Almost 50 years ago, in 1971, Pennsylvania voters overwhelmingly approved an Environmental Rights Amendment (ERA) (Article I, Section 27) to the state constitution. The ERA creates a public trust in “public natural resources, and requires…
April 14–A new Model Laws for Deep Decarbonization in the United States website was launched today to help accelerate a sustainable U.S. transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions. It contains hundreds of model laws that can be provided…
The American Bar Association (ABA) has adopted a resolution urging all levels of government as well as the private sector to “to recognize their obligation to address climate change and take action” to “[r]educe U.S. greenhouse gas…
A recurring question for many lawyers is what they can do to address climate change and make a contribution to sustainable development. One answer is to help turn the recommendations in Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States…
With Democrats and Republicans arguing over the virtues and pitfalls of a Green New Deal, and with President Trump’s latest budget proposal cutting many environment- and energy-related programs, climate change policy in the United States is…
The Environmental Law Institute has made available for download a 160-page pdf of the summary and key recommendations volume of Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States, edited by Michael B. Gerrard and John C. Dernbach. …
On November 28, the Clean Air Council, Robert B. McKinstry, Jr., the Widener University Commonwealth Law School Environmental Law and Sustainability Center, Professor John C. Dernbach, C. Baird Brown, and over fifty other businesses, organizations…
The Environmental Law Institute has published Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States (Michael B. Gerrard & John C. Dernbach eds., March 2019). The book is a playbook of state, local, federal, and private legal pathways for…
Students at Widener Commonwealth Law School have created two-column comparison charts to enable you to quickly compare and contrast the positions of major party candidates on a range of sustainability and climate change issues. The chart for the…
A small but growing number of lawyers identify themselves as doing sustainability work. In the Martindale-Hubbell online directory of lawyers, in which lawyers list their areas of practice, 759 U.S. lawyers identify sustainability or sustainable…