Lawyers For Good Government Climate Change Program Provides Pro-Bono Legal Resources For Municipalities To Switch To 100% Renewable Energy
Lawyers from Around the US Have Compiled Comprehensive State Energy Profiles for 9 States to Address Void in Legal Expertise
WASHINGTON – Today, Lawyers for Good Government Foundation (L4GG), a non-profit network of more than 120,000 legal advocates with lawyers in all 50 states, unveiled its latest comprehensive state energy resource profiles — Ohio, Louisiana, and Oklahoma — as part of its pro-bono climate change program, which seeks to provide the legal resources desperately needed for municipalities to reach 100 percent renewable energy goals.
Lawyers for Good Government’s State Energy Profiles help fill the void in legal expertise at the local level by providing an overview of the legal landscape affecting renewable energy, including obstacles to municipalization, utility commission policies and procedures, sample franchise agreements, and other tools critical for implementing renewable energy targets.
The group has previously released six state environmental profiles, including resources for New York, Florida, North Carolina, Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri.
View the state profiles here. Or here are specific state links:
The profiles have already supported the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 program, and have been distributed to more than 180 local decision makers to advance renewable energy policies. Profiles for the 20 top priority states, as identified by the Sierra Club, will be available in 2020.
Lawyers for Good Government’s Climate Change program, led by attorney Jillian Blanchard, a recognized expert in energy and natural resources law, aims to use L4GG’s expansive legal network to support existing programs assisting cities with the shift to 100 percent renewable energy.
The UN has estimated we only have 11 years to reverse the potential devastation of climate change, and many local and state governments are doing their best to heed the call. Cities, counties, and towns across the U.S. have made public commitments to cut carbon and address climate change through initiatives like the U.S. Climate Alliance, Compact of Mayors, American Cities Climate
Change Initiative, Ready for 100 Campaign, and more.
However, these verbal commitments cannot be met in a timely manner without skilled legal assistance, and the reality is, most local municipalities do not possess the in-house expertise or resources to identify a practical path to 100 percent renewable energy. That requires an intimate knowledge of energy, municipal and land use law, existing local policies, and tools of the trade like franchise agreements.
“The daunting efforts required to understand the laws affecting the path to 100% renewable energy can cripple local municipalities, and lead to empty promises,” said Lawyers for Good Government’s Climate Change program director Jillian Blanchard. “Through these comprehensive state environmental profiles, and other resources Lawyers for Good Government is developing, government leaders can be armed with the necessary information to start forging an achievable path to reaching 100 percent renewable energy before it’s too late, while also helping the many NGOs, like Sierra Club and Rocky Mountain Institute, identify better strategies for increasing renewable sources across the country.”
In the coming months, Lawyers for Good Government’s Climate Change program will publicly roll out a Climate Portal: an online legal forum allowing cities and NGOs to make specific legal requests of L4GG’s expansive network, and receive answers to questions that arise regarding renewable energy goals, targets, policies, utilities, etc. Through the Climate Portal, L4GG is currently working to provide direct legal assistance to cities looking to increase renewable energy through power purchase agreements. This exciting assignment could significantly increase the ability of cities to increase renewable energy in states with more restrictive energy laws.
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