Climate Law Blog

By Alyssa Kutner, Summer Legal Intern There has been a lot of discussion and press around the EPA’s new Clean Power Plan, which is intended to reduce CO2 emissions from existing power plants by 30% from 2005 levels by 2030. The EPA proposed this plan on June 2nd under its Clean Air Act §111(d) authority, which […]

By Isabelle Aubrun, CCCL Intern (Brown University) On June 2, Secretary of the US Department of Housing and Development (HUD) Shaun Donovan announced the Rebuild by Design Competition’s six winners. Created by President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force in 2013, ‘Rebuild by Design’ awards HUD funding to infrastructure projects in locations hardest hit by […]

By Ellii Cho, Summer Legal Intern The National Environmental Policy Act of 1970 (NEPA) requires federal agencies to prepare environmental impact statements (EISs) for all “major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment.”[1] This includes the issuance of federal permits. Even after an EIS is completed and a proposed project has been […]

By Hunter Book, Summer Legal Intern On June 3, 2013, a group of lawsuits that generated significant interest among environmental lawyers were abruptly withdrawn.[1]  The cases notably alleged a novel theory of liability and duty of care regarding climate change projections.  In Illinois Farmers Insurance Co. v. Metro Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago[2](and related cases […]

By Brian Park, Summer Legal Intern On May 15th, 2014, Standard & Poor’s Rating Services issued Climate Change is a Global Mega-Trend for Sovereign Risk, a report about the potential impacts of climate change on sovereign credit ratings of countries around the world.  In its report, S&P explains how the costs of inaction on climate […]

Update #63 June 2014 Each month, Arnold & Porter and the Center for Climate Change Law collect and summarize developments in climate-related litigation, which we also add to our U.S. and non-US climate litigation charts. The June additions are listed below. (If you know of any cases we’ve missed, please email us at columbiaclimate at gmail dot com.)   FEATURED DECISION […]

By Yeein Lee, Summer Legal Intern On Thursday May 29th, the eleventh biennial conference on key and emerging environmental issues in the EPA Region 2 area was held at Columbia Law School. This teeming conference consisted of four panels, each on separate yet correlated environmental topics around New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the […]