Vanderbilt Law School Hosts Second Annual State of the Environment Conference

Colleen Newman, Heeba Momen, and Sam Downs contributed to this article.

Earlier this semester, Vanderbilt Law School’s Energy, Environment, and Land Use (EELU) Program held its second annual State of the Environment Conference, supported by the Sally Shallenberger Brown Program Fund. This unique event, aimed to convene faculty, policymakers, and environmental experts from the Nashville community and beyond, sparked substantive discussions on pressing environmental issues affecting the Southeast. 

The day-long conference opened with a state of the environment report, followed by four panels that tackled the states of conservation and land use, water, energy, and scholarship and innovation.   

State of the Environment 

Panelists:

• Welcome by Anne Davis, EELU Senior Program Advisor, Vanderbilt Law School
• Moderated by Michael Vandenbergh, David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law, Director, Climate Change Research Network, Co-Director, Energy, Environment and Land Use Program, Vanderbilt Law
• Mariah Caballero, PhD Student, Vanderbilt University 
• Ethan Thorpe, Undergraduate Student, Vanderbilt University 
• Erin Hafkenschiel, President, Think Tennessee 

Vanderbilt students Mariah Caballero and Ethan Thorpe presented the Tennessee State of the Environment Report, compiled using publicly available data and supporting literature to compare trends in the US, Southeast US, Tennessee, and Davidson County, TN.  

 As Vandenbergh explained, “we’re going to try to essentially replicate what the Council on Environmental Quality was required to do by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which is to produce an annual report on the state of the United States environment.” 

“So our goal here is for Tennessee, and the Southeast and the region to replicate that process and give us a chance to think on a broader level about how we structure what we care about on the environmental front.” 

Takeaways include:   

• Forested land cover, agricultural land cover, and open water has decreased over the past 20 years, while land development has increased in the same time span in Tennessee, inline across many measures with the Southeast region.  
• Over the past decade-plus, Tennessee has achieved a rapid reduction in carbon emissions, outpacing the rest of the nation and the southeast.  
• Transportation makes up 40% of total emissions in the state, proportionally more than the sector in the U.S. and the Southeast. 
• Davidson County residents emit ~63% more tons of CO2 per capita than national average 
• Coal-generated electricity has decreased significantly in Tennessee since the early 2000s, corresponding with a rise in nuclear energy and natural gas. 
• The East South Central Region of the US (KY, TN, MS, and AL) is projected to emit 28% more tons of CO2 per capita in 2050 than the national average. 
• While Tennessee has low per-unit energy costs (13th in the nation), energy bills are quite high (41st in the nation) 
• Community water systems in the Southeast US fare better than the national average, with 8.5% of systems experiencing one or more health-based violation; that figure is 12.4% in Tennessee, which is still better than the U.S. average. 

Watch the presentation on YouTube.

State of Conservation and Land Use 

Panelists:

• Moderated by Christopher Serkin, Elisabeth H. and Granville S. Ridley Jr. Chair in Law, Vanderbilt Law
• Lucy Kempf, Executive Director, Metro Nashville Planning Department 
• Kendra Abkowitz, Sustainability Chief, Office of the Mayor of Nashville  
• Liz McLaurin, President and CEO, The Land Trust for Tennessee 
• Mark Deutschmann, Founder and Chair Emeritus, Village 
• Greer Tidwell, Deputy Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation 

The day’s first panel focused on the state of conservation and land use in Tennessee. Experts in their respective fields discussed the importance of striking a balance between urban expansion and land conservation– as one panelist put it, “how and where we build has a lasting impact on environmental concerns.”  

City Planning 

Kempf highlighted the areas of potential growth in Nashville – communities where transit routes are heavily utilized – as well as areas of conservation – places with a concentration of natural resources and landforms that would be harmed or pose a health risk if further developed. Overall, she emphasized the importance of exploring the identity of Nashville from a natural resource perspective. The natural environment Tennesseans live in makes up a part of their identity whether they realize it or not, and in order to maintain a sense of self, the features that make up the state must be protected.  

Sustainability 

Abkowitz discussed initiatives across some Metro Nashville departments, such as the Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plan (CARP). The focus of CARP is to guide future Metro infrastructure investments, improve resilience to the harms created by climate change, and set forth mitigation strategies to lessen the impact of those harms.  

Abkowitz cited flooding and heat concerns across the state as an example. These issues affect the population across Tennessee differently– dense development correlates with higher heat levels. Part of CARP’s charge is to locate vulnerable populations that feel the effects of climate change and reduce the risks they face.  

Land Development 

Mark Deutschmann, the Founder and Chair of Village Reality and the CityLiving Group, talked about increasing the number of greenways that run through Nashville. Greenways are paths that typically run along streams, rivers, or man-made infrastructure such as highways. Deutschmann mentioned that his team is currently in the process of creating the “City Center Greenway,” a 35-mile loop around the city that would connect people from across neighborhoods, create protected areas of greenspace, provide more opportunities for foot travel, and give Nashville residents a place to have fun and stay healthy.  

Environment and Conservation 

Tidwell ended the panel by discussing the value of conserving lands, specifically state parks. He noted that parks are beneficial for mental health, relationship health, and physical health, but even more, they are the cornerstone of conservation. Reiterating what Kempf said, Tidwell believes state parks are a huge part of many Tennesseans’ identities; the sense of “place” that these parks provide is the foundation for why so many people, visitors and natives, return to Tennessee. 

Watch the full panel on YouTube. 

State of Water 

Panelists:

• Moderated by J.B. Ruhl, David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law, Co-Director, Energy, Environment and Land Use Program, Vanderbilt Law School
• George Nolan, Director, Tennessee Office, Southern Environmental Law Center 
• Stephanie Durman, Deputy General Counsel, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation 
• Grace Stranch, CEO, Harpeth Conservancy 
• Scott Schoefernacker, Science Director, Protect Our Aquifer 
• Dodd Galbreath, Director, Institute for Sustainable Practice, Lipscomb University 

Tennessee’s Plentiful Water Resources Challenges by the Demands of Growth 

Durman noted a wide range of challenges that Tennessee faces related to water, including flooding, flash droughts, emerging contaminants, and potential loss of wetland protection. She summed up her primary concern as “the urgent need to balance Tennessee’s rapid population growth with protecting our shared water resources for future generations.”

She noted that while Tennessee overall has plenty of water overall – “there’s a catch.” Growing populations in certain parts of the state create challenges. Specifically, there are three priority watersheds where demand does not meet availability. She pointed out that south of Nashville, communities in the Duck River Watershed are growing fast, due to lack of affordable housing in Metro Nashville area. The duck river is the most biodiverse river in North America.   

She discussed permitting of water withdrawal from the Duck River, which is one of the most ecologically diverse rivers in the country. “We need to strike the right balance. In this situation, TDEC has a dual role. It’s absolutely our job to protect water resources from harm. But it’s also our job to help ensure our local communities and utilities have access to reliable and clean drinking water.” 

George Nolan echoed these sentiments, saying that the “breakneck pace of unbridled growth” represents the biggest challenge to Tennessee’s water resources. He pointed to the net gain of more than 81,000 people in the state in 2022, which is “unprecedented.” 

“I’m not saying that growth is bad, we need a certain amount of growth, we need smart growth,” he said. “As we grow, we have to protect the carrying capacity of our watersheds.” 

Part of that involves protecting the legal guardrails designed to keep watersheds safe, some of which are being challenged by development groups. He cites HB 1054, introduced earlier this year, which would change the state water control act to remove state-level protections for wetlands, affecting more than 430,000 acres.  

“This could gut protections from more than 55% of our wetlands,” Stranch added. “We’ve already lost 60% of our wetlands in Tennessee. Our wetlands filter out heavy leads, PFAS, and emerging contaminants.” 

Schoefernacker noted similar challenges with the arrival of the Blue Oval Ford Plant in West Tennessee. “How do we keep up with the development, and how do we keep up with the monitoring so we can understand what’s happening to our groundwater resources in west Tennessee?” 

Stranch also stressed the importance of water quality and the role that wetlands play in keeping our rivers clean. Tennesseans get around 60% of their drinking water from their rivers, 60% of which do not meet federal water quality standards. Tennessee waterways are responsible for around 10% of the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. “Our water quality here really truly matters,” she said.  

Tennessee’s History of Forward-Thinking Water Policy  

Galbreath retraced his 40+ year career to highlight the state’s legacy in crafting water-related legislation. Tennessee’s 1968 Scenic Rivers Act served as the model for the Federal Government’s Act of the same name. The state’s Water Quality Act in 1971, a year ahead of the Federal Government’s Clean Water Act. “We’ve been leaders in this from the beginning, maybe because of our resources,” he said.  

He cited the impact of Vanderbilt scholars’ Dr. Ed Thacksten and Dr. Ruth Knepf, Gary Meyers, and Paul Edsall Davis.  

Galbreath also noted Tennessee’s constraints on coal mining to limited areas of the state, and the creation of the nation’s third wetland conservation plan, which was amended over time to remove channeling of rivers in West Tennessee. “This is an amazing series of success and foresight that we’ve had,” he said. 

Galbreath currently serves on the state water board, where he sees “an enormous amount of untapped opportunity to do great things in partnership with the department.” 

When asked what he worries about most, Galbreath points to “keeping science at the forefront of all of our decisions, continuing to have creative leaders but more importantly catalysts for those leaders, and continuing to have good environmental lawyers.” 

“History will serve us well,” he said, “if we continue to listen to those who are agitating us, who are asking us to move forward, and who are also trying to help us think more broadly about a greater vision that our state really deserves.”  

Water’s impact on energy 

Stranch noted that 30-40% of municipal energy bills in the U.S. are directly related to consumption of public drinking water and waste symptoms, with a contribution of 45 million tons of greenhouse gases annually. “We have to look at the effectiveness of our systems,” she said.  

“We work with tons of fantastic developers who are really invested in conservation,” she said. “But we have to have more plans in place tons of fantastic developers who are really invested in conservation,” she said.  

“If we truly want a resilient Tennessee, we must have conservation-minded development as we grow.” 

Watch the full panel on YouTube. 

State of Energy 

Panelists: 

• Moderated by Jim Rossi, Judge D. L. Lansden Chair in Law, Vanderbilt Law School
• Joe Hoagland, Vice President of Enterprise Relations and Innovation at Tennessee Valley Authority 
• Teresa Broyles-Aplin, President and CEO of Nashville Electric Service 
• Tiffany Wilmot, President of Wilmot, Inc. 
• Stephen Smith, Executive Director of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy 
• Tina Hartert, MD, MPH, Director of Vanderbilt Center for Asthma and Environmental Science Research 

The panel covered a variety of topics at the intersection of energy, policy, and environmental health. 

Tennessee Valley Authority seeks to eliminate carbon from its system while balancing reliability and the cost of power.  

Hoagland outlined the challenges of transitioning TVAs energy generation to a new system with distributed generation on a non-linear power grid. “We’ll probably need AI at some point to actually balance and manage and make everything work,” he noted.  

TVA is retiring coal plants – including one in Knoxville last December – and primarily replacing that energy with Solar and Natural Gas, supplemented with battery storage. They have a plan to get to roughly 80% carbon-free generation over the next 10 or so years. From there, the journey to 100% becomes murkier. “Hence my job, innovation and research,” he said. “It’s going to take new generation technologies and new ways for the grid to integrate and interact.” 

At the moment, TVA is working through an integrated transmission plan and working with local providers. “We don’t have the answer yet, but we’re moving in the direction where we know how to address them,” he said. 

Sustainability and Affordability Are Not Mutually Exclusive 

Nashville Electric Service (NES) has historically purchased all of its electricity from TVA but now has a little flexibility (5%) to work with other suppliers. Broyles-Aplin discussed Nashville Electric Service’s recent agreement to purchase solar power from Silicon Ranch. “This transaction is near and dear to my heart,” she said. “It makes us a more sustainable organization while saving our ratepayers money.”  

NES, which has a 100% clean-energy goal, is also seeking to implement a plan to buy excess energy from customers’ renewable projects, primarily rooftop solar installation. She referenced how this project, along with LED street light conversion, was done in partnership with the city, highlighting the multiple stakeholders required in many instances to execute transitions. “It was clear in working with the city on this that it was a priority for them and should be a priority for us,” she explained.  

Solar is the Most Cost-Effective Source of Power 

Wilmot, who works with the private and public sectors on sustainability efforts, noted that the cost of solar has decreased 80% since 2010. She noted several projects in Tennessee, including one in Metro Nashville that identified 235 future sites for solar installation on public buildings that will save $80 million over the life of the project, while reducing peak demand and increasing resiliency for the power grid. “This will be great for reducing the load for NES and, in turn, TVA,’ she said. “Everybody wins in this case.”  

“The Worst of Times and the Best of Times” 

Stephen Smith remarked, “I tell my staff that we are in both the worst of times and the best times, and you’ve got to hold those two simultaneously together,” pointing out the realities of climate change and its impact on the environment. He noted that while TVA now has the lowest carbon emissions on a pounds per megawatt hour in the Southeast, “they didn’t do it because of climate change,” citing the acquisition of nuclear plants and the rise of fracking.  

Smith urged the TVA to give its 153 local power companies (LPCs) more flexibility in energy production, noting that while NES was given some leeway, it amounts to only 5% of NES’ total energy. “They need to let their LPCs have more freedom, particularly in a place like Nashville that has progressive goals.” 

“We’ve got to have a scale of ambition that is commensurate to the problem,” he said. “We’ve got to get our largest public power entity to be at the forefront of solving the climate crisis.” 

Improving the Environment Improves Public Health 

Dr. Hatert discussed the causal links between pollution, climate, and health outcomes. “When we alter and decrease pollution, and we improve indoor air quality as well as outdoor equality, we significantly improve health outcomes,” she said.   

She also noted that the U.S. has some of the worst health outcomes in the world, relative to not only high-income countries, but some mid- and low-income ones as well. Tennessee scores among the lowest of states in terms of health outcomes.  

Moreover, these outcomes are not equally distributed. “The greatest indicator of your health and your mortality risk is your zip code,” she said. “It’s true across the world and within our own city as well.” Hatert cited a recent study that looked at decreased pollution over time in cities across the U.S.; while it found decreased pollution and impact on health across each city, Nashville’s biggest improvements came in high-income zip codes. “That discrepancy is only increasing over time,” she said.  

“The populations who suffer the most from the impacts of pollution and climate change actually produce the least amount of pollution, and impact climate change the least.”  

Dr. Hatert also noted that energy efficiency can improve health, and “it’s something that we don’t use often enough in selling the potential impacts.”  

Watch the full panel on YouTube. 

The State of Scholarship and Innovation 

Panelists:

• Moderated by Caroline Cox, EELU Program Director, Vanderbilt Law School 
• Jane Miller and Lachlan Watkins, Post-Doctoral Fellows, Vanderbilt Law School 
• Dan Vickers, Sally Shallenberger Brown Research Fellow, Vanderbilt Law School 
• Linda Breggin, ELI Senior Attorney, and Kyle Blasinsky, Law and Econ JD/PhD Student, Vanderbilt Law School 
• J.B. Ruhl and Michael Vandenbergh, Vanderbilt Law School 

ELPAR is, as Professor Breggin describes, many things: a class, publications, and a series of convenings. Law students are selected in their second and third years of law school to review the prior year’s legal academic literature related to the environment. “The goal of ELPAR,” Breggin said, “is to identify articles that not only advance the literature, but offer feasible and creative law and policy proposals.” The class evaluates a pool of articles based on a particular criterion and narrows it down to the top 20 articles, which the class presents to the expert advisory committee. The articles are edited and redistributed in a shortened form for policymakers and then published annually. The ELPAR class also works to identify experts to evaluate ideas presented by the academics; such as commentaries from government, NGOs, and private practitioners. ELPAR outputs are open to the public, including a podcast found on Spotify and other popular platforms.  

Ruhl’s research cuts across several themes and areas of expertise. His core focus is on environmental law of land and resources development; he’s written frequently about the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, ecosystem management, and ecosystem services. Over the past decade, his attention has turned to how climate change factors into the theme of natural resources, law, and policies.  

As an example, he referenced his research on reexamining how we site the critical infrastructure needed to accomplish the transition to clean energy. “We’ve got to build this stuff, lots of it, fast, and our permitting system is not really built for that. So how do we rethink that permitting system without giving up on the robustness of our other goals, like conservation, public participation, and equity?” Dan Vickers is assisting with Ruhl’s research in this area, specifically as it relates to clean hydrogen and carbon capture and sequestration. 

He also focuses on how adaptation policies address the probability of extreme climate change scenarios, which might require domestic migrations that trigger other adaptation responses that aren’t being built into local and state adaptation plans today. “Private law – contracts, torts, and property – has evolved over hundreds of years, and so it has to respond to this very significant change in our environment and how we adapt to it.”  

“Jim is hands down one of the nation’s top energy law scholars,” said Ruhl, who summarized Rossi’s research. “His work is cited more than anyone else’s in the field.” Rossi addresses themes like energy federalism, the economics of energy policy (rate regulation, stranded costs, e.g.), the impacts of deregulation on the energy sector, and the challenge of the clean energy transition (electric grid, clean energy transportation, carbon taxes, transmission). 

“If you read his work, you’ll quickly appreciate how much he has both a sweeping command of the big picture of energy policy but also deep knowledge down to the finest details of regulatory and policy development,” said Ruhl. 

Vandenbergh, through his work as Chief of Staff of the EPA and in private practice, tackles two large questions: what is the role of the private sector (put another way: why do we have private governance?), and “why is it that when say the word ‘polluter,’ we always assume it’s a company?”  

There are certain mental models that Americans have grown up with in the environmental sector that form limitations in the ability to think creatively in an area where we have partisan gridlock. Vandenbergh’s research focuses on these mental models, which have disrupted areas of research from geology to pulmonology, and how to get us as a society away from them. He is currently working on a book about mental models with Vanderbilt’s Jonathan Gilligan.  

He also has a Carnegie fellowship through which he examines how to reach the Center-right on climate change. “I do this because 18% of the U.S. population controls 52 votes in the U.S. Senate, and they don’t tend to live in New York and California,” he said. “We are not going to solve this climate problem unless we get to that population.” This work is being done with Jane Miller. 

Vandenbergh also received a grant from the Audi Cy Pres to fund work in three areas related to Electric Vehicles (EVs): understanding the maternal and child health benefits of the transition to EVs – led by Miller; 2) researching the price effects on willingness to purchase EVs – led by Watkins; and 3) estimating the impact of EV uptake on the Clean Air Act and the legal structure around air quality – assisted by Vickers. “Electric Vehicles are a way to get 70% of carbon reductions in the U.S. in a very quick and viable way,” he noted.  

Vandenbergh summarized Serkin’s work in the area of land use. Serkin tackles the current deregulatory attitude toward zoning. He is skeptical of this approach’s ability to contribute to more density and more supply of housing in the urban core. “He is exploring how to change zoning to better meet our needs, not necessarily to loosen it,” Vandenbergh said.  

“Across all of our different faculty, I think something that’s characteristic of all us that we’re trying to think critically, we’re all trying to do state of the art theoretical and empirical work, and trying to apply that in ways that matter on a day-to-day basis,” he concluded.