This month, three Member Scholars – Dave Owen, Rob Fischman, and Rob Glicksman – take center stage in the latest edition of Land Use and Environment Law Review (LUELR), an anthology of last year’s best writing on environmental law.
In August, Member Scholar Rebecca Bratspies, earned the 2022 International Human Rights Award from the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, and Member Scholar Joel Eisen earned a Distinguished Scholar Award from the University of Richmond Law School.
And in July, two other scholars, Uma Outka and Hannah Wiseman, won a $500,000 grant to design a framework to mitigate the transition to renewable energy in vulnerable communities.
And that’s just a few Member Scholar highlights over the last few months.
Leading Lights
Indeed, our Member Scholars are leading lights in the legal academy and the field of environmental and public interest law – and have played a leading role at the Center for Progressive Reform ever since it was founded two decades ago.
In 2002, a small group of scholars came together to challenge the growing conservative movement to undo government regulations that protect workers, consumers, the public (and marginalized communities in particular) and our environment.
Since then, that small band of founding scholars has grown into a nationwide network of nearly five dozen volunteers who lend their time and expertise to advance the Center’s mission. Appointed upon nomination of a fellow scholar and approval by the Board of Directors, our Member Scholars are experts in subjects ranging from governance and regulation to climate and energy to worker health and safety and natural resources. They represent dozens of colleges and universities in every region of the country – in small towns, on the coasts and in the heartland, and in purple, red, and blue states.
They are, as one prorgressive publication recently noted, a great and unique organizational asset – and give our partners and supporters an estimated $2.5 million in free public interest legal services every year. Board President Rob Verchick equates them a “battery pack,” an environmentally friendly metaphor for the work they do to fuel the Center and its mission.
Our Greatest Accomplishments
Our Members Scholars are also responsible for many of the Center’s greatest accomplishments, as our new timeline shows.
In the early 2000s, they wrote groundbreaking books – like Priceless: On Knowing the Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing and A New Progressive Agenda for Public Health and the Environment – that defined and set a progressive regulatory agenda.
In the devastating wake of Hurricane Katrina, they published reports and testified before Congress about how natural disasters often lead to massive – and preventable unnatural disasters, which often disproportionately impact low-wealth people of color.
They spotlighted industry manipulation of science for political gain and corporate lobbying efforts to weaken regulatory safeguards. They pressed President Obama to take executive action on climate and environmental justice – and fought efforts by President Trump to weaken climate and environmental regulations. And they fought to protect worker health and safety as our climate changes at the federal and state levels.
Today, several Member Scholars serve in high-ranking positions in the Biden administration, shaping federal policy on issues ranging from energy policy to environmental justice.
All the while, they continue to educate the public about these issues via our podcast , blog posts and op-eds in publications large and small, interviews with reporters, and in in-depth research reports and white papers.
As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, we want to congratulate our Member Scholars not only for their recent accolades but also for their many accomplishments over the decades on behalf of the Center for Progressive Reform and our collective movement for equity and justice, health, safety, and environmental sustainability.
Our sincere thanks. We could not do this work without you.
To learn more about our scholars and their work, visit our Member Scholar webpage.
Top image features the founding members of the Center for Progressive Reform (L-R Chris Schroeder, Sid Shapiro, Lisa Heinzerling, Tom McGarity, Rena Steinzor) and current Board President, Rob Verchick, at the Center's 20th anniversary celebration gala in September 2022.
Showing 2,821 results
Alexandra Rogan, Allison Stevens | September 28, 2022
This month, three Member Scholars – Dave Owen, Rob Fischman, and Rob Glicksman – take center stage in the latest edition of Land Use and Environment Law Review (LUELR), an anthology of last year’s best writing on environmental law. In August, Member Scholar Rebecca Bratspies, earned the 2022 International Human Rights Award from the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, and […]
Marcha Chaudry, Sidney A. Shapiro | September 26, 2022
As Cole Porter crooned in 1948, “It’s too darn hot.” California and other parts of the American West are heading into another week of excessive heat that not only threatens public health and safety but also power shortages, which would cut millions off from the energy they need to fuel their lives. Workers, particularly those […]
Daniel Farber | September 22, 2022
Since 1981, cost-benefit analysis has been at the core of the rulemaking process. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), the so-called “regulatory czar” in the White House, must approve every significant regulation based on a review of its cost-benefit analysis. But cost-benefit analysis has had a major blind spot. It embodies techniques for analyzing possible harmful outcomes when the probability of those outcomes can be quantified with reasonable confidence. When those probabilities cannot be quantified (“deep uncertainty”), the analytic path is more difficult. This issue is especially important in the context of climate change, given the potential for tipping points to produce disastrous outcomes.
Allison Stevens | September 13, 2022
The founding of the United States was far from perfect, reflecting the deep flaws and exploitative practices of the founders themselves. But there was one thing they got right: They created a government charged, in part, with protecting the general welfare. That includes you, me, the American people writ large, and our environment. We at […]
Katlyn Schmitt | September 12, 2022
At the end of August, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a draft rule to better protect people who live near industrial facilities with hazardous chemicals on site. The rule would strengthen EPA’s Risk Management Program (RMP), which regulates more than 12,000 facilities in the United States that store, use, and distribute significant amounts of dangerous chemicals.
Daniel Farber | September 9, 2022
States have played a critical role in U.S. climate policy. The federal government is now supporting that role with federal funding for states. In the meantime, a number of states have moved a step further in plans to phase out gas and diesel vehicles. Two key states have ramped up their plans for carbon neutrality, while offshore wind made a big step forward in the Midwest.
Sophie Loeb | September 8, 2022
The Center for Progressive Reform recently launched the Campaign for Energy Justice to ensure that North Carolina’s transition to a clean energy economy serves all North Carolinians regardless of wealth or background. The campaign puts equity at the center of the state’s transition to clean sources of energy like wind and solar power. Unfortunately, a plan submitted to the North Carolina Utility Commission (NCUC) by Duke Energy to reduce carbon emissions fails to take equity into account.
Sophie Loeb | September 8, 2022
In the spring of 2022, Duke Energy submitted a Carbon Plan to help North Carolina achieve goals laid out in recently enacted laws to curb climate change. The plan ostensibly aims to achieve the state's climate goals to curb carbon emissions. Under this plan, however, low-wealth North Carolinians, who are disproportionately people of color, risk losing access to reliable, affordable electricity.
Clare Henry | September 7, 2022
From family farmers to biofuel investors, over 900 people and advocacy groups submitted comments on California’s draft plan for achieving carbon neutrality by 2045. In their comments, environmental advocates and justice groups expressed three major concerns with the state’s draft “scoping” plan. First, the plan fails to recognize the urgency of transitioning to a clean energy economy. Second, it relies too heavily on unproven technology. And third, it fails to specify concrete implementation measures.