A Presidential Permit Is An Outrageous Abuse of Executive Power
Same Day Trump Reversed On Arctic Drilling – He Issues “Permit” To Keystone XL
[Update: 4/15/19 – Words from the horse’s mouth confirm my point
… the president, not the bureaucracy, will have sole authority to make the final decision when we get caught up in problems. ~~~ President Trump speaking Wednesday in Crosby, Texas, where he signed the orders. (from Democracy Now!)
A federal judge just reversed Tump’s abuse of executive authority on arctic drilling:
WASHINGTON — In a legal blow to President Trump’s push to expand offshore oil and gas development, a federal judge ruled that an executive order by Mr. Trump that lifted an Obama-era ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean was unlawful.
The decision, by Judge Sharon Gleason in the United States District Court for the District of Alaska, concluded late Friday that President Barack Obama’s 2015 and 2016 withdrawal of about 125 million acres of Arctic Ocean from drilling “will remain in full force and effect unless and until revoked by Congress.” She wrote that an April 2017 executive order by Mr. Trump revoking the drilling ban “is unlawful, as it exceeded the president’s authority.”….
it adds to a growing roster of legal losses for Mr. Trump’s effort to undo Mr. Obama’s environmental legacy. Experts in environmental law estimate that the Trump administration has now lost about 40 environmental cases in federal courts.
But just hours later, in an obvious propaganda – news management move, Trump again abused Executive authority and issued a “Presidential permit” to the Keystone XL pipeline.
The Bloomberg story:
Unlike the earlier State Department permit, which was issued after a deep environmental analysis required under the National Environmental Policy Act, the new presidential permit is not directly tied to any such review. And the NEPA statute that generally compels environmental study of energy projects and major agency actions does not apply to the president. ….
But Trump still retains the authority to issue presidential permits himself, said the person, who asked for anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. And because Trump’s permit is not subject to environmental review requirements in federal law, it effectively restarts the process and undercuts the Montana lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Brian Morris’s November ruling found that the 2014 environmental assessment by the Obama administration fell short. Trump had used that review in a March 2017 decision allowing the project to proceed. Morris said the government must consider oil prices, greenhouse-gas emissions and formulate a new spill-response strategy before allowing the pipeline to move forward.
While I was aware of the State Department’s “Presidential Permit”, I must admit that I’ve never heard of a “Presidential permit” – in the “Presidential” sense – and the whole idea of being exempt from environmental laws sounded absurd to me.
I thought Bloomberg must have gotten it wrong – but they’re right.
Because the determination is Presidential action, made through the exercise of Presidentially delegated authorities, the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the Administrative Procedure Act, and other similar laws and regulations that do not apply to Presidential actions are inapplicable. (sic) However, as a matter of policy, the Department conducts its review of Presidential permit applications in a manner consistent with NEPA.
How can the President be exempt from environmental laws?
Did Congress explicitly exempt the President or is this some manufactured Executive Branch legal opinion regarding the President’s powers?
Hopefully this too will be legally challenged.
The scope of executive power is a key issue that was not adequately discussed during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh.
Even now, with the pending Constitutional conflict over the Mueller Report front and center, there’s not much discussion. Too abstract – Too complex for our media. The #metoo identity politics are soooo much easier to report.
But, if President Trump can go around issuing environmental permits that are exempt from environmental law, we no longer have the rule of law and are far down the road to tyranny.