Climate Law Blog

by Justin Gundlach What is green infrastructure (GI) and why does New York City need more of it? Green roofs, bioswales, and porous pavers are all examples of GI (see images at right), which one article defines as “a network of approaches and technologies that mimic, maintain, or restore natural hydological features in the urban […]

by Justin Gundlach Three weeks ago, at the invitation of the Canadian Consulate and Hydro Québec, I traveled to see two enormous hydropower facilities. One of them, La Grande 2-A, is part of the La Grande Complex of dams, turbines, and electricity substations located in the James Bay region (see map at right). Getting there […]

The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law has partnered with StateAG.org to develop a database of actions undertaken by state attorneys general as they seek to advance environmental law and policy objectives within their jurisdictions. The State AG Environmental Action Database is intended as an easy-to-use and organized legal resource for state attorneys general as […]

Each month, Arnold & Porter and the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law collect and summarize developments in climate-related litigation, which we also add to our U.S. and non-U.S. climate litigation charts.  If you know of any cases we have missed, please email us at columbiaclimate at gmail dot com. Here are the additions to the U.S. Climate Litigation […]

A July 2016 federal court decision has upheld Wyoming laws that impose criminal and civil penalties for collection of “resource data”[1] when the collection involves trespassing on private lands, even when the trespass is unintentional, and even when the trespass is incidental to the collection. The Wyoming legislature enacted these laws in 2015, outlawing the […]

On June 14, an Arizona trial court ruled that the University of Arizona must turn over more than a decade of university climate scientists’ emails to the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (“E&E”), a group that, in its own words, “pepper[s] universities around the country” with open records requests as part of a mission of […]

Justin Gundlach Climate Law Fellow As round after round has passed in the political and legal struggle at the federal level over regulating sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, states have rushed in to try to fill the void. Minnesota sought to do so in 2007 when it passed the Next Generation Energy Act. That […]

The Columbia Environmental Law Clinic wins a critically important case involving the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts. Today, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court released a unanimous decision ordering the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to take additional measures to implement the 2008 Global Warming Solutions Act. Specifically, the Court held that DEP […]

In recent months, there has been a growing succession of actual and proposed investigations into fossil fuel companies, and their purported collaborators, over whether these groups lied to the public or investors about the risks of climate change. The investigations come amid a series of reports that the fossil fuel industry – Exxon Mobil in […]

by David Markell David Sive Visiting Scholar, fall 2016 The legal environment for local government in Florida is beginning to change when it comes to sea-level rise (sometimes referred to as SLR). Innovations in institutional structure and governance strategies are underway in the State as well. This paper, Sea-Level Rise and Changing Times for Florida […]