The New York Times, Room for Debate, April 22, 2011 by Holly Doremus
http://nyti.ms/gJUwh2

The great virtue of the Endangered Species Act is that it fights the human tendency to ignore problems indefinitely. It doesn’t force us to save endangered species, but it forces us to notice their plight. It’s a vital attention-getting device, and we need to be sure it continues to serve that purpose.

-The Huffington Post, April 5, 2011 by Marcus Baram
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/05/tokyo-electric-knew-radia_n_845021.html

The EPA has announced that it will delay finalizing its guidance memorandum on Clean Water Act permitting for mountaintop removal mining projects, pending review by the White House Office of Management and Budget. The move worries those “hoping the Obama administration won’t completely cave to regulated interests,” says Berkeley Law professor Holly Doremus.

-Greenwire, April 7, 2011 by Manuel Quinones
http://www.eenews.net/gw/ (registration required; go to H:\Law School in the News\In the News 2011\News Clips for article)

Doremus maintains an agency guidance does not need review by the executive branch. “What [White House officials] are supposed to be reviewing is new legal burdens. A rule is something that imposes new legal burdens,” she said in an interview. “All this guidance does is say, look at all the existing laws and regulations, this is how we are going to enforce them.”

-The Charleston Gazette, Coal Tattoo, April 7, 2011 by Ken Ward Jr.
http://bit.ly/dMKQXw

In a post on the group’s blog, Holly Doremus, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, outlined some serious concerns: Why is the White House really involved? Because since the mid-term elections it has been only too willing to bend to big-money attacks on regulatory agencies.

The New York Times, February 16, 2011 by Lawrence Hurley
http://nyti.ms/eJrsfG

“There are considerations either way,” said Holly Doremus, an environmental law professor at University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Her instinct is that the Justice Department won’t appeal, for the simple reason that “they won’t want to piss off the judge any more than they already have.”

Environmental NewsStand, December 7, 2010
http://insideepa.com/ (registration required; go to H:\Law School in the News\In the News 2010\News Clips for article)

“Overall, this guidance is a very positive sign that CEQ is flexing its White House muscles, and an excellent start at standardizing quality NEPA implementation. If followed, it will go a long way toward reining in overuse of categorical exclusions,” writes Holly Doremus.

ClimateWire, December 7, 2010 by Dina Fine Maron
http://www.eenews.net (registration required; go to H:\Law School in the News\In the News 2010\News Clips for article)

“The 2nd Circuit took a pretty broad view, more or less saying until EPA is doing exactly what the plaintiffs are seeking to have done here, it doesn’t displace. My guess is the Supreme Court won’t agree with that; that they’ll think there is a broader displacement here, and if the Clean Air Act covers greenhouse gases, that might be enough.”

Contra Costa Times, June 14, 2010 by Mike Taugher
http://www.contracostatimes.com/environment/ci_15282537?nclick_check=1

“It doesn’t make any sense to do environmental analysis on the back end when you’re trying to help the environment,” said Holly Doremus, a professor at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. “What he’s saying is the agencies have to find absolutely the least burdensome way to save the species.”

-St. Petersburg Times, PolitiFact.com, Truth-O-Meter, June 1, 2010
bit.ly/aYZsSV

Holly Doremus, a law professor at the University of California-Berkeley who has studied the MMS permitting process, called it “a bit disingenuous” for Obama to focus solely on the 30-day limit….”I think rather that MMS has thought, and acted, as if it didn’t need to do detailed environmental review at the exploration plan stage” because it does them at the two earlier stages. “If that review were more thorough, and considered true worst-case scenarios, it might well be the case that 30 days would be enough to look at the environmental impacts of exploration in a particular location,” she said.

-Dateline NBC, June 4, 2010 by Aram Roston
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37518051/ns/dateline_nbc/

“They pretended they had already taken a careful look,” says Holly Doremus, an environmental law professor at University of California at Berkeley. “But it seems badly wrong. The bottom line was that the environmental analysis was completely unrealistic.”

-Rolling Stone, June 8, 2010 by Tim Dickinson
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965?RS_show_page=0

“There was a complete failure to even contemplate the possibility of a disaster like the one in the Gulf,” says Holly Doremus, an environmental-law expert at the University of California. “In their thinking, a big spill would be something like 5,000 barrels, and the oil wouldn’t even reach the shoreline.”

-The Washington Post, May 5, 2010 by Juliet Eilperin
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/04/AR2010050404118.html?hpid=topnews

“They never did an analysis that took into account what turns out to be the very real possibility of a serious spill,” said Holly Doremus, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley who has reviewed the documents.

-American Public Media, Marketplace, May 11, 2010 by Brett Neely
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/05/11/pm-offshore-oil-regulations/

The big question is whether splitting MMS apart will be enough. “I’m skeptical that will solve the problem….You need to get people from a different orientation to start with, or you need some serious leadership from the top.”

The Sacramento Bee, January 21, 2010 by Matt Weiser
http://www.sacbee.com/378/story/2477608.html

“Lots of people are uncomfortable with uncertain science,” said Doremus, who served on two prior academy panels. “The water users really want to know that when they’re giving up water, the fish will be saved. And that’s an assurance that just can’t be provided.”