ELI Senior Attorney Amy Reed introduces the Environmental Law Institute's newly published Local Wetland Protection Playbook — a practical guide to regulatory and non-regulatory strategies for municipalities, landowners, and community advocates. Then we hear two case studies. First, we're joined by Karen Cappiella (Center for Watershed Protection) to discuss how Bluffton, South Carolina became the first municipality in the state to close the post-Sackett loophole through a phased wetland ordinance and updated GIS mapping. Finally, we're joined by Mahtaab Bagherzadeh (National Wildlife Federation) and Nina Struss (Prairie Rivers Network) to learn more about how a bi-state coalition in the Quad Cities region of Iowa and Illinois is using climate assessments, ecological corridor mapping, and collaboration to protect wetlands in the region.

• 02:12 – Why Wetlands Matter 
• 05:57 – ELI's Local Wetland Protection Playbook & the Post-Sackett Landscape 
• 13:50 – Case Study: Bluffton, SC — Local Wetland Ordinances in Action 
• 26:41 – Case Study: Quad Cities, IA/IL — Climate Data, Ecological Corridors & Collaboration 
• 58:55 – Closing & How to Get Involved

See the resources mentioned during the episode for more information:

• ELI's Local Wetland Protection Playbook
• NWF Nature-Based Solutions Funding Database

Together, they reflect on how statutes like NEPA and the Clean Air Act were designed with more foresight than we often credit them for, why adaptive management is baked into the DNA of environmental law, and how ELI is responding to an era of rapid institutional change — from regulatory rollbacks and executive action to the governance challenges posed by emerging industries like deep sea mining, geothermal energy, and data centers. They also dig into ELI's new collaboration with the Federation of American Scientists' (FAS) Center for Regulatory Ingenuity and their joint white paper laying out a framework for rebuilding and reimagining environmental governance fit for the 21st century.

This episode is a candid, long-view conversation about what it takes to protect people, places, and the planet. For more information on other emerging topics in environmental law, see our recent episode, "What's Next for Environmental Law in 2026."

Together, they explore how Brazil's legacy of land inequality, weak rural state capacity, and a deeply entrenched culture of impunity have put Indigenous and Quilombola communities, small-scale farmers, and civil society actors at risk. The conversation covers the structural roots of land conflict, the ongoing contested ratification of the Escazú Agreement, the temporal framework threatening indigenous land rights, and what — if anything — emerged from COP 30 in Belém for defender protection. The episode concludes with a first look at what the team is finding as they build a first-of-its-kind database tracking investigations and prosecutions of lethal attacks against defenders across Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, and why that data matters.

This episode is part of ELI's ongoing series on environmental defenders across Latin America. If you've missed our previous episodes, check out our introductory episode on environmental defenders and ELI's database ("Environmental Defenders: On the Frontlines of Conservation") and our Spanish-language episode on the Colombian context ("Defensores ambientales: hacia la rendición de cuentas en Colombia").

For more information on the project, consult ELI's Platform to Protect Environmental Defenders. 

"How do we make the law work for people, places, and the planet?"

This podcast brings you in-depth conversations with experts with leading experts, breaking down the foundations of environmental law and diving into the cutting-edge issues reshaping our world. Whether you're an environmental professional or someone who cares about the future of our communities and ecosystems, this podcast is for you.

New episodes drop every other week. Subscribe now so you never miss a conversation.

Brought to you by the Environmental Law Institute - support the show at www.eli.org/donate.

At its core, this case asks whether federal pesticide law — the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) — preempts state-based failure-to-warn claims, potentially shielding pesticide manufacturers like Monsanto from liability for harms caused by products like Roundup (glyphosate). With oral arguments scheduled for April 27, 2026, the stakes couldn't be higher — not just for pesticide litigation, but for the future of toxics accountability across the board.

We break down the science behind pesticide risks, the role of tort litigation in driving corporate accountability and regulatory reform, and why the Court's ruling could have far-reaching implications for PFAS litigation, microplastics liability, and chemical safety regulation more broadly. We also explore how recent Supreme Court decisions, including Loper Bright, are reshaping the landscape of federal agency deference and what that means for environmental and public health protections.

If you're interested in learning about toxics litigation more broadly, ELI’s Toxics Litigation Project recently published a landscape analysis of toxics litigation and how scientific advancement and uncertainty, state and federal law, and judicial doctrine intersect in the ongoing effort to address the risks and consequences of toxic exposures in the United States and abroad titled, "Current Trends in Toxics Litigation." Additionally, for more information on FIFRA, check out our FIFRA, Explained episode. 

• Introduction: Pesticides & FIFRA (3:17)
• Role of Tort Litigation in Accountability (13:44)
• The Roundup Litigation: Failure to Warn, Glyphosate, and the Road to the Supreme Court (19:07)
• Monsanto v. Durnell: Preemption and the Circuit Split (25:13)
• Beyond Roundup: Implications for the Future of Toxics Litigation (40:15)
• Concluding Thoughts: Science, Oral Arguments, and How to Protect Communities Going Forward (48:55)

From federalism and zoning conflicts to power purchase agreements, IRA rollbacks, and the structural barriers facing marginalized communities, this conversation surfaces the deeply human stakes behind every permitting decision and planning process — and explores what it looks like when communities successfully reclaim agency in the energy future being built around them.

The conversation also zeroes in on Florida as a potentially cautionary case: a state with extraordinary solar potential but a regulatory environment defined by vertically integrated utilities, restricted third-party PPAs, and legislation that threatens to ban net zero targets at every level of government.

• What "Just Energy Transition" Really Means: Decarbonization and Distribution (4:50)
• Navigating the Regulatory Landscape: Federal, State, and Local Authority (8:10)
• Just Energy Transitions and Place (21:39)
• Why Place-Centered Energy Planning Is Essential to Energy Justice (27:12)
• Florida: A Placed-based Case Study of Energy Governance Challenges (41:38)
• Concluding Thoughts: Policy Instability, IRA Rollbacks, and Reasons for Hope (50:07)

From marine protected areas and small-scale fisheries to deep sea mining, marine geoengineering, and the rights of nature movement, the conversation explores how traditional environmental governance frameworks have often failed to address systemic marginalization in coastal and Indigenous communities. Drawing on anti-subordination theory, environmental justice, and human rights law, the guests explain how ocean equity moves beyond consultation toward meaningful power-sharing—including rethinking free, prior, and informed consent, stewardship-based resource management, and the intersection of human rights and marine conservation. For environmental lawyers, policymakers, and ocean governance professionals, this episode offers a forward-looking framework for aligning conservation, climate action, and justice.

• What is ocean equity? (04:08)
• From EJ to anti-subordination (09:37)
• Consent, power, and meaningful participation (16:05)
• Stewardship and MPAs (21:56)
• Rights of nature and the human right to a healthy environment (29:54)
• Emerging governance challenges and the future of ocean law (33:37)

In this episode of People, Places, Planet, host Sebastian Duque Rios is joined by Roger Martella (Chief Corporate Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer at GE Vernova), Mike Vandenbergh (Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University), and Linda Breggin (Senior Attorney at the Environmental Law Institute) to examine how climate and environmental governance is evolving amid political gridlock and regulatory uncertainty.

Building on Martella’s 2024 law review article, the panel traces three eras of environmental law and explores the growing role of private environmental governance—driven by corporate investment, supply chains, investor pressure, and accountability to employees and customers. They discuss the risks and realities of greenwashing, what this shift means for environmental professionals, and how large-scale capital deployment is shaping the energy transition and climate action today.

Join us for a forward-looking conversation for environmental professionals navigating the future of environmental law and policy.

• A new era of environmental law? (05:04)
• From government-led action to private environmental governance (11:24)
• What this means for environmental practitioners and students (17:43)
• Private action in energy and the global climate strategy (21:06)
• Motivating private sector leadership (33:06)
• Supply chains as governance tools (36:26)

In this episode of People, Places, Planet, host Sebastian Duque Rios is joined by Dalia Patino-Echeverri of Duke University and Aroon Vijaykar of Emerald AI to explore whether load flexibility offers a way forward. They examine how data centers and AI stress today’s grid, how modest and carefully designed curtailment could unlock significant new capacity without overbuilding infrastructure, and what emerging technologies and policies—from flexible interconnection to software-driven demand response—could mean for electricity affordability, grid reliability, and the future of AI development in the United States.

• The Driving Forces Behind a New Wave of Electricity Demand (2:12)
• What's Constraining the Grid? (6:18)
• Rethinking Grid Limits through Load Flexibility (17:20)
• Inside a Flexible Data Center (40:13)
• What This Means for Policy, Costs, and Emissions (54:13)

Learn more by reading about Emerald AI's pilot in Phoenix and Duke's report on load growth and flexibility, Rethinking Load Growth: Assessing the Potential for Integration of Large Flexible Loads in US Power Systems.

In this installment of our Explained series on the nation’s foundational environmental laws, we turn to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, better known as FIFRA. Host Sebastian Duque Rios is joined by Dr. Jennifer Sass of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Keith Matthews of Matthews Law LLC to unpack how pesticides are regulated in the United States, why FIFRA was created, and how it has evolved from a consumer protection statute into a central health and environmental safeguard.

Together, they walk through how EPA evaluates pesticide risks and benefits, what “unreasonable adverse effects” really means in practice, and how FIFRA interacts with food safety law and state authority. The conversation also explores the role of labels and enforcement, the promise and limits of safer alternatives like biopesticides, and the pressures facing pesticide regulation today—from staffing shortages to faster approval timelines. Whether you work in environmental law or are just trying to understand how pesticides are regulated, this episode offers a clear understanding of how FIFRA affects what ends up on our food, in our environment, and in our bodies.

The episode covers key U.S. Supreme Court decisions and previews cases to watch in the upcoming term, explores sweeping changes to NEPA and administrative law, and examines the growing treatment of climate change as a legal rights issue in both U.S. and international courts. It also looks at how these high-level legal debates are playing out on the ground—from data centers and AI infrastructure to clean water, cooperative federalism, and the shifting balance of state and federal power.

•  Supreme Court environmental law review and preview (1:47)
•  NEPA after Seven County and CEQ rescission (14:57)
• Climate change and rights in the courts (26:17)
• The future of the endangerment finding (32:36)
• On the ground: data centers, cooperative federalism, and WOTUS (36:42)

See ELI's resources for more information:

• Annual Supreme Court Review & Preview (2025)
• The Future of NEPA Review: Unpacking the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition Decision
• Held v. Montana: A 2025 Update
• Unpacking the ICJ's Recent Opinion on Climate Change
• Scientific Support for the Endangerment Finding
• National Environmental Impacts of Data Center Proliferation
• Data Centers and Water Usage
• Celebrating Collaboration: ECOS and the Future of State-Level Environmental Policy

Los defensores ambientales desempeñan un papel fundamental en la protección de los ecosistemas del mundo, pero cada año cientos de defensores son amenazados, detenidos, y asesinados. Esta realidad destaca la necesidad urgente de contar con mayores garantías, datos confiables y respuestas institucionales coordinadas. En este episodio, el anfitrión de People, Places, Planet, Sebastian Duque Ríos conversa con Kristine Perry (Environmental Law Institute) y Luis Felipe Guzmán Jiménez (Universidad Externado de Colombia), quienes comparten su conocimiento sobre los riesgos que enfrentan los defensores ambientales en Colombia y las iniciativas que buscan fortalecer su protección. 

Juntos analizan quiénes son los defensores ambientales en el contexto colombiano y las rutas que el país podría seguir para garantizar justicia a las víctimas de estos ataques. También abordan el potencial de acuerdos regionales como el Acuerdo de Escazú para avanzar en su protección. Finalmente, el episodio destaca el trabajo continuo de ELI para desarrollar una base de datos que registre investigaciones y procesos judiciales relacionados con ataques letales contra defensores ambientales. 

Para más información, consulte la Plataforma para Proteger a los Defensores Ambientales de ELI. 

In this episode, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette joins Beveridge & Diamond’s Hilary Jacobs and Justin Smith to discuss how the state is operationalizing EJ, measuring progress, and adapting to the major changes in federal policy and funding with the new Administration. Commissioner LaTourette outlines how New Jersey incorporates environmental justice into decision-making, the practical work of translating EJ principles into concrete, data-driven actions, and the challenges of aligning state and federal roles. The conversation also explores support for community-based organizations, funding constraints, and how businesses can navigate evolving EJ frameworks.

This episode is part of the Groundtruth series created in partnership with Beveridge & Diamond, one of the nation’s leading environmental law and litigation firms.

Together, they break down how the ESA works, why it was created, and the real-world threats species face today. The conversation explores key provisions of the Act—from listing decisions and critical habitat designations to Section 7 consultations, recovery planning, and the role of private landowners. The guests also discuss how funding shortfalls, political pressures, and recent proposals could reshape endangered species protection in the years ahead.

Whether you’re new to the ESA or looking for a richer understanding of its legal, scientific, and practical dimensions, this episode offers a clear and candid look at the challenges and opportunities facing one of the nation’s cornerstone conservation laws.

Together, they explore how climate-driven migration of fish stocks can trigger disputes between nations, how data and transparency tools like WWF’s Oceans Futures platform can help policymakers anticipate and prevent those conflicts, and how legal frameworks can promote cooperation rather than conflict on the high seas.

See WWF's recent report, The Geopolitics of the Ocean, as well as their Oceans Futures platform for more information.

In this episode of People Places Planet, host Sebastian Duque Rios speaks about congestion pricing with Robert Puentes, Vice President and Director of Brookings Metro; Rachel Weinberger, Vice President for Research Strategy and the Peter W. Herman Chair for Transportation at the Regional Plan Association; and Christine Billy, Adjunct Professor of Clinical Law at NYU and Executive Director of the Guarini Center. Together, they unpack NYC's congestion pricing program: why it was pursued, how it works, what early data suggests about its impacts, and the waves of legal challenges that the program has faced. 

In discussing how this innovative policy aims to rethink urban mobility, the conversation delves into how congestion pricing connects to broader environmental and public health goals, including the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and how it can present a model for other cities looking to fund and improve public transit. 

In this episode of People, Places, Planet, host Sebastian Duque Rios speaks with legal scholars Jonathan Liljeblad, Kristen Carpenter, and Margaret Palaghicon Von Rotz about how Indigenous peoples are reshaping international legal thought. Together, they explore the concept of Indigenous legal orders—living systems of law that exist alongside and often in tension with state-based international law—and their growing influence in environmental governance. From the Ifugao people’s stewardship of the Philippines’ rice terraces to the Yurok Tribe’s river restoration and land back efforts in California, the conversation highlights how Indigenous nations are asserting legal authority across state borders, revitalizing relationships to land and water, and challenging colonial legacies in our legal systems.

This episode offers a powerful look at what international law could become when Indigenous legal systems are recognized as active, evolving sources of law shaping the planet’s future.

Together, they explore how states are leading the way on today’s most pressing challenges—from ensuring safe drinking water and cleaning up Superfund sites to advancing policy on PFAS and wildfire impacts. The discussion examines what's at stake when federal funding for state environmental programs falls short, why strong federal-state partnerships are essential for local economies, the risks of underfunding science at EPA, and how states are working to balance efficiency with integrity when it comes to permitting. The episode celebrates ECOS' leadership in strengthening cooperative federalism, fostering innovative solutions, and providing stability across administrations, while also offering insights into the future of environmental protection nationwide.

The conversation explores the environmental, social, and health impacts of the way packaging is produced, used, and disposed of, the role of extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws in shifting costs and incentives upstream, and innovations—from AI-powered recycling to closed-loop reuse systems. The discussion also takes a deep dive into California's landmark SB 54, examining how its ambitious goals could influence policy nationwide. With perspectives spanning policy, law, and industry, the episode offers an in-depth look at how international treaties, state-level regulations, and private-sector action are converging to address the plastic waste crisis and make packaging more sustainable.

• Current State of Plastic Production and Waste (01:32)
• Towards a Circular Economy (13:07)
• International Efforts to Address Plastic Waste (17:14)
• Innovations and the Role of the Private Sector (21:17)
• Consumer Choices and Sustainable Packaging (35:19)
• Introduction to EPR (37:36)
• California's EPR Law and Its Features (48:04)
• Closing Thoughts (01:01:47)

This episode was recorded on June 20, 2025, prior to the start of INC-5.2, which is currently underway. The discussion may not reflect the most recent developments. For up-to-date information, please visit UNEP's website.

Together, they unpack why communicating environmental law and policy is so difficult and why getting it right matters more than ever. From navigating jargon and political polarization to telling stories that resonate with everyday experiences, the team reflects on the tools, trade-offs, and real-world examples that shape their approach.

Fox introduces the concept of “climate-changed communities” and the pressures local governments face as they adapt to new environmental realities. Lynch discusses the double-edged nature of preemption law, which can either enable or obstruct needed climate action at the local level. With commentary from editors Katrina Kuh and Shannon Roesler, the conversation highlights how law and governance must be reimagined and stretched to meet the needs of a radically changed climate. With insights ranging from historic preservation to energy policy, this episode underscores why preparing for worst-case scenarios is no longer alarmist—but necessary.

Featured chapters:

• Climate-Changed Communities (07:53) by Sarah Fox.
• Preemption: Opportunities and Obstacles for Climate Adaptation (31:39) by Kevin J. Lynch.

Guests Dr. Meghan Halabisky, Dave Groves, and Karen Johnson bring different perspectives to the table: Halabisky offers a scientific overview of how climate change is impacting wetlands, while Groves and Johnson discuss the regulatory and practical constraints and opportunities that practitioners are facing. The conversation covers site planning, ecological monitoring, and the tension between policy requirements and the realities of climate adaptation. Rather than prescribing easy solutions, the episode explores the complexities of ensuring long term sustainability at mitigation sites experiencing climate change. 

Professor Kakade lays out a bold proposal for environmental nonprofits to establish transactional legal practice groups focused on supporting communities in negotiating legally binding agreements with polluting industries. Together, the group discusses the promise and pitfalls of such agreements, from trust-building and legal enforceability to tailoring support for under-resourced communities and ensuring long-term accountability. They also reflect on the challenges of shifting environmental justice strategies in the face of evolving federal priorities.

Whether you’re a policymaker, practitioner, or student of environmental law, this conversation offers innovative, on-the-ground approaches to equity and environmental protection. To view the other top articles selected this year, visit the ELPAR page on ELI's website.

The conversation explores the key drivers of sea level rise, regional vulnerabilities across the U.S., and the growing risks tied to accelerating climate change. Peterson also dives into the legal and policy dimensions of adaptation, discussing land use controls, managed retreat, insurance frameworks, and emerging litigation around takings and government responsibility. The episode highlights how sea level rise will reshape planning, governance, and community resilience for generations to come.

Listeners interested in learning more about legal and policy responses to climate impacts can visit ELI's Climate Judiciary Project website to explore additional resources, including the new Sea Level Rise module.

The conversation covers SDWA’s origins, its regulatory reach over public water systems, and the emerging challenges tied to small system compliance, contaminants like PFAS, and growing infrastructure needs. Rotman and Pannu explain key concepts such as maximum contaminant levels, variances, citizen suits, and the relationship between SDWA and the Clean Water Act. They also discuss notable cases like Des Moines Water Works and Flint, Michigan, and examine how funding limitations and legal battles shape drinking water protections today. Looking forward, they reflect on future developments in private well regulation, point-of-use treatment technologies, and technical assistance for vulnerable communities.

This episode offers an essential primer for anyone interested in how public health, environmental law, and infrastructure converge at the tap.

Correction: The percentage of homes not on a regulated water system in the United States is roughly 15 to 20 percent, not 30 percent as cited in a former version of this episode.

Linda speaks with four inspiring guests whose work spans K-12 education, higher ed, hospitality, and professional sports:

• Todd Lawrence (04:28), Executive Director of Urban Green Lab, explains how training teachers and conducting school cafeteria waste audits are empowering the next generation to take action.
• David ter Kuile (18:32), Associate Vice Chancellor at Vanderbilt University, walks us through how campus dining hit its zero waste goals through composting, waste tracking, and student engagement.
• Tyler Lee (34:44), Executive Chef at 1 Hotel Nashville, shares how local sourcing, zero-waste cocktails, and creative kitchen strategies are changing the hospitality landscape.
• Haley Davidson (49:48), Chief of Staff for the Tennessee Titans, describes how Nashville’s NFL team is designing a new LEED Gold stadium with food waste reduction in mind—and how it’s already making a difference at Nissan Stadium.

From teaching tools to technology to teamwork, this episode explores scalable strategies for reducing food waste and building more resilient communities. Whether you're in a school, university, restaurant, or stadium, there's something here for everyone.

Related Links:

• ELI's Center for State and Local Governance, Food Waste Initiative
• Urban Green Lab resources on food waste reduction
• Food Waste Warrior Audit
• James Beard Foundation and Nashville Food Waste Initiative Food Scrap Cooking Demonstration
• Waste Not Cooking Competition

The episode also introduces ELI’s new platform to track the prosecution and enforcement of crimes against environmental defenders. Kristine explains how the project—starting in Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, and Mexico—aims to combat impunity and bring accountability to those responsible for attacks. Tune in to learn about the urgent need for protections and how these threats impact communities, ecosystem, and global environmental governance.

Listener discretion is advised due to sensitive content regarding violence against environmental defenders. 

This podcast was created in conjunction with ELI’s Toolkit for Incorporating Plant-Based Protein Measures in Municipal Climate Action Plans. 

This podcast was created in conjunction with ELI’s Toolkit for Incorporating Plant-Based Protein Measures in Municipal Climate Action Plans. 

Relevant Resources:
Chevron Deference in the Dock: SCOTUS and the Future of Environmental Protection
Community Lawyering for Environmental Justice Part 9: Air Permitting

In honor of American Wetlands Month, ELI is celebrating the National Wetlands Awards (NWA). Since 1989, the NWAs have been presented annually to individuals who have excelled in wetlands protection, restoration, and education. On this special miniseries of People Places Planet, Research Associate Isabella Blanco sit downs with past NWA winners to hear their stories. 

In honor of American Wetlands Month, ELI is celebrating the National Wetlands Awards (NWA). Since 1989, the NWAs have been presented annually to individuals who have excelled in wetlands protection, restoration, and education. On this special miniseries of People Places Planet, Research Associate Isabella Blanco sit downs with past NWA winners to hear their stories. 

Relevant Resources:
Vibrant Environment, Proposed NEPA Rule Goes All-In on Environmental Justice
ELR, Amending the NEPA Regulations 

Inspired? Reach out to Elizabeth Koch at koch@eli.org if you are interested in supporting and contributing to the Women in Water Diplomacy Network.  

Relevant Resources:
The Fifth National Climate Assessment Gives a Unique Spotlight to Climate Justice by John Doherty
The Climate Judiciary Project 

You can find the Sackett webinar, as well as resources referenced in this podcast episode here.  

Relevant Resources:
John Dernbach and Scott Schang, Governing for Sustainability Introduction 

Goldman Sachs, The Us Inflation Reduction Act Is Driving Clean-energy Investment One Year In 

The Nature Conservancy, Family Forest Carbon Program 

The Washington Post, ‘Greenhushing’: Why some companies quietly hide their climate pledges 

Harper Collins Publishers, Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet 

Relevant Resources:  

Financial Times, UK, Canada and Germany lead fresh push against coal power at COP28 

Reuters, COP28 kicks off with climate disaster fund victory 

Glasglow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, Amount of finance committed to achieving 1.5°C now at scale needed to deliver the transition 

International Energy Agency, For the first time in decades, the number of people without access to electricity is set to increase in 2022 

The World Bank, Detox Development: Repurposing Environmentally Harmful Subsidies 

Relevant Resources: 

National Museum of the American Indian, Rethinking Thanksgiving Celebrations: Native Perspectives on Thanksgiving

Smithsonian Magazine, Thanksgiving from an Indigenous Perspective

NRDC, Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill  

ReFED, Americans Will Waste Nearly 312 Million Pounds of Food This Thanksgiving  

EPA, From Farm to Kitchen: The Environmental Impacts of U.S. Food Waste 

Professor Sunstein’s related article Arbitrariness Review and Climate Change was selected for inclusion in this year’s Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review, which recognizes scholarship that presents creative and feasible legal and policy solutions to pressing environmental problems. ELPAR is published annually by the ELI’s Environmental Law Reporter in collaboration with the Vanderbilt University Law School.

You can read the accompanying blog here, which includes more analysis and direct quotes from the Held decision. 

Referenced materials can be found on our accompanying blog here. 

Read “Deforestación y Derecho” here and find Juan’s report – “War on Deforestation” – here.

Interested in reading their report? Find it in full here.

In this miniseries, ELI’s Georgia Ray sits down with each of the 2023 National Wetlands Awardees.   

In this miniseries, ELI’s Georgia Ray sits down with each of the 2023 National Wetlands Awardees.   

In this miniseries, ELI’s Georgia Ray sits down with each of the 2023 National Wetlands Awardees.   

In this miniseries, ELI’s Georgia Ray sits down with each of the 2023 National Wetlands Awardees. 

In this miniseries, ELI’s Georgia Ray sits down with each of the 2023 National Wetlands Awardees. 

In this miniseries, ELI’s Georgia Ray sits down with each of the 2023 National Wetlands Awardees.  

Tune into other podcasts mentioned in this episode: Artificial Intelligence, State Protection of Nonfederal Waters, ELI’s Pro Bono Clearinghouse, and the National Wetlands Awards. 

Interested in learning more? Check out these articles and posts on EV emissions, EV battery production, EV charging networks, and environmental justice. 

Interested in learning more? Contact Carlos Garcia via email; check out Bloom Energy’s webpage on biogas and its resources on energy sources for animal agriculture; and/or read about the issues Joel Porter describes in these articles on: wood pellets, marginalized communities in the American South, biogas and methane leaks, hog farms, and manure wastewater. Also check out Joel’s blog on the cost of livestock factory farming in North Carolina. 

This podcast on digital sharing services is based on comprehensive research by Tamar Makov, Tamar Meshulam, and Sarah Goldberg supported by the Network for the Digital Economy and the Environment (nDEE) with grants from the Internet Society Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The nDEE is a collaboration of the Environmental Law Institute, the Yale School of the Environment, and the University of California Berkeley.

A Tufts rising senior will tell you about her fight for maternal health in the Black community, especially as it pertains to air quality. Another will dive into uranium contamination in America’s southwest. A third will talk about his work with prison populations and the heat related illnesses that can occur inside the system. All of them will discuss what it was like to work at ELI, how they hope to continue in the environmental space, and the lessons they have learned spending the summer in D.C. 

You can find Raf and Priyanka on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rafjrodriguez & https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyanka-mahat-b16642151/

If you are interested in learning more about The Center for Black Maternal Health & Reproductive Justice at Tufts (with whom Fatima worked closely on her project), you can visit their website.

In this episode, Justin Savage, a Partner at Sidley Austin LLP, talks with Kelly Gibson, Director of the SEC’s Philadelphia Regional Office who also leads the Climate and ESG Task Force within the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, and Ranah Esmaili, a partner at Sidley who recently joined the firm from the SEC’s Asset Management Unit within the Division of Enforcement. The panel discusses a wide range of SEC developments, including potential rulemaking, risk alerts, investor bulletins, and the task force. 

This episode is the fourth in a series presented by the ELI Innovation Lab, an initiative of the Environmental Law Institute, working to drive environmental performance in business and technology. The series, Environmental Disruptors, features a diverse set of innovators (including entrepreneurs, inventors, and government officials), and shares stories of their work to transform conventional systems to create a more equitable and sustainable world. 

Today, 33 states have legalized cannabis for medical use --- 10 of these states, in addition to Washington DC, have also legalized cannabis for recreational use. Just ten years ago, only 13 states had legalized medicinal cannabis. Recreational cannabis wasn’t legal on the state level until 2012, with Colorado and Washington state forging the path. This year alone, Forbes predicts nine additional states could legalize recreational cannabis use. 

The cannabis industry is transforming rapidly. But what does this mean for the environment? Back in 2017 ELI’s Director of Technology Innovation and Environment, Dave Rejeski asked Is Marijuana the Next Big Thing? and considered some of the environmental implications of this fast-growing (pun intended) industry. In this episode Kaitlin Urso (cannabis environmental consultant at CDPHE) and Azi Akpan (science and policy analyst at ELI Innovation Lab) digs into some big sustainability questions, exploring the priorities, challenges, and obstacles to driving sustainability in cannabis. Last month, Kaitlin Urso led an air quality project to collect data on four cannabis farms, to track volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions across plant types, sizes, ages, and growing conditions. Read the Science Magazine article here. 

We will be talking to DJ Patterson, a local water steward who founded Oklahoma’s first and only waterless car wash service, EcoGreen Mobile Detailing. A carwash is estimated to use between 80 to 140 gallons of water per wash. EcoGreen is not just avoiding the use, but is also preventing the release of harmful chemicals into waterways or the sewer system.