Amy Turner

34 posts
Amy Turner is the Director of the Cities Climate Law Initiative at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.

Cities: EPA Request for Information on Green Banks Established by the Inflation Reduction Act

By Amy Turner On October 21, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) released a request for information (RFI) regarding Section 60103 of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), also known as the IRA’s “green bank” provisions. These provisions add a new section 134 to the Clean Air Act establishing a […]

Cities & the Inflation Reduction Act

By Amy Turner On August 16, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (or “IRA”), widely hailed as the most ambitious piece of climate legislation in U.S. history. The bill is sprawling, covering climate and energy topics as diverse as electric vehicles, building decarbonization, clean energy manufacturing and supply chains, […]

Cooperative Federalism, As Applied: Building Electrification

By Amy Turner Earlier this month, groups supporting the City of Berkeley, California filed six amicus briefs in the appellate proceeding California Restaurant Association v. City of Berkeley, currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. At issue in the case is whether the U.S. Energy Policy […]

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATIONS FILE BRIEF TO NINTH CIRCUIT IN SUPPORT OF BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA’S NATURAL GAS RESTRICTION

By Amy Turner, Michael Burger & Jennifer Danis Today, the Sabin Center filed an amicus brief on behalf of the National League of Cities, the League of California Cities, and the California State Association of Counties in California Restaurant Association v. City of Berkeley, a case before the U.S. Court […]

Cities Climate Law: A Legal Framework for Local Action in the U.S. Offers Guide for Local Policymakers

Cities around the U.S. have long demonstrated leadership on climate change, with more than 170 of them having set targets to phase out fossil energy and many others committing to net zero greenhouse gas emissions. American cities, towns, counties, and other forms of local government have pioneered path-setting approaches to economy-wide […]

California Restaurant Association v. Berkeley and Local Natural Gas Restrictions

Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a long-awaited decision in California Restaurant Association v. City of Berkeley. The decision essentially – and subject to possible appeals – answered in the negative the question of whether Berkeley’s first-in-the-nation prohibition on natural gas hookups to newly-constructed […]

Emerging Local Legal Pathways for Building Electrification: Air Pollution and Land Use Regulation in New York City & Brookline, Massachusetts

By Amy Turner   This week marked significant growth for the building electrification movement, as the legal pathways in use by local governments to catalyze electrification doubled in number. Previously, local governments had pursued building electrification through building code provisions requiring or incentivizing electrification expressly, or through affirmative “bans” on […]