Environment and Natural Resources

Annie Snider, writing for Politico Pro's Morning Energy newsletter, profiled the launch of our new Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) practice group yesterday: The small but mighty property rights group Pacific Legal Foundation that has scored a half dozen environmental wins at the Supreme Court over the past two decades is gearing up to ...

At Pacific Legal Foundation, we believe people are the ultimate resource. Our Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) practice roots itself in the conviction that when human creativity is unleashed through liberty, it solves problems and expands the world's potential. The future isn't built on fear or control—it's built on freedom and innovation. ...

President Trump's Make America Beautiful Again Commission reflects many of the goals we pursue in PLF's Environment and Natural Resources practice group: Americans should be free to use and care for our lands and resources in ways that promote prosperity and human flourishing. The plan for this Commission gets quite a bit right. It recognizes that ...

In the last few days of 2024, the Biden administration quietly released Public Land Order 7956 — an administrative maneuver that halted mineral development across more than 20,000 acres in western South Dakota. The move immediately blocked F3 Gold's mineral exploration plans, even though the company had secured a lawful permit from the U.S. Depar ...

California has been having a rough year: In a short six months it was hit with wildfires, urban unrest, and even some small earthquakes. But this week the Golden State made a decision that should change its luck: It reformed its most powerful environmental regulation, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), to ease the way for new constru ...

Senator Mike Lee stepped onto a political land mine when he proposed the federal government sell a tiny pinch of the 640 million acres that it owns, most of it west of the Rockies. Politicos from left and right condemned the proposal as a betrayal of a grand heritage. I too have an issue with Senator Lee's proposal: It doesn't go far enough. Not on ...

Fifty-five years ago, Congress passed and President Richard Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) into law. For a number of infrastructure projects that are built, funded, or approved by the federal government, NEPA requires federal agencies to prepare an environmental impact statement, or EIS. That EIS is essentially a public r ...

Cody Peterson is a third-generation farmer in eastern North Dakota. For decades, his family has been committed to growing food for other families. But recent actions by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service threaten Cody's ability to make a living from farming. The problem comes from the Service's new interpretation of decades-old easements the a ...

When federal agencies want to stretch their powers beyond what Congress authorized, they can get almost admirably creative. Case in point: For fifty years, the United States Fish & Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service have redefined what it means to "take" an endangered animal. The Endangered Species Act authorizes the Fish ...