The New York Times - USA (2020-07-22)

THE NEW YORK TIMES OP-EDWEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020 N A23

E

NVIRONMENTALISTS this
month are celebrating setbacks to
three major oil and gas pipelines,
nearly a decade after the protests
against the Keystone XL pipeline began.
Yet what goes around can come around.
Legal strategies that have derailed
pipelines can also be turned against clean
energy projects urgently needed to com-
bat climate change.
The path forward is not to gut the envi-
ronmental review process, as President
Trump proposed last week. Rather, the
government must make the permitting
process work better so we can quickly de-
velop renewable energy projects and im-
prove the power grid while upholding en-
vironmental laws.
This is especially important now. With
no time to delay in combating climate
change, and the economy in need of a
boost, we need large government invest-
ment in clean energy, from electric car
charging to mass transit, as former Vice
President Joe Biden has proposed.
The three pipeline cases followed a
boom in oil and gas production in the
United States over the past decade. Envi-
ronmental groups have developed sophis-
ticated legal strategies to block the pipe-
lines that get fuel to market.
Major pipeline projects usually need to
get federal permits, such as when they
cross certain water bodies, wetlands or
public lands. But before those permits can
be issued, the government is required to
conduct a review of the project’s envi-
ronmental impacts. This process has be-
come increasingly expensive, time-con-
suming and prone to ending up in court.
The recent pipeline setbacks occurred,
among other reasons, because the courts

found that the Trump administration’s en-
vironmental reviews cut corners. Its ef-
fort at fast-tracking in the name of “ener-
gy dominance” came back to bite the very
projects it was meant to help.
First, a Montana court ruled in the Key-
stone XL pipeline litigation that the fed-
eral government had failed to properly
consult on threatened and endangered
species when it reauthorized a program to
streamline water permits. The Supreme
Court then rejected a request from the
Trump administration to allow construc-
tion of parts of the pipeline that had been
blocked by the judge.
In addition, two of the nation’s largest
utilities announced they were abandoning
plans to build a 600-mile natural gas pipe-
line crossing the Appalachian Trail be-
cause of rising costs, delays and regula-
tory uncertainty arising from the Mon-
tana ruling. And that was followed by a
federal court ordering another oil pipe-
line, the Dakota Access project, a focus of
protests from Native Americans and envi-
ronmentalists, to shut down until an ac-
ceptable environmental review was con-
ducted (that shutdown order has since
been stayed pending appeal).
These pipeline defeats reflect an in-
creasingly sophisticated legal strategy to
use complex environmental laws de-
signed to protect public lands, water, en-
dangered species and air quality to block
fossil fuels projects based on flaws in envi-
ronmental reviews and regulatory ap-
provals. Yet those very tactics can now be
used to impede clean energy projects,
which have impacts as well.
For example, solar projects in deserts in
the West may affect the habitat of the en-
dangered desert tortoise. Commercial
fishermen in the Northeast have opposed
offshore wind projects they claim will in-
terfere with their fisheries.
Delay is problematic not only because
time is short to curb emissions, but also
because the need for government spend-
ing to bolster an economy reeling from
Covid-19 shutdowns may create a unique
opportunity to invest in clean energy. The
faster funds can be deployed, the more ef-
fective the stimulus.
The administration’s approach of short-
cutting environmental reviews and avoid-
ing meaningful community engagement
has been self-defeating. Mr. Trump’s so-
called reforms — which would set arbi-
trary time limits, exclude from review cer-
tain project impacts such as climate
change, and give short shrift to input from
local communities — are misguided and
provide grist for years of litigation.
The environmental review process
needs to be improved, but not by cutting
corners. There is no simple solution, but
there are several actions the federal gov-
ernment can take.
First, more should be done to achieve
the aims of the FAST Act of 2015, which
seeks to improve coordination among fed-
eral agencies on major projects, hold them
accountable to reasonable timetables, and
track progress.
Second, to see the full consequences of
environmental impacts, environmental
benefits of clean energy projects like
lower emissions should be considered
along with potential harms. Finally, com-
munities near these projects should be in-
cluded to address concerns and find solu-
tions.
Environmental activists applaud the le-
gal blows landed on pipelines. But if the
federal environmental review and permit-
ting processes that stymied them are not
improved, the huge clean energy invest-
ments required to transform our energy
economy may fall victim next. 0

A Trap

For Clean

Energy

JASON BORDOFF is the director of Colum-
bia University’s Center on Global Energy
Policy.

Will snags that bedevil

fossil-fuel projects hurt

wind and solar?

Jason Bordoff

T

HE only word to describe life

here right now is this: hell.

The pandemic is raging, the

economy is shuddering and the

energy city’s lifeblood, oil, while re-

bounding from a terrifying negative $37

a barrel in April, is still in the not-pretty

$40 range. The state leadership is, at

best, useless. Temperatures are averag-

ing around 90 degrees with the “feels

like” button on my weather app hitting

99-plus, due mostly to our Kolkata-rival-

ing humidity.

The prime months for hurricanes, Au-

gust and September, are fast approach-

ing. All the people who could leave town

have done so, with flying tree roaches

and mosquitoes taking their place.

It was in this atmosphere that I got the

news last week that Ruth Bader Gins-

burg’s liver cancer had returned. It

seemed like the rotten cherry on top of

the bad-news sundae that has come to

define life in America in the summer of

2020.

There’s an obvious explanation for

this: If illness forces Justice Ginsburg to

step down in the next few months and

President Trump gets to pick a replace-

ment, it would strengthen the conserva-

tive wing of the Supreme Court for as far

as the eye can see, despite some recent

rulings that might suggest otherwise.

(Yes, President Trump could also have

that option and more after his possible

re-election, but some things are just too

painful to contemplate this summer.)

I do not know Justice Ginsburg per-

sonally, nor do I own any of the products

she has not endorsed but that her most

ardent fans seem unable to resist — the

coffee cups, T-shirts, socks and now coro-

navirus masks with her image. Nor am I

one of those people who get into a swivet

about whether she should have retired

back when Barack Obama could have in-

stalled a suitable replacement without

Mitch McConnell’s dastardly interfer-

ence. What’s done is done.

Still, as the mental health profession-

als like to say, there’s a message and a

meta-message in my reaction to Justice

Ginsburg’s health report.

In real life, she is an 87-year-old wom-

an with a deadly disease and a host of

other ailments. A mother and grand-

mother, a widow with a long and happy

marriage behind her.

Thanks mainly to her career-long fight

for the rights of women, she has achieved

icon status, which means that her fragil-

ity has become our fragility. Anyone of a

certain age — anyone who feels mortal-

ity knocking on the door — would re-

spond with a shiver to her latest medical

report.

But more important, our whole vision

of ourselves as Americans feels threat-

ened right now. We are learning just how

fragile it is, from our inability to combat

systemic racism to our helplessness and

embarrassment over the clear triumph,

so far, of the coronavirus. The very real

possibility exists that the American ex-

periment, and with it our own lives, could

break into a million pieces.

Of course, one of the few people stand-

ing between us and chaos is Justice Gins-

burg, the anti-Trump, the benevolent if

steely matriarch to his raging father.

“Never in anger,” is one of the lessons she

took to heart from her own mother. She

got where she is by being studious and

strategic, with a bracing, incontestable

honesty.

Without complaint, she raised her chil-

dren, and nursed a sick husband while

getting through law school — Harvard,

no less, where she became the first fe-

male member of the law review. No won-

der so many women law students — and

so many others — buy those coffee cups

as talismans.

This in contrast to a president who is

living proof of failing upward, with so

many hefty lifts from his wealthy father,

with a value system that is invested in

only one thing: perpetuating his own

myth of success. Her frailty is on the out-

side; Mr. Trump’s is all internal.

The only quality Justice Ginsburg

shares with the president is relentless-

ness. Her daily workouts, so perfectly

satirized by Kate McKinnon on “Satur-

day Night Live,” are examples of an al-

most literal determination to fight to the

death. You can bet Justice Ginsburg has

rarely, if ever, feasted on a taco bowl.

She is, in short, the embodiment of all

that we believe is good about the country,

of all that has been worth fighting for.

The thought of losing that fight is as

tragic as, well, losing a beloved grand-

mother, the one who holds the family to-

gether.

Stay safe, Justice Ginsburg. Help me

get through the summer. 0

MIMI SWARTZ, an executive editor at Texas

Monthly, is a contributing opinion writer.

She’s one of the few

people standing between

us and chaos.

Mimi Swartz

HOUSTON

Stay Safe, Justice Ginsburg

S

INCE George Floyd’s killing,

America has begun a remarkable

reckoning with racial injustice.

People of every race and gener-

ation have come together in largely peace-

ful protests across the nation to halt police

brutality, which is disproportionately di-

rected at people of color. But many Ameri-

cans are demanding much more — that we

finally redress the systemic racism that

persists in this country, understanding

that it diminishes us all.

This moment, unlike any since the

1960s, has the potential to transform the

country into one that is far more just and

equal for all its citizens. Yet this incipient

movement also risks being reduced to a

fleeting instant of heightened conscious-

ness, one that dissipates in the fog of pan-

demic, economic recession and a bitter

presidential campaign.

Much of the progress to date, while wel-

come, has been symbolic or superficial.

Once reluctant institutions, from

NASCAR to the Mississippi Legislature

and the military, now bar the Confederate

battle flag from public display. Black Lives

Matter murals adorn streets outside the

White House and Trump Tower in New

York. Confederate monuments are com-

ing down.

Corporate executives are scrambling to

diversify their C-suites and boardrooms,

to source more products from African-

American suppliers and donate to non-

profits supporting communities of color.

Companies are rushing to retire brands

with racially charged histories, like Aunt

Jemima pancakes and Washington’s

N.F.L. team.

Some cities are reviewing their budgets

in response to calls to shift resources from

law enforcement to social services and to

reimagine policing. It remains unclear

what will result, but cities should proceed

prudently to preserve public safety while

enhancing the well-being of those living in

underserved communities.

But where it matters most, Congress

has yet again missed the moment. The

House passed the George Floyd Justice in

Policing Act, which would institute care-

fully calibrated reforms, but it was

blocked in the Republican-controlled Sen-

ate.

After perfunctory lip service and failure

to pass a pale substitute for the House bill,

the Senate majority leader, Mitch McCon-

nell, seems eager to move on. Meanwhile,

he refuses to allow Senate consideration

of a new Voting Rights Act or of funding to

ensure safe voting during a raging pan-

demic, knowing that communities of color

are suffering disproportionately from the

coronavirus.

And predictably, President Trump has

doubled down on divisiveness and blatant

bigotry. Almost daily, Mr. Trump throws

racist red meat to his base, hoping it will

give a boost to his poll numbers. He has

called peaceful protesters “thugs” and

threatened Bull Connor-style tactics —

the use of “vicious dogs” and “ominous

weapons.”

Mr. Trump sends federal forces to guard

monuments and terrorize protesters,

pledges to block the renaming of military

bases that commemorate Confederate

generals and describes flying the Confed-

erate flag as an act of “free speech.”

Against this backdrop of half-measures

and outright hostility, it’s easy to envision

that the momentum for progress on racial

justice will soon be squandered. But it

needn’t be. To redress systemic racism,

America needs to create the conditions for

systemic reform.

Transformational change would entail a

new opportunity agenda that confronts

the root causes of structural racism. The

federal government, working with the pri-

vate sector and nongovernmental organi-

zations, should invest sufficient attention,

creativity and resources in addressing the

stubborn inequalities that permeate not

only the criminal justice system but also

education, economic opportunity, health

care, housing and the environment.

The remedies must be comprehensive.

In education, for instance, we should in-

vest in the full spectrum of learning —

starting with universal prekindergarten,

competitive teacher salaries and reliable

broadband in rural and urban digital

deserts.

To expand access to postsecondary ed-

ucation, it’s time to provide no-debt access

to community colleges, scale up appren-

ticeships and Pell Grants, and make tu-

ition free at public universities for all fam-

ilies earning under $125,000 annually.

Historically Black and minority-serv-

ing institutions are indispensable incuba-

tors of talent and entrepreneurship that

deserve major, sustained support, just as

young graduates need mentorship and ac-

cess to capital to build wealth and spur

economic mobility.

Government alone is not the solution,

but it can play a critical role in dismantling

the structural barriers that leave low-in-

come Americans and many people of color

effectively shut out from the American

dream. It can thus bring us much closer to

fulfilling our founding creed — that all are

created equal.

While this vision is within our reach,

grasping it requires electing leaders com-

mitted to its realization. Mr. Trump, along

with the divisive racial politics he stokes,

must be defeated in November. The Re-

publican Senate that has enabled him

must be flipped, while Democrats should

maintain control of the House.

The legacy of this current movement

for racial justice must be more than

merely retiring symbols of the Confedera-

cy. By keeping our eyes on the prize, by

embracing what the great John Lewis

called “good trouble,” by training activism

and energy on the polls in November, we

can make America far more fair, just and

hopeful for all of its people. 0

SUSAN E. RICE, a former national security

adviser, is a contributing opinion writer.

Where it matters most,

Congress has yet again

missed the moment.

Take the Next Step Toward Racial Justice

DEMETRIUS FREEMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Susan E. Rice

A

MERICANS stayed at homeand

sacrificed for months to flatten

the curve and prevent the

spread of the coronavirus. That

gave us time to take the steps needed to

address the pandemic — but President

Trump squandered it, refusing to issue

stay-at-home guidelines, failing to set up a

national testing operation and fumbling

production of personal protective equip-

ment.

Now, Congress must again act as this

crisis continues to spiral out of control.

Those who frame the debate as one of

health versus economics are missing the

point. It is not possible to fix the economy

without first containing the virus.

We need a bold, ambitious legislative

response that does four things: brings the

virus under control; gets our schools,

child care centers, businesses, and state

and local governments the resources they

need; addresses the burdens on commu-

nities of color; and supports struggling

families that don’t know when the next

paycheck will come.

Here’s what the next federal response

must include:

Start with funding the robust public

health measures we know will work to ad-

dress this crisis: ramped-up testing, a na-

tional contact-tracing program and sup-

ply-chain investments to resolve medical

supply shortages. Without these meas-

ures, we will not be able to reopen safely,

more people will die and there will be no

economic recovery.

Our schools face enormous challenges,

like figuring out whether and how to

safely reopen, how to help students who

fell further behind because of distance

learning — disproportionately students of

color. The next legislative package should

include at least $500 billion to stabilize

state and local governments and at least

$175 billion for our public schools to help

them reopen safely, avoid teacher layoffs

and provide the mental health and other

services our children require.

No one can reopen schools by just snap-

ping fingers. No matter what Betsy DeVos

says.

Parents are drowning. Child care cen-

ters and schools are closed, yet essential

workers are expected to still go to work

each day, or night. Even parents who can

work from home are expected to feed the

baby and help their children learn while

participating in Zoom calls.

We cannot begin to have a recovery

without affordable child care. The next re-

lief package must include $50 billion to

keep child care providers in business now

and make long-term investments so more

families can find affordable, high-quality

and safe care in the future.

Rather than bullying businesses into re-

opening, then shielding them from liabil-

ity when people inevitably get sick, let’s

instead make sure they have the re-

sources necessary to put the health and

security of their workers first, and en-

forceable safety standards set by OSHA.

The Essential Workers Bill of Rights,

which I proposed with Representative Ro

Khanna, would include federal money for

hazard pay, sick leave, family and medical

leave, and enforceable health and safety

protections for all essential workers.

While the virus continues to rage, ex-

tended unemployment coverage is criti-

cal. Rather than set arbitrary expiration

dates for unemployment insurance, let’s

tie those benefits to real-time economic

data. Families would be better off and we’d

be investing in a stronger economic recov-

ery.

The structural racism that has long ex-

isted in this country has caused the pan-

demic to hit Black and Latino neighbor-

hoods and Indian Country especially

hard. The next relief package must in-

clude Senate Democrats’ proposal for at

least $350 billion immediately invested in

these communities.

To avoid a tsunami that could put mil-

lions of people out on the street, Congress

should extend and expand the national

eviction moratorium, provide emergency

rental assistance and increase funding for

families experiencing homelessness. We

should broadly cancel student loan debt so

families don’t have a student debt bomb

waiting for them on the other side of this

pandemic — a burden that again falls dis-

proportionately on people of color.

Americans are generous, but if they’re

going to put up taxpayer money during

this pandemic, we need strong anti-cor-

ruption protections like my CORE Act to

make sure a bunch of Trump-connected

businesses that can hire armies of lobby-

ists can’t swoop up big chunks of relief

funding.

Our constituents are counting on us to

deliver the relief they desperately need.

The House passed a relief bill over two

months ago. Now the Senate must act to

contain the virus and to provide the fund-

ing so that our economy, our schools and

our families can begin to recover. This is

about saving lives and livelihoods — and

we don’t have time to waste. 0

My Must-Do List for the Pandemic

Elizabeth Warren

The country can’t fix

the economy without

containing the virus.

ELIZABETH WARRENis a Democratic sena-

tor from Massachusetts and a former

presidential candidate.