Click here to download a complete pdf version of E&E Legal Letters Issue III. Click on headlines for the full article.

Bootleggers and Baptists . . . and Hucksterism
by Dr. David Schnare, E&E Legal General Counsel

Thirty-one years ago, Bruce Yandel coined the phrase “Bootleggers and Baptists” to describe how these strange bedfellows work together to corrupt the economy and the law. “Baptists” point to the moral high ground and give vital and vocal endorsement of laudable public benefits. Bootleggers are simply in it for the money. Today, Yandel’s theory is in full bloom and there is no more prominent “baptist” than the Sierra Club and no more prominent bootleggers than anti-coal (renewable energy) businesses.

Demanding Transparency: It’s Not Just for Obama Haters Anymore
by Clifford Smith, FME Law Counsel

From the beginning of the Obama Presidency, the Administration has gone to great lengths to portray any investigation into its behavior as an ideological crusade against them. As the scandals mounted, the firing of several Inspectors General, the Fast and the Furious gun running scandal, the false-identity Richard Windsor EPA email scandal, the Benghazi scandal, the IRS scandal, etc. the Obama Administration and its allies have predictably responded by attacking the messenger. “This is just an ideological witch hunt, nothing to see here, move along.”The fact that Inspectors General have been fired for no good reason, various Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) efforts from outside organizations fought every step of the way, and investigations on the Hill are systematically stymied, delayed and otherwise obstructed, are given very little coverage by the media.

Illinois FOIA request faces Stonewalling
by Chaim Mandelbaum, FME Law Counsel

Recent transparency efforts by The Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) and the Free Market Environmental Law Clinic (FME Law) ran head first into the anti-transparency culture and institutional wagon circling that seems to pervade state funded institutions of higher education these days.

Mischief Not Managed: The NRDC Gets Laughed Out of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
by Clifford Smith, FME Law Counsel

What do you get when you put dozens of “green”lawyers together with nothing in particular to accomplish and more money than they know what to do with?  Someone could be excused for thinking that this sounds like the start of a really bad lawyer joke. Unfortunately, it’s anything but. Lawyers for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and their allies are actively testing this proposition. The result is a preposterous lawsuit against the railroad industry that clearly demonstrates the problem with the current state of the so-called “environmental justice”movement.

Questions remain about FERC’s settlement with Constellation Energy
by Chaim Mandelbaum, FME Law Counsel

On March 8th 2012 the Constellation Energy Group agreed to a settlement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The $245 million dollar settlement was a huge win for FERC’s Office of Enforcement, which had opened the investigation into Constellation in January 2008, only to see it languish for four years. When Constellation and FERC agreed to the settlement, the case against Constellation had still not proceeded to a formal administrative hearing or been filed in court.

E&E Legal Letters is a quarterly publication of the Energy and Environment Legal Institute. The publication is widely disseminated to key stakeholders, such as our members, website inquiries, energy, environment, and legal industry representatives, the media, congressional, legislative, and regulatory contacts, the judiciary, and donors.