Environmental Justice has gained new momentum in recent years, amplified by a global focus on social justice, climate, and equity. Shortly after taking office, President Biden released Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crises at Home and Abroad. The Executive Order includes a new initiative, Justice40, which states that 40% of the overall benefits from specific federal investments—including energy efficiency, clean energy, clean water infrastructure, and training and workforce development—will be directed toward disadvantaged communities. In this episode, Gwendolyn Keyes Fleming, a partner at Van Ness Feldman, and Mustafa Santiago Ali, Vice President of Environmental Justice, Climate, and Community Revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation, discuss the Justice40 initiative. This episode is part of the Groundtruth series created in partnership with Beveridge & Diamond, one of the nation’s leading environmental law firms.
Environmental Justice (EJ) has gained new momentum in recent years, amplified by a global focus on social justice, climate, and equity. The Biden-Harris Administration has brought EJ to the federal spotlight, and even before 2021, states were starting to implement ambitious, history-making EJ-focused legislation. But what about corporate America? In this episode, Roy Prather, a Shareholder at Beveridge & Diamond who advises clients on corporate social responsibility and environmental justice, interviews Chonda Nwamu, Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary for Ameren Corporation, and Roger Martella, Chief Sustainability Officer for General Electric. This episode is part of the Groundtruth series created in partnership with Beveridge & Diamond, one of the nation’s leading environmental law firms.
It’s official: climate change isn’t the future. It’s here now. How ready are we for this unwelcome visitor? And how prepared are we to adapt to the climate change impacts we’re already experiencing—at every level of government? ELI’s Cynthia Harris talks to three climate law experts—Dr. Barrett Ristroph, Katie Spidalieri, and Jennifer Li—about climate adaptation at the federal, state, and local level. Ristroph, Spidalieri, and Li co-authored the Climate Change chapter in the most recent edition of ELI’s legal treatise, Law of Environmental Protection.
The United States has enacted hundreds of environmental laws and regulations to keep our communities and the people who live in them healthy and safe. But what should be done when these legal safety nets fail, as is too often the case with environmental justice concerns and racial environmental health inequalities? In this episode, ELI’s Caitlin McCarthy talks to Dr. Neha Pathak, a Medical Editor and writer with WebMD, about disproportionate exposure from toxic beauty products, environmental justice, and more.
EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division is tasked with investigating the most significant and egregious of those violations – one that are negligent, knowing, or willful. In this episode, Justin Savage, a Partner at Sidley Austin LLP, talks with Jessica Taylor, the Director of EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division. Joining them is Doug Parker, who served as the Division’s Director from 2012-2016. The episode is part of The Enforcement Angle series, featuring conversations about state and federal enforcement of environmental laws and regulations with senior enforcement officials and thought leaders on environmental enforcement in the United States and globally.
For more than a decade, ELI and Vanderbilt University Law School have featured some of the year’s best academic thinking on legal and policy solutions to pressing environmental problems via the Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR). This episode gives listeners a preview to this year’s issue, which hits the streets in August and features articles and commentary on climate change litigation, corporate ESG, environmental justice, and energy regulation.
For over 60 years, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and its predecessor agencies have been a national and global leader on a wide range of environmental issues, from air quality to water quality to remediation. In this episode, Heather Palmer, a Partner at Sidley Austin LLP, talks with Toby Baker, Executive Director of the TCEQ. The two discuss a wide range of issues, including COVID-19, severe weather and power outages, and the Biden Administration.
There are many benefits to offshore wind, but what about its impacts on birds, bats, and other wildlife? In this episode, we "engage the experts” and listen in on a conversation between two experts in the field of environmental law and policy, Brooke Marcus Wahlberg, a Partner at Nossaman LLP, and Ed Roggenkamp, an associate. The two offer background on offshore wind, discuss obstacles and opportunities, and share recent developments, including what we might expect under the Biden Administration.
On May 18, 1971, Pennsylvania’s voters ratified an Environmental Rights Amendment to its state constitution. Fifty years later, with climate change now the overriding threat to the health of the planet, the architect of that amendment makes the case for an environmental amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In this episode, we talk to Franklin L. Kury, who served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1966 to 1972 and the Pennsylvania Senate from 1972 to 1980, about his new book, The Constitutional Question to Save the Planet: The Peoples' Right to a Healthy Environment.