EELU faculty's scholarly work is widely cited and appears not only in legal journals, but also Science, Nature Climate Change, Energy Policy and other leading peer-reviewed journals. Faculty also collaborate with the Vanderbilt Center for Sustainability, Energy and Climate and the Climate Change Research Network, which conducts theoretical and applied research on one of the most important yet widely overlooked sources of greenhouse gases: individual and household behavior. Students have a unique opportunity to research emerging climate change and energy challenges with faculty supervision through our white paper series.
In the face of government gridlock, the new field of “private environmental governance” has emerged to help complete the picture. Private Environmental Governance (Concepts and Insights) seeks to help students and practitioners learn about the themes, features, and people behind PEG. It is co-authored by Vanderbilt Law Professor Michael P. Vandenbergh, Sarah E. Light of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and James Salzman of UC Santa Barbara and UCLA Law School.
The Climate at Vanderbilt podcast reports on faculty, students, research, and programs at Vanderbilt University focused on climate change. Faculty at Vanderbilt conducting research on climate change come from a broad array of disciplines, including engineering, public health and medicine, earth sciences, religious studies, law, biological sciences, history, business, and anthropology. Vanderbilt also offers an innovative undergraduate major in climate studies. Listen to this podcast to learn more about how Vanderbilt is working on the challenges of climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Authored by Caroline Cox and Victoria Schmit, "Microgrids: Legal Opportunities and Barriers in Tennessee" lays out the challenges to microgrids presented by the current legal and regulatory landscape and offers policy recommendations to encourage microgrid adoption.
Authored by Caroline Cox and 2023 EELU Fellow Madeline Flynn ’23, "The TVA Effect: Clean Energy Goals in the TVA Fence Line" explains that, in the case of TVA, the government-owned company may be making it harder for local public power companies to transition to clean energy.
Authored by Caroline Cox and 2023-2024 EELU Fellow Chick Hallinan ’25, "Boundaries of Corporate Physical Climate Risk" examines the way firms measure physical climate risk and assesses the current state of physical climate risk disclosure.
Authored by Caroline Cox and 2023 EELU Research Fellow Jay Eischen '25, "Climate Resilience Planning and the TVA" evaluates the current state of electric system resiliency within the Tennessee Valley Authority and makes recommendations to better prepare the TVA grid for extreme weather.
The Regulatory Transparency Project’s newest short film, The SEC Disclosure Divide: The Cost of Compliance, features insights from legal scholars, policy experts, and industry leaders, including Vanderbilt Law Environmental expert Michael Vandenbergh.