Welcome to the Climate Fwd: newsletter! Join us on July 9 for the debut of Netting Zero, a series of virtual events looking ahead to key international climate negotiations next year. The first panel, Applying Covid-19’s Hard-Earned Lessons to Climate Change, will be moderated by Hannah Fairfield, who leads the Times climate desk. You can register here. (And find the website version of this week’s letter here.) |
 | | L.G.B.T. advocates demonstrated at the Supreme Court in 2019.Michael Reynolds/EPA, via Shutterstock |
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How a ruling on gay and transgender rights may help the climate |
Did the Supreme Court just give a boost to climate lawsuits? |
This month, the court declared that a major piece of civil rights legislation protects gay and transgender people from discrimination at work. That landmark case, Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, rested on the meaning of a broad statute, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars workplace discrimination because of sex and other factors. |
Neil M. Gorsuch, the conservative justice who wrote for the majority in the 6-to-3 ruling, said that the definition of sex in that broadly conceived law includes being gay or transgender, even if those who drafted the original legislation did not foresee that specific question. |
“The limits of the drafters’ imagination supply no reason to ignore the law’s demands,” Justice Gorsuch wrote. |
What does that have to do with climate change? Potentially a lot, according to Ann E. Carlson, an expert on climate change law at the University of California, Los Angeles. She wrote a blog post that said the decision “provides potent ammunition” for using the Clean Air Act to regulate the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. |
Some Supreme Court justices have argued that the Environmental Protection Agency lacks the power to broadly regulate greenhouse gases because the authors of the Clean Air Act did not specifically address climate change. |
Now, though, Justice Gorsuch’s decision “will surely be used,” Professor Carlson wrote, to persuade the court that broad regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act lies squarely within the text of the statute. |
“I think we’ll see reliance on Bostock in any case involving the application of the Clean Air Act to greenhouse gas emission,” Professor Carlson told E&E News. |
In an interview, she told me that her argument had been received well, with “no real pushback,” though a conservative response might involve trying to revive what is known as the non-delegation doctrine, a principle on the constitutional separation of powers that has not been used to strike down a statute or regulation since the 1930s. |
Michael Gerrard, a Columbia University law professor and director of the school’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, said he agreed with Professor Carlson’s analysis, because “the great statutes enacted from 1970 through 1990 anticipated that new problems would emerge — unknown pollutants, unanticipated impacts.” |
Jeffrey R. Holmstead, an attorney for the electric utility industry who served in the E.P.A. under the second President George Bush, noted that the power to regulate greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide as pollutants had already been established, in the 2007 case Massachusetts v. E.P.A. |
The question, Mr. Holmstead told me, is “how they can be regulated.” |
That fight is playing out now, and the L.G.B.T. ruling adds an unexpected new element. |
Ms. Olson said that the questions in her case were consistent with the principles laid out in the Gorsuch opinion. “I have always believed that we win this case with an opinion written by a conservative judge or justice,” she added. |
Working for change in the workplace |
The world is still a patchwork of different rules and restrictions, but many places are getting back to work. In New York City, for example, hundreds of thousands of people returned to their jobs this month as the city implemented the first two phases of its reopening plan. |
Across Britain, thousands of workers unable to work from home, in construction and manufacturing industries, have already returned to work after the country eased lockdown restrictions in May. Many more will be returning to work July 4, as pubs, restaurants, hotels and museums reopen. |
All this requires energy to keep the lights on and the machines running. And that energy means greenhouse gas emissions. |
That’s not enough to solve global warming. So, when we head back to the office, how can we change habits and work culture to help keep emissions down? |
In the United States, commercial buildings account for nearly 40 percent of national energy use. If that energy comes from burning fossil fuels like coal, it very likely produces a lot of greenhouse gas. So changing work habits can make a difference. |
There are at least two ways to effect change. One is from the top down. The other is at the grass roots level. You can work them both. |
Experts say one of the most important things you can do is to build a like-minded community focused on sustainability within the office. That’s empowering, and it can break bad habits and reinforce positive changes. |
Bringing people together through social media and communications networks can be a great way to start. If your company allows it, you could start an environmental channel in your workplace messaging system. You could also set up a green group on a platform outside the company system, like Facebook. Then, round up colleagues and encourage them to join. |
There’s strength in numbers, and bringing your colleagues into a group can reinforce simple behaviors like powering down devices and controlling heat and ventilation through windows and blinds. That can go a long way, experts say. |
“It’s the idea of cooperation, when people start to rethink what’s possible,” Kathryn Janda, a research fellow at the University College London Energy Institute, said in a phone interview. “That’s where we need to go if we’re going to max the benefit of the systems we already have.” |
Opening up communications channels encourages discussion and generates ideas, too. |
Sometimes, you’ll need company leadership to buy into those ideas. That’s where working at the top comes in. |
When you talk to your boss, or your boss’s boss, emphasize the idea of cost saving ideas. Don’t go into a conversation without doing your homework and knowing what you want. Look into tax breaks and incentives programs, like those for upgrading heating systems, installing solar panels or switching to LED lights. Upfront costs of such upgrades can be high, but energy efficient systems generally save money over time. |
And what company doesn’t like cost savings? A green workplace initiative can be a win-win situation. You can do something for the planet, and your boss will look great for being responsive and saving money. |
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