public participation
Building Bridges Over Troubled Waters
There are environmental issues that span the partisan divide, even today.
It turns out that the solar industry has two allies in unlikely places: Trump stalwarts Kellyanne Conway and Katie Miller (the wife of Stephen Miller). This is a reminder that, even in an era of hyper-partisanship, it is sometimes possible to create alliances across the ideological gulf.Despite polarization, there are some environmental issues that can bridge the partisan gap. T Some issues, like climate change, have become deeply polarizing. We shouldn’t give up on those, but we should also pay attention to issues that have greater potential for reaching out to Trump supporters.
NEPA and Democracy
The Trump Administration is at war with transparency and public input.
The Administration is out to limit public oversight of government actions that, taken alone or as a group, will have major environmental impacts – notably, oil production, coal mining, nuclear reactors, and pipelines. Congress will also have less visibility into these important decisions. People are often impatient about procedures that slow decision making, sometimes properly so. But the solution is not a secretive decision-making process. If it’s true that democracy dies in darkness, it’s also true that ugly things rawl out of the woodwork when the lights are off.
CONTINUE READINGInvestment Models for Climate Infrastructure Implementation
Exploring avenues for implementing publicly-supported climate solutions.
This month’s federal budget and policy legislation rescinded billions of dollars in clean energy and climate-related infrastructure investments and halted the progress of many projects already underway, including major tax incentive and grant programs focused on wind and solar energy, vehicle electrification, and domestic manufacturing. A subsequent executive order further cemented the federal government’s shift …
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CONTINUE READINGGuest Blogger Ralph Faust: Improving Public Participation at the California Coastal Commission
The California Coastal Commission is a state agency whose mission is to preserve and manage the state’s coast. Its decisions regarding planning and development implement core state policies and determine individual legal rights. Both the perception and the reality of a fair, just, and accessible process is crucial to maintaining public confidence in the Commission’s decision-making. In February …
CONTINUE READINGChina’s Pollution Challenge
Can a new law save China’s environment?
Benjamin van Rooij and I published the following in the New York Times op-ed page today. In short, it is about the challenges the new Environmental Protection Law will face in practice and the critical reforms needed to overcome these challenges: China’s national legislature has adopted sweeping changes to the country’s Environmental Protection Law, revisions …
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CONTINUE READINGCan “Social Risk Assessment” protect China’s environment?
I’ve just returned from a month in Qingdao, China, so this story in the New York Times caught my eye. China’s new leadership has announced that it will require a social risk assessment before any major industrial project can be begun. The idea is to forestall the increasingly violent environmental protests that have caused the …
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