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Research Programs

Environmental and Energy Law Program

  • Jody Freeman and Richard Lazarus

    A followup from Freeman and Lazarus

    March 27, 2015

    Laurence Tribe’s reply to Professors Jody Freeman and Richard Lazarus Professor Laurence H. Tribe J.D. ’66 I appreciate the opportunity to respond to the rebuttal…

  • Jody Freeman and Richard Lazarus

    Freeman and Lazarus: A rebuttal to Tribe’s reply

    March 21, 2015

    Our colleague Larry Tribe’s response to our initial posting serves as a reminder of why he is widely celebrated as one of the nation’s most…

  • Professor Laurence Tribe

    Tribe: Why EPA’s Climate Plan Is Unconstitutional

    March 20, 2015

    When my friends Jody Freeman and Richard Lazarus defend the legality of the EPA’s power plant rule by saying that no one would take the…

  • Outside of the supreme court stone columns

    Experts debate the constitutionality of the president’s climate change plan

    March 20, 2015

    Noted constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe ’66, Carl M. Loeb University Professor, has made headlines with his Congressional testimony that the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan is unconstitutional. Professors Jody Freeman LL.M. '91 S.J.D. '95 and Richard Lazarus '79--two leading Harvard Law professors with expertise in environmental law, administrative law, and Supreme Court environmental litigation--take an opposing view.

  • Jody Freeman and Richard Lazarus

    Freeman and Lazarus: Is the President’s Climate Plan Unconstitutional?

    March 18, 2015

    Experts debate the constitutionality of the president’s climate change plan Noted constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe ’66 has made headlines with his Congressional testimony that

  • Lecturer Emily Broad Leib awarded Climate Change Solutions Fund grant

    February 11, 2015

    Lecturer on Law Emily Broad Leib, the director of Harvard Law School’s Food Law and Policy Clinic, was awarded a research grant in the inaugural year of Harvard President Drew Faust’s Climate Change Solutions Fund. Broad Leib's project, "Reducing Food Waste as a Key to Addressing Climate Change," was one of seven chosen to confront the challenge of climate change using the levers of law, policy, and economics, as well as public health and science.

  • Richard Lazarus speaking at the front of a classroom

    Freeman, Lazarus discuss legal fate of EPA proposal to toughen emissions rules (video)

    October 10, 2014

    In a discussion on the EPA's proposed regulations on power-plant emissions, HLS Professors Richard Lazarus and Jody Freeman said that the proposed rules have the potential to both transform the national energy scene and invigorate international climate-change negotiations.

  • New HLS report offers assessment of regional and municipal stormwater management

    July 1, 2014

    In June, Harvard Law School’s Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic and the Environmental Policy Initiative released “Regional and Municipal Stormwater Management: A Comprehensive Approach,” a new report that analyzes options for addressing stormwater pollution at both the regional and municipal level.

  • The Meat We Eat: HLS hosts a forum on industrial animal farming (video)

    May 2, 2014

    The Harvard Food Law Society hosted The Meat We Eat: 2014 Forum on Industrial Animal Farming, on Friday, April 4. The forum, co-hosted with the HLS Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, explored the legal and policy aspects of industrial animal farming and related effects on public health, the environment and animal welfare.

  • Professor Jody Freeman LL.M. ’91 S.J.D. ’95

    Tackling Climate Change through Law and Policy: A Q&A with Jody Freeman

    April 24, 2014

    n the spirit of Harvard University President Drew Faust’s recent focus on addressing the problem of climate change, we interviewed HLS Professor Jody Freeman, who served in the Obama administration as Counselor for Energy and Climate Change and is the co-author of a forthcoming book on global climate change and U.S. law.

  • Dr Robert Bullard speaking behind podium

    Looking back and moving forward on Environmental Justice: A national conference (video)

    April 10, 2014

    In 1994, President Clinton issued Executive Order 12898, which made Environmental Justice a national priority. In recognition of the 20th anniversary of President Clinton’s Executive Order, the Harvard Law School Environmental Law Society (HELS) hosted the National Association of Environmental Law Societies (NAELS) 26th Annual Conference, on March 28–29, 2014, titled “Environmental Justice: Where Are We Now?”

  • Margaret Holden portrait

    Meet the Students: Some “Environmental Impact Statements”…

    March 7, 2014

    Students and recent graduates share their experiences with the Environmental Law and Policy Program at Harvard Law and discuss the influence that participation in the range of offerings has had on their academic and professional careers in Environmental Law.

  • Silhouette of an oil rig against a vibrant purple sunset

    Changing the Climate of Environmental Law

    March 7, 2014

    Having completed its first phase of growth, the Harvard Law School Environmental Law and Policy Program is now looking to strengthen and build. “We’ve gone from zero to 100 in a very short period of time,” says HLS Professor Jody Freeman, program founder and director. “And I feel as if we are just getting started.”

  • Ari Peskoe

    Harvard Law School Environmental Policy Initiative appoints new Energy Fellow

    January 13, 2014

    Ari Peskoe, a former associate in the Energy Advisory Group of McDermott Will & Emery LLP, and a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Pennsylvania, has been named Energy Fellow in the Harvard Law School Environmental Policy Initiative.

  • EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy

    Targeting Climate Change: EPA chief says issue is economic as well as environmental (video)

    July 31, 2013

    Newly confirmed Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy on Tuesday pledged action on climate change during the Obama administration’s remaining years, saying the concern is as much economic as it is environmental.

  • Gina McCarthy

    New EPA administrator speaks at HLS

    July 10, 2013

    Less than two weeks after being confirmed by the Senate as Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Gina McCarthy delivered an inaugural address at Harvard Law School on Tuesday, July 30.

  • Richard Lazarus '79

    Richard Lazarus: Environmental law has fallen ‘in arrears’

    May 3, 2013

    Environmental lawlessness was the topic of discussion on April 10, as Richard Lazarus ’79, one of the nation’s foremost experts on environmental law, gave a lecture marking his appointment to the Howard J. and Katherine W. Aibel Professorship of Law.

  • Harvard Law study finds legal fractures in chemical disclosure laws

    May 3, 2013

    A registry intended to provide information to the public about the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing is not an acceptable regulatory measure, according to a recently released report by Harvard Law School’s Environmental Law Program Policy Initiative.

  • Bruce Babbitt ’65

    At HLS award ceremony, Babbitt challenges ‘haphazard infrastructure decisions’ (video)

    March 19, 2013

    On March 14, the Harvard Law School Environmental Law Society presented its annual Horizon award to Bruce Babbitt ’65, who previously served as secretary of the interior and governor of Arizona.The award is a means of recognizing great people who have accomplished great things in the field of environment and natural resources law, and to provide a forum in which to discuss those achievements.

  • HLS Environmental Law Clinic wins victory for renewable energy

    August 8, 2012

    For more than two years, Harvard Law School’s Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic has represented a group of general contractors who specialize in renewable energy projects but were being blocked from installing solar power by a state licensing board. Led by Clinic Director and Clinical Professor Wendy Jacobs, Harvard Law School students have prevailed in a two-year battle to lift restrictions on the installation of solar power in Massachusetts.

  • Professor Jody Freeman LL.M. ’91 S.J.D. ’95

    Freeman in NYT: ‘The Wise Way to Regulate Gas Drilling’

    July 6, 2012

    The op-ed "The Wise Way to Regulate Gas Drilling," by Professor Jody Freeman LL.M. ’91 S.J.D. ’95, appeared in the July 6, 2012, edition of the New York Times.