Vanderbilt Law School
Energy, Environment & Land Use Program
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Spring 2025 NewsletterMade possible by the Sally Shallenberger Brown EELU Program Fund
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Third Annual State of the Environment Conference
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On March 19,, the Energy, Environment, and Land Use Program hosted its third annual State of the Environment Conference, which was made possible by the Sally Shallenberger Brown EELU Program Fund. The conference, organized by EELU Senior Program Advisor Anne Davis, welcomed faculty, policymakers, and other experts in the Nashville community and surrounding areas for a series of panel discussions and networking opportunities with a focus on the environment.
The program began with a presentation of our second State of the Environment Report, which documents Tennessee's standing on key environmental indicators. Michael Vandenbergh, EELU Faculty Co-Director, presented with Mariah Caballero, Vanderbilt University PhD Graduate, Ethan Thorpe, Vanderbilt Law School Private Climate Governance Lab Fellow, and Erin Hafkenschiel, President of ThinkTennessee.
Following lunch, Linda Breggin, Vanderbilt Law School Lecturer and Senior Attorney at the Environmental Law Institute, moderated a panel discussion on the state of water. George Nolan, Executive Director of the Tenneessee Office at the Southern Environmental Law Center, Jenny Howard, General Counsel for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and Mekayle Houghton, Executive Director at Cumberland River Compact, joined the conversation.
Anne Davis led the second panel, which focused on the state of energy in the Southeast. Brent Baker, Vice President and Chief Customer and Innovation Officer at Nashville Electric Service, Ernie Peterson, Regional Director of Customer Relations at Tennessee Valley Authority, and Brian Blackmon, Senior Account Manager at Milepost Consulting and former director of the City of Knoxville's Office of Sustainability, served as panelists. The panel touched on the evolving energy landscape, renewable energy expansion, demand response strategies, and the increasing challenges posed by rising energy consumption.
The third panel, led by EELU Program Director Caroline Cox, focused on the state of land use and conservation. The panelists--Harriett Brooks, Planning Manager at Metro Nashville Planning Department, Bruz Clark, President and Treasurer of the Lyndhurst Foundation, and Mike Matteson, Community Development Director for Williamson County--touched on planning growth in Nashville, preserving rural character in Williamson County, and conservation and redevelopment efforts in Chattanooga.
EELU Faculty Co-Director JB Ruhl moderated the final panel on scholarship and innovation, with a particular focus on the recently established Private Climate Governance Lab (PCG Lab) at Vanderbilt Law. Professor Ruhl was joined by Professor Michael Vandenbergh, PCG Lab Fellow Ethan Thorpe, and Jeff Gowdy, Senior Director at Sustainserv and Adjunct Professor of Strategy at the Owen Graduate School of Management. This panel highlighted the growing role private organizations can play amid governmental rollbacks of climate and environmental regulations. Panelists discussed the current private climate governance landscape, opportunities to accelerate adoption, and potential hurdles to decarbonization.
The conference ended with a cocktail and hors d'oeuvres reception to allow attendees to connect and discuss opportunities for collaboration.
To read more about the panel discussions, click here. If you'd like to read our 2025 State of the Environment Report, click here. For more information or to participate in next year's conference, contact Anne Davis or Maggie Milam, EELU Program Coordinator.
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| ELPAR Conferences in Nashville & Washington, D.C.
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Nashville Conference
On February 17, the Environmental Law & Policy Annual Review (ELPAR) hosted its annual Nashville Conference, which featured Professor Sarah J. Fox, Associate Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School. This conference focused on Professor Fox's article: Soil Governance and Private Property, which was previously published in the Utah Law Review and selected as part of ELPAR's 2024-25 top 20 environmental law and policy articles. The article argues for treating soil as a common resource, much like air and water, given its numerous environmental benefits. She argues that local governments, through their land use planning authority, are uniquely positioned to safeguard soil health by implementing tools such as zoning to reduce the impacts of development on high-quality soil.
The panel discussion was moderated by Chelsea Summers '25, ELPAR's 2024-25 Symposium Editor and organizer of the event. Joining Professor Fox on the panel were Scott Potter, Director of Nashville Metro Water Services, and Douglas Berry, Of Counsel to Miller & Miller, PLLC.
To read more about the discussion, click here. To watch the full conference video, click here.
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Washington, D.C. Conference
On March 28, ELPAR hosted its annual Washington, D.C. conference at the Environmental Law Institute. The conference brought together academics, policymakers, lawyers, and students to discuss some of the best environmental law and policy proposals in the last year of legal academic literature. Each article discussed was recognized by ELPAR as one of the year's best academic articles that present legal and policy solutions to pressing environmental problems. They will be highlighted in the August 2025 issue of the Environmental Law Reporter.
The conference began with a panel on the article Utilities with Purpose, written by Professor Joel B. Eisen (University of Richmond) and Professor Heather Payne (Ohio State University Moritz College of Law). The article spotlights how big electric utilities are falling short on their climate and social promises and proposes a bold fix: transforming them into purpose-driven utilities legally committed to environmental and social goals. Panelists Mike O'Boyle (Senior Director, Electricity, Energy Innovation: Policy and Technology LLC), Anjali Patel (Vice President for Clean Energy, David Gardiner and Associates), and Megan Terrell (Partner, Plauche & Carr) discussed the possibilities of and barriers to implementation of Eisen & Payne's proposals.
The second panel welcomed Professor Sharmila Murthy (Northeastern University), highlighting her article Disrupting Utility Law for Water Justice, which proposes creating a model law to help spread best practices nationwide, ensuring universal access to affordable water. She was joined by Robert Ballenger (Divisional Supervising Attorney, Community Legal Services of Philadelphia), Carolyn Berndt (Legislative Director for Sustainability, National League of Cities), Tracy Mehan (Executive Director, Government Affairs, American Water Works Association [participating as an individual]), and Steve Willborn (Chair, Scope and Program Committee, Uniform Law Commission).
The third and final panel of the conference focused on the article Transitioning to Regenerative Agriculture One French Fry at a Time by Professor Alexia Brunet Marks (University of Colorado Law School). This article discusses regenerative agriculture and how it could become a key player in the fight against climate change by gtenerating carbon credits. After Professor Marks' presentation, panelists Carrie Apfel (Deputy Managing Attorney, Sustainable Food & Farming Program, Earthjustice), Bonnie McGill (Senior Climate and Ecosystem Scientist, Climate and Soil Health Initiative, National Programs, American Farmland Trust), and Brad Redlin (Program Manager, Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program and the Soil Health Financial Assistance Program, Minnesota Department of Agriculture) provided insightful commentary.
To watch the full conference video, click here. If you'd like to watch a recap video from the ELPAR students' perspective, click here.
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| Private Climate Governance Lab
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On March 18, the recently established Private Climate Governance Lab hosted an inaugural panel discussion with the Lab's team, which consists of Professors Michael Vandenbergh and J.B. Ruhl, PCG Lab Fellow Ethan Thorpe, and EELU Program Director Caroline Cox. The PCG Lab seeks to expand EELU's leadership in the area of Private Environmental Governance (PEG): private-sector agreements, standards, and practices to promote sustainability and reduce environmental impacts. The Lab used the panel to give students more context on their work and offer opportunities for deeper involvement in its projects.
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| Climate Law & Policy Lab Course
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This semester, eight students in the Climate Law and Policy Lab--composed of second and third-year law students--focused on addressing violations of the Clean Water Act in middle Tennessee with oversight from EELU Senior Program Advisor Anne Davis. Using databases from the EPA and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), the students identified companies and municipalities that were significantly out of compliance with their discharge permits.
Each student investigated one noncompliant discharger and together selected several for deeper research. The class then took field trips to the sites of two major dischargers where they worked with an expert water scientist to collect water samples. They also submitted public records requests to TDEC and drafted 60-day notices of intent to sue under the Clean Water Act.
At the end of the semester, the students presented their findings to a group of attorneys from traditional law firms, such as Neal & Harwell, and nonprofit public interest groups, including the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Tennessee Riverkeeper. The students outlined their investigation process, including the criteria for selecting which dischargers to focus on, and provided in-depth analysis of a wastewater treatment plant in Memphis and another in Spring Hill. They highlighted key violations, impacts on water quality, and the interactions between TDEC and the dischargers over the past few years.
The goal of this work is to support these organizations in taking action to address illegal discharges and improve water quality in Tennessee.
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Nashville Food Waste Podcast
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Linda Breggin, ELPAR Professor and Senior Attorney at the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), appeared on an episode of People Places Planet, ELI's leading environmental podcast where leading experts across sectors share their solutions to the world's most pressing environmental problems. In this episode, podcast host Dara Albrecht and Breggin discuss Food Waste Prevention Week, with a focus on Nashville, where local leaders across sectors are driving innovative efforts to reduce food waste. Linda spoke with four guests whose work spans multiple industries:
- Todd Lawrence, Executive Director of Urban Green Lab
- David ter Kuile, Associate Vice Chancellor at Vanderbilt University
- Tyler Lee, Executive Chef at 1 Hotel Nashville
- Haley Davidson, Chief of Staff for the Tennessee Titans
If you're interested in listening to the podcast, click here!
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Recent EELU Faculty PublicationsJIM ROSSI
Representative Rulemaking, 109 Iowa L. Rev. 1 (2023) (with Kevin Stack)
J.B. RUHL
CompLex: Legal Systems Through the Lens of Complexity Science, 149 Europhysics Letters 22001 (2025) (with Pierpaolo Vivo and Daniel Martin Katz)
Governing Complexity: A Comparative Assessment of Four Governance Models with Applications to Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, (2024) (with Niko Soininen, Barbara A. Cosens, and Lance Gunderson)
Living the Good Life in the Anthropocene, 54 Env't L. Rep. 10857 (2024) (with Karrigan Bork et al.)
CHRISTOPHER SERKIN
The Myth of Self-Sufficiency: Disaster Resilience as Climate Mitigation, 43 Va. Env't L.J. 43 (2024)
MICHAEL P. VANDENBERGH
Harnessing Insights from Psychology, 27 Env't F. (2025)
The Moral Boundary of the Firm, 110 Iowa L. Rev. (forthcoming 2025) (with Jane Miller, Margaret Blair, and Jonathan Gilligan)
Information for Environmental Governance: The Value of State of the Environment Reports in a Polarized Era (forthcoming) (with Ethan I. Thorpe and Mariah Caballero)
EELU WHITE PAPERS
Caroline Cox & Chick Hallinan, "The Boundaries of Corporate Physical Climate Risk: Definitions and Frameworks," Vand. L. Sch. EELU White Paper Series (2024)
Caroline Cox & Jay Eischen, "Climate Resilience Planning and TVA," Vand. L. Sch. EELU White Paper Series (2025)
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