Region: National
Young 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 …
Continue reading “Young Climate Plaintiffs Won Big in Montana. Can They Again?”
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 …
Continue reading “Reconciliation and Public Lands Part 2”
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.
CONTINUE READING“Degrowth Donald”
We now have ample examples that Donald Trump is not an abundance President
The title of this blog post comes from this article, where the author originally humorously tagged Donald Trump as a degrowth activist because of his opposition to renewables, his tariffs to constrain trade, and the potential economic impacts of those policies. Except now it’s not so humorous. Turns out that having the federal government capriciously …
Continue reading ““Degrowth Donald””
CONTINUE READINGTrump’s War on Wind is Dumb. It also Makes Sense.
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
The Trump administration’s attack on wind energy feels dumber and dumber every day. Let’s see if we can make it make some sense. After that, the major headlines of the week. Last Friday, his Transportation Department withdrew $679 million for offshore wind projects at 12 ports. Last month, the administration sent a stop-work order to …
Continue reading “Trump’s War on Wind is Dumb. It also Makes Sense.”
CONTINUE READINGThank You, President Trump, for Opening the Door to Carbon Tariffs
Democrats should make it clear that this will be on the agenda if the Supreme Court upholds Trump’s tariffs.
As a matter of policy, a border adjustment for carbon emissions is much more defensible than the kinds of tariffs that Trump is proposing. And conservatives need to know that what is sauce of the goose is sauce for the gander. Or to switch metaphors, liberals need to show that they’re willing to move beyond bringing baked goods to a gunfight.
CONTINUE READINGThe Failed Effort to Protect Workers from Toxics: A Labor Day Reflection
The OSHA law called for rigorous regulation. It never happened.
To put it in a nutshell, the political base for workplace toxic regulation eroded along with America’s industrial unions. That deprived OSHA of the congressional support it needed to thrive. In the absence of a union revival, the right of workers to be free from toxic hazards is likely to remain an unfulfilled dream.
CONTINUE READINGFederalism Is For Suckers, Part The Millionth
Donald Trump’s latest constitutional rewriting puts the lie to venerable constitutional scholarship
Here’s a good legal Rule Of Thumb: whenever anyone makes a federalism argument concerning any dispute, do not take them seriously. It’s a mug’s game. The Venn Diagram of “people who argue for federalism” and “people who lack control over the federal government” is pretty much a perfect circle. And the positions will completely flip …
Continue reading “Federalism Is For Suckers, Part The Millionth”
CONTINUE READINGHow to Dissent? Learn American History
LA Public Library
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
It sounds cliché, but when you face a crisis, it helps to remember times that you’ve overcome adversity. That’s the power of history. And it’s one of the reasons I think the new PBS documentary “Clearing the Air: The War on Smog” is crucial to share right now. In the 1940s, dark, smoky clouds crept …
Continue reading “How to Dissent? Learn American History”
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
