by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow As appearing in the Daily Sentinel I served as President of Club 20 through the decade of the 1990s, a period of great change and significant growth for the organization, which had been around for 40 years as the voice of the Western Slope. I followed in [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow As appearing in the Daily Sentinel Twenty-three states have now sued the EPA over its so-called “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule, because once again, the agency is asserting federal authority over water not covered under the law. The lawsuit says the rule “goes beyond the [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow As appearing in the Daily Sentinel When we have to do something unpleasant, the common expression is “bite the bullet.” The phrase originated on Civil War battlefields when amputations often had to be done without anesthetics. To distract the patient from excruciating pain, he would be given [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow As appearing in the Daily Sentinel A New York Times “climate desk” reporter named David Gelles recently wrote a fascinating account of the internal battle plaguing the Sierra Club for three years. His lead explained that “Like many other American institutions, the Sierra Club was convulsed by [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow As appearing in the Daily Sentinel “Cadastre” is an early 19th Century word describing a property inventory used to allocate taxes. The word has just found its way into federal law, thanks to an amendment added to the recent 4,155-page “omnibus” appropriations bill. The new section refers [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow As appearing in the Daily Sentinel Apparently, people in rural Ohio are not overly fond of renewable energy. In fact, various county commissioners there voted down 42 wind energy and 43 solar energy projects in 2022. Sixteen of the proposed wind farms were in Logan County. Interestingly, [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow As appearing in the Daily Sentinel The national press corps sometimes jokes about a president so excited by a big event he insists, “We must tell the press at once!” and his staff responds, “Yes, sir — announcement or leak?” Leaks are not always unplanned in Washington; [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow As appearing in the Daily Sentinel When did environmental issues become so divisive, bitter, angry, and litigious? Historically speaking, that is a recent development. We generally think of America’s environmental awareness as beginning with Theodore Roosevelt and his allies: George Bird Grinnell, Gifford Pinchot, John Wesley Powell, [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow As appearing in the Daily Sentinel Does the rest of the world know something we don’t? A December report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) confirms that worldwide use of coal hit an all-time high in 2022, following a huge increase in 2021, and is on track [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow As appearing in the Daily Sentinel The recent news that scientists have finally produced a controlled nuclear fusion reaction that generates a net energy gain was greeted with some skepticism, but also with considerable excitement. Some of the hype was a bit over the top, heralding the [...]
