Setbacks in environmental policy and law: Can the Obama administration reverse the trend?
The Bush administration’s continuous favoring of corporations over the environment and the Supreme Court’s anti-environmental decisions have taken their toll on American environmental law and policy. Can this trend be reversed? Will it be possible for the US to regain its position as a global leader in renewable technology and strong environmental values? What steps can the Obama administration take to demonstrate its commitment to the environment, despite the financial crisis?
President of the Bullitt Foundation, Denis Hayes is transforming the Pacific Northwest into a model of sustainable development. Denis was the National Coordinator of the first Earth Day and has since expanded Earth Day to more than 180 nations, making it the world’s most widely-observed secular holiday. Under President Carter, Denis headed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and later served as professor of energy engineering at Stanford University. He chairs the board of trustees of the American Solar Energy Society and is immediate past chair of the Energy Foundation. Time magazine declared Denis a “Hero of the Planet.”
A leading voice in public interest law for over 30 years, Nan Aron is President of Alliance for Justice, a national association of over 100 public interest and civil rights organizations. Nan, who founded AFJ in 1979, guides the organization in its mission to ensure that all Americans have the right and opportunity to secure justice in the courts and to have their voices heard when government makes decisions that affect their lives. Nan is nationally recognized for her vast expertise in public interest law, the federal judiciary and citizen participation in public policy. She is the author of Liberty and Justice for All: Public Interest Law in the 1980s and Beyond and has appeared as an expert in such media outlets as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Vanity Fair and National Public Radio. She has a B.A. from Oberlin College and a J.D. from Case Western Reserve.
Gerald Torres currently holds the Bryant Smith Chair at the University of Texas at Austin and is former President of the Association of American Law Schools. A 1977 graduate of the Yale Law School Torres has taught at Stanford and Harvard Law Schools. Torres served as Counsel to the Attorney General on environmental matters and Indian affairs at the Department of Justice. Torres has served on the Board of the Environmental Law Institute, the EPA's National Environmental Justice Advisory Council as well as the National Petroleum Council. He is currently board chair of EarthDay Network and the Advancement Project.
As the Executive Director of Greenpeace, Phil Radford is at the helm of one of the largest and most influential environmental organizations in the country. Radford leads a national team of 500 highly-skilled environmental leaders working in 23 cities across the U.S. on national and global campaigns to protect our planet’s oceans, forests, and climate.
U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA): Rep. Inslee has fought to restore protections for roadless areas in national forests. Since 2005, Jay has used his seat on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee to promote his vision for a clean energy future, the New Apollo Energy Act, and to advance other legislation that would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. In March 2007, he was appointed to the 15-member Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. Jay recently co-authored a book on the clean-energy revolution with Bracken Hendricks entitled, Apollo’s Fire.
A Siegel is on the board of Energize America and The Energy Consensus. He blogs on questions of energy and climate at www.GetEnergySmartNow.com.
