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October 1, 2020
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An ELI Public Webinar Pesticides have revolutionized food production, but with progress comes new challenges. Pesticides can have widespread impacts on both ecosystems and human health, and marginalized communities—children and farmworkers in particular—can be particularly vulnerable. Manufacturers, regulatory agencies, and nonprofit organizations are working to address these challenges head-on by developing safer products and devising robust protective measures. Recent changes in federal regulations include the Worker Protection Standards under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), which expand the requirements for protecting agricultural workers from pesticide exposure. There are challenges in implementing these new obligations, from both logistical and pragmatic perspectives. How do multiple stakeholders—farmworkers, farmers, manufacturers, applicators, the advocacy community, and others—work independently and collaboratively to advance safety for workers and potentially affected communities? What innovative approaches are being incorporated with pesticides? What policy approaches are being advanced in this area? How have recent changes in federal regulations affected efforts to protect agricultural workers? Join the Environmental Law Institute and expert panelists as they seek to answer these questions. Leading experts also explore actions that private citizens, industry, government actors, and advocacy groups can take to address the public health impacts of pesticides in the scope of environmental justice. Panelists: Materials:
October 1, 2020
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An ELI Public Webinar ELI and leading environmental law scholars from around the country presented the Annual Environmental Law Institute Supreme Court Review and Preview, just four days before the “First Monday of October” when the Supreme Court formally closed the October Term 2019 and begin the October Term 2020. Leading experts in environmental law and the Supreme Court, these panelists offer an overview of key rulings and major take-aways from the Court’s last term, focusing on decisions with significant implications for environmental law. They then turn to cases that have been granted review or are likely to be considered by the Justices in the upcoming term. Panelists: Materials: |
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October 9, 2020
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Co-sponsored by the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE) Water quality monitoring by citizens or community organizations has long been an element of government water quality management programs. In the United States, Clean Water Act regulations specifically require states to consider data from outside sources, including private individuals or organizations. This citizen involvement is important because location-specific information on pollution, especially diffuse sources of water pollution is difficult to gather using only government-owned and operated monitors. In addition, prominent advocacy organizations such as Waterkeepers have relied on samples gathered by their staff or volunteers to pursue citizen litigation against discharges or to report information on possible violations to governments. Much of this monitoring has relied on long-standing sampling techniques but new technologies have increasingly enabled community-based monitors to gather information on a wider range of parameters more frequently. Some of these systems involve elaborate river or estuary monitoring networks that can provide real time information on water quality. Others involve use of satellite monitoring or drones to identify sources of pollution, while still others involve submersible electronic monitoring devices. This session, the second in INECE’s webinar series on citizen science and environmental enforcement, examined how community science is used to advance water quality monitoring, examined barriers and opportunities to deploy community science in support of compliance and enforcement programs, discussed some of the new technologies available to community scientists, and reviewed some of the policy and practical implications of using community science in the context of water pollution. Speakers: |
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October 13, 2020
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Staying on top of the legal and policy developments in the climate change arena is no small task. As a special service to our members, the Environmental Law Institute provides a series of monthly conference calls with national experts on climate law and policy to keep you up to date and to answer your questions.
Topics to be addressed in this month's call:
Speakers: Materials: ELI Monthly Climate Briefings are made possible by the NOTE: This call/recording is for ELI members only. No comments may be quoted
October 13, 2020
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ELI 2020 Corporate Forum The coronavirus pandemic, the push for racial justice, and continued efforts to mitigate climate change have emerged as key challenges for corporations across America. At the center of this trifecta of change are supply chains. Reports suggest one quarter of the global supply chain, approximately $4.5 trillion, could shift by 2025. While companies have been rethinking, streamlining, and aiming for increased transparency in supply chains long before the pandemic, the novel coronavirus and calls for racial justice have acted as catalytic accelerators for this major shift. Leading companies are rebuilding supply chains more resilient to the disruptions caused by climate change and more cognizant of environmental, social, and governance expectations, while prioritizing suppliers that promote racial justice and companies owned by people of color. Amidst the global pandemic and challenges companies are facing in 2020 is another issue: how to navigate a new future of corporate responsibility that is mindfully insulated from the political pendulum as administrations and priorities potentially change. How are leading corporations reimagining supply chains that prioritize environmental, social, and economic sustainability? How are corporations maintaining good governance in light of ongoing priority shifts from administrations? What are the most significant opportunities and challenges companies face in the developing new normal? Join ELI and expert panelists for the 2020 Corporate Forum to dive into these questions and explore the future of sustainable supply chains. Panelists: Materials: |
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October 14, 2020
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ELI 2020 Policy Forum Like many areas of the American experience in 2020, the environment seems to be at a crossroads. The coronavirus pandemic, economic dislocation, racial injustice, wildfires and flooding have placed U.S. governance, the economy, and social systems under tremendous strain. Meanwhile, trust in government and other public institutions is low. In this pivotal moment, science continues to project an accelerated path to climate change. Recent substantive and procedural changes in federal regulations and policies have affected federal and state governments’ capacity to address climate change and numerous other environmental hazards. ELI and George Washington University School of Law’s 2019 workshops on reimagining environmental governance, together with recent ELI work summing up current legal developments and challenges, offers a map to guide multiple stakeholders into a new era. Leading panelists explore major issues highlighted by the Environment 2021 report including the effects of substantive and procedural changes, and the ability to address new problems and meet the needs of environmental justice. Panelists contemplate the future roles for federal, state, and local governments, technology, innovation, and private environmental governance in meeting the challenges environmental and natural resources law will face in the coming decade. Panelists look at new proposals for legislation, and the role of federalism in creating opportunities for climate legislation, social reform, remaking the energy economy, and protecting communities and public resources. Join the Environmental Law Institute and leading panelists to explore these issues and more. Panelists: Materials: |
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October 21, 2020
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An ELI Public Webinar Dozens of tribes are finding their cultural heritage threatened by the impacts of climate change, including sea level rise, coastal erosion, hurricanes, floods, melting permafrost, drought, shifting climate patterns, and more. In light of these challenges, tribes are pressed to preserve their cultural heritage, including moving community infrastructure and recording resources before they disappear, safeguarding archeological and culturally significant sites, completing climate vulnerability assessments, and other time- and cost-intensive measures. However, tribes are facing logistical and funding challenges especially as they attempt to implement recommendations of vulnerability assessments. What are the leading efforts and tools to preserve tribal cultural heritage threatened by climate change? What role can technology play in preserving tribal cultural heritage? How are tribes overcoming logistical and financial challenges to safeguarding their cultural heritage from climate change? Join the Environmental Law Institute and expert panelists as they explore efforts underway to save critical tribal cultural resources threatened by the impacts of climate change. Panelists: Materials: ELI members will have subsequent access to any materials/a recording of this session (usually posted w/in 48 hours). If you are not an ELI member but would like to have access to archived sessions like this one, go HERE to see the many benefits of membership and how to join. |
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October 23, 2020
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An ELI Member Webinar Meat production is the primary source of methane gas, a greenhouse gas (GHG) 86 times more heat trapping than carbon dioxide over a 20-year span. Beef cattle accounts for 70% of these methane emissions, and according to a 2018 report in the journal Nature, Western countries need to reduce beef consumption 90% in order to meet climate targets. In light of these challenges as well as health concerns and economic opportunities, innovators are developing alternative proteins. Alternative proteins include foods such as plant-based and cultivated meats, which have smaller carbon footprints than their animal-based counterparts. Municipalities can play a central role in encouraging the consumption of low-carbon foods as part of their efforts to reduce their carbon footprints by implementing measures such as climate-friendly health guidelines, food-purchasing policies, among others. While major cities including New York City, Los Angeles, and Portland have announced efforts to incorporate climate-friendly food policies, less than five percent of municipalities have established climate-friendly health guidelines and fewer have implemented food-purchasing policies. What are the barriers municipalities face when implementing climate-friendly food policies? What best practices can municipalities follow to encourage low-carbon foods and agriculture? What are the challenges and opportunities faced by alternative proteins? Join the Environmental Law Institute, The Good Food Institute, and expert panelists to explore these questions and more by diving into efforts to leverage alternative proteins to achieve municipal climate goals. Panelists: Materials:
October 23, 2020
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Co-sponsored by the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE) Poor air quality is one of the most pressing environmental challenges of our day. It is particularly difficult to address because of the localized nature of impacts. Various groups have successfully used community science to address other environmental threats such as water pollution. But air quality monitoring devices have historically been too costly for nongovernmental organizations. However, it has become increasingly clear that traditional government air pollution monitoring programs do not provide information needed to address the impacts communities are facing. The focus of traditional air pollution monitoring has been on area-wide pollutants which allowed the use of regional monitors to detect pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide. Studies conducted in Los Angeles over the past two decades (the Multiple Air Toxics Emissions Studies) found using neighborhood scale monitoring that quite localized risks from air toxics exposure could be quite high compared to those identifiable at the regional scale, and thus create significant public health risk. At the same time, new, low-cost air quality monitoring technologies have become available to communities, enabling them to assess air quality on a local scale. Session 3 of INECE’s webinar series on citizen science and environmental enforcement will look at how novel and more affordable air monitoring technology has evolved, and how those sensors are being used to address air quality concerns, particularly by community groups raising environmental justice issues. The session will examine some of the technologies that are now available to community scientists and what agencies can do to address issues of quality of data from these devices; it will then look at initiatives in the field, both in the US and in developing countries. The session will also show how government agencies are using new technology to encourage public reporting of possible violations to their compliance and enforcement programs.
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October 26, 2020
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An ELI and Beveridge & Diamond PC Co-Sponsored Webinar Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Superfund program with analysis of its past, present, and future. On December 11, 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed into law the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, aka “Superfund.” Forty years later, Superfund cleanups continue in full stride across the country. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Superfund program, the Environmental Law Institute and Beveridge & Diamond organized two in-depth panel discussions of the past, present, and future of the Superfund program with former EPA and DOJ officials and private practitioners. Superfund Reform Efforts, Past and Present A panel discussion with the lead EPA and U.S. DOJ staff for the 1986 Superfund amendments, covering both past CERCLA reform efforts and the current status of CERCLA at 40 years. Panelists: Materials: |
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October 27, 2020
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An ELI Public Webinar The Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) project proposes building an observatory on Mauna Kai, a dormant volcano on Hawai’i's Big Island that is also one of the most sacred sites to Native Hawaiians. Scientists prefer Mauna Kai as it is one of the only locations in the Western hemisphere suitable for such a telescope, which will enable scientists to observe astronomical objects not viewable from most other locations. The site was formally selected in 2009 and since then a series of legal challenges have come up, including challenges that went all the way to the Hawaiian Supreme Court. Additionally, protests have delayed construction of the TMT for over a decade. Native Hawaiians have a long history of displacement and injustice propelled by the United States government and large corporations. This project is perceived as yet another instance of development without their explicit consent, and is seen by many as a desecration of Native Hawaiian culture. In late 2019, protests blocked construction materials from accessing the construction site for the TMT. While project developers plan to move forward with the Mauna Kai site, they have also applied for permits in alternative locations. The TMT debate represents the ongoing issues of former Hawaiian sovereignty and self-determination, Indigenous rights, environmental justice, stewardship, and decision-making. Complicating legal factors include the Hawai’i State Constitution with its listed rights afforded to Native Hawaiians, and the lack of federal tribal recognition for Native Hawaiians, which limits the benefits and legal protections afforded to them. Join ELI and expert panelists as they explore the complicated history behind TMT longstanding challenges to preserving the culture of Native Hawaiians, the natural environment of the islands, sovereignty and tribal status issues, environmental justice, and more. Materials: |
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October 28, 2020
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A D.C. Environment & Energy Associations Public Webinar co-sponsored by the Environmental Law Institute; D.C. Bar Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Community; and Women in Government Relations’ Task-Force on Energy, Environment, and Agriculture as part of DC Pro Bono Week Join the D.C. Environment and Energy Associations (DCEEA) for a pro bono panel to discuss opportunities for involvement in environmental and climate change initiatives. With widespread attention increasingly focused on climate change initiatives, many are interested in exploring opportunities to get involved in grass-roots and pro bono efforts. Leading experts in these areas explore the numerous aspects of and ways to become involved in a variety of types of pro bono work, including litigation, especially those in the form of citizen suits and petitions for rulemaking; advocacy, especially through testifying before government agencies, letter writing to agencies, lobbying, etc.; and hands-on non-legal volunteer opportunities. At the conclusion of their remarks, expert panelists field questions from participants during a Q&A session. Learn about tangible ideas and opportunities for involvement in pro bono opportunities for climate change initiatives and environmental issues more broadly. Panelists: Useful Links: Materials: |
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October 29, 2020
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An Environmental Law Institute Women in Environmental Law and Leadership (WELL) Event Cathy Pagano, Senior Government Relations Representative at U.S. Postal Service and longtime leader in environmental law joins WELL to speak about her federal career and the importance of women helping other women. Join ELI’s Women in Environmental Law and Leadership (WELL) in friendly conversation with Cathy. A virtual networking reception with Cathy and the WELL-DC Steering Committee follows the event. About the Speaker: Materials: ELI members will have subsequent access to any materials/a recording of this session (usually posted w/in 48 hours). If you are not an ELI member but would like to have access to archived sessions like this one, go HERE to see the many benefits of membership and how to join. |
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