In the weeks leading up to Earth Day 2020, clear blue skies broke out over famously smog-ridden cities like Beijing, Los Angeles, and Delhi. Harvard Law School Professor Jody Freeman LL.M. ’91 S.J.D. ’95 believes these short-term gains in air quality, likely driven in part by economic slowdowns necessitated by the global pandemic, are no panacea for the environment. Instead, says the Archibald Cox Professor of Law and founding director of the Harvard Law School Environmental & Energy Law Program, the nation’s lack of preparedness for the coronavirus only highlights the need for a long-term climate change strategy.
In an email conversation with Harvard Law Today, Freeman, who served in the White House as counselor for energy and climate change in the Obama administration, discusses the progress the nation has made in protecting the environment since Earth Day was founded in 1970, the Trump administration’s efforts to undo Obama-era federal climate regulations, and COVID-19’s urgent lessons for the planet’s health.
Harvard Law Today: On the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, how much progress has the nation made protecting the environment?
Freeman: The U.S. has a great deal to be proud of in its 50-year legacy of environmental and public health protection. We’ve made huge strides in controlling air and water pollution, and protecting our precious natural resources, even while our population has thrived and our economy has grown. That is a remarkable achievement. And we have pioneered some of the most creative approaches to environmental protection, which much of the world has copied, like the use of environmental impact statements, and market-trading schemes that cut pollution efficiently.
We’ve also relied on a partnership between federal and state governments to implement environmental protection, which for the most part has worked very well, with the federal government setting minimum standards to create a national floor, which the states can build on to do more. This structure allows for states to compete in a “race to the top,” rather than inducing a “race to the bottom.”
And we should be very proud of the Environmental Protection Agency, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year. It’s popular to complain about the government and malign civil servants, but I think those attacks are often deeply unfair. I have tremendous respect for the persistence and professionalism of the EPA career staff, who work under extremely challenging conditions to protect the public health and welfare of the American people.
HLT: And how are we doing in our efforts to combat climate change?
Freeman: On climate change, in particular, we have unfortunately not been as successful as we need to be — that story is overall disappointing to date. The U.S. Congress, and each successive president over the last 50 years, have known more and more about the science of climate change, and understood the serious risks it poses for our economy and public health. Yet Congress has done nothing serious to address the problem, failing to pass comprehensive legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions, or to put a price on carbon.
President Obama used executive power, chiefly the Clean Air Act, to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks and power plants, and he played an instrumental role in the Paris accord, the global climate change agreement, but that progress has stalled with President Trump, who has sought to dismantle every pillar of the Obama climate strategy. So, we are not in a great place at the moment, but I remain optimistic that a clean-energy transition is inevitable. I think industry gets this, many states are leading the way, and eventually with a new administration I think we will head in the right direction again.