The Environmental & Energy Law Program influences policy discussions about environmental, climate, and energy issues.

We promote informed decision-making by analyzing legal and policy aspects of real-world environmental and energy challenges, grounded in today’s political realities.

We are a teaching, research, and policy program housed at Harvard Law School. We train the next generation of environmental lawyers, produce high-level faculty scholarship, transform that scholarship into concrete proposals, and provide expert legal analysis for policymakers.

We track and analyze federal regulatory processes, litigation, executive actions, and state policies, and assess what progress they make toward clean energy, environmental protection, and better public health outcomes. We study interactions between federal, state, and local policymakers to provide legal solutions to potential conflicts, and present opportunities to mitigate environmental issues with legal mechanisms that are well-suited to each situation.

We are working to create a future where institutions will protect public health and the environment with solutions that reflect the scale of our problems, and are based in the current science.

Learn More

Regulatory Rollback Tracker

  • 12/05/2019New Source Review
  • 11/27/2019National Monuments, Marine National Monuments & Marine Sanctuaries
  • 11/26/2019Onshore Extractive Energy Leasing
View All

Meet the EELP team

The Harvard Law School Environmental & Energy Law Program is home to a powerhouse roster of academics, lawyers, experts and staff who specialize in environmental and energy policy.

View Team Profiles

Featured News View All

Electricity Law Initiative

This initiative supports the development of state and federal policies that reflect modern realities and enable a cleaner grid. The Electricity Law Initiative looks for the cracks in the electricity sector’s legal foundation that have been exposed by changes in the industry’s structure and available technologies.

Learn More

Can the EPA Maintain Its Mission?

Since Donald Trump became president, the EPA has worked assiduously to remove, weaken, or delay a host of pollution-cutting rules. As a result, the agency is on a “reverse mission.” The Environmental & Energy Law Program has begun to list and describe what amount to markers on the path to dismantling the EPA’s capacities.

Learn More

Private Sector Project: Governance & Innovation

EELP conducts legal analysis of private sector initiatives to respond to climate change and other environmental challenges and propose solutions. We use research, scholarship, and engagement to analyze the legal environment in which firms approach these challenges. We work on the legal and practical challenges of corporate governance related to climate risk and develop scholarship to help integrate emerging technologies with existing legal frameworks so that innovative solutions can be put to use.

Learn More

State and Local Climate Strategies

States, counties, and cities are operating as climate policy laboratories given the lack of federal action to reduce GHG emissions and active efforts to undo existing climate policies. EELP is working to provide state and local policymakers with legal analysis of high-impact opportunities to reduce GHG emissions.

Learn More