State Bar Task Force: 22 New York Actions to Address Climate Change

By Michael Gerrard

The new Obama administration is reversing eight years of federal refusal to take mandatory action to address climate change. However, the lower levels of government will continue to play central roles. States and municipalities are the principal regulators of building construction, land use, and electric utilities; they are major users of goods and services that generate greenhouse gases (GHGs)—and they have other key roles. To see how New York can better contribute to these efforts, in 2008 Bernice K. Leber, president of the New York State Bar Association, convened a Task Force on Global Warming. Its 12 members were given the task of updating two prior NYSBA reports on the subject1 and, more importantly, formulating specific action recommendations that could be presented to Democratic Governor David Paterson, his administrative agencies, and the Legislature. I was honored to be named chair of the task force. Students in the Columbia Law School Environmental Law Clinic performed key research, and the NYSBA’s Environmental Law Section and numerous state agencies provided invaluable assistance. The task force report will be released at the Presidential Summit at the NYSBA annual meeting on Jan. 28, 2009 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, and will be available at www.nysba.org.4 This article gives a preview of its recommendations. The task force was acutely aware of the state’s current fiscal situation and, thus, concentrated on action items that it expects will either save money because of their energy cost savings or will have, at worst, a modest cost to state and local government. Published in Volume 241 of New York Law Journal.

Read the report State Bar Task Force: 22 New York Actions to Address Climate Change in Columbia Law School's Scholarship Archive.