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Politics
Archived Posts from this Category
January 26, 2011
“Gingrich calls for abolition of EPA”
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Environment, PoliticsLeave a Comment
January 25, 2011
Quick & Brief Thoughts on the State of the Union
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under PoliticsLeave a Comment
Sitting here watching the State of the Union, and some brief thoughts:
I was happy to hear the President’s many calls for improved high-speed rail.
I think the biggest shout-outs to the liberal base were expressing the tax cuts on millionaires should not be permanent, and highlighting the end of DADT (and Vermont Law School has not allowed military recruiters in light of DADT, and I think the President just asked us to change our policy).
What is going to happen to earmarks?
As someone who teaches Natural Resources Law, I enjoyed the salmon joke. “We live and do business in the information age, but the last major reorganization of the government happened in the age of black and white TV. There are twelve different agencies that deal with exports. There are at least five different entities that deal with housing policy. Then there’s my favorite example: the Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they’re in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them in when they’re in saltwater. And I hear it gets even more complicated once they’re smoked.”
Finally, despite many on both sides of the political aisle who think Obama is a big liberal, the President is not. He was and is a pragmatic moderate Democratic. And I actually think, as a result, this political environment (e.g., the Dems not controlling both houses) will actually work to his political advantage.
January 10, 2011
See here. The Times’ Green Blog writes:
The newly appointed leader of a House subcommittee that controls the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget, Representative Mike Simpson, Republican of Idaho, says he intends to slash the agency’s funding. “The E.P.A. is the scariest agency in the federal government, an agency run amok,” Mr. Simpson said in a statement on Friday. “Its bloated budget has allowed it to drastically expand its regulatory authority in a way that is hurting our economy and pushing an unwanted government further into the lives of Idahoans.”
January 3, 2011
Vermont Law School Unveils Top 10 Environmental Watch List for 2011
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Announcements, Climate Change, Environment, Food, Law, Natural Resources, Politics, Supreme CourtLeave a Comment
Today, Vermont Law School’s Environmental Law Center launched its first annual Top 10 Environmental Watch List. Our environmental faculty and students from the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law researched more than 75 judicial, regulatory, and legislative actions before selecting what they consider the 10 most important environmental law and policy issues of 2010. Read more at http://watchlist.vermontlaw.edu/.
With a student, I co-authored the article for No. 8 on the list, Supreme Court Reviews Genetically Modified Crops.
December 13, 2010
Will Vermont get a single-payer health care system?
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under PoliticsLeave a Comment
The future Governor of Vermont is going to try, and he announced the team that he hopes will design a universal health care program for Vermonters. The vtdigger article states, “Shumlin campaigned on the idea that a centralized, Medicare-style state medical plan would control the skyrocketing cost of health care in part by eliminating duplicative administrative costs. If Shumlin is able to pull it off, Vermont would be the first state in the nation to offer a universal health care benefit to all residents.” I’ve been wondering of late what type of federal waiver this would require, and if that is politically attainable. Any health care law scholars out there with an answer?
December 9, 2010
EPA Delays Emissions Rules
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Climate Change, Environment, Law, PoliticsLeave a Comment
See here. This will infuriate many environmentalists, and further outrage Democrats who are already outraged by potential extension of the Bush-era tax cuts. The money quote from the NY Times Green Blog:
“Environmental advocates are furious. They fear a similar delay on the approaching start of one of the most far-reaching regulatory programs in American environmental history, the effort to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. But in a striking turnabout, the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute — which have been anything but friendly to Mr. Obama — are praising his administration.”
December 9, 2010
The Climate Talks: What’s Going on in Cancun?
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Climate Change, Energy, Environment, PoliticsLeave a Comment
I’ve been reading various articles trying to figure out what have been the successes and failures at COP16 in Cancun so far, and came across this nice summary of happenings so far.
December 9, 2010
WI Gov.-Elect Walker “Derails Economic Development and Jobs with Opposition to Rail”
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Politics, Transportation1 Comment
I earlier posted about the loss of high-speed rail funds in Ohio and Wisconsin to other states. (At least the funds are still going to rail rather than roads.) This post’s title quote is the title this press release from Milwaukee County Clerk Joseph Czarnezki criticizing Wisconsin’s Governor-elect for stopping high-speed rail in Wisconsin. (It seems I agree a lot more with my father as an adult than I suspect I did as a child.) The money quote in the press release:
“Governor-Elect Walker has kicked Wisconsin taxpayers in the caboose by sending our hard earned tax dollars to other states.”
UPDATE: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a long article detailing the redistribution of the rail funds. (At least some of the money is coming to Vermont…I vote for high speed rail from Montpelier to NYC, or any rail from Vermont to Boston.)
UPDATE 2: Train-maker to pull out of Milwaukee.
December 9, 2010
Feds to pull WI and OH High Speed Rail Money
Posted by Jason J. Czarnezki under Politics, Transportation1 Comment
Mere moments ago, I posted about the absurd railroad politics in Wisconsin and Ohio. Now this: “Sources say feds to pull, redistribute state’s high-speed rail money.” The money quote:
“Congressional sources say the Obama administration is taking $1.2 billion in high-speed rail money away from Ohio and Wisconsin and awarding it to projects in other states. People familiar with the grants say the Department of Transportation will announce Thursday that California, Illinois and New York, among other states, will get a share of the funds. Republican governors opposed to high-speed rail were elected in Ohio and Wisconsin in November. They have promised to kill projects in their states.”
That’s right folks, the states will now have to pay back the feds, will lose high-speed rail infrastructure, and will lose the jobs created by construction, maintenance, and ridership, and might lose the manufacturing jobs for making the trains.
December 9, 2010
JASON J. CZARNEZKI 