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Evan Isaacson | December 18, 2017

New Report: Three Fundamental Flaws in Maryland’s Water Pollution Trading Regulations

On December 8, the Maryland Department of the Environment published its long-awaited nutrient trading regulations, capping more than two years of effort to develop a comprehensive environmental market intended to reduce the amount of nutrient and sediment pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.  A trading market would allow people, companies, and governments required by law to […]

Carl Cranor | December 18, 2017

Weaponizing Wealth: Unjust Redistribution Upward

Is the current “tax reform” going through Congress just? Justice is important because even if citizens are treated dissimilarly by institutions, if the differences are just, all have reasonable treatment and the institutions are likely to be socially accepted.  A widely endorsed theory of justice, developed by the philosopher John Rawls nearly 50 years ago, […]

Rena Steinzor | December 14, 2017

Bay Journal Op-Ed: Bay Jurisdictions’ No-action Climate Policy Puts Restoration in Peril

This op-ed originally ran in the Bay Journal. Reprinted with permission. Despite research demonstrating that climate change is adding millions of pounds of nutrient pollution to the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and his Bay states colleagues appear to be taking a page from the Trump playbook: Ignore this inconvenient truth. Doubts about whether climate […]

Dan Rohlf | December 12, 2017

Reno Gazette-Journal Op-Ed: Don’t Toss Out Cooperation in the West’s Sage Country

This op-ed originally ran in the Reno Gazette-Journal. During the holiday season, many people put significant effort into plans for getting along with one another at family gatherings. Seating plans are carefully strategized and touchy subjects avoided. We’ve learned that enjoying our shared holiday demands that we all compromise a little. Plans for cooperation in […]

| November 29, 2017

Clean Water Laws Need to Catch Up with Science

The field of environmental law often involves tangential explorations of scientific concepts. Lately, one scientific term – hydrologic connectivity – seems to keep finding its way into much of my work. As for many others, this principle of hydrology became familiar to me thanks to its place at the center of one of the biggest […]

Matthew Freeman | November 28, 2017

An Antidote to Greed

If there’s a defining value to the tax bill now working its way through Congress, it’s greed. How else to account for a bill that wipes out tax deductions for health care expenses, double-taxes the money you pay in state and local income taxes, eliminates the deduction for interest on student loans, and at the […]

Evan Isaacson | November 17, 2017

How Tax ‘Reform’ Impacts the Bay — and Everything Else

Everyone should be paying attention to the tax "reform" bills making their way through Congress. Whether you are a concerned citizen, a volunteer activist, or a career advocate, chances are the tax legislation will do much more than increase or lower your tax bill. Much of the mainstream media and financial press, along with some […]

James Goodwin | November 14, 2017

CPR Member Scholar Hammond Brings a Real EPA ‘Back to Basics’ Lesson to Senate

Today, CPR Member Scholar Emily Hammond is testifying at a Senate subcommittee hearing that will examine four bills that amount to “rifle shot” attacks on the Clean Air Act’s public health and environmental protections. Hammond’s testimony before the Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee casts in […]

Brian Gumm | November 6, 2017

Is EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt Focused on Getting ‘Back to Basics’ or Slashing and Burning Our Environmental Protections?

In an article just published in the Environmental Law Institute’s Environmental Law Reporter, former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official Bob Sussman examines the tenure of Administrator Scott Pruitt thus far. I recently talked with Mr. Sussman about Pruitt’s so-called “back to basics” approach at EPA, the rollbacks of environmental protections he has overseen so far, […]