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The Robert R. Merhige Jr. Center for Environmental Law at the University of Richmond School of Law engages in research, instruction, and public outreach on energy and environmental issues in the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond. The center hosts conferences, symposia, and speakers on pressing environmental issues, generating dialogue for policy solutions.

Studying Environmental Law
About Judge Merhige
Events & Conferences
Negotiation Competition
Alumni & Careers
Toxic Substance Resource

Summer Public Interest Fellowships

Each Richmond Law student is guaranteed one summer of funding for a public service or government sector job. Here are just a few examples of recent student placements in the environmental law field. 

  • Appalachian Trail Conservancy
  • Chesapeake Bay Foundation
  • Environmental Council on the States
  • Southern Environmental Law Center
  • Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
  • U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry
  • Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
Prof. Joel Eisen
Prof. Noah Sachs

Recent Scholarship

Prof. Eisen, The New(Clear?) Electricity Federalism: Federal Preemption of States' "Zero Emissions Credit Programs, ___ Ecol. L.Q. Currents (forthcoming 2018)

Prof. Sachs, Environmental Law Practice, Carolina Academic Press (4th Ed., 2018) (w/Anderson, Hirsch, Tormey).

Prof. Brown, On the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Lucas: Making or Breaking the Takings Claim, __ Iowa L.R. __ (2017).

Prof. Eisen, FERC's Expansive Authority to Transform the Electric Grid, 49 U.C. Davis Law Review 1783 (2016).

Prof. Sachs, Should the United States Create Trading Markets for Energy Efficiency? 46 Envtl. L. Rptr. 10466 (2016).

Prof. Eisen, Introduction: FERC v. EPSA and the Path to a Cleaner Electricity Sector, 40 Harv. Envtl. L. Rev. 1 (2016).

Prof. Sachs, The Limits of Energy Efficiency Markets in Climate Change Law, 2016 U. Ill. L. Rev. 2237 (2016).  

 

In the News

Prof. Eisen, Bloomberg, March 2018: The battery will kill fossil fuels - it's only a matter of time

Prof. Eisen, Utility Dive, March 2018: The 'stealth NOPR?" PJM CEO says market reforms are no bailout for coal

Prof. Eisen, Financial Times, Oct. 2017: U.S. delivers electric shock with coal and nuclear subsidy plan

Prof. Sachs, Scientific American, Aug. 2017: Trump's EPA may be weakening chemical safety law

Prof. Eisen, Law 360, June 2017: Energy cases to watch in 2nd half of 2017

Prof. Sachs, The Hill, March 2017: How the EPA chief could gut the agency's climate change regulations

Presentations

Prof. Sachs, "SJ295 and Regulatory Rollback," Virginia Conservation Network General Assembly Preview" (Dec. 2017).

Prof. Eisen, "Electric Vehicles as Grid Services," Third Annual Energy Day, Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, Germany (Oct. 2017).

Prof. Eisen, "Clean Energy Issues in the Trump Administration," Richmond Bar Association Environmental and Energy Law Section Meeting (May 2017).

Prof. Eisen, "Demand Response's Three Generations: Market Pathways in the Electric Grid" North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology Symposium, Chapel Hill, N.C. (Feb. 2017).

Prof. Sachs, "Upward and Downward Spirals in the Paris Agreement," Public Interest Environmental Law Conference at the University of Oregon Law School (April 2016).

Contact: Prof. Noah Sachs, Director | nsachs@richmond.edu | 804-289-8555