The State of Environmental Law

On this episode, we are so grateful to be joined by Matt Pawa to discuss the intersection of Environmental and Administrative Law. There may be no better person in the field to have as our guest today: Matt is a pioneer of environmental litigation, having been involved in many of the nation’s most important environmental cases for over 25years.

Matt’s 13-year lawsuit against more than a dozen oil companies for polluting New Hampshire groundwater resulted in over $100 million in pre-trial settlements and a $236 million verdict against Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest verdict in state history. He also launched the first ever climate change tort case in the U.S. back in 2004, bringing an action against many of the largest coal burning power plants, allof which has contributed to Matt being widely recognized as the nation’s foremost expert on climate litigation against fossil fuel companies ever since.

Matt is also no stranger to rolling up his sleeves and keeping the Monkey Wrench spirit of the late, great Ed Abbey alive, noted by the dismissal of all criminal charges he obtained for climate protesters Ken Ward and Jay O’Hara in the Lobster Boat Blockade back in 2014—the case ended so emphatically that the district attorney issued a dramatic statement on the courthouse steps announcing he was dropping the charges and would join an upcoming climate march (pretty impressive stuff to say the least).

We also want to highlight two other great resources mentioned in this episode: First, go check out Matt’s own podcast, “Mother Earth,” – he is taking a break from it currently, but may return to it at any moment. and Second, we would like to highlight Hazel Rosenblum Sellers recent piece published in the Michigan Law Review entitled: “Good Cause for Goodness' Sake: A New Approach to Notice-and-Comment Rulemaking.”