The Protecting Against Environmental Harm program highlights the environmentally destructive consequences of corporate malfeasance, policymaker hostility to environmental protections, and neglect of sound environmental policy. The program works with and helps empower communities historically impacted by environmental injustice to develop actionable solutions to these problems. Protecting our air, water, land, wildlife, and natural resources is a critical facet of the health and well-being of all people.
U.S. environmental laws are struggling to meet the challenges of the 21st century, especially during the second half of the Trump era. Half a century of neoliberal policy has stripped agency capacity bare, and the climate crisis and rapid technological shifts have exposed the limits of existing legal tools and legacy infrastructure — and the need for more flexibility and creativity among policymakers.
The short-term challenge facing the nation is to limit the environmental damage from the Trump administration’s attacks wherever possible. But playing defense is not enough. The Center and its allies also work to seize opportunities to build better environmental governance for the future. The end goal is a healthier and more equitable future.
Creating a healthier and more equitable future requires the development and promotion of transformational environmental and public health governance reforms at both the state and federal levels. To truly achieve this requires coordination and collaboration with allies, advocates, policymakers, and crucially, communities working on the front lines of exposures to environmental harms.
The Center works to connect technical expertise in federal and state administrative law, quantitative data analysis, and partnerships to evaluate regulatory gaps, study the impacts of harm, and build pathways forward, guided by the needs of impacted communities. In this work, the Center helps partners advance an equitable and healthy future.
The Center focuses on the following areas and activities within its Protecting Against Environmental Harm program:
The Center’s deep bench of environmental law scholars plays a prominent role in advancing our program goals. Our Protecting Against Environmental Harm program interfaces with our Responsive Government program, where the issues of administrative law, regulatory systems, and the role of courts are applied to environmental policy. Likewise, this program mutually reinforces our Climate Justice program, as climate justice issues and environmental protections are interconnected and cannot be addressed in isolation.
Safe drinking water is something we take for granted, in large part because state and federal regulations require monitoring and maintenance of municipal water systems. However, for the roughly one-fifth of Virginians who get their drinking water from private wells, no such protections exist. Learn about who is impacted and what commonsense steps the Commonwealth can take to ensure safe drinking water for all.
Regulations exist to keep Americans safe from dangerous products and toxic substances, but all too often, industry undercuts or captures the regulatory process and communities are harmed. Access to civil justice helps ensure that Americans have remedies and impacted communities do not bear the double indignity of suffering environmental harm and footing the bill for cleanup and recovery. Strong civil law protections mean strong communities.
Your quick, secure donation goes a long way in helping us continue our work to protect our air, water, land, wildlife, and natural resources. Please contribute today.
