Subject: Update
From: David Hayes <[email-masked]>
To: David Hayes <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2015 08:04:52 -0500

In the last month or so, I posted a couple of items that some of you may be
interested in.

The first is an op-ed that was in last Sunday's Sacramento Bee.  Only read
this if you are a California water junkie or interested in long running and
seemingly-intractable natural resource conflicts! Here's the url link --
http://sacb.ee/52Rg ; I've also pasted it in below.

The second is a short piece on the little-noticed title in the recently
enacted transportation law that will require the feds to deploy new
permitting and approval processes for renewable energy and other large
infrastructure projects.  Unsexy operational issues like this take on more
importance after Paris, as we work collectively to bring more renewable
energy to the marketplace.  Here's the link -- http://stanford.io/1OVGeyu .

Also on the nuts-and-bolts, "making-our-government-work-better" theme, I
have been thinking how to better optimize White House/Cabinet Department
interactions.  My thesis is that while the WH is the place where major
policy decisions should be made, the WH is not well-situated to *implement *
or *operationalize* policy directions.  Accountability for policy
implementation should be explicitly placed on the shoulders of the
appropriate agency leaders, with the WH assisting on the coordination and
budgeting front. *See*
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2015/07/the_white_house_n
<http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2015/07/the_white_house_needs_to_learn056594.php>
eeds_to_learn056594.php
<http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2015/07/the_white_house_needs_to_learn056594.php>
I'd welcome your views on these difficult -- and important -- "governance"
questions.

​On the personal front, I am in the midst of my third year of a bicoastal
life, split between DC and Stanford, where I am teaching and, this year,
working on a grant from the Hewlett Foundation that hones in on the
potential climate change agenda for our next President.  I also am devoting
attention to the global wildlife trafficking crisis and federal water and
energy policy.

Cheers to all of you and Happy New Year!

David

-- 

*David J. Hayes*

*Stanford Law School*
Distinguished Visiting Lecturer in Law

Crown Quadrangle

559 Nathan Abbott Way

Stanford, CA 94305-8610

[email-masked] <[email-masked]>*

twitter:  @djhayes01

office:  650-723-7778

cell:  202-258-3909

personal email:  [email-masked]