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scholarship.law.columbia.eduscholarship.law.columbia.edu

I appreciated the replies from @janhasselman.bsky.social, an environmental litigator who has blocked fossil projects using tools that BAAJA would take off the table. I also encourage you to read this New York Law Journal article by @michaelgerrard.bsky.social, a law professor at Columbia.

I'm not a lawyer, so take my interpretations with a grain of salt, but I'll summarize a few points here from @michaelgerrard.bsky.social's article that stood out for me. 1. Tight timelines for NEPA review, without much new resourcing for additional agency staff to conduct reviews.

@janhasselman.bsky.social

Asking agency staff to do the same amount of work in much less time is a recipe for mistakes. That's not staffers' fault; when you're asked to do a year+ of technical work in a few months, you just can't be as careful or thorough. "More mistakes likely" interfaces badly with other aspects of BAAJA.

Jan Hasselman

Really? You had a whole show on this, and asked pretty thoughtful questions! For startets, the bill exempts entire categories of actions from NEPA, which is the primary tool communities use to protect health and the environment. And the law is left effectively unenforceable, even where it applies.

Jan Hasselman

@janhasselman.bsky.social

NEPA and its state analogue are the reasons WA state is not a global coal export hub. It requires the govt to disclose all of the impacts, involve the community to address its concerns, and consider alternatives. Of course, gutting this law means it will be easier to build facilities like these.

David Roberts

@volts.wtf

It doesn't touch state policy and it still requires an EIS and takes community comments into account and requires consideration of alternatives. People have gotten this weird idea in their heads that this is some sort of generic, all-purpose FF accelerator but it does very specific things!

Rob Clive

@crobruncato.bsky.social

I’m sure MAHA is all over this

Grew up west of Cancer Alley and lost 75% of family to cancer in two generations. Both WW2 era parents had leukemia on their death certificate. I'm not Luigi Cajun so worked with Greenpeace decades ago. Cops beat the snot out of us back then too.

I'd also add, as a socialist damn hippie Greenpeace Activist decades ago, capitalistic greedy people blame socialism, communism, anyism, but themselves all my life. They're college educated. I'm a desegragation era public high school diploma holder. Hmm

IRONY; I'm direct descendant of Joseph LeBlanc quoted when British and Massachusetts Bay Company colonist militia attempted genocide on Evangeline Cajuns and deported my famille to Louisiana. Want to see my papers nazICE? Oh the irony, no? Has GOP banned Evangeline by Longfellow yet? ;^/

I believe that BAAJA would have real benefits for some clean energy industries, such as geothermal electricity generation. I also believe that BAAJA would intensify public health and mortality risks for communities near the polluting infrastructure that BAAJA would enable.