by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel “Crocodile tears” is an expression describing an insincere, hypocritical display of emotion, like when a murderer pretends to mourn his victim. It is an ancient metaphor — Plutarch attributed it to “antiquity” during Nero’s reign. It has been around so long because, believe it [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel A 16-year-old, just allowed to drive and still excited about running family errands, was sent on an important one Christmas Eve. The family was out of eggs and cream needed to make the eggnog and sent him to the store. Everyone depended on him, [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel When Congress authorized nearly $400 billion in climate subsidies, the bill was called the “Inflation Reduction Act,” though it had nothing to do with inflation. The 2001 “Patriot Act” was about expanding government surveillance powers, not patriotism. The massive new federal health insurance program [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel Washington Evening Star humorist Philander Chase Johnson created a great character named Senator Sorghum. A 1902 piece called “A Delicate Distinction” had one character saying, “That friend of yours seems to have a clear conscience.” Senator Sorghum answered, “No, not a clear conscience; merely [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel This week’s withdrawal of President Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) provides an opportunity, not just for a new nominee but for a new approach to the whole Colorado River management mess. It is an opportunity the White House and Interior [...]
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 An article in BBC Science Focus highlights the difficulties of “multi-tasking,” handling several things at a time, which apparently most of us don’t do very well. “In an ideal world, we’d focus on one task at a time, get it finished and only then [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel The New York Times this week shrieked about congressional Republicans using what it called “an obscure law” and “a little-known statute” to rescind regulations adopted at the end of the Biden administration. The article refers to the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which is neither [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel My grandpa once gave away a classic Model T. It would be valuable today, but he wasn’t using it and someone else was. In fact, it costs money to keep such things, so he just said, “I didn’t need it anymore.” If only the [...]
by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow The Daily Sentinel Every year for the past 25, at least, negotiating teams for the seven states on the Colorado River have worked to overcome a new crisis, invariably driven by two entities: the state of California and the federal Bureau of Reclamation (BOR). For a quarter-century, [...]
