Trump Administration
Virus Denial
Yet another effort to ignore reality, from the usual players.
We’ve seen this movie before. Scientists warn of a serious threat. But in Trump World, the problem doesn’t exist. It’s just a product of alarmism. First, climate change. Now, the coronavirus, COVID-19. Trump himself has worked hard to minimize the problem. “We have very few people with it,” he said, and ” people are getting …
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CONTINUE READINGTracing Trump’s Trillion Trees
The president’s embrace of massive tree planting has a remarkable — and questionable — backstory
During last week’s State of the Union address, US President Donald Trump said: To protect the environment, days ago I announced that the United States will join the One Trillion Trees Initiative, an ambitious effort to bring together government and private sector to plant new trees in America and all around the world. Astute regular …
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CONTINUE READINGElection 2020: The Battle for the Senate
Whatever happens to the White House, control of the Senate will be crucial.
It’s natural that the Presidential election has soaked up all the attention. But control of the Senate may be equally important — some might say even more important. If a Democrat wins in 2020, there will be little or no chance of passing significant legislation without control of Congress. It seems very likely that the …
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CONTINUE READINGCharging Consumers for Imaginary Power Needs
FERC is distorting energy markets in the name of perfect competition.
Last year, the GOP majority on FERC decided that state clean energy policies were distorting energy markets in the country’s largest grid region. Because they provided incentives for power producers, FERC ruled, those policies should be considered subsidies. It directed grid operators to introduce new policies to counter those subsidies and halt the dreadful onslaught …
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CONTINUE READINGCan the Center Hold?
The Challenge to Mainstream Environmentalism
Is environmentalism facing a paradigm shift? Since the 1970s, mainstream environmentalists, lawyers, and scholars have sought incremental progress based on established law and political realities. But frustration with that approach is palpable. The face of climate advocacy is now seventeen-year-old activist Greta Thunberg rather than Establishment politician Al Gore. And there is growing frustration with …
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CONTINUE READINGDeciding a Climate Case in the Shadow of the Supreme Court
Juliana Judges Surely Had The Higher Court in Mind in Drafting Their Decision
The irony of the Ninth Circuit decision dismissing the Juliana v. United States case this week is plain to see. Two branches of government — the legislative and executive – have failed to act to address an environmental problem that may cause the destruction of the federal government itself. The third branch, the judiciary, recognizes the …
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CONTINUE READINGLooking Ahead: Inauguration Day, 2021.
There are 3 plausible scenarios for the new balance of power.
Inauguration day is a year from today. What will the balance of power be then? The House doesn’t seem to be in play. Democrats have an uphill fight to win the Senate, so a GOP White House would probably mean a GOP Senate. That leaves three likely scenarios, with different implications for environmental law. Scenario …
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CONTINUE READINGDark Waters in Dark Times
Citizen Petition Presses EPA To Call Chemicals in Environmental Docudrama “Hazardous Waste”
This holiday season, A-list actors drew moviegoers to a film with a distinctly un-Hollywood plot line: A company dumps thousands of pounds of toxic, long-lived chemicals (PFAS, or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances) into unlined pits that drain into a farming community’s drinking water. Local residents fall ill, some terminally. A heroic attorney (Mark Ruffalo) represents them …
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CONTINUE READINGPride Goeth Before a Fall
Trump thinks he can tell courts how to interpret NEPA. He’s wrong.
White House has just released its proposed revisions to the rules about environmental impact statements. The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) simply does not have the kind of power that it is trying to arrogate to itself. The proposal is marked by hubris about the government’s ability to control how the courts apply the …
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CONTINUE READINGAndy and Dave Shoot the Breeze
An inside look at the Trump Administration.
[Open with a shot of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt at his desk with his phone to his ear. Ring tone in the background. Split screen after EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler picks up.] Bernhardt: Hey Andy, how ya doin’? How’s life in the Inferior Department? Wheeler: Not so bad, Davey boy, not so bad. B: You …
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