Trump Administration
Implementing the “Biden Environmental Litigation Bounce-Back”
Encouraging Signals As To How Biden’s USDOJ Will Resolve Environmental Lawsuits Originally Brought Against the Trump Administration
The transition from the Trump Administration to the Biden Administration makes for fascinating spectator sport. President Biden’s first month in office reveals that he and his Administration are committed to undoing the widespread damage former President Trump and his minions engineered across so many policy and legal areas. The environment is a particularly prominent example. …
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CONTINUE READINGThe End of the Juliana Litigation–Or Is It?
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Denies Rehearing, But Landmark Climate Change Litigation’s Impact Will Endure
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied rehearing en banc in one of the nation’s most closely-watched climate change lawsuits: Juliana v. United States. But the legal and policy impact of this landmark litigation will endure. And the case itself may not be concluded. Juliana involves a novel legal argument: that …
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CONTINUE READINGRenewable Energy in the Midwest
Under Trump, it’s been a mixed picture, with progress except in two states. What were Midwestern states doing during the four years Trump was busy promoting fossil fuels? States with Democratic governors are making progress. Of the three states under unified Republican control, two are trying to prop up coal. Ohio has decreased support for …
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CONTINUE READINGLiberal Judges Embrace Textualism
Why are these judges suddenly so enthusiastic about Justice Scalia’s approach to reading statutes?
Two of Trump’s major regulatory efforts were recently thrown out by the D.C. Circuit. The liberal judges who wrote the opinions latched onto a conservative theory called textualism, which was most prominently advocated by Justice Antonin Scalia. While judges in an earlier era tried to interpret Congress’s intent in writing a law, textualists focus solely …
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CONTINUE READINGThe problem with “follow the science”
Science is necessary, but not sufficient, for good policymaking
In the wake of the poor performance of the Trump Administration’s efforts to address the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, there has been advice that the Biden Administration should “follow the science” in developing its coronavirus policies and strategies. While an emphasis on a clean break from the prior Administration’s rejection of the nature …
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CONTINUE READINGThe CRA is Back in Play
What you need to know about the Congressional Review Act and Trump’s regulatory legacy
This post is co-authored by Beth Kent and Cara Horowitz Last week’s Georgia Senate victories have given Democrats (bare) control of the Senate—and, with it, the potential to use the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to erase some of the Trump Administration’s regulatory rollbacks. Here are four key things to know about this unique legislative oversight …
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CONTINUE READINGA Big Win for Climate Regulation
The DC Circuit overturns Trump’s effort to hamstring regulation of carbon from power plants.
The D.C. Circuit issued an opinion today knocking out Trump’s Affordable Clean Energy rule. The Trump rule was a rollback of Obama’s keystone climate initiative, the Clean Power Plan. The majority opinion plus dissent take up 185 pages, and I won’t try to describe it all here. Briefly, here’s what the appeals court ruled and …
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CONTINUE READINGTrump’s Pro-Environmental Acts — A VERY Short List
Despite its general hatred of environmental protection, the Trump Administration did manage a few positive steps.
This being the last day of Trump’s presidency, it’s appropriate to look back on his environmental record. Basically, Trump was to environmental law as General Sherman was to Georgia. In the time between his “American carnage” Inaugural Address to his unleashing of carnage on Capitol Hill, he and his minions devoted themselves to environmental destruction. …
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CONTINUE READINGStrategies to Reverse Federal Environmental Rollbacks
Last month, CLEE released a website that compiled over 180 Trump Administration environmental policy rollbacks, from the repeal of the Clean Power Plan to the removal of government climate change websites. We tracked and evaluated these rollbacks based on their environmental, climate, public health, and programmatic impacts; identified the pathway and difficulty of reversal; and …
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CONTINUE READINGToday Versus 2008
Despite Trump’s efforts, he couldn’t actually reset the clock to the pre-Obama era.
Obama moved us forward. Trump moved us backwards. Are we back where we began? No. Biden starts from a significantly stronger position than Obama did in 2008. In 2008, like today, the outgoing Republican President had adamantly opposed climate action, favored the oil and gas industry, and turned a cold shoulder toward environmental regulation. Trump …
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