The Future of Environmental and Energy Policy in the Biden Administration

An Event in the Gray Center’s “The Administrative State in Transition” Webinar Series

Thursday, January 14, 2021

1:00 – 2:15 p.m. ET

You can view the video recording below. Listen to the event as a podcast here. 

Promptly after the election, President-elect Joe Biden’s official “transition” team announced that climate change would be one of the new administration’s top four policy priorities. The transition’s website listed a variety of familiar and new ways in which the Biden administration intends to grapple with this issue. And, of course, this is just one of several issues of energy and environmental policy that the new administration will be handling.

What new legislative and regulatory initiatives should we expect? What challenges will they confront? What are their prospects for success?

To discuss these and other issues, the Gray Center hosted a webinar conversation with several experts, including:

• Jonathan Adler, Case Western Reserve University School of Law
• Gene Grace, American Clean Power
• Lisa Heinzerling, Georgetown University Law Center

The conversation was moderated by the Gray Center’s Director, Adam White. This was the second event in the Gray Center’s series, “The Administrative State in Transition.”

About Jonathan Adler

Jonathan H. Adler is the inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and Director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he teaches courses in environmental, administrative and constitutional law. Professor Adler is the author or editor of eight books, including Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane (Brookings 2020) and Business and the Roberts Court (Oxford University Press, 2016). His articles have appeared in publications ranging from the Harvard Environmental Law Review and Yale Journal on Regulation to The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. He has testified before Congress a dozen times, and his work has been cited in the U.S. Supreme Court. A 2016 study identified Professor Adler as the most cited legal academic in administrative and environmental law under age 50.

About Gene Grace

Gene Grace is General Counsel of the American Clean Power Association (ACP), which was formerly known as the American Wind Energy Association—the largest association representing the clean energy sector. ACP works to champion policies that will transform the U.S. power grid to a low-cost, reliable and renewable power system. By uniting the power of wind, solar, transmission and storage companies, along with manufacturers and construction companies, developers and owners/operators, utilities, financial firms and corporate purchasers, ACP’s goal is to make renewables the dominant energy source in the United States. As General Counsel, Gene is the chief legal officer for ACP and oversees the association’s legal functions related to governmental affairs. He has well over a decade of experience in the renewable energy industry. Prior to working at ACP, he worked in various legal positions at the federal government, private practice, and environmental organizations.

About Lisa Heinzerling

Lisa Heinzerling is the Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. Professor of Law at Georgetown University. Her primary specialties are administrative law and environmental law. She is the author of several books, including Priceless: On Knowing the Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing, a critique of the use of cost-benefit analysis in environmental policy. Professor Heinzerling has received the Georgetown University President’s Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers, the faculty teaching award at Georgetown Law, and several awards related to her scholarship and advocacy in environmental law. She was the lead author of the winning briefs in Massachusetts v. EPA, in which the Supreme Court held that the Clean Air Act gives EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gases. From January 2009 to July 2009, Heinzerling served as Senior Climate Policy Counsel to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.