The Trump Card: Tarnishing Planning, Democracy, and the Environment

10 Pages Posted: 30 Sep 2020

See all articles by Robert L. Glicksman

Robert L. Glicksman

George Washington University - Law School

Alejandro E. Camacho

University of California, Irvine, School of Law, Center for Land, Environment, and Natural Resources (CLEANR); Center for Progressive Reform

Date Written: February 21, 2020

Abstract

One of the greatest strengths of the National Environmental Policy Act has been its requirement that federal agencies opening up to the public decisionmaking processes concerning proposed actions that may adversely affect the environment. By mandating not only information collection and analysis but also opportunities for public input and government coordination, NEPA both depends on and cultivates democracy and sound government. For fifty years, NEPA has increased the production and consideration of information on the environmental impacts of government action, while also fostering public participation and government accountability on actions being contemplated by federal agencies.

NEPA’s contributions to informed and democratic governance, however, are now at risk. In early 2020, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued proposed regulations that would overhaul, and fundamentally enfeeble, NEPA and its existing regulations. The proposed revisions would upend decades of NEPA law, precedent, and practice. This Essay argues that CEQ’s proposal, and the conspicuous lack of evidence supporting it, are antithetical to NEPA’s core goals for federal decisionmaking — the considered generation by government of key information; public engagement in government decisions; and the protection and conservation of scarce natural resources. Among other things, the proposal would remove longstanding judicial checks on executive power, despite the absence of any authority to do so. If successful, these and other changes contemplated by CEQ would radically undercut NEPA’s innovative and successful contributions to democratic governance.

Suggested Citation

Glicksman, Robert L. and Camacho, Alejandro E., The Trump Card: Tarnishing Planning, Democracy, and the Environment (February 21, 2020). Environmental Law Reporter, Vol. 50, No. 4, 2020, UC Irvine School of Law Research Paper No. 2020-63, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3542409

Robert L. Glicksman (Contact Author)

George Washington University - Law School ( email )

2000 H Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20052
United States
202-994-4641 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.gwu.edu/Faculty/profile.aspx?id=16085

Alejandro E. Camacho

University of California, Irvine, School of Law, Center for Land, Environment, and Natural Resources (CLEANR)

401 E. Peltason Drive, Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
United States

Center for Progressive Reform ( email )

500 West Baltimore Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
116
Abstract Views
864
Rank
430,305
PlumX Metrics