In May, the Supreme Court told the Environmental Protection Agency it couldn’t regulate lands distant from navigable waters as “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act. Given recent history, this was a momentous decision. Ryan M. Yonk and Ethan Yang, writing for Law & Liberty, have analyzed the subject more deeply. Until…
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Build a Home, Pay a Traffic Fee
The Mountain States Legal Foundation has joined a growing number of organizations filing amicus briefs supporting a Supreme Court petition on a takings issue. David McDonald, writing for Mountain States, says: “George Sheetz . . . . wants to build a single-family residence on his property in Placerville, California. The County of El Dorado, however,…
Reuters Exposes Waste of Climate Change Funds, and the Funders Don’t Care
Wealthy nations promised to give billions to developing nations to cope with or prevent climate change. Here are some of the results:
Was the Court’s EPA Decision 9-0 or 5-4? Here’s the Answer
In a Twitter feed, Jonathan Wood of PERC untangles the confusion over the Supreme Court’s May 25 decision regarding the definition of the “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). The entire Supreme Court reined in the EPA. A majority (5) did so more boldly than the rest (4). From Wood’s Twitter thread: “So why was…
Are Conservation Leases the Key to Resolving Competing Demands on Public Lands?
This guest post by Shawn Regan is a substantive analysis of the recent proposal by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management to allow leasing of public land for conservation purposes. Regan is vice president of research at the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) in Bozeman, Mont.
Most conservation issues involve balancing competing uses of natural resources. Should a parcel of land be developed for energy production, harvested for timber, grazed by livestock, managed as wildlife habitat, or set aside as open space? In a world of scarce resources, the main question is: How do people best resolve these competing demands?
What’s This Chevron Precedent and Why Does It Matter?
The Supreme Court has agreed to take up a case (Loper Bright Enterprises et. al vs. Raimondo) that will revisit a past Supreme Court decision known as the “Chevron precedent.” If the Court overturns or modifies that precedent, it would weaken agencies’ power to regulate. A group of New Jersey fishing companies has sued the…