Land Air Water, a student group at the University of Oregon School of Law, hosted the 43rd annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) in Eugene, Oregon, from Friday, February 28 through Sunday, March 2, 2025. PIELC draws activists, advocates, attorneys, scientists, government officials, and concerned citizens together for the oldest and largest public interest environmental law conference in the world.
This year, PIELC hosted more than 70 panels, workshops, and speaker events over the course of the three days, themed around Rising to the Challenge: Justice on the Horizon. Land Air Water selected this theme to center significant challenges and obstacles to effectuating positive environmental change and celebrate diverse leaders in the environmental movement.
On Saturday, March 1, ELI presented the panel “Reimagining Equity in a post-Chevron Era,” discussing the impact of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions on environmental justice and environmental protections. The panelists were Jarryd Page, Staff Attorney at ELI; Margaret Von Rotz, Public Interest Environmental Law Fellow at ELI; and me, also a Public Interest Environmental Law Fellow at ELI. As it turned out, our panel was the only session directly addressing recent developments in federal administrative law, and one of only a few panels directly addressing recent NEPA cases. The panel drew a crowd of over 100 attendees, with significant engagement from practitioners, policy folks, and law students. In fact, our panel was so well attended that they had to move us from a classroom to a lecture hall!
Jarryd began the panel with an overview of recent blockbuster Supreme Court cases, including Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and what these cases mean for federal agencies, Congress, and the judiciary. For readers unfamiliar with these cases, Loper Bright overturned the longstanding Chevron doctrine, which instructed courts to defer to a federal agency's interpretation of an ambiguous law or statute. Corner Post, meanwhile, created a potentially expansive exception to the six-year statute of limitations for APA cases. Taken together, these cases have dramatically changed the legal landscape of administrative law.
I then presented on how litigants and judges are applying Loper Bright and related doctrines. I gave an overview of Loper Bright in litigation so far, noting that it has been cited more than 400 times in 2024 and more than 200 times in 2025—no surprise given that Chevron was one of the most-cited cases in American law. I also discussed how Loper Bright is showing up in environmental litigation, with lawyers and judges citing Loper Bright to oppose new regulations, support other forms of agency deference (beyond Chevron deference), and challenge deregulation.
Margaret ended the presentation with a discussion of the ripple effects of Loper Bright for NEPA and highlighted the shift in the environmental policy community to focusing on state-level action. She shared the results of her 50-state survey of state environmental equity protections, such as mini-NEPAs and environmental justice legislation, noting that at least 30 states already have some type of equity-based environmental protection on the books.
Attending the conference and presenting on a panel were invaluable opportunities for an early-career attorney such as myself. Over the course of the conference, I reconnected with fellow UCLA Law alumni and other professionals I knew from law school and beyond and forged new connections with environmental attorneys and others working in this space. I was inspired and reinvigorated by the work and words of the other panelists and speakers, such as Tara Houska, land defender, attorney, and founder of Giniw Collective, whose keynote address centered on the importance of compassion and collective effort in these turbulent times. For the early career PIELC participants, it was inspiring to hear veteran practitioners explain that a change in federal policy doesn’t mean our environmental law and policy work comes to a halt; rather, it prompts a reconfiguration of—and even provides an opportunity to pause, take stock, and thoughtfully plan—where and how the environmental community’s resources and expertise are dedicated to efforts to strengthen environmental protection and promote justice.
Presenting on ELI’s panel was also an incredible experience on a personal level. I was grateful to have the opportunity to share research that I had spent months conducting with the people who would find it the most useful. It was also my first time speaking at a professional conference, thereby allowing me to improve my public speaking and communication skills.
Overall, attending and speaking at PIELC was a significant opportunity for me to foster meaningful connections and support my personal and professional growth—and for ELI to underscore its expertise in complex issues in federal administrative law and environmental justice.