The Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE) channels the expertise of the Berkeley Law community – faculty, staff, and students – into pragmatic, creative policy solutions to critical environmental and energy challenges.
BLACK LIVES MATTER
A MOVEMENT NOT A MOMENT
The past few months have starkly highlighted the systemic racism and racial injustice interwoven into the fabric of this country. We must not only condemn it; we must act to change it.
The university has a public interest mission; the legal profession is responsible for seeking justice; and our center and our program are focused on ensuring a sustainable world for all. Working at the intersection of those values, we must humbly look inside and examine if we are doing all we can to combat systemic racism, because the answer is almost certainly no. Yet we cannot successfully combat climate change and environmental degradation without addressing the inextricably linked roots and consequences of systemic racial injustice.
Because words without actions ring hollow, we are engaging in a process to develop a concrete action plan addressing our research, program, and curriculum. We will reach outside our organization for diverse input in order to finalize our action plan and move immediately to implementation.
In the News
Use of natural gas in buildings, a risk to the environment
(4/12/21) Ted Lamm in Daily Investor Hub
What’s Next For The Tejon Ranch Project After Judge Blocks Construction Due To Wildfire Risk
(4/12/21) Ethan Elkind in KPCC AirTalk
Biden plan would pump billions into home retrofits
(4/9/21) Ethan Elkind in E&E News
How Hyperloop Is Prioritizing Passenger Experience
(4/5/21) Ethan Elkind in Los Angeles Business Journal
Biden infrastructure bill could be California high-speed rail’s ‘lifeline’
(4/4/21) Ethan Elkind in The Mercury News
See our complete list of media mentions here.
March 2021
Priorities for Sonoma County’s Wildfire Settlement Vegetation Management Funds

The County retained CLEE to gather expert input and prepare recommendations for how to allocate these funds most efficiently and effectively. Considering the long-term and recurring nature of vegetation management, the diversity of County landscapes and ecosystems, and the scale of the need relative to the amount of funds, a range of strategies will be required to leverage the funds into long-term investments and ensure sustainable practices. CLEE convened a group of statewide experts and a group of County stakeholders to identify spending priorities. Our report, Priorities for Sonoma County’s Wildfire Settlement Vegetation Management Funds, outlines these priorities and offers specific strategies for the funds to achieve them.
February 2021
Data Access for a Decarbonized Grid

January 2021
Building towards Decarbonization

December 2020
Capturing Opportunity
California has enacted ambitious climate goals, including a statewide carbon neutrality target by 2045. While much of the required greenhouse gas reductions will come from clean technology and emission reduction programs, meeting these targets will necessitate new methods of actively removing carbon from the atmosphere and capturing difficult-to-mitigate emissions, including via technologies broadly known as engineered carbon removal. These processes — such as carbon capture and sequestration from industrial and fossil fuel facilities, biomass energy production with carbon capture, and direct air capture of atmospheric carbon — can complement nature-based solutions but are mostly still in the early development stages
December 2020
Redefining Value and Risk in Agriculture
In June 2020, the Berkeley Food Institute and UC Berkeley School of Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment convened farmers, policy experts, advocates, investors, and other stakeholders in the farming community for a virtual roundtable on public-private solutions to advance regenerative agriculture. We agreed on the problem, yet our diverse perspectives necessitated discussion of the broad range of potential and existing solutions. From reforming crop insurance and promoting regenerative practices to implementing policies that prioritize equity, explore these recommendations and more in Redefining Value and Risk in Agriculture.
December 2020
Insuring Extreme Heat Risks

September 2020
The California Roadmap
September 2020
Civic Engagement and Water Data: How Can California Make Data Work for Decision Makers?
July 2020
Sustainable Drive, Sustainable Supply: Priorities to Improve the Electric Vehicle Battery Supply Chain
The global transition from fossil fuel-powered vehicles to battery electric vehicles (EVs) will require the production of hundreds of millions of batteries. This massive deployment frequently raises questions from the general public and critics alike about the sustainability of the battery supply chain, from mining impacts to vehicle carbon emissions.
To address these questions, CLEE and the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) are conducting a stakeholder-led research initiative focused on identifying strategies to improve sustainability and governance across the EV battery supply chain. The new report “Sustainable Drive, Sustainable Supply: Priorities to Improve the Electric Vehicle Battery Supply Chain” identifies key challenges and possible responses that industry, government and nonprofit leaders could take to ensure battery supply chain sustainability.
June 2020
Clean and Resilient: Policy Solutions for California’s Grid of the Future
California’s electrical grid is both at the core of the state’s aggressive decarbonization goals—with targets of 60 percent renewable power by 2030 and 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2045—and a major source of community vulnerability. Technologies like distributed renewable generation, microgrids, energy storage, building energy management, and vehicle-grid integration will be essential to promote community safety and resilience while advancing the effort to decarbonize the grid. But these investments will require significant policy and financial support to achieve these dual state goals over the coming decade.
To address this need, CLEE and the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA Law convened a group of California state energy regulators, local government leaders, grid experts, and clean energy advocates for a convening on California’s electrical grid of the future. Our report, Clean and Resilient, is based on this expert group’s findings.
April 2020
Legal Grounds: Law and Policy Options to Facilitate a Phase-out of Fossil Fuel Production in California
California is the seventh-largest oil producing state in the country, with a fossil fuel industry that is responsible for billions of dollars in state and local revenue and other economic activity each year. Yet continued oil and gas production contrasts with the state’s aggressive climate mitigation policies, while creating significant air and water pollution, particularly for disadvantaged communities in areas where much of the state’s drilling occurs.
As a result of these risks, many advocates and policymakers seek ways to enhance regulation of and eventually phase out oil and gas production in California. To provide legal options for policy makers to facilitate this transition, CLEE’s report Legal Grounds outlines steps California leaders could pursue on state- and privately-owned lands to achieve this reduction.
Recent Publications
CLIMATE & ENERGY
- Priorities for Sonoma County’s Wildfire Settlement Vegetation Management Funds (March 2021)
- Data Access for a Decarbonized Grid (February 2021)
- Building towards Decarbonization (January 2021)
- Capturing Opportunity: Law and Policy Solutions to Accelerate Engineered Carbon Removal in California (December 2020)
- Redefining Value and Risk in Agriculture (December 2020)
- Insuring Extreme Heat Risks (December 2020)
- The California Roadmap (September 2020)
- Sustainable Drive, Sustainable Supply: Priorities to Improve the Electric Vehicle Battery Supply Chain (July 2020)
- Clean and Resilient: Policy Solutions for California’s Grid of the Future (June 2020)
- Legal Grounds: Law and Policy Options to Facilitate a Phase-out of Fossil Fuel Production in California (April 2020)
WATER
- Civic Engagement and Water Data: How Can California Make Data Work for Decision Makers? (September 2020)
- Examining Regulation and Innovation in Municipal Wastewater (Jan 2020)
- Addressing Institutional Vulnerabilities in California’s Drought Water Allocation (Aug 2018)
- When is Groundwater Recharge a Beneficial Use of Surface Water in California? (Aug 2018)
- Learning from California’s Experience with Small Water System Consolidations (May 2018)
- Recharge Net Metering to Enhance Groundwater Sustainability (April 2018)
LAND USE
- Policy Brief: Enhancing Local Land Use Data (June 2019)
- Examining the Local Land Use Entitlement Process in California to Inform Policy and Process (Feb 2019)
- Getting it Right: Examining the Local Land Use Entitlement Process in California to Inform Policy and Process (Feb 2018)
- Right Type, Right Place: Assessing the Environmental and Economic Impacts of Infill Residential Development Through 2030 (Mar 2017)
OCEANS
- Oceans and Climate Change Governance, Ecology Law Quarterly (Sept 2018)
- Stress Testing the Law of the Sea: Dispute Resolution, Disasters & Emerging Challenges (Sept 2018)
- Ocean Law Debates: The 50-Year Legacy of Emerging Issues for the Years Ahead (Mar 2018)
- The Past, Present & Future of California’s Coastal Act: Overcoming Division to Comprehensively Manage the Coast (Aug 2017)