Trump Administration
The Assault on NEPA: A Threat Assessment
National Environmental Policy Act
NEPA is under multiple attacks. Which are the most serious?
NEPA, the law governing environmental impact statements, is under concerted assault from Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court. As we will see, the Supreme Court’s recent decision in the Seven County Infrastructure Case is probably the biggest problem. Notably, the debate over NEPA has taken place without much hard data about its effectiveness or costs, so everyone seems free to make their own assumptions.
CONTINUE READINGLegal Planet Goes Hollywood — Sort Of
Trump’s “War On Cities” gets a media hit
A couple of months ago, I wrote this post about the Trump Administration’s war on cities, a move that resembles fascist regimes and thinkers through much of the 20th century. Much to my surprise, I got a call on Friday from a producer at the “Velshi” show on MSNBC to talk about it on Sunday …
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CONTINUE READINGData Center Permitting: A Roadmap
AI is fueling a surge in data center construction. Here’s what you need to know.
Data Centers have significant environmental footprints, which is going to raise several permitting issues except for those using clean energy sources. The permitting issue are mapped out in this post. The Trump Administration is clearly going to do its best to free the industry from environmental limits. We’ll see how successful that is going to be.
CONTINUE READINGCan States Rebuild the Barn?
Multistate compacts might be a critical way to help replace lost federal capacity – but we need more details.
A couple of weeks ago I asked how we can stand up institutions in light of the Trump Administration’s destruction of environmental agencies. As House Speaker Sam Rayburn famously said: “any jackass can kick a barn down. It takes a carpenter to build one.” And not a moment too soon. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has …
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CONTINUE READINGListing Trump’s Environment and Energy Executive Orders
I’m counting 35 so far. But I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that I’d missed something.
I’ve put together a list of all the Trump 2.0 executive orders that I could identify dealing with environment or energy. Just to keep you reading, I should tell you that the most important ones are near the end. Whatever you might say about Trump, no one can question his zeal for eliminating environmental protections.
CONTINUE READINGStates Become “Norm Sustainers” on Environmental Justice
Guest Contributor Sharmila L. Murthy explains how state Attorneys General are acting as important counterweights to the federal government on environmental justice.
Guest contributor Sharmila L. Murthy is a Professor of Law and Public Policy at Northeastern University In the wake of misleading and inaccurate characterizations by the Trump Administration that wrongly label environmental justice activities as illegal discrimination, the Attorneys General of California, Massachusetts, and New York, joined by the Attorneys General of Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, …
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CONTINUE READINGWorld’s Biggest Court Opinion on Climate
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
For more than 24 hours last week, my social media feeds were a wall of jubilant reaction to the World Court’s big climate opinion. People who work on, and care about, the climate crisis needed some good news, clearly. That begs the question, is the advisory opinion really as big a deal as people wanted …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Unitary Executive Theory As Government-Smasher
The Supreme Court’s Imperial Presidency drive isn’t formalism: it is calculated to destroy the state.
It is a misnomer to discuss the current Supreme Court’s “jurisprudence” on anything, as if it has an approach to any legal question other than, “because we said so, libtard.” But in the wake of the Court’s lawless and arbitrary use of the shadow docket to destroy statutes and precedents for the purpose of giving …
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CONTINUE READINGWhy Did Congress Defund Public Media?
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
We just witnessed the untimely death of a 57-year-old American institution that has made life better for just about everyone. President Lyndon Johnson announced the creation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1967 to “assist stations and producers who aim for the best in broadcasting good music, in broadcasting exciting plays, and in broadcasting …
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CONTINUE READINGPerhaps the Least Qualified FERC Nominee in History
Trump’s nominee seems to have essentially no relevant experience or expertise.
LaCerte has had one brush with energy regulation. He was a special counsel at the big ouil and gas law firm, Baker Botts for two years, starting in January 2023. While there, he worked on energy litigation and environmental safety and incident response issues. None of that has much to do with FERC,
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