-
Blog
Toxics, Under the Radar
When it comes to protecting Americans from cancer-causing toxic chemicals, pesticides and other hazardous materials, our environmental law system has come up short.
-
Blog
COVID & Cars: The Benefits of Rules
COVID-19 reminds us of the benefits of rules. Rules can (and are) saving lives. Flaunting them is making some people very sick, and killing others.
-
Blog
Unequal Effects
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey released a remarkable document this week: COVID-19’s Unequal Effects in Massachusetts: Remedying the Legacy of Environmental Injustice & Building Climate Resilience.
-
Blog
Why Are Federal Energy Regulators Disrespecting States’ Rights?
The Trump administration knows better than to disrespect states’ energy rights. In a recent Federal Register entry, the administration confirmed that FERC is required to defer to state choices regarding electricity generation, quoting the Federal Power Act and Supreme Court opinions.
-
Blog
Leadership in a Crisis
With the 10th year anniversary of the Gulf oil spill disaster coming up in a few days, many are writing about lessons learned from that tragedy.
-
Blog
Earth Day at 50: Our System of Protections Is Failing Us
Earth Day 1970 energized America to construct the system of environmental protection that is in place today. Fifty years later is a propitious time to issue a report card on how well the system is doing.
-
Op-Eds
Trump Is Aggressively Pushing His Anti-Environment Agenda Amid a Pandemic. It’s Inexcusable.
“The coronavirus pandemic has virtually shut down the U.S. economy. The lights remain on, however, at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department, where the Trump administration is working to push through its radical reordering of our nation’s environmental and conservation priorities — pandemic or no.”
-
Blog
Flatten the (Climate) Curve
COVID-19 is teaching us an important lesson about “flattening the curve” and this teaching also applies to the climate crisis.
-
Blog
Our Health
We usually take our health for granted. No more. The COVID-19 pandemic presents an acute health risk that is upending our country, and our world.
-
Blog
Energy & Culture Wars
The administration is fomenting another culture war. The president has ridiculed the phase-out of incandescent light bulbs, claiming that their replacements give off bad light. Wind turbines cause cancer and toilets now require multiple flushes (really?).
-
Blog
Reducing Corporate Environmental Accountability, Whether Industry Wants it or Not
Everyone is aware that the Trump administration has been rolling back scores of environmental and climate regulatory requirements. What’s less apparent is how the rollbacks fit into a broader administration strategy to reduce industry accountability for environmental damage.
-
Blog
Ideology Trumps Science in Clean Water Rollback
The administration has issued a new rule that ends Clean Water Act protection for large portions of our nation’s wetlands, lakes and tributaries. Internal government documents estimate that more than half of our wetlands will lose protection under the rollback.
Insights by David J. Hayes (Past Executive Director)
David J. Hayes was the State Impact Center’s executive director from August 2017 through January 2021, when he left the Center to serve in the Biden administration as Special Assistant to the President for Climate Policy, a role he filled until late 2022.