J.B. Ruhl and Jim Salzman

After a long summer vacation, we’re thrilled to be back for season seven of Digging a Hole! Just a couple of weeks ago we were baking; now we’re surviving storm after storm, quivering and quaking. Climate change, huh? Here on the pod to discuss their forthcoming paper on how environmental law can help get us out of our existential crisis, “The Greens' Dilemma: Building Tomorrow's Climate Infrastructure Today” are J.B. Ruhl, the David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law at Vanderbilt Law School, and Jim Salzman, the Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law at the UCLA School of Law.

What is the Greens’ Dilemma – and is it even a dilemma exactly? Sam and David have their doubts, but Professors Ruhl and Salzman lay out what they think the dilemma that environmentalists face is, why it’s a dilemma, and their proposed solution to it. Professors Ruhl and Salzman discuss coalition building for green infrastructure and why they might be able to get both progressives and conservatives on board. Is a rapid transition to clean energy and negative emissions compatible with environmental justice (EJ)? Our guests answer with an emphatic yes but ask you, our argumentative listeners, to engage and disagree.

This podcast is generously supported by Themis Bar Review.

Referenced Readings

• “Samuel Moyn Can’t Stop Blaming Trumpism on Liberals” by Jonathan Chait

• Mine!: How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives by Michael Heller and Jim Salzman

• “What Happens When the Green New Deal Meets the Old Green Laws?” by J.B. Ruhl and Jim Salzman

• Public Citizens: The Attack on Big Government and the Remaking of American Liberalism by Paul Sabin