Trump Administration
Is Trump Good for the Oil Industry?
Not particularly, it would appear. If there’s an effect, it’s not big enough to hit the eyes.
No doubt, the industry would rather have Trump in office than Harris. But the effect on industry profits may only be incremental. It would be great to see a rigorous statistical analysis by a finance expert, but a bump to oil profits isn’t obvious in share prices.
CONTINUE READINGMAGA vs NOAA, Executive Orders, and Growing IRA Support
The Drain is a new weekly roundup of climate and environmental news from Legal Planet.
Trump wants to “Make Weather a Mystery Again.” The news that started leaking last Friday is that the Trump administration wants to break up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and essentially end NOAA’s climate work by abolishing its primary research office and forcing the agency to instead help boost U.S. fossil fuel production, according …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Mirage of Trump’s State Climate Law Executive Order
There is no overreach.
On Tuesday, the White House released an Executive Order titled “Protecting American Energy from State Overreach.” It is unclear what the order believes is in need of protection, but it is certainly not the near-term health of our lungs or the long-term livability of our communities. What is clear, fortunately, is that there is little …
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CONTINUE READINGIntroducing Your Legal Planet Weekly Roundup
The L.A. Times Boiling Point is ending its informative weekly news roundups. Here’s your weekly Legal Planet roundup, The Drain.
Good morning! The L.A. Times fantastic Boiling Point column is ending its weekly news roundups of environmental and climate stories. As columnist Sammy Roth noted in his message to readers, “reading and analyzing so many news stories every week takes up an enormous amount of time and energy.” No kidding! I produce something similar for …
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CONTINUE READINGTrump’s Discordant Coal Quartet
Yesterday’s four executive orders were long on talk and short on action.
Yesterday, flanked by a coal miners in hard hats, Trump signed four executive orders to restore their industry to its past glory. Given that coal is now the most expensive way to generate power other than nuclear, that’s going to be a heavy lift. Like many of Trump’s orders, these four are full of threats and bluster, but will have little immediate effect. These orders give the same impression as many executive orders — that Something Important is Being Done — but they are really more in the way of promises of future action.
CONTINUE READINGWhat if DOGE Came for the NFL?
This is what it looks likes like when DOGE takes on a new task.
We know what DOGE is doing to the government. But why stop there? What if they got loose on another part of U.S. society, professional sports? Here’s a picture of what that could look like. June 2026 June 30. New Trump Order: DOGE to Fix Football (NY Times) Trump on Truth Social: “Too long have …
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CONTINUE READINGUCLA Law Professors Condemn Attacks on the Rule of Law
A letter to students with 106 signatories expresses collective condemnation of the Trump Administration’s attacks on the rule of law.
A huge group of UCLA Law professors sent a letter to our students yesterday expressing our collective condemnation of the Trump Administration’s attacks on the rule of law. In doing so we join colleagues from other institutions and law deans in voicing our concerns. Here is an important excerpt from the letter: Lawyers have special …
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CONTINUE READINGJust How Endangered is Clean Energy?
The Trump administration wants to slow the U.S. clean energy transition. Will it put energy investments in a deep freeze or a temporary chill?
Business investment decisions rely on stability. And stability is in short supply so far in this Trump administration. Instead, we’ve seen an erratic blitzkrieg of activity on tariffs, federal funding, and deregulation that has spooked all sorts of industries. That’s partly why Heatmap News has declared Trump “Degrowth Donald,” and why my Legal Planet colleague …
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CONTINUE READINGCorroding the Separation of Environmental Powers
“Who decides?” is the first question to ask about a policy issue. Trump’s answer is “me.”
Biden took actions that federal courts ruled exceeded statutory authority, raised separation of powers issues, or threatened federalism. The difference is that Trump has used brute-force attacks on agencies plus extortion against states rather than taking overt legal actions that courts can review.
CONTINUE READINGGet Caught Trying
Donald Trump is committing extortion against law firms: Indict him. Now.
Bill Clinton knows a thing or two about how politics works. He famously said that the American people might not always expect you to succeed, but that they will demand that you get caught trying. And when it comes to Donald Trump’s illegal war against law firms, it’s time to get caught trying. Colloquially, it’s …
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