Trump Administration
Yes, Secretary Noem, We Really Do Need FEMA
An advisory committee suggests upgrading FEMA, but Noem still hopes to gut it.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that a special advisory council has recommended that FEMA be strengthened and taken out of DHS. Secretary Noem is unconvinced and seems to be trying to bury the recommendations. She’s wrong. FEMA really is needed, and the reasons tell us a lot about what kinds of reforms make sense. First responders are usually state and local – they’re already nearby – and much of the work of reconstruction is also overseen locally. So why do we need FEMA? Let me count the ways.
CONTINUE READINGTurning Conservative Legal Theories Against Trump
Is the risk of legitimizing bad ideas worth it? Maybe so, under the circumstances.
Conservatives have been obsessed with the idea of a runaway federal government crushing everything in its path. They’ve been successful in promoting ideas to rein in Leviathan, at a time when by our lights the government actually was behaving very reasonably. But now we really do have a rampaging federal government. Conservative ideas could be very useful tools right now, and we shouldn’t hesitate to use them.
CONTINUE READINGThe Lingering Legal Issue of California’s Limits on Vehicle Emissions
The issues are complex, but the state has some strong legal arguments on its side.
The odds are high that the Trump Administration will withdraw California’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks – and along with it, California’s effort to become all-electric. This is a crucial issue for the state because transportation accounts for about 40% of the state’s emissions. It’s also crucial for the other states have exercised the option of adopting California standards. The issues are complex, involving an unusual statutory scheme. Here’s what you need to know, and why I think California should win this fight.
CONTINUE READINGFixing Fix Our Forests
The emergency provisions of Fix Our Forests are a key weakness in the bill
The permitting reform bill that has made the most progress through Congress is the Fix Our Forests Act, which I’ve written about here, here, and here. And as I’ve written before, fixing fire management on federal lands should be a top priority for any reforms. I’m not sure that the model of Fix Our Forests …
Continue reading “Fixing Fix Our Forests”
CONTINUE READINGRoadless Rule Revisited
Rationale for revocation of the roadless rule does not add up
The roadless rule, promulgated in the Clinton Administration, but not free from litigation until the first term of the Obama Administration, set aside about 2% of the land area of the lower 48 United States from commercial development. It applies to roadless areas of National Forests, and prohibits commercial logging and road construction in those …
Continue reading “Roadless Rule Revisited”
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Groups and the New McCarthyism
The Administration’s search for a vast leftwing conspiracy could ensnare some environmental groups.
The White House’s reference to a “vast network” rings a historical bell. A speaker seventy years ago decried “a conspiracy on a scale so immense as to dwarf any previous such venture in the history of man.” That speaker was Joe McCarthy. Environmental groups weren’t active during his time, but does anyone doubt that they would have been on his hit list?
CONTINUE READINGThe Legal Barricades Protecting State Climate Policy
The general legal landscape favors state regulatory efforts.
The upshot is that it will be very challenging for the Feds to overturn state emissions regulations of power plants and other facilities. The statutory and doctrinal landscape are favorable for states playing defense, and the Supreme Court seems if anything more favorable to the states than the national government. Of course, these general observations leave plenty of room for litigation over the fine points, and the Feds could win some cases. But the states start the contest with an advantage.
CONTINUE READINGGuess What? The Next 2 Weeks Are “National Energy Dominance Month”
October 17-31 has now been proclaimed to be an entire month, courtesy of Trump.
“National Energy Dominance Month.” So typical of Trump: a bungled exercise in foolish bravado. The “bungled” part is that they forgot to designate October as a special month until it was halfway over. The “bravado” saturates almost every sentence, combined with the fact that the blustering has no practical effect. And the “foolish” part is about bad energy policy and bad economics. To expand supply, he needs higher prices, but that would hurt him politically. And there’s no reason to think foreigners would pay them.
CONTINUE READINGBackfilling the federal ESA
AB 1319 is a good first step to responding to efforts to weaken the federal ESA
I wrote this past spring about a proposal by the Trump Administration to eliminate the definition of harm in the regulations implementing the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), which might eliminate protections from habitat modification for federally listed species. I also noted three different steps California could do to backfill the federal ESA if such …
Continue reading “Backfilling the federal ESA”
CONTINUE READINGRevoking Monuments?
Recent Justice Department memo on National Monuments argues for Presidential power to eliminate them entirely
National monuments were a major flashpoint for public lands management under the first Trump Administration, which dramatically shrank two national monuments in Utah. I think there was a broad expectation that the second Trump Administration would do the same, but for more monuments (including those designated under the Biden Administration), but so far not much …
Continue reading “Revoking Monuments?”
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
