May 31, 2017
10:00pm – 11:00pm
43-105 CHS (Center for Health Sciences) UCLA
“Federal and California Environmental Law and Policy in the New Reality of the Trump Presidency”
Sean Hecht, JD
Co-Executive Director, Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
Evan Frankel Professor of Policy and Practice
Co-Director, UCLA Law Environmental Law Clinic
About the lecture: The new administration has promised, and begun to implement, drastic changes in environmental and natural resources law, regulation, and policy. The administration’s commitment to deregulation appears greater than that of any prior President, at a time when policy experts believe that federal intervention to protect public health and the environment is more needed than ever. Prof. Hecht will discuss some of the administration’s announced and probable future policies in areas including greenhouse gas regulation, management of federal public lands and resources including extraction of fossil fuels, and air quality regulation. He will also discuss the State of California’s unique role in environmental regulation and how that is likely to change in the new administration. Finally, the talk will touch more generally on the multiple roles of federal agencies as policymakers, regulators, experts, and research hubs, and how these roles are likely to be affected by policy changes.
About the speaker: Sean B. Hecht is the Co-Executive Director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, and Evan Frankel Professor of Policy and Practice, at UCLA School of Law. He works with students to serve environmental organizations and government agencies in his role as co-director of the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic. His teaching includes Public Natural Resources Law and Policy, Environmental Law, and a California State Environmental Law Seminar, in addition to the Environmental Law Clinic. Sean is a frequent speaker and media commenter on a wide range of environmental, natural resources, and energy law and policy issues. He collaborates on projects with practicing environmental lawyers, environmental and environmental justice advocacy organizations, policymakers, and the business community. Sean’s research interests include developing legal and policy tools for building resilience to climate change’s projected impacts; analyzing the insurance and finance sectors’ roles in addressing climate change; examining the relationship between environmental justice and mainstream environmental advocacy; analyzing the role of environmental impact analysis under CEQA, NEPA, and other laws in protecting health and the environment; and studying the dynamics of federal public land law and policy and the relationship between state and federal regulation on public lands.