Texas’ Third Court of Appeals will hear arguments tomorrow, April 23, 2025, in a case that cuts to the core of how state and local governments coexist. In Texas v. City of Houston, City of San Antonio, and City of El Paso, a group of Texas cities is challenging one […]
Municipal Activity
18 posts
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 […]
Two years into the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the several tax credits that are eligible for “elective pay” are starting to catalyze investment in renewable energy, electric vehicles, and EV charging by nontaxable entities like local governments and nonprofit organizations. Slower to develop is a robust, cohesive response by nontaxable […]
Every summer now feels like Groundhog Day. More heat records broken. Soon, we’ll have more school days canceled (take Philadelphia for example where nearly 30 percent of city schools recently shut down due to lack of cooling systems). We already have more heat-related deaths (in fact, according to a study, […]
On August 14 the federal government released the United States’ first National Heat Strategy. As it stands today, the Strategy is a major step forward for coordinated federal action to recognize and address extreme heat and it confirms that agencies across the federal government are making this a high priority […]
Cities are often considered a niche focus for those who work in climate policy – a third level of government not directly captured in our country’s federal-state dichotomy, one occasionally commended for “stepping up” or showing “leadership” in the absence of climate action by Congress or in many states. There […]
Building codes have a major influence on how local governments respond to climate change. They prescribe enforceable requirements for the materials that buildings are made of, for how living and working spaces are designed, and critically, for what kinds of environmental possibilities new buildings must be prepared to accommodate. For […]
Last month, the Fordham Urban Law Journal published a paper I wrote titled The Legal Case for Equity in Local Climate Action Planning. In the last several years, cities’ climate action plans, or CAPs, have increasingly incorporated equity and justice objectives and metrics alongside more traditional greenhouse gas reduction measures […]