Cass Sunstein, head of OIRA, explains gains achieved through cost-benefit analysis of regulation

May 7, ’12

Cass Sunstein, the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the Office of Management and Budget and one of the most prolific and frequently cited legal academics today, detailed some of the promising results of using cost-benefit analysis in overseeing the Obama administration’s regulatory agenda when he spoke at NYU Law on April 30.

At the Institute for Policy Integrity event, the head of OIRA received an enthusiastic introduction from NYU Law Dean Richard Revesz, who is also the institute’s faculty director. In his talk, Sunstein, who taught for 27 years at the University of Chicago Law School and is now on leave from Harvard Law School, explained that the government has expended considerable effort in simplifying regulations and information for citizens. He added that complexity causes real problems: “If you identify a clear path, you really help someone…. Information in the abstract may not be so helpful. You need to enable people to make informed comparisons.” Sunstein used as an example the old fuel economy labels on cars, whose miles-per-gallon figures didn’t necessarily tell consumers what they really needed to know, versus the new labels, which reveal average annual fuel costs. Further, all agencies have been asked to give input about potential regulatory improvements and to simplify their forms in the interest of further streamlining and convenience for constituents.

The current administration’s cost-benefit analysis focus has yielded real monetary benefits, Sunstein reported: $91 billion in its first three fiscal years, manifested in fuel and energy efficiency, consumer and business savings, and deaths and injuries averted. The comparable figures for the George W. Bush and Clinton administrations are $14 billion and $3 billion, respectively, he said. “In an economically hard time, we’ve been extremely diligent to try to keep those costs down as low as possible.”

Transparency has increased through a disclosure initiative in which the government provides large amounts of data to the private sector, which then uses the information to make apps for consumers. One example is an app for energy usage so consumers can calculate possible savings: “The potential here is very large for enabling people to make comparisons across a wide range of consumer products,” Sunstein said.

Sunstein cited the importance of the public comment process as a “central safeguard,” adding that agencies really do pay attention and respond to citizens’ remarks on potential rules. Sunstein also discussed collaborative efforts with Canada, Mexico, and Europe to eliminate regulatory differences among the respective countries that present trade barriers. “In a 21st-century economy,” he said, “one thing you can do that’s really important for growth and job creation is to eliminate red tape that has no justification.”

In the question-and-answer session, Sunstein responded to a query about why the Obama administration doesn’t seem to get credit for implementing fewer rules than the previous administration did during its first three years. “There’s a big disconnect between the record… and the occasional view that we’re regulation-happy with extremely expensive and numerous rules,” he said, adding, “It might be partly that the health care law is just so salient that it’s thought that, given that, it must be the case that there are more costly rules. Maybe that’s the problem.”

Sunstein previously visited NYU Law in April 2011, when last year’s volume of the NYU Annual Survey of American Law was dedicated to him.

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Symposium explores municipal dynamism in environmental policy

Mar 5, ’12

The NYU Environmental Law Journal, NYU Environmental Law Society, and the Furman Center for Real Estate and Public Policy recently cosponsored a symposium on “Localities in the Lead: The Path of Environmental Progress through New York City.” Introducing the event, Professor Katrina Wyman discussed what she described as a relatively new era of focusing on environmental policy at the municipal level. “Municipalities aren’t just taking an interest in traditionally local issues, like land use or brown field,” she said, “but also taking an interest in the preeminent global environmental issue of our time: climate change.”

New York City in particular has been extremely active in recent years in environmental policy, Wyman said, pointing to the PlaNYC initiative. Because of this, she said, the city serves as a good case study for thinking through the challenges involved in working through environmental policy at a municipal level.

In the keynote address, Carter Strickland, commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, further discussed the PlaNYC initiative, and emphasized the growing importance of cities as platforms for environmental policy. By 2030, he said, the population of New York City will have increased by one million, and by 2070, 70% of the world’s population will live in cities.

“Localities matter because they’ll feel the brunt of it, in a very particular way. One of the longest measured histories of sea-level is at the battery, and it’s shown a very demonstrable rise to date,” he added. “We’re going to see a very substantial rise of a foot or two feet over the next 70 years.”

Two panels, both moderated by Professor Roderick Hills, further explored these issues. The first panel, which featured Professor Bob Alpern of the Pratt Institute, Charles Komanoff, director of the Carbon Tax Center, and Kate Sinding, senior attorney at Natural Resources Defense Council, focused on the challenges and limitations that confront efforts to promote sustainability in the urban setting. Some of the challenges discussed included limitations on state home-rule power over land use decisions (concentrating on recent fracking litigation), taxes and fees on various forms of waste, and efforts to promote an environmentally friendly transportation system. In the afternoon, a second panel, which included experts from GrowNYC, the New York City Department of City Planning, and the Urban Green Council, discussed some of the innovations in environmentally progressive efforts that have arisen in New York City.

Video from Carter Strickland’s keynote address (51 min):

 

Video from Panel 1 (1 h 38 min):

 

Video from Panel 2 (1 h 26 min):

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Furman Center wins prestigious MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions

Feb 16, ’12

On February 16, the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy received the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions in recognition of its excellence in providing policymakers with objective, relevant research to address pressing issues for neighborhoods in New York City and nationwide. The award’s $1 million grant will allow the Furman Center to expand its research and policy analysis focus to a more national scope.

Robert Galluci, president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, said that the 15 honored organizations “demonstrate exceptional creativity and effectiveness. They provide new ways to address old problems. They generate provocative ideas and they reframe well-worn debates. And their impact is altogether disproportionate to their size.”

“The demand for our work has grown dramatically with the housing crisis and the increasing need for sustainable and affordable housing across the country,” said Vicki Been ’83, Boxer Family Professor of Law and faculty director of the Furman Center. “This award presents a remarkable opportunity for us to expand our research beyond New York City to help policymakers in Washington and across the nation make more effective housing and community development investments and policies.”

Since its founding in 1995, the Furman Center, a joint effort of the Law School and the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, has become a leading academic research center for the public policy aspects of land use, real estate development, and housing. The center has examined the effect of subsidized housing investments on neighborhoods; the impact of the foreclosure crisis on crime, property values, tenants, and education; innovative ways to address credit needs in a volatile and declining housing market; local governments’ transformation of foreclosed properties into community assets; and a host of other issues. In 2010 it launched the Institute for Affordable Housing Policy to address the challenges of creating cost-effective affordable housing programs.

The Furman Center will use the funds to broaden its geographic scope from a focus primarily on New York City to one with national research capabilities allowing it to collect data in multiple cities and address a broader set of policy challenges, as well as to strengthen and expand its policy analysis and improve its communications and data management.

“The MacArthur Award comes at a critical time,” said Ingrid Gould Ellen, the center’s co-director, “allowing us to continue to expand the work we’ve always done in New York City to cities and neighborhoods across the country, and to address a broader range of national issues and public policy debates.”

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Rethinking Climate Change: Towards an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice

Feb 5, ’12

On February 2, Dean Revesz welcomed Johnson Toribiong, president of Palau and Tillman Thomas, prime minister of Grenada for an event about climate change. Palau and Grenada, along with a number of small island countries, concerned about the impact of rising sea levels that are resulting from climate change, are going to introduce a resolution into the United Nations General Assembly asking for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice.

“The truth is that nothing we or other Pacific countries do will stem the rising tides or the flood of global emissions. We need everyone to buy in or it won’t work. An ICJ advisory opinion would give us the guidance we need on what all States must do,“ said President Toribiong. “I am pleased that deliberations on a possible resolution have begun here in New York. But there is a long way to go.”

The resolution is expected to be introduced later in the spring and requires a simple majority of the 195 UN GA members to pass. Attending the reception along with the President and Prime Minister were their Ambassadors to the UN, Stuart Beck (of Palau) and Dessima Williams (of Grenada). They were joined by nearly 100 other UN Ambassadors, Deputy Permanent Representatives and legal advisors.

Two NYU law students and IILJ scholars, Julian Arato (’11, LL..M’12) and Ben Heath (’11, LL..M’12) have been assisting the Mission of Palau by providing legal advice on the issue. Since the Mission of Palau was opened in 2004, NYU law students have provided legal assistance on a number of issues, including international environmental law and law of the sea.

The event was organized by the Frank J. Guarini Center for Environmental and Land Use Law and the Institute for International Law and Justice, with financial support from the Mission of Palau and the Mission of Grenada.

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Global Climate Finance Project holds workshop in Abu Dhabi

Jan 20, ’12

Institutions for climate finance and the new Green Climate Fund were the two main topics of discussion at the workshop on Climate Finance held in Abu Dhabi last week, hosted at the NYU Abu Dhabi campus by the Global Climate Finance Project, together with the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This was the Project’s third workshop in the UAE.

The workshop started on Monday, January 9th, bringing local UAE government officials together with an impressive group of experts drawing from academia, the World Bank, various NGOs and the private sector. The workshop heard from three panels discussing the global architecture; the new Green Climate Fund; and tracking climate finance flows. Discussion was so lively that the second day began with a panel originally intended to be on the first day: making transformative investments in climate technologies. The rest of the day was devoted to discussing a paper that will form the opening chapters of a new book on institutions for climate finance that the workshop participants will contribute to. Over the two days, participants engaged in a comprehensive discussion, identifying a number of pressing issues for resolution, areas in which further research is required, and various opportunities for both the UAE and the global community more broadly, to build an effective regime for climate finance.

After the first day of the workshop, Professor Richard Stewart, Professor Daniel Bodansky of Arizona State University and Smita Nakhooda of the Overseas Development Institute held a public discussion on “The Future of International Climate Action,” as a part of the public lectures hosted by NYU Abu Dhabi. The lecture was well attended and was followed by a spirited question and answer session and reception.

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NYU Law and University of Chile School of Law to become global partners

Jan 6, ’12

A December conference on the use of cost-benefit analysis to set domestic environmental policy in developing and emerging economies served a dual purpose as an occasion to seal an agreement between NYU School of Law and the University of Chile School of Law for a scholarly partnership.

Hosted by the University of Chile School of Law and its Center on Regulation and Competition and organized by Professor Gonzalo Moyano (LL.M. ’09), “How to Improve Regulation: Regulatory reform and economic activity” focused on how countries with limited resources can maximize the benefits of environmental protection while reducing the economic costs. Dean Richard Revesz and Michael Livermore ’06, executive director of the NYU Law Institute for Policy Integrity, attended with Meera de Mel ’05, assistant dean for global programs at NYU Law.

This conference is part of a multi-year effort led by Revesz and Livermore to examine how cost-benefit analysis is used in the global context. In October of 2010, the two convened a workshop at the NYU-Abu Dhabi Institute on the topic of “global cost-benefit analysis,” gathering top experts from the world of academia, government, and civil society to discuss the theoretical and practical issues that have arisen as the use of cost-benefit analysis has spread around the world. That two day conference produced a set of case studies from a number of global contexts—from dam building in Panama to air pollution in Singapore—that will serve as the foundation for a book edited by them to be published by Oxford University Press in the fall of 2012.

The first NYU-Chile collaboration will be around the issue of climate finance, with the aim of using Santiago as a hub to develop a regional network of thinkers on this issue. The NYU Global Climate Finance Project, led by Benedict Kingsbury, Murry and Ida Becker Professor of Law, and University Professor Richard Stewart, John Edward Sexton Professor of Law, as well as project director Bryce Rudyk, has charted this new field, bringing together domestic and international policymakers, leaders from the business community, and academic institutions in a collaborative dialogue around the legal dimensions of the emerging global climate finance regime, issues which have largely prevented progress since the Copenhagen Accord that was drafted at the 2009 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The partnership with the University of Chile is a win-win for both institutions, said U.S. Ambassador to Chile Alejandro Wolff. Home to one of Latin America’s most prestigious law faculties, the University is aggressively expanding its international outreach, an effort led by its international relations director, Rodrigo Polanco (LL.M.’04). At the same time, Santiago is quickly becoming one of the developing world’s most entrepreneurial capitals, benefiting enormously from Chile’s steady economic growth, which was acknowledged by its 2010 membership to the OECD.

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Forum tackles nuclear safety and climate change

Dec 5, ’11

Richard Stewart, University Professor and John Edward Sexton Professor of Law, moderated the November 30 Milbank Tweed Forum. Titled “Global Warming or Nuclear Meltdown? The Future of Nuclear Power After Fukushima,” the discussion took on issues ranging from fears of nuclear proliferation to the recent crisis at the Fukushima plant in Japan, and, on the plus side, whether nuclear power can provide stable, secure, low-carbon electricity and curb climate change. Panelists included Michael Levi, a senior fellow and director of the program on energy security and climate change at the Council of Foreign Relations; William McCollum, chief operating officer of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which operates three nuclear and 11 coal-fired plants; and Christopher Paine, nuclear program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

In his introduction to the discussion, Stewart, who is also the director of the Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental and Land Use Law, noted that nearly all of the nuclear plants in the U.S. started construction before 1975 and that “ten years ago one would have said that the nuclear industry is moribund, there are not going to be any more new plants in the United States.” Then, he noted, “there was a change in direction and attitude” due to growth in energy demand, rising energy prices, concerns about energy security, and global warming. “There was talk in the 2005 era of a U.S. nuclear renaissance,” Stewart said. But, he added, “at this point the bloom is somewhat off the renaissance,” because of a drop in electric demand caused by the recession and safety concerns raised by the Fukushima incident. Additionally, Stewart noted, the U.S. has not figured out how it will dispose of its nuclear waste — the subject of his most recent book. “There’s a complex web of economic and environmental and security, as well as political and legal issues here,” he said.

Watch the full video of the event (1 h 13 min):

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Student panel examines the health and environmental consequences of factory farms

Nov 4, ’11

The following account was written by Elizabeth Hallinan ’13, who was one of the organizers of the program, and then moderated the discussion.

On Tuesday, October 25th, NYU Law’s Student Animal Legal Defense Fund and the Environmental Law Society hosted a panel to discuss another crisis in the American food culture – the prevalence of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), colloquially known as factory farms.

As explained by Nebraska farmer Kevin Fulton of the sustainable Fulton Farms, CAFOs are not the mom-n-pop family farm pictured on your milk carton. CAFOs, as explained by the EPA, are “agricultural operations where animals are kept and raised in confined situations…which congregate animals, feed, manure and urine, dead animals, and production operations on a small land area.”

Panelist Mark Bittman, a columnist and long-time food writer for the New York Times, is worried about the environmental damage these operations can do. CAFOs are major polluters of both local toxins (for example when manure lagoons overflow into local waterways) as well as greenhouse gases from both the facilities and the animals themselves. Bittman has written extensively about the problems stemming from the over-consumption of meat in the U.S. On the panel, he claimed that meat is not as cheap as it seems to be. He pointed out that if we included the extensive environmental and health costs to society – what economists call “externalities” of the system – the price of a steak dinner is actually very expensive. According to Fulton, Americans used to spend far more money on food than on health insurance. Now that ratio is reversed.

As we have moved from family farms to factory farms, other unintended consequences have arisen. Jen Sorenson, a litigator with the Natural Resources Defense Council explained that 80% of all antibiotics in the US are fed to CAFO animals. These antibiotics are given subtherapeutically, meaning they are used not to improve animal health, but to enhance growth rate and improve feed efficiency. Unfortunately, as Bittman pointed out, this extraordinary overuse of antibiotics contributes to the growing prevalence of “superbugs” that are resistant to therapeutic use of these antibiotics when animals, and humans, need treatment.

As one audience member commented after the panel, the problem with discussing factory farming is that you pull the thread of one problem, and the entire system starts to unravel. Animal welfare, worker safety, labor rights, and many other issues are implicated in the mess of the CAFO system.

So what can we do? Bittman wishes we would cook more at home and rely less on the food industry to tell us what we should eat. Sorenson suggested that focusing on the human health concerns is the best tactic in litigation aimed at curbing CAFOs. Jon Lovvorn, an attorney at the Humane Society of the United States, has found nuisance law to be a fruitful litigation approach. And Fulton invited the entire audience to see a sustainable farm at work in Nebraska. Judging by the warm reception given to him, and all our speakers, by the audience that night, I might not be the only one to take him up on his offer.

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European Climate Change Ministers Hold NYU Workshops

Oct 30, ’11

Over the last year, Connie Hedegaard (EU Commissioner for Climate Action), Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet (French Minister for Ecology) and Serge Lepeltier (French Ambassador for Climate Negotiations) each held workshops on current climate policy at NYU, continuing the Global Climate Finance Project’s series of meetings between leading international policy-makers and NYU faculty and students.

Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action participating in a roundtable discussion.

Commissioner Hedegaard, who was chair of the Copenhagen climate conference in December 2009, came to campus in September 2010 after asking the Global Climate Finance Project to gather a group of experts to discuss issues relating to climate finance. In addition to Hedegaard and the European Commission’s Director of Climate Strategy and International Negotiations Artur Runge-Metzger, NYU professors and fellows participated along with colleagues from Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Environmental Defense Fund, Peterson Institute for International Economics, World Resources Institute, and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

The workshop engaged in lively debate on a number of contentious issues, including the institutions and MRV structures for climate finance, the use of border carbon adjustments, the U.S. domestic political obstacles to implementing proposed international levies (for example, on bunker fuels), and the role of corporations in the current climate change negotiations and in any future climate finance regime.

Professor Richard Stewart, French Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet and Robert Orr, Assistant UN Secretary General discuss the future of climate finance

In March 2011, French Minister for Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport, and Housing Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet was the lead speaker at “From Fast-Start to Long-Term Finance for Climate Protection: The Need for New Funding Sources,” a panel discussion involving the Assistant UN Secretary General Robert Orr, Professor Richard Stewart and others.

Following the public panel, a small private workshop was held on climate finance issues and opportunities in the upcoming international meetings and U.S. climate regulation. Participants included the panelists, the French ambassador to the United States, the French ambassador for climate change negotiations, the deputy governor of the Banque de France, and additional experts.

Serge Lepeltier (third from right) and NYU professors and fellows

In September 2011, Serge Lepeltier, the French Ambassador for Climate Negotiations returned with his climate advisors from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss climate finance in the lead up to the Durban climate conference. Participating were professors and fellows from NYU and its research partners, World Resources Institute and Environmental Defense Fund.

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Administrative and Regulatory State Clinic Comments on EPA Transport Rule

Sep 30, ’11

In October 2010, students from the Administrative and Regulatory State Clinic completed the clinic’s first project. Working with Institute for Policy Integrity’s Executive Director Michael Livermore ’06, Legal Director Jason Schwartz and Dean Richard Revesz, Adrienne Rose ’11 and Peter Miljanich ’11 submitted comments to the EPA on the proposed Transport Rule. The plan aims to reduce certain kinds of air pollutants that drift across state lines.

Adrienne Rose ’11 (left) and Peter Miljanich ’11 (third from left) with fellow students in the ARS clinic.

The Transport Rule replaced the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), issued in 2005 as a cap-and-trade program for sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions in 28 states and the District of Columbia. CAIR sought to curb the emissions of these pollutants, which can create serious health issues like asthma, heart disease and cancer. However, a court ruling found problems with the law’s interstate trading system, which offered the purchase of allowances to meet reduction requirements.

Through extensive research, seminar work, discussions with environmental groups, like Environmental Defense Fund, and weekly meetings with Policy Integrity staff, Adrienne and Peter analyzed the rule and offered suggested revisions to make the regulation more cost-effective. This included finding supporting evidence to advocate for a flexible trading scheme that allows for the most interstate trading that is legally permissible.

Policy Integrity also offered a number of other recommendations focused on clarifying and strengthening the Rule’s justification, using an auction-based methodology to allocate emissions allowances, and allowing trading of sulfur dioxide credits between all states (as opposed to only allowing trading between EPA grouped states).

The project provided invaluable hands-on experience in regulatory proceedings and skills development in statutory interpretation and policy analysis. Working on the transport rule also helped the students develop their use of cost-benefit analysis as a tool in critiquing the economic analyses that underlie agency rules.

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Furman Center Launches Affordable Housing Map of NYC

Sep 30, ’11

The Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy and its Institute for Affordable Housing Policy recently launched the Subsidized Housing Information Project (SHIP), an interactive database with extensive information on nearly 235,000 units of privately-owned subsidized rental housing in New York City. The database consolidates information from 50 separate public and private data sources into one searchable website, now available at: www.furmancenter.org/data/search.

A portion of the Subsidized Housing Information Project (SHIP) map--here, the East Village, NYC.

The new resource—which provides the most comprehensive overview of subsidized housing in New York City available — is the result of an ongoing, multi-year partnership with the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC), New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

SHIP allows government agencies, housing and community advocates, the media, and the public to access information on every privately-owned, publicly-subsidized affordable property developed with four key government programs: HUD financing and insurance, HUD project-based rental assistance, the New York City and New York State Mitchell-Lama programs, or Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). The Institute for Affordable Housing Policy’s accompanying report, State of New York City’s Subsidized Housing: 2011, uses SHIP data to identify 227 properties throughout the city that are at-risk of expiring out of affordability programs by the end of 2015, as well as outlining opportunities for preservation.

The Institute also released a set of online resources to help users navigate the SHIP database, including a Directory of New York City’s Affordable Housing Programs.

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Stewarts’ New Book Diagnoses U.S. Nuclear Waste Policy Failures

Sep 30, ’11

University Professor Richard Stewart and his wife Jane Stewart ’79, have just published Fuel Cycle to Nowhere: U.S. Law and Policy on Nuclear Waste. The Obama Administration’s abandonment of the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada—the sole destination for disposal of nuclear waste—has created a crisis as waste continues to pile up at nuclear power plants. The book analyzes the roots of the crisis and proposes solutions.

The Fukushima disaster in Japan and the continuing threat of terrorist attacks on the 65  operating nuclear reactor sites across the country that currently store wastes make solutions all the more urgent. The Stewarts offer fresh strategies, based on consent by informed host localities and states, new funding mechanism, and a new federal corporation to manage waste – for developing a new waste repository to bury wastes as well as consolidated interim storage facilities. The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future appointed by President Obama, to which Professor Stewart presented last November, recently issued draft recommendations that track many of the proposals made in the book.

Fuel Cycle to Nowhere provides the first comprehensive history and overview of U.S. nuclear waste law and regulation. The Stewarts trace sixty years of nuclear weapons programs, the growth of nuclear power, their waste legacies, the rise of environmentalism, and the responses of federal agencies. They examine a success—the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, known as WIPP, the world’s only operating deep geologic nuclear waste disposal facility—but also many failures, including Yucca Mountain. The lessons learned from these experiences provide the foundation for the book’s policy recommendations.

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Students do Environmental Internships Abroad, and at Home

Sep 30, ’11

Each summer, the Guarini Summer Environmental Internship grants provides financial assistance to 10 NYU Law students. These students work for international and domestic NGOs and government agencies for the summer. Faculty help students to share and use their experiences and to develop training and networking opportunities that help them secure full-time positions in the field following graduation.

This summer, Relic Sun ’13, worked at the Environmental Law Project of the Natural Resources Defense Council – Beijing office. In addition to visiting and documenting severe local pollution sites with NRDC colleagues, she wrote the English version of NRDC’s cutting-edge policy report on enhancing the environmental public interest litigation system in China. The report, titled “Enhancing Environmental Protection through Judicial Means – Environmental Courts and Environmental Public Interest Litigation in China:  Current Circumstances, Challenges, and Recommendations” (通过司法手段推进环境保护 - 环保法庭与环境公益诉讼：现状、问题与建议) will be published this autumn.

Relic Sun (back row) and other NRDC fellows, along with NRDC staff and NGO members at a roundtable in Wuhan

Other students worked at the Sierra Club Environmental Law Program, Environmental Defense Fund, the NYC Law Department, Earthjustice – Northwest Office, Earthjustice – International Program, and the Department of Justice – Environment and Natural Resources Division – Appellate Section.

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Environmental Law LL.M Enters Second Year

Sep 30, ’11

This September, NYU Law welcomed its second class of Environmental Law LL.M.’s.  Like last year, there are ten students from around the world (five from South America, two from the US, and one each from Europe, Africa, and Oceania) participating in the program.

The Environmental Law LL.M. is designed to train the next generation of leaders in environmental and land use law by offering courses with leading environmental law academics and practitioners, clinical and internship opportunities. This is already happening for the first class of students that completed their LL.M. in May. For example, Vyoma Jha (LL.M. ’11) from India, was selected as a NYU International Finance and Development Fellow and is working on the Investment and Sustainable Development team of the International Institute of Sustainable Development (Geneva). A paper that Jha wrote as a part of her International Environmental Law Clinic placement with the Council on Energy, Environmental and Water, entitled ‘Cutting Both Ways?: Climate, Trade and the Consistency of India’s Domestic Policies’ has now been published as a working paper.

Students in the program take a core of environmental and land use courses, including the capstone Advanced Environmental Law Seminar, in which they write a thesis with close faculty mentoring. In addition, students can choose from a wide range of elective courses, allowing them the flexibility to pursue more specialized interests such as international environmental law, urban development, climate change law, and natural resources law.

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Environmental Law Society

Sep 28, ’11

The Environmental Law Society (ELS) is the student-run organization for all future environmental lawyers and all law students interested in environmental law. Throughout the year, the ELS runs educational events focused on environmental law. In October 2010, the ELS and the Environmental Law Journal hosted a symposium entitled “On Thin Ice: International Law and Environmental Protection in a Melting Arctic.” The symposium examined the promise and threat of an accessible Arctic and featured a keynote address by Peter Taksøe-Jensen, Danish ambassador to the U.S. and former U.N. Assistant Secretary General for Legal Affairs. Later in the year, the ELS and Guarini Center hosted a lunch-time discussion of possible paths forward for U.S. climate policy. As well, the ELS organized career panels and strengthened its mentoring program, in which 2Ls advise and support 1Ls pursuing environmental law.

ELS continued to arrange for students to conduct research with Islands First, an organization aimed at giving a voice to Pacific islands, which are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. It also instituted a new research collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council, providing students with the opportunity to help develop sustainable food policy.

The ELS also runs a series of outdoor events, including hiking, apple-picking, planting gardens at the law school and cleaning the Hudson River shore.

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Environmental Law Journal

Sep 28, ’11

The Environmental Law Journal recently completed a productive year, publishing three issues featuring articles on cost-benefit analysis, human rights and environmental regulation, emissions markets, and numerous other cutting-edge issues in environmental law.

Over the past two years, ELJ successfully implemented a plan to reduce its use of paper and other resources. Print editions of ELJ are still published, but the journal has now achieved a nearly paperless process for producing print-ready copy. In addition to these modifications to its own publishing process, ELJ will continue to work with other legal journals at NYU over the coming year to streamline their operations and reduce their environmental impact. This year ELJ will investigate the feasibility of reducing its ecological footprint even further by becoming an online-only publication.

In October 2010, ELJ, the Environmental Law Society, and NYU’s Journal of International Law and Politics co-hosted a symposium. Titled “On Thin Ice: International Law and Environmental Protection in a Melting Arctic,” the event brought together practitioners, academics and students to analyze pertinent issues surrounding Arctic governance. The journal is currently organizing a symposium scheduled for February 2012 on local environmental progress at the municipal level, co-sponsored with the Environmental Law Society.

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Administrative and Regulatory State Clinic

Sep 28, ’11

The new Administrative and Regulatory State Clinic, taught by Dean Revesz and Policy Integrity Executive Director Michael Livermore ’06, concluded its first year last May. Students received an intense, hands-on legal experience working side by side with Policy Integrity lawyers to write public comments on agency rulemakings, file rulemaking petitions with regulatory agencies, and draft briefs and motions in administrative litigation. Submitting sixteen sets of comments, the clinic students wasted no time applying their legal education to real world problems. Students submitted topics on rules as diverse as interstate air pollution and automobile fuel efficiency labels, helping to shape environmental rules with billions of dollars of economic impact and major effects on climate, public health and marine ecosystems.

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International Environmental Law Clinic

Sep 28, ’11

The International Environmental Law Clinic, taught by Professor Richard Stewart, provides legal and technical assistance on issues of international environmental law to a wide variety of clients, including developing countries, UN and other international organizations, and environmental groups abroad and in the US.

This spring, Trina Ng (LL.M ’11) worked with Mark Jariabka ’02, the executive director of Islands First, a New York based NGO that provides legal, technical and policy assistance to the U.N. missions of the Pacific small island developing states. When developed countries come to the climate negotiations with teams of hundreds, these small island states often simply have a small team and their local ambassador to negotiate for them. Trina wrote a series of briefing papers on issues in the international climate negotiations for these negotiators to use. Amanda Cats-Baril ’11 worked on draft guidelines for how multilateral banks should engage with indigenous and forest-dwelling people when development projects are being funded.

In recent years, other clinic students worked on memos for climate change litigation from sea level rise, on the operation of consensus under the UNFCCC in light of Bolivia’s objection at Cancun, marine resources issues for the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Palau, toxic chemicals regulation in developing countries, litigation against illegal timber imports to the U.S. by the NRDC, and on water and maritime issues in Spain and Israel for local environmental groups.

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Environmental Law Clinic

Sep 28, ’11

The Environmental Law Clinic is taught by two senior lawyers—Eric A. Goldstein and Nancy S. Marks—at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), one of the nation’s most prominent non-profit environmental organizations. Students attend a weekly seminar and work with NRDC attorneys on a wide range of federal and state litigation, legislation, policy development, and administrative proceedings.  Recent student projects in the Clinic have focused on litigating under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to remedy contamination in poor communities of color; developing legal strategies to challenge environmentally irresponsible “fracking” of oil shale; analyzing legal regimes governing offshore wind energy in the U.S. and E.U.; researching state tort law theories to address hazards of coal ash dumping; formulating sustainable models for providing, transporting, and distributing food locally; litigating to abate a public and private nuisance from sewage and sludge treatment facilities; and participating in administrative proceedings on energy efficiency and climate change issues.

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Faculty Update: Dale Jamieson

Sep 28, ’11

Affiliated Professor of Law Dale Jamieson recently published two papers: “Ethics, Energy, and the Transformation of Nature,” in The Ethics of Global Climate Change (Cambridge University Press, 2011), and “The Nature of the Problem,” forthcoming in The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society (Oxford University Press). His book, Ethics and the Environment: An Introduction, was published in Portuguese translation as Ética e Meio Ambiente – uma Introdução (Editora Senac), and is forthcoming in Chinese.  He also continues to work on a book, tentatively titled, Reason in a Dark Time:  Ethics and Politics in a Greenhouse World. The early results of his NSF supported project with Professor Michael Oppenheimer and Naomi Oreskes on Assessing Assessments: A Historical and Philosophical Study of Scientific Assessments for Environmental Policy in the Late 20th Century will be presented at the meetings of the American Society for the Advancement of Science early next year.  He has recently given lectures on geoengineering as a response to climate change at the College of the Environment Institute, University of Washington, and the Environmental Norms, Institutions, and Policy: Blokker Research Workshop at the Stanford Humanities Center,

In addition he gave keynote addresses at the IPCC Expert Meeting on Economic Analysis, Costing Methods, and Ethics in Lima, Peru, and at the Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress in Boulder, Colorado.  He also gave the Kenneth V. Santagata Memorial Lecture at Bowdoin College, and the Henry West Lecture at Macalester College.  He also lectured at UCLA, the Boston University Center for History and Philosophy of Science, the American Philosophical Association, and LUISS University and La Sapienza University both in Rome, and participated in the University of Colorado Law School and Duke University School of Law, Climate Change Law and Policy, Works in Progress Symposium in Boulder, CO.

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