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Michael Gerrard

@michaelgerrard.bsky.social
1.3K followers 883 following 123 posts

Professor of environmental and energy law, Columbia Law School. Founder and faculty director, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Practiced environmental law in NYC full-time, 1979-2008.

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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
erecting speed bumps but no full roadblocks (except NY for now); many local governments (500+ and counting) are blocking, but increasingly are being sued by the tech giants.
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Here is my new article, "Data Centers Face Volatile Regulatory Landscape." drive.google.com/file/d/1A8lr... It's my legal analysis of developments at the federal, state, and local levels, and in the courts. Bottom line: Trump administration is aggressively pushing data centers; states are 🧵
drive.google.com
NYLJ Data centers pdf.pdf
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
If you like the heat waves of 2026, you’re going to love the heat waves of 2036, especially if we keep burning fossil fuels at the current rate.
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Here again is my analysis of legal issues with wildfire smoke, including perverse effects of the Clean Air Act in inhibiting prescribed burning, an important preventative; efforts to establish state liability for harm from smoke crossing borders (no success); employer responsibilities; many more.
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
from EPA; the Trump DOJ is opposing an NAACP challenge to this practice.
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Ever wily and amoral, Elon Musk just spent $1 billion buying a company that makes mobile gas turbines. Those are the polluting and noisy devices that can power data centers that can’t connect to the grid. Some are of questionable legality since they aren’t seeking the required Clean Air Act permits
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Robb Edwards 🌱 @robedwards1.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
How a Colorado tribe beat the federal solar permit freeze A 170 MW solar and 80 MW battery storage project has broken ground on tribal lands in northwest New Mexico www.pv-magazine.com/2026/07/07/h...
pv-magazine.com
How a Colorado tribe beat the federal solar permit freeze - pv magazine Global
By utilizing the legacy grid infrastructure of a demolished coal plant and racing to secure regulatory signatures mere days ahead of federal permitting freezes, the Ute Mountain Ute tribe successfully...
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Ken Acks @costbenefitkmaacks.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Congestion Pricing and EMS Response Time: Evidence From New York City | NBER www.nber.org/papers/w35414 "congestion pricing reduced passenger vehicle traffic by roughly 21 percent near the boundary and improved total EMS travel times by 63–70 seconds, approximately 5–6 percent. "
nber.org
Congestion Pricing and EMS Response Time: Evidence From New York City
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
This is no joke. Climate change will cause large-scale internal migration in the US, and we need to building much more housing in the north. Here is my legal analysis, soon to appear in the Stanford Environmental Law Journal. bit.ly/4p9Dlla
bit.ly
Five Urban Futures for a Hot Planet: U.S. Legal Scenarios
If current climate change trends continue, flooding, extreme heat and wildfires will make the homes of millions or tens of millions of people in the United Stat
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Several states are considering laws to require data centers to provide their own no-emissions power, called the BYONCE (Bring Your Own Clean Energy) laws. EPA is now proposing a rule designed to tailor the permitting processes to speed up project approvals. I call these the Tailor Swift laws.
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Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · 09/06/2026
Sea surface temperatures are already surging to record high levels for this time of year in key El Niño monitoring areas. ➡️ Sign up for our next monthly state of the climate webinar to learn more: climatecentral-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi.... We'll also be talking about the hurricane season outlook.
Line graph time series of daily Nino 3.4 sea surface temperatures from 1982 to 2026. This year is currently a record high for this time of year. Data is from NOAA OISSTv2.1, and the graphic is created by Climate Central.
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Dr. Jeff Masters @drjeffmasters.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
1985-2023, loss of wetlands added “up to about a $10 billion increase in flood insurance claims (nationwide). In Charleston, along the lower Ashley River, the destruction of upstream wetlands has resulted in the loss of about $20.7 million in flood damage reduction since the 1980s.”
postandcourier.com
Wetland destruction has cost Charleston homeowners millions of dollars, study finds
A new study finds that wetland destruction has cost Charleston homeowners millions of dollars in additional flood insurance payments since 1985.
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alexvonwitzleben.bsky.social @alexvonwitzleben.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
"France passed a single law and instantly unlocked 11 gigawatts of #solarenergy — without using new land. In 2023, France's government mandated solar canopies over all car parks larger than 80 spaces. The scale was enormous: There are 400,000 parking areas across France #ActOnClimate #Renewables
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Climate Science Legal Defense Fund @csldf.org · 26/05/2026
A little over a year ago, HHS paused research activities at a NIAID facility and placed the director on leave. It just so happens that this particular facility focused on Ebola and other infectious diseases... silencingscience.org/actions/hhs-...
silencingscience.org
HHS Halts Ebola Research - Silencing Science Tracker
The Department of Health and Human Services ordered an indefinite pause on research conducted at a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases facility into ebola and other infectious diseas...
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
As I told the NYT in this article, Trump sees fossil fuels as manly and renewables as woke.
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Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory @lamont.columbia.edu · 06/05/2026
🌟 Congratulations to LDEO climate scientist Maureen Raymo, awarded the prestigious Nemmers Prize in Earth Sciences for pioneering development of hypotheses that explain climate change across Earth’s history and her educational leadership in the Earth system sciences. ➡️ bit.ly/3Pa7t21
Maureen Raymo with an ocean sediment core in the LDEO Core Repository. Raymo’s work has shaped our understanding of how the ice ages fluctuate and how sea levels change. Credit: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
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Climate Science Legal Defense Fund @csldf.org · 28/04/2026
"If scientific uncertainty was the real reason for disregarding benefits, a good-faith response would be to conduct more research to reduce the uncertainty. Instead, the Trump administration has... attacked the scientific enterprise.” @michaelgerrard.bsky.social www.csldf.org/wp-content/u...
csldf.org
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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
by my tally we are now spending ~$2B to companies to NOT build more energy infrastructure. in the middle of an energy crisis
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Sammy Roth @sammyroth.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Want to understand the Supreme Court's latest shadowy shenanigans, and what they mean for climate? Join me on Zoom today at 12:30pm PT! Talking with some of America's' best climate lawyers, including @michaelgerrard.bsky.social. Register here: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/ccg-live-s...
climatecoloredgoggles.com
Today at 12:30pm PT: The Shadowy Supreme Court
Join me on Zoom!
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Sammy Roth @sammyroth.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Join me tomorrow at 12:30pm PT to talk climate and SCOTUS, following the bombshell NYT investigation into the "shadow docket." John Roberts really did not want coal plants to shut down! I'll have some of America's best climate lawyers on Zoom. Details: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/ccg-live-t...
climatecoloredgoggles.com
CCG Live: The Shadowy Supreme Court
Join me on Friday at 12:30 p.m. PT to hear from the nation's top climate lawyers.
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
and generally attacked the scientific enterprise. Here is an article that I just wrote for the New York Law Journal discussing all of this in more detail. scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scho...
scholarship.law.columbia.edu
Bad Faith Disregard of Benefits and Science in Federal Environmental Deregulation
Since the beginning of the Reagan administration in 1981, federal agencies have used cost-benefit analysis when making important policy decisions, especially when issuing regulations. In the years sin...
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
was the real reason for disregarding the benefits, a good faith response would be to conduct more research to reduce the uncertainty. Instead, the Trump administration has systematically cancelled research programs, closed laboratories, fired scientists, distorted research results,
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
The Trump administration is revoking or weakening many environmental regulations. In doing so it looks only at the costs of the regulations and completely ignores the benefits. It tries to justify this by claiming there is too much uncertainty to quantify the benefits. If that ...
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Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
American combat deaths in World War I: 54,000. American soldiers killed by flu in World War I: 45,000. They would have given anything for a flu vaccine.
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
This is the latest loss by the Trump administration in the lawsuits challenging its attempts to block renewable energy projects. The courts are repeatedly finding them to have acted arbitrarily and capriciously.
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Ross Macfarlane @rossmacfarlane.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Letting the perfect be the enemy of the necessary. I strongly support community solar (and rooftop, and ...), but this kind of purism leaves the fossil fuel incumbents in place counting their money while the climate pollution continues to accumulate in the atmosphere
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
of harm is based on a series of abstract harms and contingencies about hypothetical actions third parties may take if the State of Hawaii is ultimately successful in the state tort lawsuit. The long chain of contingencies is too speculative and attenuated to establish Article III standing."
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Trump's Department of Justice sued the state of Hawaii to try to block it from suing the fossil fuel companies over climate change damages. Hawaii sued anyway. The federal court just dismissed DOJ's suit with prejudice. The court: "Plaintiff United States’ theory ...
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Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) @doctorvive.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Americans DO care about #ClimateChange! Don’t listen to the partisans who lie about this. 72% of Democrats & 46% of independents “worry a great deal” about climate. And 68% of Democrats & 47% of Independents expect global heating to threaten their way of life NOW or in the future.
Trends in Concern About Global Warming or Climate Change, by Political Party
I'm going to read you a list of
environmental problems. As I read each one, please tell me if you personally worry about this problem a great deal, a fair amount, only a little or not at all. How much do you personally worry about global warming or climate change?
% Worry a great deal
- Democrats - 72%- Independents 46%
- Republicans 6%
80%
72
70
60
50
• 46
40
30
20
10
2002
2010
2018
2026
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Amanda Kolson Hurley @amandakhurley.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
"If a very blue state like New York moves backwards on climate change as well, that’s a negative sign for the country. If you can’t do it here, can you do it anywhere?"-- @michaelgerrard.bsky.social [gift link]
bloomberg.com
Hochul Moves to Weaken Aggressive New York State Climate Law
Citing concerns about affordability, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed revising the state’s 2019 climate law, asking to delay regulations to implement it and to adopt a different greenhouse-...
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Deva Woodly @devawo.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
This is insane.
By Maxine Joselow
Reporting by Washington Post
Article linked below
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Justin Gerdes @justingerdes.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Ørsted's 704MW Revolution Wind offshore wind project started delivering power to New England's electric grid yesterday: orsted.com/en/media/new... 🔌💡
orsted.com
Revolution Wind begins delivering power to New England
Built by more than 1,000 local union workers, the project is expected to power 350,000+ homes with affordable, reliable electricity.
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Helen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
The Trump administration has removed the chapter on climate change from the "Reference manual on scientific evidence", an essential handbook for judges as they weigh evidence in court. The response of the American Meteorological Society has just been published (below). And...[1/2]
ametsoc.org
Statement on Public Availability of Scientific Information and Scientific Evidence on Climate Change
The AMS is a global community committed to advancing weather, water, and climate science and service.
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
meeting on March 31. They didn't say which species they want to make extinct. www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...
federalregister.gov
Endangered Species Committee Meeting Announcement
The Endangered Species Committee will meet regarding an Endangered Species Act exemption for Gulf of America Oil and Gas Activities.
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Committee, known as the "God Squad," mostly consisting of cabinet officers, that can authorize federal actions that lead to species extinction. It hasn't met in decades, but they just announced in the Federal Register that they are .....
federalregister.gov
Endangered Species Committee Meeting Announcement
The Endangered Species Committee will meet regarding an Endangered Species Act exemption for Gulf of America Oil and Gas Activities.
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
To support oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the Department of the Interior is launching the procedure to allow it to drive species into extinction. The Endangered Species Act creates a body called the Endangered Species .....
federalregister.gov
Endangered Species Committee Meeting Announcement
The Endangered Species Committee will meet regarding an Endangered Species Act exemption for Gulf of America Oil and Gas Activities.
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
helped by this DOJ action except for the oil industry, which benefits from both higher demand and higher gasoline and diesel prices.
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
to reduce the demand for oil. They would reduce U.S. vulnerability to price shocks and lower emissions of GHGs and conventional air pollutants. EVs also save consumers a great deal of money over their lifetimes. It's not clear who is ...
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Oil prices are soaring, thanks to the war that Trump started. However, today the U.S. Department of Justice sued California to try to block a program that would advance adoption of electric vehicles. EVs are the top way 🧵
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
gas endangerment finding last week will weaken that defense; whether it kills that defense remains to be seen.
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
courts, and it will be up to the state courts whether to put the cases on hold or let them proceed with discovery, further motions, and possibly trials. A major defense the fossil fuel companies will raise is whether the state claims are preempted by federal law. EPA's revocation of the greenhouse
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
fuel companies over climate change. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the fall of 2026 and decide in late 2026 or early 2027. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel companies will probably ask that the two dozen or so other similar pending cases be put on hold. These cases are all in various state
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
international greenhouse gas emissions on global climate. The first question is mostly about whether the appeal is too early, since there has not yet been a trial and state appeals from that. The second question, if answered in the affirmative, could preclude other cases seeking damages from fossil
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
proceed. The two questions on which the U.S. Supreme Court requested briefing are: 1. Whether this Court has statutory and Article III jurisdiction to hear this case. 2. Whether federal law precludes state-law claims seeking relief from injuries allegedly caused by the effects of interstate and
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
The U.S. Supreme Court just agreed to hear an appeal from Suncor and other fossil fuel companies in a lawsuit brought by the City and County of Boulder seeking money damages related to climate change and the companies' alleged deception. The Colorado Supreme Court had ruled that the case could 🧵
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
A coalition of public health and environmental groups has just filed a lawsuit against EPA in the DC Circuit court challenging revocation of the greenhouse gas endangerment finding. They are represented by some of the country's leading environmental litigators. aboutblaw.com/bkXr
aboutblaw.com
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
812 Indonesia 653 Saudi Arabia 588 South Korea 580 Germany Source: Source: IEA-EDGAR fossil CO2 emissions, edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/report_2025
edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu
EDGAR - The Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
it would be the fifth largest CO2 emitter in the world. Annual CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion, 2024 (MMT): 13,124 China 4,632 United States 3,153 India 2.009 Russia 1,678 U.S. transportation 972 Japan 829 Iran 🧵
edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu
EDGAR - The Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research
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Michael Gerrard @michaelgerrard.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Trump's EPA said a major justification for revoking the GHG endangerment finding is that emissions from the U.S. transport sector (cars, trucks, etc.) are so low that reducing them wouldn't make any difference to the climate. But if this sector was a country, 🧵
edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu
EDGAR - The Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research
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Dana Drugmand @danad1012.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
South Fork Wind had a capacity factor of 52% last month - on par w/ NY state's most efficient gas plants And Vineyard Wind had a 75% capacity factor during Winter Storm Fern The data doesn't lie. #OffshoreWind works - especially during cold winter months www.canarymedia.com/articles/off...
canarymedia.com
Offshore wind showed up big during the East Coast’s brutal cold
America’s two utility-scale offshore wind farms performed as well as gas power plants and better than coal in January — including during Winter Storm Fern.
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