CleanLaw

Joe Goffman speaks with Bill Becker, former Executive Director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies. Bill and Mary Becker have just published a report on the Trump proposal to weaken vehicle greenhouse gas emissions standards. They describe the effects this proposal will have on public health, state compliance with the Clean Air Act, and industry operations. In addition to increasing...

In this episode, our Climate, Clean Air & Energy Fellow Caitlin McCoy speaks with Harvard Law student Michelle Melton about the proposed changes to the fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles. They discuss the lead up to and details of the proposed rules, and talk about ongoing and future litigation around these rules. We recorded this in early February, so there are refer...

Ari Peskoe talks to Jacob Mays about capacity markets. Jacob explains why regional power markets adopted capacity markets and outlines his research on the connection between risk and power plant operating and capital costs. Jacob and his colleagues published a paper on this topic entitled Asymmetric Risk and Fuel Neutrality in Capacity Markets - https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=...

Ari Peskoe talks with Bill Hogan, Professor of Global Energy Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. After laying out fundamental principles of wholesale market design, Bill discusses the recent proposal filed by PJM about reforming price formation in its reserve market. Bill explains why the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should find that prices in the market are currently unjust and unreason...

Robin Just speaks with Caitlin McCoy about developments in the Keystone XL permitting process, now that President Trump has issued both a new permit for the pipeline and two new Executive Orders that relate to pipelines, and other infrastructure. Transcript available here https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/CleanLaw-17-Robin-Caitlin-Keystone.pdf

Caitlin McCoy speaks with Sarah Light, Assistant Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania about her article, Regulatory Horcruxes, in which she describes how regulatory programs can be split up among federal agencies, state agencies, and even private actors, and how that fragmentation can insulate programs from future deregulatory actio...

How can business law better incentivize companies to take environmental consequences into account? In her latest article, Wharton Prof. Sarah Light, asks this question. EELP Staff Attorney Hana Vizcarra spoke with her about her ideas. Read Prof. Light’s full article in the Stanford Law Review here https://www.stanfordlawreview.org/print/article/the-law-of-the-corporation-as-environmental-law/ Tran...

When we spoke with Kathy Fallon Lambert about the science that should be underpinning the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards and the Clean Power Plan replacement, she told us why scientists should not be afraid to do work that is "usable, useful, and used." So here's a ten-minute crash course on the benefits of policy-relevant science. Enjoy!

Joe Goffman speaks with Kathy Fallon Lambert of the Harvard School of Public Health about her recent studies, with a team of many other scientists, that highlight overlooked potential public health impacts of EPA’s proposed changes to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards and the Clean Power Plan/Affordable Clean Energy Rule (if you want to go straight to the CPP/ACE discussion go to 27:15). Links...

With Gina McCarthy, Janet McCabe and Joe Goffman led the team that developed the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. Hear them discuss the effects of a new proposal to remove the legal foundation of the rule, and what might happen next. Janet's recent paper on this is here https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2019/02/janet-mccabe-epa-mats-revision/ and our recent analysis of the rollback is here https:...

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for the New York Times Eric Lipton speaks with Climate, Clean Air, & Energy Fellow Caitlin McCoy about his recent special report, “This is Our Reality Now,” covering the environmental and public health impacts of the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda in four communities across the country. See the special report here https://www.nytimes.com/in...

Our Climate, Clean Air, & Energy Fellow Caitlin McCoy speaks with Sarah Winner, Staff Attorney of the Center for Coalfield Justice and Interim Executive Director of the Three Rivers Waterkeeper, about the proposed Clean Water Act rule on the revised definition of “Waters of the United States” and the potential implications of the new rule for stream and wetland protection. Full transcript availabl...

Staff Attorney Hana Vizcarra speaks with our Executive Director Joe Goffman about the environmental legacy of George H. W. Bush. Joe shares his unique insider’s view as he reflects on one of the greatest contributions any president has made to public health and the environment. Full transcript available here https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/CleanLaw-9-Hana-Joe-George-Bush.pd...

Our Electricity Law Initiative Director Ari Peskoe interviews Jesse Jenkins, a post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard University Center for the Environment. Ari and Jesse discuss fundamental principles of electricity market design and whether these principles will continue to apply to a low-carbon grid with high levels of wind and solar. Visit our website at https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/ Full transcr...

Our Electricity Law Initiative Director Ari Peskoe interviews Phil Sharp - former Indiana Representative and chairman of the Energy and Power Subcommittee, director of the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School, and President of Resources for the Future. Ari and Phil discuss the history of PURPA and its implications for climate change legislation. Thank you to the Harvard University C...

Joe Goffman, talks with Cynthia Giles, former Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance for the entire Obama Presidency. Cynthia and Joe talk about the Trump EPA’s enforcement policies, including a recent initiative focusing on the oil and gas industry, and the impact they have on air quality and public health. This builds on our EPA Mission Tracker work, ava...

Our staff attorney Hana Vizcarra speaks with Electricity Law Initiative Director Ari Peskoe about FERC natural gas facility permitting. In July, 2018 ELI filed comments with FERC arguing that accounting for the economic risks and environmental harms of greenhouse gas emissions in a permitting proceeding is consistent with judicial precedent and Commission practice. Full transcript available here h...

Our executive director Joe Goffman interviewed Dr. Francesca Dominici recently to talk about public health, pollution, and science. Dominici is Professor of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Co-Director of the Data Science Initiative at Harvard University. Listen below, or scroll down to read key points from our interview on rollbacks and public health, new science...

We speak with Janet McCabe, former Acting Assistant Administrator for the EPA Office of Air and Radiation and current Assistant Director for Policy and Implementation at Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute and a Senior Law Fellow at the Environmental Law and Policy Center. See here for key points from the interview https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/subverting-the-process-of-setting-...

Harvard Law School's Environmental & Energy Law Program Executive Director Joe Goffman interviews Electricity Initiative Director Ari Peskoe about the DOE memo leaked in May, 2018. The memo discusses a "Strategic Electric Generation Reserve" and tactics to support uneconomic coal and nuclear plants. https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/ Full transcript available here https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/wp-conten...

Episode 1: Joseph Goffman's Harvard Kennedy School Regulatory Policy Program audio by HLS Environmental & Energy Law Program