Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
On July 27, 2016, the Standing Rock Sioux filed a lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers for authorizing the construction of the 1,172-mile Dakota Access pipeline. Just over a year later, the project has been completed and carries crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields to an export terminal in Illinois. The case is still pending, and continues to be the tribe’s last hope to protect its water and land.
Candidate Trump had promised the auto industry and his supporters that he would get Detroit working again by deregulating the industry. On the Ides of March 2017, The Donald started to make good on that promise. In an executive order, The Donald directed EPA and the Department of Transportation/National Highway Transportation and Safety Agency to re-open the Midterm Evaluation (MTE) completed just prior to President Obama’s leaving office.
AB 32 fostered a host of new regulations and green policies, from California’s cap-and-trade industrial carbon emissions law to rebates for solar power installations and electric or fuel-cell car purchases.
We study environmental politics, and believe the health care debate holds an important lesson for green advocates: Policies that create concrete benefits for specific constituencies are hard to discontinue.
What better way for Democrats to use their leverage than pushing back the Republican assault on federal clean energy and environmental programs and policies?
The truth of the matter—inconvenient or otherwise—is time remains of the essence in the global quest for sustainability. Whether you choose to define sustainable in terms of slowing climate change or dealing with human congestion, something needs to be done on a regular basis.
Partisan pressures are causing energy and climate defenders to offset legislated policies with judicial precedents. Climate challengers had thought to do the same throughout the Obama administration.
The task of the Canary series is to hone in on emerging political and legal trends impacting the clean energy and environment sectors. This second installment of the Canary series focuses on replacing the role of Congress with the rule of judges. Specifically, how executive orders and legal challenges are becoming the most sought after vehicles of policymaking.
Then the question is: who is interested in the repeal of laws that protect our environment? Who wants corporations to continue their pollution? Certainly not local communities who use the local waters.
t’s hardly surprising that many eyes are turning toward state capitals as Plan B targets of opportunity for maintaining the momentum of clean energy technologies and continued safeguard of the environment.
Given the CPP’s executive branch history and the multiple judicial findings leading up to today, President Trump’s reform options are limited. This second installment focuses directly on the two most likely choices the President and his incoming EPA Administrator will face.
There is a lot of speculation surrounding the Trump administration’s intentions toward clean energy and environment policies and programs. Rumors abound of slashing budgets, firing personnel, gagging anyone left standing and ultimately dismantling EPA and federal renewable energy programs at the Department of Energy and elsewhere.
