Jennifer M. Klein, Esq. Associate Director & Fellow The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recently finalized a rule regarding the storage of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel at individual power plants beyond the duration of each plant’s operating license. The NRC’s Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) for the rule addressed potential climate […]
On September 19, the George Washington University Law School, Society for Risk Analysis, USDA Risk Forum and Environmental Law Institute co-hosted a workshop on the role of adaptive management in government decision-making. Representatives from federal agencies, civil society organizations and academic institutions gathered to discuss some of the key barriers […]
In a new working paper (forthcoming as an article in Harvard Environmental Law Review Volume 39, 2015), Shelley Welton examines the reasons that “non-transmission alternatives”—including energy efficiency, energy storage, demand response, and distributed generation—have played a very limited role in meeting electricity grid constraints, despite their great potential. The paper […]
Former environmental litigator and Columbia Law School graduate Michael Burger ’03 was recently named the first executive director of the Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Burger, who currently serves as an associate professor of law at Roger Williams University School of Law in Rhode Island, will formally […]
By Michael B. Gerrard The Clean Power Plan proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency in June is the centerpiece of the Obama Administration’s efforts to fight climate change. Coal-fired power plants are by far the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, and the EPA proposal would […]
The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law has created a new Climate Change Adaptation Resources page. It is organized by federal and state efforts agencies ranging from the Environmental Protection Agency to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The State Adaptation Resources Page contains links to climate change adaptation efforts conducted by states and the localities and cities […]
by Jordana Fremed, Summer Intern In September 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide whether or not to list the greater sage-grouse as threatened under the Endangered Species Act of 1973.[1] The proposed listing has caused conflict between two groups of environmentalists: conservationists and advocates of renewable energy […]
By Michael B. Gerrard The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), signed into law by President Richard Nixon on January 1, 1970, was the first U.S. environmental statute of the modern era. It requires the preparation of environmental impact statements (EISs) for major federal actions that may have a significant impact […]