposals, including the Bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus proposal that I discussed recently, is how we regulate mining on federal lands. Much of the minerals production in the United States occurs on federal lands, and that includes much of the critical minerals such as rare earths that are required for sophisticated computing technology, batteries, and renewable energy production. The issue is that hard rock ...
CONTINUE READINGThe War on Public Health Continues
Friday’s layoffs announcements at CDC targeted infectious disease control
During the COVID outbreak, President Trump said, “If we stopped testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any.” That philosophy seems to have taken hold during his second term in office. On Friday, the Administration sent out notices that it was firing more than a thousand CDC workers, including the scientists and doctors who provide key information and expertise about infectious disease outbreaks. Among those receiving the notices were the members of th...
CONTINUE READINGProblem solved?
Bipartisan proposal for permitting reform from Problem Solvers Caucus is a good first step, but has much more work to do
The permitting reform conversation continues in Congress – this time with a long set of proposals from the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, based on a range of conversations with different stakeholders and interest groups. There is much that is good in this set of proposals, but there are also proposals that require more thought, or miss the mark. And for many of them, whether they are beneficial (or not) will depend a lot on the details. In this blog post, I...
CONTINUE READINGTake Two
Trump Administration reasoning around the definition of take appears contradictory
I’ve written before about how the Trump Administration is proposing to eliminate the definition of “harm” in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) regulations – an action that could remove protections for endangered species from habitat modification. The main justification that the Administration is relying upon in the proposal is a claim that the best interpretation of the meaning of the term “harm” in the ESA is Justice Scalia’s dissent in the Supreme Court...
CONTINUE READINGSolar and Wind are Winning
Two energy reports out this week paint a clear picture of the future that may await us.
Industrial policy moves slowly. Sometimes it takes months or years to understand the trajectory of global energy trends. Picture an oil tanker that requires a herculean effort just to shift course by a small degree — that’s what energy policy feels like much of the time. But then sometimes, you get a glimpse of the future in one sudden flash. That happened this Tuesday when two influential reports came out within hours of one another that illuminate two big ...
CONTINUE READINGSigning AB 1167 Would be a Win for Energy Affordability
A bill that seeks to protect ratepayers from subsidizing utility lobbying still awaits Governor Newsom’s signature.
The 2025 legislative session has been a banner year for energy affordability legislation in California. The legislature passed—and the governor signed—a suite of six major bills that the governor and legislative leaders have championed in an effort to bring down energy costs for Californians. However, the job is not yet done. Governor Newsom has not yet signed a key bill—AB 1167— that will be vital to keeping costs down for utility ratepayers by ensuring they...
CONTINUE READINGThe Compact for Censorship
The so-called compact is a thin front for massive incursion into free speech and academic freedom.
The Administration released a “Compact” with universities late last week. It’s rife with First Amendment violations, many of which would directly impact teaching and writing about environmental issues. Because violation of the agreement triggers draconian sanctions, and the Administration is the judge of what constitutes a violation, the chilling effect will be tremendous. I’ll start with the draconian threats and then turn to the harmful impact on environmen...
CONTINUE READINGSome Good News About the El Segundo Chevron Explosion
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
When the state’s second-largest refinery emitted a fireball into the heavens last week, it was bad. But it wasn’t all bad. The “incident” at the Chevron refinery in El Segundo was a good reminder that air pollution is present during the entire life cycle of oil and gas products, from when it comes out of the ground to when it combusts. And sometimes when it explodes near local communities. For months, the conversation around California’s oil production h...
CONTINUE READINGFirst Monday? More Like ‘First Moanday.’
Since conservatives got a supermajority on the Supreme Court, it’s been on an anti-environmental tear.
As Court watchers know, the first Monday in October is the first day of the Supreme Court term. If you believe in federal protection of the environment, however, the start of a new term isn’t exactly grounds for rejoicing. The more natural reaction is a moan. About the best you can hope is that the Court won’t wreak too much damage on environmental law. Luckily, at this point, the Court doesn’t have any significant environmental cases on its agenda. In the l...
CONTINUE READINGGarbage In, Garbage Out, Garbage Everywhere
The collapse of international plastics negotiations demands a new, non-UN framework
Given all the garbage that we have to deal with nowadays, you might have missed the prospect of actual, non-metaphorical garbage this week: to virtually no one’s surprise, UN negotiations over an international plastics treaty collapsed this week. It’s easy to make jokes referencing The Graduate – and in fact I will - but this is no laughing matter. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates that, without global action to curb plastic pol...
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