Linda Breggin

Senior Attorney and Director, Southeast Environmental Programs
202-558-3102 or 615-279-1861
breggin@eli.org

Expertise

• Environmental Justice: environmental justice issues
• Law: environmental enforcement; Superfund
• Pollution: brownfields; nanotechnology
• Water: point source and nonpoint source water pollution

Profile

Linda Breggin works on a wide range of environmental law and policy issues. She currently directs the Institute’s Nanotechnology Initiative, which seeks to develop an effective environmental, health and safety governance structure for nanotechnologies. Her work also includes research and convenings on programs under several of the major federal environmental laws, including the Comprehensive Environmental, Response, Compensation, and Liability Act and the Clean Water Act.

Breggin is located in Nashville, Tennessee and works on Southeastern regional environmental projects, in addition to national issues. Her projects in the State of Tennessee include, for example: research on key environmental issues facing the state; a dialogue among industry and environmental groups on the state’s adoption of a federal rule on new source review under the Clean Air Act; facilitation of discussions between the states of Tennessee and Kentucky to address issues in their shared watersheds, which resulted in an Interstate agreement designed to protect and improve water quality.

Prior to joining ELI in 1997, Breggin served as an Associate Director in the White House Office on Environmental Policy and as a Special Assistant to the Assistant Administrator for Enforcement at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She also served as Counsel to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Transportation and Hazardous Materials of the U.S. House of Representatives. In addition, Breggin was in private practice in Washington, D.C.

Education

• J.D., University of Chicago, 1988
• B.A., Tulane University, 1984

Selected Publications

Linda K. Breggin & John Pendergrass, Where Does the Nano Go? End-of-Life Regulation of Nanotechnologies (Woodrow Wilson Int’l Ctr. for Scholars 2007).

Linda K. Breggin & Leslie Carothers, Governing Uncertainty: The Nanotechnology Environmental, Health, and Safety Challenge, 31 Colum. J. Envtl. L. 286 (2006).

Linda K. Breggin, James McElfish, John Pendergrass, & Susan Bass, Inventing Nonpoint Controls: Methods, Metrics, and Results, 17 Vill. Envtl. L.J. 87 (2006).

Linda K. Breggin, Securing the Promise of Nanotechnology: Is U.S. Environmental Law Up to the Job?, (Envtl. L. Inst. 2005).

Linda K. Breggin & Susan George, Planning for Biodiversity: Sources of Authority in State Land Use Laws, 2 Va Envtl. L.J. 81 (2003) (reprinted in Zoning and Planning Law Handbook (West 2004)).

Linda K. Breggin & Mark Cohen, Looking Ahead to the Coming Decade: Some Key Environmental and Natural Resources Issues Facing Tennessee, (Vanderbilt Ctr. for Environmental Management Studies 2002) available at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/vcems/tcl/tclindex.html.

Linda K. Breggin et al, Opportunities for Advancing Environmental Justice: An Analysis of U.S. EPA Statutory Authorities, (Envtl. L. Inst. 2001).

Linda K. Breggin et al, Virginia’s Economic Incentives: Missed Opportunities for Sustainable Growth, (Envtl. L. Inst. 2001) (reprinted in Carolina Plan. J. Winter 2002 at 41).

Linda K. Breggin et al, Protecting Public Health at Superfund Sites: Can Institutional Controls Meet the Challenge, (Envtl. L. Inst. 2000).