2025 Reconciliation Bill

Reconciliation 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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Does Federal Law Still Preempt State Standards Relating to Fuel Efficiency?

The answer may depend on what being “in effect” means.

If a tree falls in the forest but no one hears it, does it still make a sound?  If a law hasn’t been formally repealed but can be violated with complete impunity, is it still in effect? This matters because federal law preempts state fuel efficiency standards if, but only if, a federal standard is “in effect.” Congress just eliminated any penalty for violating the federqal standards. Which means at best they have only a kind of ghostly existence, but no substance to speak of.

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