by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel All my adult life, presidents have talked about energy independence. Nixon, Ford, Carter, Regan — even presidents like Biden and Obama, who did everything they could to stop domestic energy production. But on both sides, changing policies is said to be as difficult as [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel A land ownership checkerboard exists in nearly every state because of an oddity called “state school trust lands.” The federal government granted those lands at the time of statehood, under the Land Ordinance of 1785. Thomas Jefferson’s system divides and records land into townships, [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel Bonnie Sue Hitchcock, critically acclaimed author of “Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town,” says people always want someone to blame in a tragedy. It is pearl of wisdom universally and invariably true. This year’s wildfires, including two catastrophic fires in Rio Blanco County, [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel If the teenager wrecks the car four times, parents don’t generally reward him with a newer and more expensive model. If a salesman doesn’t sell a single product, owners do not promote him to sales manager. If a businessman flops with three consecutive startups, [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel Every time congressional dysfunction has caused a temporary government shutdown, I’ve heard people make fun of the instruction that “essential workers” must report to work anyway. Pundits always ask, if other government workers are not essential, why do we pay them? What business hires [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel In the next few days, the Environmental Protection Agency will announce that it is officially revisiting its 2009 “endangerment finding,” the controversial declaration that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant. Dozens of lawsuits will immediately follow, some judge will block the process, and courts [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel Energy Secretary Chris Wright went to Wyoming last week to cut the ribbon on the first new rare earth mine in the U.S. since the 1950s. Telling the assembled guests and reporters that the “Brook Mine” is critical to breaking China’s “stranglehold on rare [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel Western newspapers, blogs, and podcasts are humming this month with stories that the seven states on the Colorado River are close to an agreement on managing the river in future years. The existing agreements, designed to “supplement” the ancient and sacred Interstate Compact during [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel During the 2024 campaign, President Trump suggested addressing affordable housing shortages by selling federal land for housing. He understands that the government controls nearly a third of the land in America but may not have anticipated what a firestorm would be ignited by the [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel Gertrude Stein wrote her oft-repeated line “A rose is a rose is a rose…” in a 1913 poem. She explained it as meaning “things are what they are.” But what if it’s called something else? That was Juliet’s question to Romeo: “What’s in a [...]
