What are the benefits of NEPA?
NEPA's benefits are not necessarily easy to measure, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important
This is the seventh in a series of posts on the reasons we might have environmental review. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. The fourth post is here. The fifth post is here. The sixth post is here. Which of the various reasons that we might have NEPA are more persuasive today, especially given over five decades of experience under the statute? The challenge is that many of the benefits are hard to measure – for i...
CONTINUE READINGUCLA Law Professors Condemn Attacks on the Rule of Law
A letter to students with 106 signatories expresses collective condemnation of the Trump Administration's attacks on the rule of law.
A huge group of UCLA Law professors sent a letter to our students yesterday expressing our collective condemnation of the Trump Administration's attacks on the rule of law. In doing so we join colleagues from other institutions and law deans in voicing our concerns. Here is an important excerpt from the letter: Lawyers have special obligations to protect and uphold the rule of law. As the Model Rules of Professional Conduct provide: “A lawyer is … an offi...
CONTINUE READINGNEPA as participatory democracy
NEPA might provide an opportunity for community-level engagement that advances public participation
This is the sixth in a series of posts on the reasons we might have environmental review. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. The fourth post is here. The fifth post is here. The last major category of potential benefits from NEPA that I want to cover is the argument that NEPA’s public participation requirements create a space for community organizing and engagement that advances a more equitable vision of democracy. ...
CONTINUE READINGField Notes from India: Climate Adaptation from the Ground Up
Two days with climate educators in Ahmedabad, India changed my understanding and appreciation of climate resilience.
I spent last week in New Delhi, participating in the conference, India 2047: Building a Climate-Resilient Future. Academics, civil society, and government officials were divided into groups focusing on science, health, labor, and the built environment. It was fascinating to explore the daunting challenges India will face as many of its regions confront daily temperatures well over 100 degrees. The two days spent before the conference, though, were even more fascin...
CONTINUE READINGNEPA as a veto point
Environmental review can empower a wider range of actors to block or hinder government projects
This is the fifth in a series of posts on the reasons we might have environmental review. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. The fourth post is here. Judicial review to enforce NEPA ensures that agencies actually take environmental review requirements seriously, as opposed to producing meaningless, general statements with little or no information. But judicial review of an environmental review statute also creates the po...
CONTINUE READINGJust How Endangered is Clean Energy?
The Trump administration wants to slow the U.S. clean energy transition. Will it put energy investments in a deep freeze or a temporary chill?
Business investment decisions rely on stability. And stability is in short supply so far in this Trump administration. Instead, we’ve seen an erratic blitzkrieg of activity on tariffs, federal funding, and deregulation that has spooked all sorts of industries. That’s partly why Heatmap News has declared Trump “Degrowth Donald,” and why my Legal Planet colleague Jonathan Zasloff has cheered the tariffs as a stupid but potentially effective way to reduce emissions....
CONTINUE READINGSuccess! Removing the Klamath Dams
A "Good News" Environmental Story (For a Change)
Most of the environmental law and policy matters discussed on Legal Planet--especially over the past few months--have dealt with natural resource crises, environmental rollbacks, hostile political actors and actions in Washington, D.C., etc. So let me take this opportunity to share an upbeat and inspirational environmental story in these otherwise troubled environmental times. In 2022, after literally decades of debate and negotiations, an historic agreement was for...
CONTINUE READINGCorroding the Separation of Environmental Powers
“Who decides?” is the first question to ask about a policy issue. Trump’s answer is “me.”
Who has the power to make an environmental decision? Foundational legal rules address this issue, allocating authority between the White House, federal agencies, federal courts, and state governments. Trump is trying to corrode those rules to take effective power over the environment into his own hands. The President v. Agencies. One of the allocations of powers has been in the executive branch. One reason for giving civil servants some degree of independence is to ...
CONTINUE READINGCan NEPA change agency decisionmaking?
Environmental review can change agency incentives or culture
This is the fourth in a series of posts on the reasons we might have environmental review. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. Another pathway by which environmental review might change outcomes, even with no legally binding substantive components, is through changing internal agency decisionmaking. The simplest version of this argument is that environmental review, by producing previously overlooked information about envir...
CONTINUE READINGTransmission Tangle, Transmission Tango
A new report maps out recent federal actions to improve planning for future electric transmission
On the macro level, just about everyone is a big fan of a rapid, aggressive build-out of new long-distance electric transmission lines – to help meet the anticipated rapid growth in demand for electricity due to the electrification of transportation and energy use in buildings, and the growth of AI. In addition, new big bulk power lines could help move renewable power from sunny and windy places to other locales where the power is needed. On a micro level, we all know ...
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