Region: National
National Academies School the Trump Administration on Gold-standard Science
Report on Effects of Human-Caused GHG Emissions on US Climate, Health, and Welfare shows how actual science is done.
It’s not news that the Trump administration has little interest in getting the facts right. But facts often matter for crafting policy that serves our societal goals. And it’s not rare for the law to require that specific factual findings underpin government decisions. In both cases, we need to assemble, understand, and apply the best …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Forgotten Constitution
There’s a lot more than the “executive power” in there.
To hear Trump & Co., you might think that the Constitution was one sentence long, with that sentence vesting the executive power in the President. That’s the theory behind his efforts to remake the government – including environmental regulation – single-handedly. But there’s a lot more in there. Much of that forgotten language is directly relevant to the presidential actions that are now shaking the government, including environmental governance.
CONTINUE READINGDOJ Challenge to Vermont’s Climate Law Has a Problem
The EPA’s proposed repeal of the endangerment finding undermines the U.S. position in the Vermont Climate Superfund Case.
EPA’s proposal to rescind the Clean Air Act endangerment finding is not final but it is already causing problems for the Trump Administration in court. The Department of Justice today filed a brief for summary judgment challenging Vermont’s climate superfund law. Its principal argument? That the Clean Air Act — in regulating greenhouse gases — …
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CONTINUE READINGThe ROAD to housing?
Initial federal legislation advancing more housing is limited in scope.
There’s been a lot of legislative action advancing housing production through reforms to land-use and environmental regulations at the state level, including California. Now, the federal government is every so gingerly stepping into the area. The ROAD Act passed unanimously through the relevant Senate committee last month. In this blog post I’ll provide a brief …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Color PURPA
A Win for Solar– And a Glimpse of Life After Chevron
The majority in a recent case — an Obama appointeet and a Trump appointee — ruled in favor of renewable energy. Even without Chevron deference, they were able to conclude that the statute favored solar producers. And unlike a win under Chevron, this one can’t be reversed by a more conservative agency — it’s etched in stone.
CONTINUE READINGViolations of Free Speech at EPA
EPA employees were within their rights with the dissent letter they wrote.
I know it must be a shock to the Trump Administration that even lowly civil servants — I’m sure they would put the emphasis on “servants” — have rights that Important People like them are obliged to respect. But we still live in a democracy, and as the Supreme Court once said, government employees don’t leave their First Amendment rights at the door.
CONTINUE READINGYoung Climate Plaintiffs Won Big in Montana. Can They Again?
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
One of the biggest climate victories to date belongs to 19-year-old Eva Lighthiser and the other Montana youth climate plaintiffs who won their landmark case against state officials and saw it upheld in the state Supreme Court. Now, some of those same young people — Lighthiser included — are headed back to court next week …
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CONTINUE READINGReconciliation and Public Lands Part 2
Final legislation is narrower than House bill, focused on fossil fuel leasing on federal lands.
As a (belated) follow-up from my post this summer about the House version of the reconciliation bill, here is a summary of the key public lands provisions of the reconciliation bill as finally enacted. In general, the scope of what is covered is substantially less than what was in the House bill, in part because …
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CONTINUE READINGA Clear and Present Danger to American Health
We’re all – each of us individually — less safe than we were a year ago.
RFK Jr. is purging the government of anyone who actually believes in science. What’s happening to public health under his leadership isn’t unique. All across the government, Trump is at war with science, cancelling billions of dollars of biomedical, energy, and climate research; closing EPA’s science department; replacing hard scientific evidence with climate denial as official dogma. This is a recipe for disaster, like closing your eyes will flying a plane.
CONTINUE READINGHouse Natural Resources Committee Holds Hearing on Another Ill-Conceived Permitting Reform Bill
The SPEED Act takes aim at the scientific foundation of environmental review
The proposed iSPEED bill includes provisions that would fundamentally compromise the integrity of federal decision making processes by allowing—or even compelling—the government to ignore scientific and technical information critical to understanding the effects of a federal action and how those effects could be mitigated.
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