Last week the House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing on the “weaponization” of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the “lawfare” surrounding it. There were key points made from both trenches. There were muted calls for bi-partisan solutions. But there are few signs that much is going to change. Here are some […]
Read moreWhen a President Rescinds a Memo
Among the provisions of President Trump’s executive order on climate change was this: Section 3(c) The Council on Environmental Quality shall rescind its final guidance entitled “Final Guidance for Federal for Federal Departments and Agencies on Consideration of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Effects of Climate Change in National Environmental Policy Act Reviews . . […]
Read moreBias v. NEPA: What if Informational Tools are Futile?
As we’ve written up at the Lab before, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) plays an absolutely vital role in permitting and governing the nation’s energy infrastructure. And that vests it with a leading role in the nation’s fossil fuel future. This has not been lost on the environmental groups that keep challenging FERC’s decisions […]
Read moreA Guide that Doesn’t Guide?
Jamison Colburn CEQ Watch, climate change CEQ, climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, NEPA, risk 1
The final Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) guidance on “the consideration of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change in [NEPA] reviews” was signed August 1. Although it omitted some of the more troubling points raised by the December 2014 draft (good), the document—styled as a memorandum to agency heads—is disappointingly passive on a vast and […]
Read more*Good* News for Cape Wind? NEPA Compliance Comes in Steps
Jamison Colburn BOEM, climate change, judicial relief, offshore wind cape wind, climate change, NEPA, risk
Cape Wind—America’s poster child for NIMBY litigation run amok—just emerged from a D.C. Circuit panel’s review with a telling result. Fast on the heels of a Ninth Circuit holding setting aside a proposed windfarm’s NEPA document for insufficient data, the D.C. Circuit announced on Tuesday that it was setting aside the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) […]
Read moreToo Much NEPA? An Offshore Wind Dilemma
Jamison Colburn action agencies, BOEM, climate change, offshore wind cape wind, climate change, offshore wind, risk
Just out this week was BOEM’s encyclopedic environmental assessment (EA) of its planned area for exploring the leasing space off the coast of New York for the development of utility-scale windfarms. This isn’t an EA examining actual build/operate plans. It isn’t even an EA examining rules or policies about eventual build/operate plans. It’s an EA […]
Read moreMust BLM Count Livestock Emissions in its NEPA Documents?
Jamison Colburn action agencies, BLM, uncategorized BLM, climate change, livestock GHG emissions, risk
A recent “complaint” served on the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) by the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) argues that the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) been shirking its NEPA duties on climate change issues. Is there any merit to the complaint? Unlike the parallel “petition” PEER served on BLM asking that BLM reform […]
Read moreClimate Change and the Future of Oil/Gas Leasing Offshore
Jamison Colburn action agencies, additionality, BOEM, climate change BOEM, climate change, offshore oil & gas, risk
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has braved rough seas since its creation in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The immediate past commitment to develop the plays off the coast of Alaska ended with, well, what can only be described as a gigantic mess for Royal Dutch Shell. If their numbers […]
Read moreAn Atlantic Antiquity: A Thriving Fishery About to be Deep-Sixed?
Jamison Colburn action agencies, climate change, Congress Antiquities Act, climate change, cod, New England fisheries, risk
Fisheries everywhere have been collapsing, some at alarming rates. The Atlantic coast fisheries that traditionally meant the most revenue, the most jobs, and the most stability have been no exception. (See this recent Science piece suggesting that the latest collapse of cod populations has been helped by rapidly warming waters.) But now enter the potential of something truly […]
Read moreClimate of Hypocrisy? The Peculiarity of Glocal Problem Solving
Jamison Colburn climate change, coal, inthenews, oil Arctic, chukchi sea drilling, climate change, POTUS, risk
Bill McKibben’s recent column in Medium on physics—or, more specifically, the nonnegotiability of CO2e emissions’ effects in the atmosphere—took President Obama to task for his visit to Alaska and what he called the President’s “climate change hypocrisy.” How can the Administration claim to be fighting for future generations on climate when it’s simultaneously opening up vast […]
Read more