Trump Administration
Executive Disorders
One after another, Trump has let loose destructive blasts at the environment to promote fossil fuels, mining, and logging.
We all know that Trump has issued a slew of executive orders since taking the oath of office. We also know that many of these are aimed to promoting fossil fuels, mining, and logging at the expense of the environment, while disfavoring renewable energy. Still, it’s impressive when you put the list together to see the full onslaught.
CONTINUE READINGA Midnight Public Land Sale?
Last-minute addition to House reconciliation bill proposes sale or exchange of hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands
There was a last minute amendment added to the House Natural Resources Committee markup on May 6, an amendment which has gotten a lot of negative attention, including from conservative outdoors advocates. The amendment, made by Representative Amodei (Republican, Nevada) and Rep. Maloy (Republican, Utah) would mandate the sale or exchange of at least 449,174 …
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CONTINUE READINGTrump’s Self-Defeating NEPA “Reforms”
Rather than streamlining the process, Trump is gumming up the works.
Trump has taken some dramatic steps in the name of improving use of NEPA, the statute governing environmental reviews of projects. The goal is to speed up the permitting process and make it more efficient. The reality is that his efforts will create chaos and uncertainty, with the likely effect of slowing things down.
CONTINUE READINGTrump’s War on Cities
The Administration is devoted to destroying urban life: that puts it with many of history’s worst regimes
I just finished up Ian Buruma’s and Avishai Margalit’s excellent book, Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies, and it struck me that we need to think of Donald Trump’s despoilation of the environment in a broader perspective: his administration seeks to fundamentally change both the natural and the human environment. Trump clearly …
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CONTINUE READINGNo, DOE, You Can’t Roll Back Product Efficiency Standards
Congress wanted greater energy efficiency over time and banned rollbacks.
The Department of Energy is proposing to rescind key energy efficiency requirements. It is beyond ironic that it is attempting to do so at a time when the President has proclaimed an energy emergency. Trump says the grid is struggling desperately to meet surging power demand. That’s a strange time to eliminate regulations that are saving energy. DOE’s action is also illegal, because the law in question has a provision prohibiting rollbacks. Congress wanted efficiency standards to get tougher over time and included an anti-rollback provision to make sure of that.
CONTINUE READINGEPA Steps Through the Looking Glass
You can’t accuse EPA of hiding the ball. It has announced its new mission: promoting fossil fuels.
You might have thought the prime mission of the Environmental Protection Agency was protecting the environment. Lee Zeldin, the Trump appointee running EPA, has a different idea: “The EPA is going to aggressively pursue an agenda powering the Great American Comeback… that’s our purpose, and it’s what will keep us up at night.”
CONTINUE READINGWorthwhile Canadian Initiative! Really!
McGill University’s Sustainability Academic Network provides a useful — and potentially crucial — new platform.
About a week ago I got an email from McGill University’s Juan Serpa, asking me to join a new platform — the Sustainability Academic Network (SUSAN) — that contains literally thousands of datasets, academic papers, conferences, jobs, grants, local events, and institutes all devoted to sustainability. Great. Happy to do it (especially since they found …
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CONTINUE READINGDOJ vs. C&T
What Trump’s new lawsuits against two states may mean for California’s cap-and-trade program.
As my UCLA Law colleague Ann Carlson described last week, Trump’s DOJ has filed two pretty extraordinary lawsuits against the states of Michigan and Hawaii trying to block those states — preemptively — from bringing suit against fossil fuel companies for climate harms. As Ann points out, these DOJ suits are among the first salvos …
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CONTINUE READINGDefunding the Energy Transition
The President Proposes Deep Cuts to Climate and Clean Energy Spending for FY 2026
On May 2nd, the White House released what is generally referred to as a “skinny” budget request outlining priorities for discretionary spending for fiscal year 2026. A full federal budget proposal is expected later this month. The “skinny” budget contains, by the White House’s calculations, $163 billion in non-defense discretionary spending cuts, which it argues …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Good, the Bad and the Utter Contempt
The Drain is a weekly roundup of climate and environmental news from Legal Planet.
The news this week has me remembering my grandpa teaching a young me to turn off the tap while brushing my teeth. (Hey, I was an ignorant East Coast kid.) This was in California’s Central Valley around 1990 when drought conditions flared and the federal government cut water deliveries. What was the news story? What …
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