environmental politics
Two Years and Counting: Trump at Mid-Term
Trump has been in office for nearly two years. Where do things stand?
In September 2017 – that seems so long ago! — Eric Biber and I released a report assessing the state of play in environmental issues 200 days into the Trump Administration, based on an earlier series of blog posts. As we end Trump’s second year, it’s time to bring that assessment up to date. This is the …
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CONTINUE READINGThen and Now
How has environmental law changed in the last 38 years? A lot … and not that much.
I recently happened to remember a funny incident from 1980. The first edition of what was then the Findley & Farber casebook went to the publisher in October of 1980. I remember vividly encountering a colleague in the hallway who asked cheerily if the book had gone to the printer. When I said yes, he …
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CONTINUE READINGA Catalogue of Game Changers
We’re making progress on addressing climate change, and I’m hopeful that we’ll continue doing so. Yet it’s not clear whether the path we’re currently on will make progress fast enough to avoid very serious risks. So what would it take for us to make a quantum leap in this effort? I wouldn’t hazard a prediction …
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CONTINUE READINGKey Senate Races: Retrospective
The toss-up races came out 50/50, with the pro-environmental candidates winning 4 out of 8 elections.
In a post last March, I explained the environmental stakes in eight toss-up Senate races. We now know how those races came out. Vindicating the laws of probability, the results of the toss-ups were evenly divided between the two parties. In terms of the overall election picture, I said: “The odds are that the Republicans …
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CONTINUE READINGThe 2018 Elections: What’s the Upshot?
Overall, some very positive developments in terms of energy and environmental policy.
What happened on Tuesday? And what does it mean for the environment>? Going into Tuesday’s voting, there were three possible scenarios about the outcome: The Least Favorable Scenario for Environmental Regulation. In this scenario, the Republicans would hang on to control of the House by a smaller margin than today, and they gain several seats …
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CONTINUE READINGElection Scenarios
Here are three ways things could play out from now to 2020.
We should know within the next 48 hours who will control the House and Senate, though if races are very tight it might take longer. I don’t want to make election predictions — that’s Nate Silver’s job, not mine. But I do want to sketch out some scenarios for the next two years, depending on …
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CONTINUE READINGPolitics, the Environment, and the Rural/Urban Divide
Rural areas have been home to regulatory skeptics. But there may be ways of changing that.
Is there an urban/rural split in America? Definitely so, in politics, demography, and economics — and on the environment. Consider this, from Dan Balz at the Washington Post: “in the 2,332 counties that make up small-town and rural America, [Trump] swamped his Democratic rival, winning 60 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 34 percent.” But Balz reports …
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CONTINUE READING“National Security” Coal-Bailout Collapses
Trump demanded the use of national security powers to subsidize the coal industry. Looks like that’s not happening.
In its desperate effort to save the failing American coal industry, the Trump Administration promised to use emergency powers to keep coal-fired power plants in operation even though they’re not economically viable. That would have been the kind of disruptive change that Trump promised to bring to Washington. But the effort seems to have gone …
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CONTINUE READINGBattle for the Senate: The Lone Star State
Is Texas in play? The environmental stakes are high.
Texas is a late addition to my list of key Senate races. It’s still not clear how genuinely Texas is in play, but it’s surprising that we’re even asking the question. Here’s what we know about the candidates and the environment. Ted Cruz (R). Cruz managed to get a 0% score from the League of Conservation …
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CONTINUE READINGHigh-Stakes Races in Florida
A Senate seat and the Governor’s Mansion are both in play.
Florida has not one but two races this year with national significance. One is the Senate race. The other is the Governor’s race. We all know why Senate races matter, especially this year when the Senate is so closely divided. A gubernatorial race, in contrast, normally would be considered mostly a local matter. But there …
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