Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program
Uniquely situated in the heart of Silicon Valley and part of one of the world’s preeminent research universities, Stanford’s award-winning Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program (ENRLP) has earned its reputation as a leading program for education and research in this dynamic field. Indeed, with a nationally renowned faculty praised for its cutting-edge research and practice, the program has revolutionized environmental education.
Our students develop their skills in analyzing and solving problems through situational case studies, learn effective teamwork through Stanford’s Environmental Law Clinic, and master mediation and multiparty negotiation techniques through in-class simulations. Our clinical programs and courses foster collaborative solutions to real-world problems. Many of our courses involve other Stanford departments, and all integrate multidisciplinary materials. The program also provides access to a broad spectrum of practitioners, regulators, and academics in Silicon Valley and beyond, and to hands-on involvement in research, environmental advocacy, and collaborative dialogues. Beyond the classroom, our students pursue a wide array of extracurricular activities, such as membership in the Stanford Environmental Law Journal and the Environmental Law Society.
Stanford Law School graduates pursue a variety of distinguished careers in environmental and natural resources law. Our alumni currently hold positions—covering the spectrum from staff attorney to executive leadership—at national environmental organizations, federal and state agencies, the White House, major corporations, law firms with strong environmental practices, and academia.
Check out our exciting courses in the 2023-2024 academic year!
Spring Newsletter
Stanford Law’s environmental program is taking aim at unsustainable agricultural practices, from litigation in the Environmental Law Clinic to enforce clean water regulation in the Central Valley, to using AI to map and reveal pollution from industrial scale farming, to developing recommendations to improve climate-smart agriculture and food system practices in our policy labs. Read more about our efforts in this area here!
Read more spring news hereLaw Course Is a Win-Win-Win for Students, Startups, and the Planet
A unique hands-on class teaches Stanford Law School students how to counsel early-stage companies that are tackling pressing environmental issues. Startup Law: Sustainability, conceived and co-taught by lecturers Molly Melius, JD ’10, and Sam McClure, JD ’17, takes a win-win-win approach to teaching SLS students about what it means to be a lawyer for a sustainability-focused startup. After ramp-up time in the classroom, six students work in teams to support five to eight Stanford-affiliated startups. Overseen by McClure and Melius, the students get real-world experience as they help counsel the founders on a broad range of issues most startups face, from incorporation to intellectual property assignment to equity allocations.
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Stanford Environmental Law Clinic and Program Blogs
Climate and Energy Policy Program and Stanford Experts Provide Comments on Reforming the Low Carbon Fuel Standard
California’s “Low Carbon Fuel Standard,” a program implemented by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to lower the carbon intensity of California’s transportation fuels, is currently undergoing a substantial revision. In early 2023, CARB initiated a process to evaluate potential changes to the program, including changes to carbon intensity targets, fuels pathway…
Read MoreStanford's 2023 Bright Award Honors Valérie Courtois
On October 2, 2023, Stanford University held a ceremony to present Valérie Courtois with the 2023 Bright Award, the University’s highest environmental prize. Courtois is the founding executive director of Canada’s Indigenous Leadership Initiative (ILI), an initiative that supports Indigenous Nations, or First Nations, in protecting and stewarding their lands and waters.
Stanford's Buzz Thompson Publishes New Book on Business-Government Partnerships and the Water Crisis
Stanford’s Buzz Thompson has published a new book, Liquid Asset: How Business and Government Can Partner to Solve the Freshwater Crisis. The book centers on how water managers and the private sector can collaborate to address water shortages and water sustainability.
On April 26, 2024, leading water-law scholars held a lively discussion of the major freshwater challenges facing the United States and the world and what role, if any, the private sector can play in solving those challenges. The workshop expanded on Professor Thompson’s provocative new book, Liquid Asset, which argues for a greater private role.
Presenters included Prof. Vanessa Casado Perez (Texas A&M School of Law), Prof. Rhett Larson (ASU College of Law), Prof. Dave Owen (UC Law San Francisco), Prof. Jim Salzman (UCLA School of Law), Prof. Mark Squillace (Colorado Law School), Prof. Buzz Thompson (Stanford Law School) and Welcome by Dean Paul Brest. Their work will be published in the Stanford Environmental Law Journal.
Read MoreRecent Work
CEPP Research News
Wildfire: Assessing and quantifying risk exposure and mitigation across western utilities
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California Burning
Stanford Research Looks at Drought, Wildfires, and Smoke and the Growing Risks of Climate Change in the Golden State
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California Burning: Fire, Drought, and Climate Change with Buzz Thompson
In this episode, a leading national water law expert Buzz Thompson joins us to discuss fires, water, and climate change.
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Q&A: Reasons for hope amid California’s drought
Stanford water experts discuss lessons learned from previous droughts, imperatives for infrastructure investment and pathways for the state to achieve dramatically better conservation and reuse of its most precious resource.
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Smoke
Current law not only fails to regulate particulate matter derived from wildfire smoke, it also imposes burdensome permitting requirements on one of the most effective risk-mitigation strategies: prescribed fire. In a practicum on Smoke, students are exploring regulatory obstacles to expanding prescribed burning in California, developing a simplified air quality health benefits model, and investigating potential new policy approaches to streamlining the approval process for prescribed burning projects.
Smoke
Policy Changes to Mitigate Wildfire Risk
Professor Deborah Sivas discusses the effects of climate on fires in the state and policy changes that might lessen their danger to residents and resources. Sivas details strategies to reduce wildfire impacts, including: forest management techniques to reduce understory and even-aged stands, local building code requirements to “harden” new structures against fire, and property tax changes to incentive residents at the wildland-urban interface to relocate.
Thinking Harder and Smarter About Wildland Fire
Recent Press by the ENRLP Team
Will Mexico City Run Out of Water?
Scientific American
“The major problem in the Cape Town case was having one [type of] source of water that as a result of climate change was at much greater risk than it had been prior,” says Barton Thompson, a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. He…
Read MoreGrizzly Population Surge Tests Boundaries of Species Protection
How Business and Government Might Solve the Freshwater Crisis—Together
Should the Endangered Species Act be updated for climate change accounts?
The Great Salt Lake is shrinking rapidly and Utah has failed to stop it, a new lawsuit says
Stanford Environmental News
Looking for more stories about the environment, energy and sustainability? Check out the latest news from some of Stanford's many environmental institutes and centers!
