eminent domain

A Sleeper Provision in the Senate Infrastructure Bill

The bill gives the Feds broad authority to authorize transmission projects.

We will need a much more robust transmission in coming years.  Sources of renewable energy, such as Iowa wind farms, are often located far from the urban centers that need the power. Transmission also helps to deal with weather issues that may impact renewables: even if it’s too cloudy for solar in one state, the …

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Land Use Planning, Transit, and the Dodgers: The Legal Planet World Series Special

Stop the Myths About Evil Walter O’Malley

Since the World Series starts in a few hours, I fully expect the standard kvetchers to come out of the woodwork and complain about Los Angeles stealing the Dodgers from Brooklyn, etc. Peter Golenbock, in Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers, compares O’Malley to Hitler and Stalin. Nonsense. It is time to set …

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Time to Put Nino Out to Pasture

Intellectual history often presents its students with shocks, most prominently: how is it that people seemed to reject an idea that in retrospect was brilliant or useful?  Conversely, how is it that people believed that intellectual mediocrities were learned savants?   Justice Scalia’s latest statement on Supreme Court doctrine suggests that he will be a …

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California’s Redevelopment Wars

California’s political leaders are currently struggling with the monumental challenge of finding ways to eliminate the state’s $25 billion budget deficit.  Somewhat surprisingly, one of the most controversial deficit reduction proposals offered by newly-installed Governor Jerry Brown involves elimination of California’s 425 redevelopment agencies. Estimated savings: $3 billion per year. Such a reduction in state …

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