Buck In Brief

The Mid-Term Elections of 2006

In Brief: The new majorities in Congress present new opportunities and new challenges for environmental law. Earthjustice Executive Director presents his analysis.

11/13/06

A misbegotten and mishandled war has given us a new Congress. And although the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate were swept into office by a confluence of concerns, of which Iraq was by far the greatest, we now have the most environmentally-friendly legislative branch that we have seen since the early 1990s -- maybe even the '80s.

Nevertheless, it's still going to be hard to get major new environmental laws on the books -- the kinds of laws we ultimately need to create a mix of renewable energy sources and conservation and to seriously address global warming. The filibuster works for any minority party, so it will still take at least 60 votes to get any big bills through the Senate, and for at least the next two years the President will probably veto any legislation the timber companies, fossil fuel producers, or utilities don't like. Environmentalists will have to prioritize their issues as never before and sort out what's immediately do-able and what items require a longer-term strategy.

For Earthjustice, however, the change in the makeup of Congress is immensely important and immediate. Now when we challenge unlawful behavior by the administration or an industry -- an attempt to thwart the law by gutting the regulations that implement it, or to sacrifice long-term values for short-term profits, we don't have to be quite so worried the Congress will simply try to pull the rug out from under us by seeking to overrule the courts legislatively. That allows us to be as aggressive as we need to be in going after the administration or anyone else, and we can be reasonably confident that the gains we make in court are likely to be permanent. This will be vital in the coming years as the loss of their anti-environmental committee chairs in Congress will send polluters running to the administration as never before seeking rule changes to weaken public health and environmental safeguards.

The change in Congress also means that Earthjustice lawyers will be able to make even more effective use of litigation: not merely to check backsliding but as a catalyst for positive change. Using the laws to promote fundamental changes in how we manage our resources, protect people, and preserve the working pieces of our natural world is what we do best. Because it will still be difficult to get new laws on the books it's all the more important that we advance the unfulfilled potential of the laws we have. This is where Earthjustice comes in, and where there's really no substitute: producing solutions with the tools we have is what we're all about.

So despite the cautions expressed in my opening words, we're pretty excited, and you should be, too. We have a lot more work to do, but the number of opportunities and the odds of success have just changed dramatically.

Read a list of potential committee and subcommittee chairs (PDF)

Vawter "Buck" Parker, Executive Director
buckparker@earthjustice.org