PLF's air litigation : retrospective and prospective
2013 was a big year for PLF's air litigation program, and 2014 is sure to continue the trend. Nothing gets me more fired up than bureaucrats who break the law while writing rules the rest of us must obey. The current crop of greenhouse gas regulations is an egregious example of air emissions controls running amok. The most pervasive gr ...
What does it mean to have a "right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment"?
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently had to address that question to determine whether the state's law encouraging oil and gas drilling violated the state constitution's "Environmental Rights Amendment." That amendment declares: The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthet ...
Forum on the "ESA at 40"
Tuesday morning at 9 am Pacific I'll appear on a radio forum hosted by KQED San Francisco on the Endangered Species Act. Hope you can join! ...
The end of abusive class-action lawsuits? Or the end of industry?
The answer is probably, "neither," but in two cases that we're asking as amicus for the Supreme Court up this January, the stakes are high. The cases are Sears v. Butler and Whirlpool v. Glazer and involve some washing machines with a musty smell. But the problem isn't the allegedly smelly washers, it is the fact that some opportunistic ...
The ESA at 40 : hold your applause
On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal published an oped by me and former Interior Department official Julie MacDonald on the Endangered Species Act. In the piece, we argue that the Act has not been very good at recovering species, but it has been all too effective at violating the property rights and other liberties of American citizens. We also ...
President's weekly report — December 27, 2013
Environment -- Clean Air Act PLF and the National Association of Manufacturers filed this joint opposition brief in Alec L. v. McCarthy which is now before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. We intervened in this case in order to explain that there is no "public trust doctrine" for air that requires government to regulate carbon dioxide emission ...
Of Jerry Brown and Santa Claus
It appears to be PLF week at the San Diego Union Tribune. Today the paper published this OpEd by PLF attorneys Harold Johnson and yours truly. The piece discusses PLF's pending challenge to San Jose's affordable housing exactions in the California Supreme Court on behalf of the California Building Industry Association. The piece opens with a c ...
San Diego Union Tribune covers PLF’s Lynch case
Earlier this week the San Diego Union Tribune covered our Lynch v. California Coastal Commission case which challenges the Coastal Commission's policy of phasing out private beach stairways and making it very difficult to build protective seawalls. As previously noted, PLF represents Encinitas bluff-top residents Barbara Lynch and Thomas Frick ...
If every connection is significant, then none are
Last week, I testified before the Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board review panel on the EPA's recent wetlands connectivity report. Last week's testimony follows on PLF's written comments to the Board in October. EPA is using the connectivity report to justify a proposed new regulation that will attempt to expand the scope ...