Trump Administration
(In?)sane With the Membrane
New developments in Deep Sea Desalination hold important promise for the freshwater crisis – and might require an amendment to Clarke’s Third Law.
The great speculative fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law reads: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” This principle came to me the other day when considering this interesting Wall Street Journal piece on Deep Sea Desalination (which we can call DSD for short). Virtually alone among environmental law professors, I am a …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Most Important Law Most People Have Never Heard Of
Here’s how the APA bolsters the rule of law and protects the environment.
Even the title of the law — the Administrative Procedure Act or APA — is a guaranteed yawner. Yet this law is central to the rule of law and, among other things, to environmental protection. We are learning from the current Administration’s efforts to evade the APA just how important it is. The APA requires reasoned decisions by government. More fundamentally, the requirements of legal and procedural regularity prevent the arbitrary use of government power to reward friends and punish foes.
CONTINUE READINGWhy Do Heat Pumps Have a Bad Rap? Lies
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
I just listened to dozens of people tell me that heat pumps don’t work, may cause homelessness, and can bankrupt small businesses. This was shocking news to me, in no small part because I’m currently in the process of installing a heat pump in my condo. Obviously, I don’t want to waste money, sleep on …
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CONTINUE READINGCan Trump Save U.S. Coal? Not likely.
“Beautiful clean coal”, as Trump calls it, is inexorably declining.
The title of one of Trump’s executive orders is “Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry.” That order says, “it is the policy of the United States that coal is essential to our national and economic security.” But Trump’s efforts seem unlikely to make a dent in the long-term, global malaise of the coal industry, or its sharp decline in the U.S.
CONTINUE READINGReconciliation and public lands
Most changes would be to the leasing process for oil and gas development and reflect a partisan response to ping-pong governance
As the Senate takes up the House’s version of the reconciliation bill, I wanted to briefly summarize the main provisions that relate to public lands – in part so readers can be aware of the state of play as to what might (or might not) come to pass in the Senate. The bill as passed …
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CONTINUE READINGGiving Away the National Parks?
Another Trump Administration idea that probably requires Congressional action, and thus probably won’t happen
Another national park idea the Trump Administration had recently was to offload hundreds of national parks to states and local governments, in order to trim $900 million from the Park Service budget. The proposal is spare on details, only calling for the “transfer [of] certain properties to State-level management.” Secretary of the Interior Burgum stated …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Rock
Public lands law stands in the way of Trump’s proposal to reopen Alcatraz
About a month ago, President Trump floated the idea of reopening the federal prison at Alcatraz. The prison has been closed for decades, and it is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, managed by the National Park Service, and a major tourist attraction. While a lot of the press coverage focused on …
CONTINUE READINGGovernment Hires Shouldn’t Have to Take a MAGA Essay Test
Schedule F was bad, But Trump’s latest move is even worse.
The Trump Administration has adopted new hiring procedures that will impose ideological litmus tests in federal hiring. Job applicants will be graded on essays about their allegiance to “America’s founding principles” and their commitment to implementing Trump’s executive orders. These new essay questions have little to do with the jobs of most government and employees and more to do with ideological conformity. They violate both the Civil Service statute and the First Amendment.
CONTINUE READINGClimate Lawsuits Now a Matter of Life and Death
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
What a week for watchers of climate litigation. Big new filings, claims of death and destruction, a landmark ruling, and a juicy hearing all in the span of 36 hours. First, there was what the New York Times described as “the first wrongful death lawsuit” to be brought against oil and gas companies over claims …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Rollbacks: Will the Trump Administration Overplay Its Hand?
The odds are good that Trump agencies will go too far out on a limb.
The Trump Administration’s tendency to rely on bold legal arguments rather than detailed technical ones is a disadvantage in court. Courts defer to agencies on factual matters, especially those that involve technical expertise. Now that Chevron has been overruled, however, legal arguments by agencies don’t get the same deference. Thus, the chances of a judicial reversal are higher when the agency relies on purely legal grounds.
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