Cities & Local Governments

33 posts

Trump 2.0, Day One: Considerations for Cities and Community Partners

As expected, a newly sworn-in President Donald Trump spent the afternoon following his inauguration signing executive orders (EOs), many of them intended to unwind climate and environmental initiatives enacted by former President Joe Biden. In the EOs, President Trump orders federal agencies and personnel to take certain actions – or […]

Sabin Center Files Amicus Brief in New York’s Highest Court Supporting New York City’s Local Law 97

Last Friday, December 20, 2024, the Sabin Center submitted an amicus brief to the New York State Court of Appeals – the state’s highest court – in support of the City of New York in Glen Oaks Village Owners, Inc., et al. v. City of New York. At issue in […]

Seattle, King County & Nonprofits Challenge Washington’s Ballot Initiative Preempting Local Efforts to Phase Out Natural Gas

Over the last five years, at least 25 states have expressly preempted local governments from enacting requirements, or even incentives, to construct new buildings that do not rely on natural gas as a fuel source. On December 6, 2024, two local governments finally fought back in court. Seattle and King […]

Smart Surfaces Policy Tracker: A New Resource For Cities

Cities have a unique and significant role to play in responding to climate change. Many are already doing so by adopting legal and policy tools to encourage the use of smart surfaces—a group of technologies and design strategies that mitigate the effects of climate change in urban environments, especially extreme […]

Sabin Center Files Amicus Brief in Support of EPA’s 2024 Vehicle Emissions Standards

On Friday, December 6, the Sabin Center filed an amicus brief on behalf of the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors in support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Kentucky v. EPA as part of our ongoing amicus efforts to support strong federal climate […]

Cities, Climate & Trump: An Early Research Agenda

We know now that Donald Trump will take office as the United States’ 47th president this January, and that his stated desires for federal climate policy include withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, easing restrictions on oil drilling, and “rescind[ing] all unspent” Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds. For climate-forward cities, the […]

Mapping Local Climate & Equity Action Onto the Harris-Walz Opportunity Economy

A New Way Forward for the Middle Class: A Plan to Lower Costs and Create an Opportunity Economy (the “Opportunity Economy” plan) yields just ten hits on the word “climate,” eight of which are in citations to other sources. Still, the Harris-Walz vision for an “Opportunity Economy” maps neatly onto […]

Sabin Center Files Two Amicus Briefs Supporting EPA’s 2024 Power Plant Rules

Today, the Sabin Center filed two amicus briefs—one on behalf of the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and a second on behalf of experts in carbon capture and storage (CCS) science and technology—in support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in West Virginia v. […]