“The concept of the environment in our sense — an interdependent system that almost amounts to a planetary organism, that’s interconnected at every point and fragile as well as resilient — people don’t really talk that way until the middle of the 20th century,” says law professor Jedediah Purdy, author of “After Nature,” an intellectual history of the environment in America. “Even the concept that you need extensive management of resources, like forests and water and soil … that doesn’t get taken seriously in the U.S. until the decades after the Civil War.”
Read More in The AtlanticCategory: Politics-Public Policy
How Will Trump’s Moves on Coal Affect the Industry?
Coal’s share of the U.S. power market has dwindled from more than 50 percent last decade to about 32 percent last year. Gas and renewables have both made gains, and hundreds of coal-burning power plants have been retired or are scheduled to shutter soon — trends over which Trump has limited influence. Utilities “are not going to flip on a dime and say now it’s time to start building a whole bunch of coal plants because there’s a Trump administration,” says Brian Murray, director of environmental economics at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.
Read More in The Denver Post
NC Lawmakers Move To Limit Renewable Energy’s Impressive Gains
“Despite the good news about renewable energy, over the last few years, our state legislators and the Utilities Commission have allowed these smart policies to erode, and in some cases, have worked to slow the growth of renewable energy. For example, North Carolina state law prohibits consumers from purchasing electricity from anyplace other than the utility company,” writes School of Medicine professor Dr. H. Kim Lyerly, director of the Environmental Health Scholars Program, with a colleague.
Read More in The News & Observer
Equitable Growth in Conversation: An interview with William Darity Jr.
“I think that the run-up in inequality that we’ve observed in recent years is closely tied to a set of social policies that have produced virtually unlimited capacity to generate extraordinary levels of wealth. … In short, I think we can look directly at a set of policies and, more recently, at the advent of the Great Recession to understand the rise in economic inequality,” says economist William “Sandy” Darity, the Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy.
Read More From The Washington Center for Equitable Growth
Trump Moves Decisively To Wipe Out Obama’s Climate-Change Record
President Trump will take the most significant step yet in obliterating his predecessor’s environmental record Tuesday, instructing federal regulators to rewrite key rules curbing U.S. carbon emissions. Tim Profeta, who directs the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, says regulators from more than half-dozen states in the Southeast are now talking about how to chart their own path forward. “We are now talking about the evolution of the power sector in an environment of uncertainty,” Profeta says. “We’re seeing the beginning of states taking control of their destiny.”
Read More in The Washington Post
Sadly, We Have To Expect More Civilian Casualties If ISIS is to be Defeated
“The truth is that even with the most precise weaponry, restrictive rules of engagement, and meticulous adherence to international law, it’s inevitable that more civilians are going to be killed if ISIS is going to be ousted from Mosul and put on the path of complete destruction,” writes law professor Charlie Dunlap. “It’s a grim reminder that there is no such thing as immaculate war if evil is going to be stopped. Let’s have the fortitude to see the mission through even as we grieve the cost.”
Read More in Lawfire
Can President Trump Handle the Truth?
Since winning the White House, Donald Trump has employed the weapon of spreading falsehoods at specific times, often when he is losing control of the national story line. “These big falsehoods are different,” explains professor Bill Adair, who created PolitiFact, the fact-checking journalistic site that won a Pulitzer Prize. “They are like a neutron bomb. They just take over the discussion and obliterate a lot of other things that we should be discussing.”
Read More in TIME
Can Judiciary Recover From Political Battles Over Supreme Court Seat?
The empty seat on the U.S. Supreme Court from the death of Justice Antonin Scalia has been one of the most contentious political footballs in Washington. But the confirmation hearings of President Tump nominee Neil Gorsuch may have somewhat mitigated political damage to the judiciary.“The quality level of our top judges, both as lawyers and as people, is incredibly high in this country, and when you see what these folks are really like, it tends to settle people down a bit,” says law professor Ernest Young.
Read More in The Christian Science Monitor
The GOP Effort To Repeal Obamacare Appears Dead, For Now
David Anderson, an expert in insurance plan design at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, explains how under the GOP plan insurers would use their newfound freedom to exclude potentially costly customers. “The first stream of product design will be aimed to cover very little,” he says. “They will be very narrow networks with no major academic medical centers involved; their benefits will be designed to drive away sick people with chronic conditions.”
Read More in The Los Angeles Times
Understanding the Freedom Caucus
“Everyone who cares about Congress should take note. Last week the House Freedom Caucus hijacked our legislative branch and trumped the Republican Party. It wasn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last,” writes Bradley Harris, a master’s of public policy candidate at the Sanford School of Public Policy.
Sesame Street’s New Muppet With Autism Is a Reminder That Congress Can’t Pass the AHCA
“It’s a challenging moment for the one in 68 children and millions of American adults who are on the autism spectrum. President Donald Trump and Republicans’ proposed repeal of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, with the American Health Care Act (AHCA) would eliminate the law’s Medicaid expansion, which serves many people with autism,” writes Geraldine Dawson, director of the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development and president of the International Society for Autism Research.
Read More on Fortune
Why Hate Crimes Are A National Security Risk
Hate crimes deserve the new administration’s attention, and not only because they are abhorrent, says David Schanzer, associate professor of the praactice at the Sanford School of Public Policy. Anti-Muslim hate crimes and bigotry also threaten our national security, says Schanzer, who also directs the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security.
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