News Highlights

The EPA's decision to repeal emission regulations on power plants comes at a time when the world needs to be limiting planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions, not allowing more emissions, says Michael Gerrard, law professor at Columbia University and director of the Sabin Center...

Talking about the data center backlash, the midterm elections, and the future of renewables with Columbia Law School’s Romany Webb.

By Michael Gerrard.

Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, said EPA had already started down the path of denying its own statutory authority to regulate greenhouse gases when it scrapped the endangerment finding in February. …

“The main issue is whether state courts have the power to issue money damages over climate change, or whether that's exclusively a matter of federal law that has to be decided by federal courts or by Congress or the president,” says Michael Gerrard, founder of Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate...

It is a challenging time for climate policy. As you may know, the endangerment finding was just repealed by the US Supreme Court. Almost as soon as that ruling went live, so did a great deal of half-truths and misconceptions on potential applicability. We walk through a number of them on this episode. I was fortunate to be joined by Michael Gerrard (Founder and Faculty Director, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law)...

“I think the idea is that a nuclear waste storage facility creates very few jobs; you put the stuff there and you walk away. But these other facilities could create a lot of jobs and economic activity,” said Michael Gerrard, who directs the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.

But Michael Gerrard, founder and faculty director of Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, says it would be difficult to succeed under international law. “There is no plausible theory under existing international law whereby the U.S. could hold Canada legally liable for wildfire smoke,” he said.

“We’re in uncharted terrain,” said Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. “This would be the first constitutional amendment to provide a right to a particular fossil fuel.” A constitutional amendment would trump most legislation seeking to limit the use of methane gas, while the laws in other parts of the country don’t have the same power.