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Matthew Freeman | February 13, 2009

Scholar/Authors Discuss Their Books on Preemption, Part Three

Editor’s Note: Following is the third of four posts focused on federal preemption issues and featuring CPR Member Scholars Thomas McGarity and William Buzbee.  In December, both published books on the issue.  (The first blog post in the series includes some background on the issue.  The second discussed the very real impact the outcome of […]

Yee Huang | February 12, 2009

A Modern Day Midas

From the airspace over the Indonesian gold mine Batu Hijau, it might seem as though the mythical King Midas has been resurrected in a modern, and twisted, form.  Where King Midas of Greek lore was granted the touch of gold, the modern King Midas assumes the form of a global mining company that, in a […]

Margaret Clune Giblin | February 11, 2009

Parks Funding in Stimulus Bill: Good for Parks and for the Economy

Both versions of the economic stimulus package – that passed by the House and by the Senate – include funding for the National Park Service.  The bill the House passed last month would allocate $1.7 billion to the National Park Service for “projects to address critical deferred maintenance needs within the National Park System, including […]

Rena Steinzor | February 10, 2009

Cass Sunstein’s ‘Yes, We Can’

We’ve written a great deal about Cass Sunstein, the Harvard law professor who is expected to get the nod to be the “regulatory czar” for the Obama Administration.   In a nutshell, our concern is that Sunstein will stifle the efforts of health, safety, and environmental protection agencies to struggle to their feet after eight long […]

Robert Verchick | February 9, 2009

Mr. Go is Gone (Almost)

About thirty miles from my front door, heavy barges are dumping rocks into Louisiana’s Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MRGO), hoping to permanently plug the de-commissioned shipping channel before the end of the next hurricane season. It’s a big plug. The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that the structure will weigh 430,000 tons, “with a base 450 feet […]

Margaret Clune Giblin | February 6, 2009

The Scalpel or the Hatchet? Applying Common-Sense Planning to Water Management

One logical response to the constant news of the economic recession is cutting back on discretionary purchases and developing a household budget.  That is, if we know that times are tough and that we may encounter difficulties sustaining the lifestyle we’ve grown accustomed to, we take stock of our circumstances and plan for the future.  […]

Matt Shudtz | February 5, 2009

Out of Hibernation

More evidence that EPA is starting to find its bearings after eight years of hibernation: in an interim report on the year-old Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program, EPA admits that asking companies who work on nanomaterials to voluntarily conduct and disclose research on health and environmental hazards isn’t producing much useful information. As a result, the […]

James Goodwin | February 4, 2009

Revoking EO 13422: An Important First Step Toward Fixing the Regulatory System

Observers concerned with the current dysfunctional state of the U.S. regulatory system will be letting out a collective sigh of relief following the publication of Executive Order 13497.  Among other things, this Order officially revokes the controversial Executive Order 13422, issued during George W. Bush Administration. Issued in 2007, Executive Order 13422 amended President Clinton’s […]

A. Dan Tarlock, Holly Doremus | February 3, 2009

Takings Claims in the Klamath Basin

Tarlock and Doremus are co-authors of Water War in the Klamath Basin: Macho Law, Combat Biology, and Dirty Politics, published by Island Press in 2008. Last week, the Oregon Supreme Court agreed to decide whether irrigators in the Klamath Basin "own" water delivered by the federal Klamath Reclamation Project. This latest development is one more […]