We regularly produce original research and analysis that highlight attorney general work on clean energy and the environment and provide commentary on important and timely topics in these areas of work.
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Blog
The ACE Rule: Justice Delayed is Justice Denied
Earlier this month, President Trump gave a speech intended to celebrate his environmental leadership. However, according to data released by the EPA, some of the most dangerous air pollutants are actually more prevalent now than before Trump took office.
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Blog
State AGs Making the Case for Climate Optimism
This past weekend, much of the United States endured an unprecedented heat wave. Cities across the country broke heat records, and over 150 million people were under some level of heat warning or advisory.
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Blog
Colorado’s New Legislative Boost to Clean Energy
Colorado is one of a growing number of states that are implementing increasingly aggressive strategies to curb GHG emissions. These state efforts are more important than ever, given the federal government’s inaction and obstruction on cutting emissions.
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Blog
With Environmental Rollbacks, Communities of Color Continue to Bear Disproportionate Pollution Burden
In many ways, Juneteenth represents how justice in the United States has repeatedly been delayed for black people, and access to a healthy, safe environment is no exception. This history makes the current administration’s repeated, unlawful attempts to weaken our nation’s bedrock environmental laws and undo important progress all the more troubling.
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Blog
Buckle Your Seat Belts For A Battle Royale Around Cars & Coal
An important reckoning is near. Two of the Trump administration’s most significant anti-environment initiatives are on deck. In the coming weeks, EPA will put a new Clean Air Act rule in place for the coal industry and, later this summer, it will do the same for the automobile industry.
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Blog
The U.S. Is Taking on the Climate Crisis – No Thanks to the Trump Administration
The architecture for solving major challenges in the U.S. typically stands on four pillars: the federal government; state governments; the private business sector; and public support. When it comes to the climate crisis, three of these four pillars are in place, rooted in a solid foundation of facts and science. Only the federal government is missing.
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Blog
How the Conflict Between States and the Federal Government is Hurting the Emerging Clean Energy Economy
From the outset, the Trump administration has painted federal environmental regulations as constraints that “unduly burden” the promotion of domestic fossil fuels, and its manic (and mostly unsuccessful) efforts to remove key environmental protections has since reinforced it.
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Op-Eds
The looming threat to state renewable goals in wholesale electricity markets
“While I certainly agree with Michael Hogan’s affirmation of states’ rights to address environmental externalities through energy policy in his recent Utility Dive opinion piece, ‘States’ rights, states’ wrongs,’ his argument omits the important discussion of wrongs by Regional Transmission Operators (RTOs) and Independent System Operators (ISOs).”
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Blog
What a Recent Court Decision Means for Future Environmental Deregulation
The Trump administration has an abysmal track record in defending its deregulatory actions in the courts. The administration’s poor performance has been due, in large part, to its repeated attempts to unlawfully delay or otherwise avoid enforcing legal requirements that are on the books. Courts have not been patient with such antics
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Blog
Learning from the Past to Help Resolve Future Health & Environmental Challenges
Major health and environmental controversies burst on the national scene with some regularity, often raising challenging legal and policy issues around liability, restoration and restitution. These issues are often tough for single courts, or for our legal system generally, to handle
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Blog
FERC Inaction Translates to Inequity in ISO-New England
States exercise authority over electric generation resources, and FERC oversees wholesale electricity markets. But this is not the end of the story. As states set more ambitious clean energy goals that influence what types of generation resources are built, integrating these resources into wholesale markets has become a source of contention
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Blog
The Rollback of Six Critical Environmental Regulations Will Increase U.S. Climate Pollution by More Than 200 Million Metric Tons Each Year
It is challenging to keep track of the Trump administration’s many rollbacks of environmental and health protections. Dozens of rollbacks are in process, and new ones are surfacing all the time