Region: National
How to Jump Start the Economy? Regulate
Smart Regulation Can Overcome The “Paradox of Thrift”
Once we begin to dig ourselves out from the COVID-19 pandemic, we will need to think seriously about how the rebuild the economy. And that should scare environmentalists. Expect a whole series of pushes from the usual suspects about we “can’t afford” environmental protection when the nation is in depression. That is precisely wrong. Suppose …
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CONTINUE READINGResuscitating Obama’s Environmental Legacy
Trump has had a single-minded focus on eliminating any traces of Obama’s presidency. But it’s not too late to turn the tide.
We’ve now had nearly four years of Trump’s all-out war on environmental protection. Trump has single-mindedly tried to wipe out every trace of Obama’s legacy. It’s time to see what’s left of Obama’s achievements. And what could a new President do to revive his legacy? In a Legal Planet post a week before the last …
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CONTINUE READINGThe World Leader Who is Far Worse Than Trump
Take everything Trump did wrong about the virus. Then square it. That’s Bolsonaro.
Yes, Trump made huge mistakes in the coronavirus outbreak. But no, he’s not the worst world leader in this respect. That prize currently goes to Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro. Like Trump, he’s a rightwing populist leader. He’s even been called “the Trump of the Tropics.” But he’s far more unmoored. When asked about Brazil’s record number …
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CONTINUE READINGConservatives versus Lockdowns
Conservatives versus Lockdowns
Spurred on by conservative groups, protesters are demanding that their states go back to business as usual. This sentiment isn’t limited to the kinds of hotheads who insist on congregating in public during an epidemic, or even to conservatives like Betsy DeVos who help to fund these groups and promote their protests. It also includes …
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CONTINUE READINGAsserting “Climate Necessity” in Defense of Civil Disobedience
Giving climate change activists a fair hearing in court
The first Earth Day, fifty years ago, was a product and catalyst of political movements that established bedrock environmental laws in the United States. Without decades of political activism, there would be no Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, or Endangered Species Act, nor would there be vigorous enforcement regimes to carry these laws out. …
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CONTINUE READINGGrid Experts Weigh In on the Clean Power Plan Repeal and ACE Rule
UCLA Emmett faculty share expert voices in an amicus brief filed last week in the D.C. Circuit
Among the many Trump Administration rollbacks of climate regulation, a big one is its decision to repeal the Clean Power Plan and to replace it with a rule that does almost nothing to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel-fired power plants. The electricity sector has made significant progress in reducing climate pollution recent years, but …
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CONTINUE READINGRed States, Blue Governors
Democratic governors in deep red states can only do so much.
Democrats flipped a number of statehouses in the past two years. In some of those states, the new governors have faced GOP legislatures. Their travails indicate some of the limits of what a new President could accomplish with a GOP Senate. North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Kansas are three cases in point. I want to ask …
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CONTINUE READINGIn Support of Public Health Federalism
Reactionary State Responses to COVID-19 (and Other Threats to Public Health) Don’t Mean Federalism Is For Suckers
For decades, “states’ rights” has been a rallying cry of the right wing. Most Americans are familiar with the dynamics that required the federalization of civil rights law, both in the 1860s and again in the 1960s, the protection of much of our nation’s federal lands, and the national crises that necessitated the federal government …
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CONTINUE READINGRemember “Beautiful, Clean Coal”? Trump Apparently Doesn’t.
Maybe you haven’t noticed, but Trump has stopped talking about coal.
One of Trump’s iconic campaign photos showed him with a sign saying “Trump Digs Coal.” He vowed to bring back the coal industry. Even after his election, he delighted in photo ops with coal miners ( many of whom turned out to be coal company executives) wearing their helmets. But those days are gone. I …
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CONTINUE READINGHere Today, Gone to Maui
U.S. Supreme Court Issues Environment-Friendly Ruling in Major Clean Water Act Case
This week the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the Court’s most important environmental law case of the current Term: County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund. In a somewhat surprising ruling, the justices rejected both sides’ argument over the scope of government authority to regulate water pollution discharges under the federal Clean Water …
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