News Highlights

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.

. … “The political climate in many countries is not for adopting even stronger climate rules,” added Michael Gerrard, founder of Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law....

Sabin Center Director Michael Gerrard noted the science hasn’t been a factor in the array of lawsuits against the industry, which have largely been stalled by procedural disputes. “The emerging science of climate attribution will be very helpful in these cases, but it’s not enough,” Gerrard said. … Mankin noted U.S. investment in scientific research since World War II has led to achievements including progress in treating diseases, as well as the development of cell phones and artificial intelligence....

“The post-oil world remains far in the future,” admits David Sandalow, an environmental bureaucrat in the Clinton and Obama administrations....

Michael Gerrard, an expert in climate change and law at Columbia Law School, called the proposal “a frontal assault on the scientific enterprise and an aggressive retreat from US scientific leadership.” “I would think that any kind of climate-related research, or renewable energy-related research, would be vulnerable,” Gerrard said, because the proposal “gives the White House a grab bag of rationales to cancel anything they don’t like.”

Interview with Michael Gerrard.

The Investor-State Dispute Settlement is included in many of the world’s cross-border investment agreements. … And I do not see a difference between that type of regulation and climate regulation,’ said senior researcher at Columbia Law School in New York, Martin Dietrich Brauch.

Michael Gerrard, a law professor at Columbia who focuses on climate, environmental and energy law, provided the rationale in an email responding to my queries: The greatest threat to the demand for oil is electric vehicles. Trump has — through the One Big Beautiful Bill — eliminated the tax credits for E.V.s and charging stations. Through the Congressional Review Act, he has killed (for now, at least) the California waiver — the use of a provision of the Clean Air Act that allows California to adopt stronger emission standards than the federal standards.