The Environment & Climate News Podcast, part of the Heartland Institute's family of daily podcasts.

Environment and Climate News Podcast

The Supreme Court ruling in the United States' case of Sackett v. EPA has emerged as a pivotal decision, significantly impacting individual liberty, the constitutional balance of power, and the containment of the regulatory state for the first time in decades. The verdict mandates that wetlands must be categorically "wet" and directly connected to navigable waters. As a result, landowners, developers, farmers, and other property holders now have clearer guidelines about whether they need to seek approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency before using their properties for routine purposes.

Environment & Climate News

Rights Reclaimed: The Sackett v. EPA Triumph for Property Rights & Small Government

Attorney Peter Ferrara notes, cities, kids, and states have brought multiple lawsuits against corporations and the federal government attempting to impose energy and climate policy through the judiciary. Courts have dismissed them all, saying the legislature and the executive, not the judiciary, are the proper branches of government to shape national energy and environmental policy. Ferrara explains that these lawsuits are based on bad science and if successful would harm the U.S. economically.

Climate Lawsuits: Bad Science, Bad Law, Wrong Forum (Guest: Peter Ferrara)

In two new papers for The Heartland Institute, Paul Driessen, explains the Green New Deal would require an authoritarian take over of the economy and result in untold environmental devastation as vast numbers wildlife and huge swaths of wildlands are destroyed to mine minerals for and erect industrial wind and solar facilities. The Green New Deal is neither green nor new, but rather is warmed over communism.

Green New Deal: Warmed Over Environmentally Destructive Authoritarianism

Led by President Donald Trump, Jeffrey Tucker says the public should rise up and demand the federal government stop imposing energy and water efficiency requirements on household appliances. Federal appliance mandates have produced a whole generation of appliances that don't clean, take too much time, undermine the livability of our homes, and threaten our health.

Federal Appliance Mandates: Bad for Everything (Guest: Jeffrey Tucker)

Overtime federal agencies have used the vagueness of the Clean Water Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to expand their authority beyond legitimate bounds over peoples lives and properties. The Trump administration is upholding the rule of law with reforms to the  Clean Water Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to clarify what waters fall under federal power and what that only acts which intentionally harm  migratory birds are criminal. These reforms make clearer when a person or company is not violating federal law or needs regulatory approval to act.

Water and Bird Protection Reforms Bring Clarity (Guest: Darren Bakst)

Models previously used by the Obama administration to account for the economic impact of increasing carbon dioxide levels either intentionally ignored or undercounted the benefits of carbon dioxide. When the impact on plants alone, especially staple crops, are properly accounted for in "Social Cost of Carbon" models, is turns out increasing levels of carbon dioxide produce net benefits.

Plants grow faster, larger, and use water more efficiently, increasing crop yields and decreasing hunger and malnutrition. "Social Cost of Carbon" models cannot be trusted to provide policy guidance because their outputs are a result of assumptions manipulated to produce the policy results the modelers desire.

Government's Social Cost of Carbon Calculations Can't be Trusted (Guest: Kevin Dayaratna)

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Rights Reclaimed: The Sackett v. EPA Triumph for Property Rights & Small Government

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