On his first day in office President Trump axed the Biden-era federal Buy Clean program. Buy Clean was designed to leverage the federal government’s buying power to help grow the low carbon building materials industry. Killing it will have consequences—buildings are responsible for a major share of global carbon dioxide […]
Environment & Land Use
Yesterday, January 21, 2025, the Sabin Center filed an amicus brief on behalf of the National League of Cities (NLC) and the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) in support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2024 greenhouse gas emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles (the “HDV Rule”) that went into […]
Back in 2003, Michael Herz and I wrote an article calling for the creation of an online, word searchable database of environmental impact statements that had been prepared under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its state equivalents. These EISs are written at great expense and contain massive amounts of observational […]
Today, the Sabin Center filed two amicus briefs—one on behalf of the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and a second on behalf of experts in carbon capture and storage (CCS) science and technology—in support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in West Virginia v. […]
A highly potent greenhouse gas, methane makes a significant contribution to climate change, but has historically received relatively little attention in climate mitigation discussions. That is now beginning to change. In addition to investigating new ways to control methane emissions, scientists are also researching the possibility of removing methane already […]
On November 16, 2023, the Department of Energy (DOE) published a proposed rule to expedite the environmental review process for certain renewable energy infrastructure projects through the use of categorical exclusions. DOE’s proposal would apply to: (1) installing, operating, modifying, or decommissioning solar photovoltaic (PV) systems on buildings or other […]
In November, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska dismissed two lawsuits filed by environmental organizations and an indigenous Iñupiat group seeking vacatur of the Biden administration’s approval of the Willow oil and gas project. As we have detailed in previous blog posts, the Willow project […]
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 directed the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to support the development of four regional “direct air capture hubs” (DAC Hubs)—networks that connect direct air capture projects with sequestration facilities and commercial users of captured carbon dioxide (CO2). To support these DAC Hubs, […]