Testifying before Congress, releasing new books, engaging with the news media — our Member Scholars packed virtually a year’s worth of advocacy on climate justice, clean air and water, and worker health and safety into the first three months of 2023.
In February, Dave Owen, a law professor at the University of California at San Francisco, testified before the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee about the need to protect our nation’s waters from pollution and degradation. As the Democrats’ only witness in a hearing called by Republicans, Owen challenged conservative attacks on clean water safeguards and defended them against broadsides from conservative lawmakers and witnesses, including a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official appointed by the Trump administration. Owen’s testimony drew news coverage in outlets ranging from Energy and Environment News to the Idaho Capital Sun to the Progressive Farmer.
In March, Emily Hammond, a law professor at the George Washington University, served as the minority witness at a House Judiciary Committee subcommittee hearing on legislation that would dramatically constrain the federal government’s ability to protect the public from health, environmental, and other harms. In their testimony, Hammond exposed the dangers of the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, which would prevent major regulations issued by federal agencies from taking effect without congressional approval. Hammond said the act “eviscerates a core of government legitimacy — reasonableness — and … is likely unconstitutional."
Also in March, new board member and Member Scholar Sharon Block, a professor of practice at Harvard Law School and former acting administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, testified on unfair labor practices and retaliation against workers at Starbucks. During the hearing, conducted by the Senate Health, Labor, Education, and Pensions Committee, Block called Starbucks’ retaliation and labor law violations “a coordinated campaign to stifle union activity across the company” and called for stronger labor protections.
Books and Awards
Our Member Scholars have been busy outside of the nation’s capital, too.
Two scholars — Rob Verchick (our board president) and Rebecca Bratspies — published books on climate resilience and New York City history.
In The Octopus in The Parking Garage, Verchick, a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans, examines how to manage climate risks and build climate resilience, a necessary step toward justice. And in Naming Gotham: The Villains, Rogues, and Heroes behind New York’s Place Names, Bratspies, a law professor at City University of New York (CUNY), tells stories behind the city’s iconic roads, bridges, neighborhoods, and institutions. The book takes readers on an “intimate, historical journey” to places bearing such names as Jackie Robinson and Henry Hudson.
Two other scholars, Shelley Welton of the University of Pennsylvania and Hannah Wiseman of Pennsylvania State University, won the Arizona State University College of Law prestigious Morrison Prize for a 2022 article they co-authored with former Member Scholar Alex Klass (currently on leave from the Center to serve in the Biden administration) and colleague Joshua Macey of the University of Chicago. Originally published in the Stanford Law Review, the article argues for strengthening the nation’s electric grid to maintain reliability during the transition to renewable energy. Melissa Powers of Lewis & Clark Law School, meanwhile, was inducted into the American College of Environmental Lawyers.
Media Rockstars
Last but not least, several scholars are beating the advocacy drum in the news media. Karen Sokol, on leave from her role as law professor at Loyola University New Orleans to serve as a fellow in law, ethics, and public policy at Princeton University, countered narratives pushed by Big Oil in numerous outlets this quarter, ranging from National Public Radio to The American Prospect.
Block, meanwhile, advocated on behalf of worker protections in mainstream outlets including Fast Company, The Nation, Politico, CBS News, Yahoo! News, and more, while also appearing in outlets reaching legal and academic audiences, such as Bloomberg Law, SCOTUSBlog, The Harvard Crimson, and more.
And many other scholars reached audiences via interviews with reporters for major outlets in New York, Washington, D.C., Houston, Seattle, Cleveland, Baton Rouge, San Francisco, Winston-Salem, N.C., and other cities, appeared in wire stories published by the Associated Press and Reuters, and reached expert audiences via outlets like Greenwire, SCOTUSBlog, and Foreign Policy.
Kudos to all, and thanks for using your expertise to advocate for climate justice, a more responsive and inclusive government, and health and safety for all.
Showing 2,823 results
Allison Stevens | April 25, 2023
Testifying before Congress, releasing new books, engaging with the news media — our Member Scholars packed virtually a year’s worth of advocacy on climate justice, clean air and water, and worker health and safety into the first three months of 2023.
Robert Verchick | April 25, 2023
Last summer, standing outside the Paradise Inn in Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park, I still needed a fleece to keep warm. In the shadow of the park’s snow-covered volcano, the meadows sparkled with wildflowers. I remembered a news article from a few years back about how Mount Rainier’s iconic flora were slowly retreating to higher elevations away from the inn. Park scientists attributed this to higher temperatures caused by climate change. There was some debate at the time about whether park staff should manually seed the meadows where lodge visitors gather or to let the buttercups and salmonberries crawl naturally uphill. I don’t know where they ended up on that.
Daniel Farber | April 24, 2023
Ever since the Supreme Court decided West Virginia v. EPA, conservatives and industry interests have claimed that just about every new regulation violates the major question doctrine. When the Biden administration ramped up fuel efficiency requirements through 2026, ideologues such as the Heritage Foundation and states like Texas were quick to wheel out this attack. No doubt the same attack will be made on the administration's ambitious proposed post-2026 standard. Maybe Judge Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, crusader against abortion pills and all things liberal, would buy that argument. But opponents won’t be able to handpick their judge this time, and the chances that this argument will win in the D.C. Circuit are slim to none.
Cinthia Moore | April 24, 2023
Nevada is considered one of the hottest states in America, and it consistently tops the list of places with the most heat-related deaths per year in the country. But what a lot of people don’t know is that it is also the second most polluted state, with wildfires, vehicles, factories, and the mining industry being the biggest sources. The deadly combination of scorching heat and poor air quality makes Nevada a hazardous place to work, especially for migrants who work under the heat of the sun. Even those working indoors are exposed to poor air quality with no climate controls every single day.
A.R. Siders | April 21, 2023
Dr. Syukoro Manabe, Nobel Prize winner in physics for his groundbreaking work on climate modeling, said that while climate modeling is difficult, “nothing is more difficult than what happens in politics and in society.” Social scientists, not surprisingly, cheered his words, having long argued that not only are social sciences not “soft” but also that numerous social disciplines — anthropology, sociology, economics, law, public policy, and more — are critical both to understand the consequences of climate change and to develop climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. For all that it centers on a cephalopod, The Octopus in the Parking Garage, Rob Verchick’s new book about climate resilience, is a book about why social science is and must be at the heart of climate action.
Allison Stevens | April 21, 2023
A list of environmental and climate-themed book recommendations by Center for Progressive Reform staff in honor of Earth Day.
James Goodwin | April 20, 2023
On April 18, congressional conservatives turned their favorite anti-regulatory weapon toward a new target: the Endangered Species Act (ESA). At a hearing of the Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee, the majority pushed no less than three Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions aimed at blocking ESA protections. Testifying at the hearing in response to these attacks was Center for Progressive Reform Member Scholar Rob Fischman, a law professor at Indiana University Maurer School of Law and a widely recognized ESA expert.
Alice Kaswan, Catalina Gonzalez | April 20, 2023
The landmark Inflation Reduction Act gave the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) $3 billion to fund a wide range of pollution reduction, clean energy, and climate resilience measures in the nation’s most marginalized communities. At issue now is how the agency will allocate the funds to eligible communities and projects.
Daniel Farber | April 19, 2023
As you’ve probably heard, the Biden administration has proposed aggressive new targets for greenhouse gas emissions from new vehicles. That’s great news. One really important aspect of the proposal relates to the justification for the proposal rather than the proposal itself. Following a recent trend, the justification is based on the factors specified by Congress rather than on a purely economic analysis. That may not sound like much, but it’s a really big deal. Among other things, this will shift influence on the regulatory process somewhat away from economists and toward lawyers.