Symposium
The Breaking the Logjam symposium, held on March 28-29, 2008, was the first major component of the Breaking the Logjam project. A condensed version of the symposium schedule follows. For information on the panelists, please see Participants. An asterisk indicates speakers at the symposium who are also writing papers for the project.
FRIDAY, MARCH 28
Panel I: The Logjam. How we got into the logjam, why it hurts the environment, business, and the public generally, and how to get out of it.
Panelists:
Chair: Lawrence S. Huntington
Keynote Speaker: Phil Sharp
Additional Perspectives: E. Donald Elliott*
David T. Buente, Jr.
Panel II: Setting Priorities. How to generate information, analyze it, and use it to set priorities.
Panelists:
Chair: Susan Rose-Ackerman
Managerial approaches: Cary Coglianese*
Default decisionmaking rules: Bradley C. Karkkainen*
Cost-benefit analysis: Michael A. Livermore*
Improving the Government’s Environmental Science:
Angus Macbeth and Gary Marchant*
Lunch Talk: Peter Lehner
Panel III: Climate Change, US Domestic Regulation and the Future of the Car.
Panelists:
Chair: Nathaniel Keohane
Commentator: Robert Crandall
Automobiles and fuels: Andrew Morriss*
Adapting Environmental Law to Global Warming Controls: William F. Pedersen*
The Radiative Effect of Climate Change on Environmental Regulation:
Jonathan Wiener*
Air pollution: Ross Sandler, David Schoenbrod and Joel Schwartz*
Panel IV: Protecting Ecosystems on Land.
Panelists:
Chair: Michael Bean
Grazing rights: John Leshy*
Farm policy: J.B. Ruhl*
Ecosystem services: Barton H. Thompson*
Endangered species: Katrina Wyman*
Panel V: Urban Issues.
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Panelists:
Chair: Ross Sandler*
Containing Sprawl: Harry Richardson*
Growth Management in Washington State: Chang-Hee Christine Bae*
Traffic pricing: Sam Schwartz with Gerard Soffian and JeeMee Kim*
Smart Growth: Geoff Anderson
Transit, Smart Growth, and Environmental Review: Richard Ravitch
SATURDAY, MARCH 29
Panel VI: Protecting Aquatic Ecosystems.
Panelists:
Chair: G. Tracy Mehan, III
Commentator: David H. Festa
Water pollution: Jonathan Z. Cannon*
Oceans: Joshua Eagle*
The federal role in water policy: James Huffman*
Panel VII: Managing Waste.
Panelists:
Chair: John Applegate
Commentator: Kate Adams*
Hazardous waste: Jonathan Adler*
Nuclear waste: Richard B. Stewart*
Lunch Talk: The Global Dimension of Breaking the Logjam
Speaker: Daniel C. Esty*
Panel VIII: Change Going Forward: Institutions and Politics. Are the ideas of the project relevant to improving environmental protection? How can they be made most effective?
Panelists:
Chair: Leslie Carothers
Richard Lazarus*
Felicia Marcus
Paul Portney
Marcia Bystryn
OTHER COMPONENTS OF THE BREAKING THE LOGJAM PROJECT INCLUDE:
Symposium issue of the NYU Environmental Law Journal: In light of the commentary by panelists and audience members at the symposium, the various authors of the papers produced in connection with the symposium are revising their papers, and they will be published in the Fall of 2008, along with a small number of student papers, in a symposium issue of the NYU Environmental Law Journal.
Report: The symposium organizers are synthesizing the various proposals from the symposium in a report of approximately 50 pages. Tribeca Square, the press of New York Law School, will publish the report at the time of the November 2008 elections. The report will be distributed to a wide group of leaders including members of both houses of Congress, candidates for Congress, the Presidential candidates and later the transition team of the incoming administration, state and local officials interested in environmental issues, environmental non-profit organizations, business leaders and trade associations, and members of the mainstream press specializing in environmental issues.
Presentations to policymakers: After the election, the organizers will travel to Washington D.C. to present the project’s findings to newly elected members of Congress, the incoming administration, and other policymakers. Project participants will also be encouraged to popularize their ideas and propose and comment on legislative proposals.
Book: After the election, the organizers will also produce a book expanding on the report. The book will be a substantive work of policy-oriented scholarship, yet written in a form accessible to the general public.
Follow-up Seminar: A follow-up seminar at New York Law School in the spring of 2009 will review and evaluate proposed legislative changes in light of the project’s principles. The evaluations may be published in an environmental law journal, presented as testimony at legislative hearings, and/or popularized in op-ed pieces in newspapers and similar publications.