Lawrence Kogan

Klamath Dam Removal Agenda

The nonprofit Institute for Trade, Standards and Sustainable Development (ITSSD) has once again waded into the local and D.C. swamps surrounding the ongoing Klamath Basin dam removal agenda of legacy bureaucrats and self-interested politicians.

The Europeanization of the Great Lakes States' Wetlands Laws & Regulations

For more than 15 years, in addition to practicing law, I have been engaged in Washington, D.C. and around the nation, in public international, federal and state policy practice. My public policy practice has focused, in part, on how the European Union, formed upon the execution of the 1992 Maastrict Treaty by the countries of Europe, has, at the insistence of European regional industries, exported around the world Europe's relatively higher cost of sustainable development/Agenda 21-modeled environmental regulation around the world.

EPA Disregard for "WOTUS" Prior Converted Cropland Exclusion Kills Ag Jobs and Contributes to National Security Risk

The Federal government has incrementally extended its control over agricultural lands during the past forty years,¹ by expanding the definition of "waters of the US" (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and asserting broad legal jurisdiction over WOTUS-adjacent "wetlands." Such activities have triggered Congressional investigations² and significant public litigation. They also have facilitated the CWA's growth into a "regulatory hydra" and caused a "reversal of terms [in our unique relationship with government] that is worthy of Alice in Wonderland."³

A UN and tribal takeover?

A massive 792-page Senate Energy Committee bill threatens to authorize federal bureaucrats to cede extensive control over western state water and property rights, energy development and forest management to Native American tribes, local UN sustainability councils and radical environmentalist groups. Certain provisions could undermine the foundations of our nation from within our nation.

White House as Originator and Promoter of Klamath Basin Agreements

Klamath Basin groups claiming to represent the majority of Klamath Basin residents, such as the Klamath Water Users Association ("KWUA")¹ and the Family Farm Alliance ("FFA"),² have long perpetuated the lie that the Klamath Basin Agreements will benefit ALL Basin residents. The first two of these agreements had been initially proposed during the Bush administration³ in an effort assist Klamath irrigators resolve longstanding science and water delivery disputes with environmentalists and tribal communities.

Montanans Must Seek Independence from CSKT Water Compact

July 4th celebrations are a time for recalling the birth and exceptionalism of our great nation. The United States of America has remained a unique global experiment in which Enlightenment-era principles (political, social, economic, scientific, philosophical and legal) have been deployed to successfully promote and defend our natural rights-based individualism and freedoms, especially private property. This 4^th of July is particularly noteworthy, because it is both the 239^th year since the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the 800^th year since the signing of the English Magna Carta. The Magna Carta strongly influenced the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights. Its significance to Americans lies primarily in its guarantee to "We the People" of certain rights and its binding of an oppressive sovereign (government at all levels) to the rule of law. These documents together memorialize the Founding Fathers' distrust of concentrated political power and confidence that representative government, the idea of a supreme law and independent judicial review can serve as indispensable counterweights to tyranny.

Science for the Picking

In a May commencement speech delivered at the University of California, Irvine, President Obama mocked members of the U.S. Congress who 'duck the question,' as he put it, "of whether climate change is real by saying that they are not scientists". Since then, articles appearing in a number of "neutral" media outlets, including the Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, Cape Cod Times, Huffington Post, etc., have endorsed this learned approach of addressing the issue of climate change. Clearly, they display climate change believers' chosen tactic of ridiculing or dismissing as climate change deniers anyone, including scientists, analysts and politicians, who dares to raise questions about the views of many within the contemporary climate science community.