Melissa Powers

Melissa Powers is the Jeffrey Bain Faculty Scholar and Professor of Law and the Director of the Green Energy Institute at Lewis & Clark Law School.

Powers teaches energy law, climate change law, the Clean Air Act, torts, and administrative law. Her research interests include energy law (with a specific focus on laws designed to promote renewable energy), domestic policies aimed at mitigating climate change, and U.S. pollution control laws. She is also interested in comparative law study in each of these areas.

Powers is a co-chair of the Research Committee of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, an international organization dedicated to increasing collaboration between environmental law scholars around the globe and in expanding the capacity of environmental law teaching and research in developing countries. Melissa has also taught as a visiting professor at several schools, including the University of Trento, Italy, in 2008, 2011 and 2012, the University of Navarra, Spain, in 2011, and the University of Maine School of Law in 2007.

She began her legal career as an attorney at public interest environmental law firms doing pollution control litigation. From 2003-2008, she was a Clinical Professor at the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center (PEAC), the environmental law clinic at Lewis & Clark.