Dear friends and alumni,
In a year that dramatically foregrounded racial, health, and economic inequity, ELC students worked to address all three. What happens when a development project threatens to displace Oakland residents while also increasing air pollution? When global plastics addiction lands yet another dirty plant in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley — a place local residents describe as already “full” as to petrochemical facilities? When a solar energy financing program gets gamed by unscrupulous contractors, and victimizes low-income homeowners? ELC responds — by filing public comments (Howard Terminal); litigating (Formosa facility); and working to change the law (PACE financing), bringing community members’ voices and concerns into legal fora.

We also trade ideas with environmental law clinic colleagues elsewhere. ELC students routinely compare notes on energy justice work with students at the University of Chicago’s environmental law clinic, who are also active in public utility commission proceedings. Recently, we met with Tulane’s environmental law clinic to discuss toxics-reduction litigation. With so many structural problems to solve, we are grateful for the student energy and imagination rising to meet them (see student profiles below)! Thank you for supporting us.
Claudia Polsky
Director, Environmental Law Clinic
Clinic News
Weighing in on Oakland A's proposed ballpark
In April, ELC submitted comments on the city of Oakland’s draft environmental impact report for the Oakland A’s proposed ballpark project at Howard Terminal in West Oakland. The clinic submitted these comments on behalf of members of Oakland United, a coalition of community organizations representing affected Oakland neighborhoods and advocating for quality jobs, affordable housing, a healthy environment, and investment in community. These comments urged the city to address residents’ concerns about toxic contamination at the site, displacement of existing residents, the developer’s failure to state its plans for affordable housing, and increased air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the influx of traffic to the area. Photo courtesy of MLB.com.
Joining fight against Formosa petrochemical complex
In the fall semester, the clinic filed a proposed amicus brief in federal district court on behalf of the Louisiana environmental justice groups Concerned Citizens of St. John and Justice and Beyond, opposing the construction permit for a huge plastics production and petrochemical complex in the highly polluted area known as Cancer Alley or Death Alley. The brief emphasized the unjust health impacts of adding more toxic emissions to the majority Black and low-income communities near the facility, and the communities’ concern that the complex would desecrate the graves of formerly enslaved people. In November, the Army Corps suspended the permit to reevaluate alternative locations for the facility, and in January the court dismissed the case without prejudice. In March, United Nations human rights experts condemned the Formosa project as environmental racism.
Prompting state bill to reform green energy financing
A 2021 ELC report, The Dark Side of the Sun: How PACE Financing Has Under-Delivered Green Benefits and Harmed Low-Income Homeowners, describes the financial fraud on low-income homeowners that pervades a key environmental program: Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing, through which many Californians install solar energy and energy efficiency measures. The clinic’s report is already spurring policy reform. State Senate Bill 476 would implement ELC recommendations for enhancing PACE’s consumer protections and environmental accountability. CBS-KPIX TV recently covered this story and the report in its “Project Home” investigative series.
Alumni and Student News
ELC alumni continue to advance environmental justice as fellows and policy entrepreneurs
Candice Youngblood: Skadden Fellowship and Aerie Award
Candice Youngblood ’19, a current judicial clerk, has received a Skadden Fellowship, which funds exceptional young attorneys for two years of public interest work. She will join Earthjustice's Los Angeles office, where she will work to advance equitable transportation planning centered on the economic resilience and health of California’s low-income communities of color through regulatory and policy advocacy and litigation. Candice also received a $20,000 award from Aerie to develop Youth on Root with Craig Spencer ’19, an associate for Cox, Castle & Nicholson's land use and natural resources team. Youth on Root will be a statewide youth leadership program focusing on environmental health disparities.
Jina Kim: Equal Justice Works Fellowship and California ChangeLawyers 3L Diversity Scholarship
Jina Kim ’21 has received a two-year Equal Justice Works fellowship and will work with Communities for a Better Environment to advocate with low-income residents of color in East Oakland for environmental justice and community resilience through direct and regulatory advocacy, education, and policy implementation. Jina has also received the 2021 California ChangeLawyers 3L Diversity Scholarship, which provides funds to help offset bar preparation expenses.
Violet Henderson: Haas Fellowship
Violet Henderson, an ELC undergraduate auditor-mentee who plans to pursue an environmental justice career, has been named a Haas Fellow for 2021-22. Violet’s research explores the ever-increasing problem of illegal trash dumping in Oakland; associated stigma; and community and public responses.
Clinic Support
Major gift advances ELC’s environmental health and justice work
Orrick and Chairman Mitch Zuklie ’96 together pledged $250,000 to the clinic over five years — a tremendously generous vote of confidence in the clinic that also unlocked an anonymous $1 million gift made on a 4-to-1 matching basis. The Daily Californian also covered the gift.