Amy Turner

New Sabin Center Report and Online Resource: Navigating State Law in Local Climate Action - Climate Law Blog Navigating State Law in Local Climate Action is a new Sabin Center report on state-local preemption issues in nineteen states.

NEW RESOURCE: Today, the @sabincenter.bsky.social published a new report and online resource:

✨Navigating State Law in Local Climate Action✨ and accompanying online State Toolkits

Click through for resources on key state-local preemption issues in 19 states. blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechang...

Why Did Hochul Back Down on New York's Gas Ban? Just last month, the state argued in court that it couldn’t halt the all-electric buildings law even if it wanted to. Then it abruptly changed course.

New York State is indefinitely delaying implementation of the All Electric Buildings Act. I spoke to @nysfocus.bsky.social about how the state used a court case to "make it seem like their hands were tied.” nysfocus.com/2025/11/26/a...

A Stand Against Coal Could Push Oakland Toward Bankruptcy

Crazy look at the interplay of local harms & global climate change.

"A judge ruled in 2018 that Oakland officials didn’t have sufficient proof that coal shipments would harm residents, and instead had canceled the contract over broader concerns about global warming.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/u...

Allegheny County Council approves increases to air-quality permit fees Allegheny County Council on Tuesday moved forward with an air quality permit fee schedule that, officials say, will promote public health and relieve financial pressure on the county health department...

Great news from Allegheny County Council -- who have moved to match Air Quality Permitting fees to the impact of air pollution on residents. Additional funding goes directly to the County Health Department.
triblive.com/local/valley...

Chattanooga’s small municipal utility is doing big things with batteries.

Any chance to hear what's happening in Advait's brain is a treat!

Iowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air.

"The transit system is one of the greatest tools communities have to combat climate change and reduce emissions. “You can make a pretty immediate impact.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/c...

As I told @politico.com about yesterday's extremely disappointing move to delay implementation of NYS's All-Electric Buildings Act: "This is not a legal decision. This is a political decision."

subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

Dealt with a decade+ of imposter syndrome and it turns out I could have just been yelling DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT the whole time.

There was no reason within the confines of this litigation to punt on the AEBA. The lawsuit is cover for what is ultimately a cave to the gas industry.

As I told @politico.com about yesterday's extremely disappointing move to delay implementation of NYS's All-Electric Buildings Act: "This is not a legal decision. This is a political decision."

subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

The Endangerment Finding: The Local Perspective Matters Right Now (Template Comment Letter Linked) - Climate Law Blog [Here and at the end of this post, a template comment letter is linked for local governments to adapt for their own comments in the Endangerment Finding rule making process.] On August 1, 2025, the U....

📣📥 NEW TEMPLATE COMMENT LETTER 📣📥

Local govs are critical in the Endangerment Finding rulemaking: they can put into the record the harms they'll endure from climate change.

My blog post explains what’s at stake and provides a template comment letter. blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechang...

EPA’s move to gut key climate regulation raises stakes for city leaders A repeal of the endangerment finding would make local climate policy a new battleground in continuing tensions between the Trump administration and cities, a legal scholar suggests.

I spoke to Smart Cities Dive about yesterday's Endangerment Finding announcement, and how it fits within the broader climate landscape cities currently find themselves in. www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/epa-gut...

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Local Infrastructure Hub: What the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Means for Your Infrastructure Strategy. After registering, you will receive a confirmation ema... As part of the Local Infrastructure Hub, the United States Conference of Mayors is hosting a series of Zoom sessions with our partners Bloomberg Philanthropies and Results for America, which will feat...

Join the Local Infrastructure Hub (and me!) for a post-OBBBA no-cost virtual session on:

📑✏️ Grant application strategy
💪⚙️ Project implementation
☀️🍃 Clean energy investments

usmayors.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act: Considerations for Cities and Community Partners - Climate Law Blog Congress broke for summer recess last week, but not before sending the long awaited, hotly debated One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB Act or the Act), or H.R. 1, to President Trump’s desk for a July 4th...

The OBBB Act was signed into law on July 4th. It nearly eliminates or renders unworkable many critical Inflation Reduction Act programs, especially the clean energy and clean vehicle tax credits.

More on the @sabincenter.bsky.social blog.

blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechang...

The End of Nationwide Injunctions for Federal Funding Award Terminations - Climate Law Blog On Friday, June 27, the Supreme Court’s term closed and the Court handed down its final opinions, including in a case called Trump v. CASA. The CASA plaintiffs challenged President Trump’s executive o...

🏛️💸 Last week, the Supreme Court closed its term with a decision in Trump v. CASA, a/k/a the birthright citizenship case. The decision says little about citizenship, but has huge implications for cities & community groups fighting unlawful grant terminations. blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechang...

For those doubting the project of originalism, the Birthright opinion is heavy on it.

Heavy as in "Neither the universal injunction nor any analogous form of relief was available in the High Court of Chancery in England at the time of the founding."

Expect to see FedSoc at Butterworth's tonight.

The Court leaves open the door that a lower court could provide injunctive relief to a state plaintiff by blocking the implementation of an EO for all people within that state, but does not directly opine on the question. Lower courts are almost certainly going to vary in how they interpret this.

The Court identifies class actions as the appropriate way to get large-scale injunctive relief. Class actions designate parties other than the named plaintiffs as parties to a case. These are going to be more labor intensive, and require more plaintiffs to step up, than was the case before today.

The Court effectively says that injunctive relief can, for the most part, apply only to the people who have asked for it. For example, if someone sued to reinstate their own funding, the Court might reason that it would not bring that plaintiff further relief to have an injunction apply to others.

... and the Woonasquatucket injunction covering non-individualized funding terminations from 5 federal agencies. climatecasechart.com/case/woonasq...

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NONPROFITS v. OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET, 1:25-cv-00239 - CourtListener.com Docket for NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NONPROFITS v. OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET, 1:25-cv-00239 — Brought to you by Free Law Project, a non-profit dedicated to creating high quality open legal information...

These nationwide injunctions are largely no longer permissible. Immediately at issue are the National Council of Nonprofits injunction covering non-individualized funding terminations flowing from the Unleashing EO... www.courtlistener.com/docket/69583...

Live Updates: Supreme Court Limits Nationwide Injunctions in Birthright Citizenship Case

This morning, the Supreme Court significantly impaired the ability of federal judges to use nationwide or "universal" injunctions. The case at issue relates to birthright citizenship, but the implications run far broader, including for climate/federal funding cases. 🧵
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06...

The New York State Court of Appeals - the state's highest court - has UPHELD Local Law 97! The Court has ruled that the NYS CLCPA does not field preempt local law. This is a huge win for the City and for local building performance standards everywhere.
www.nycourts.gov/ctapps/Decis...

100 Days of Trump 2.0: Considerations for Cities and Community Partners - Climate Law Blog The first 100 days of the second Trump administration have proved volatile for local governments working to advance ambitious climate action. We have seen the freezing or termination of federal grants...

🏙️ The latest installment of @sabincenter.bsky.social's 100 Days of Trump 2.0 series: a post for cities, community groups, and other subnationals summarizing key federal developments. It's been fun to work across the Center on this wide-ranging series. blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechang...

This is the first in a series of 100 days blog posts from the Sabin Center. Bookmark for much more in the coming days!

Milwaukee’s Lead Crisis: Flaky Paint, Closed Schools and a C.D.C. in Retreat (Gift Article) Some children were exposed to lead and investigators found flaking paint inside aging schools. Two federal experts, expected to help guide the response, have lost their jobs.

“'There is no bat phone anymore,' Dr. Michael Totoraitis, the Milwaukee health commissioner, said in an interview. 'I can’t pick up and call my colleagues at the C.D.C. about lead poisoning anymore.'" www.nytimes.com/2025/04/18/u...

Panel 2 kept the party going with our very own Brennon Mendez moderating an interesting discussion on Indirect Source Rules and ZEV-only zones with Earthjustice’s @lasmogguy.bsky.social, CARB’s Jessi Hafer, and Columbia Law’s Amy Turner!

New Executive Order Tees Up Challenges to State and Local Climate Laws - Climate Law Blog On April 8, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order entitled “Protecting American Energy from State Overreach,” which directs the U.S. attorney general to work with department and agency heads...

Yesterday President Trump signed an EO threatening to go after state and climate laws, a complete and total perversion of the principles of federalism. What does the order actually mean? I wrote about it for the @sabincenter.bsky.social blog. blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechang...