Jessica Wentz

Business Operations Manager and Board Member at the Center for Climate Protection

Phone: (707) 545-2904 ex. 19

Email: jaw2186@columbia.edu

Jessica Wentz joined the Sabin Center in September 2014 as an Associate Director and Postdoctoral Fellow. She became a Senior Fellow in 2016. Her work at the Sabin Center has spanned a variety of topics related to climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable development, and environmental justice. Much of her research has focused on how existing U.S. laws and common law doctrines can be used in conjunction with climate science tohold governments and private actors accountable for contributions to climate change as well as failures to prepare for the impacts of climate change. She has also written on the nexus between climate change and human rights law.

Jessica currently works as the contracts officer and business operations manager at a climate science research firm in California. She remains an affiliate of the Sabin Center.

Jessica previously worked as a Visiting Associate Professor and Environmental Program Fellow at the George Washington University Law School. She is a 2012 graduate of Columbia Law School, where she was awarded the Alfred S. Forsyth Prize for “dedication to the advancement of environmental law.” She also has a B.A. in international development from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Selected Publications

Legal Briefs

• Amicus Brief on Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies, North Dakota v. EPA, No. 15-01381 (D.C. Cir., filed Dec. 21, 2016) (co-authored with Michael Burger)
• Submission to the Philippines Carbon Majors Investigation, Case No.: CHR-NI-2016-0001 (Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, filed Dec. 16, 2016) (co-authored with Michael Burger)

Articles and Working Papers

• Fossil Fuel Projects and NEPA Reviews: Two New Decisions on the Proper Scope of Analysis for Indirect and Cumulative Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 38(5) Westlaw Journal Environmental 3 (2017)
• The Price of Climate Deregulation: Adding Up the Costs and Benefits of Federal Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards (Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, August 2017) (co-authored with Nadra Rahman)
• Downstream and Upstream Greenhouse Emissions: The Proper Scope of NEPA Review, 41 Harvard Environmental Law Review 109 (2017) (co-authored with Michael Burger)
• Planning for the Effects of Climate Change on Natural Resources, 47 Environmental Law Reporter 10220 (March 2017)
• Trump’s Executive Order On Regulatory Costs Undermines Congressional Authority, Huffington Post, February 16, 2017 (co-authored with Michael Burger)
• Managing a Forgotten Greenhouse Gas Under Existing U.S. Law: An Interdisciplinary Analysis, 67 Environmental Science and Policy 44 (2017) (co-authored with David Kanter, James N. Galloway, William R. Moomaw, and Wilfried Winiwater)
• Using Online Databasing to Unlock the Full Value of Environmental Impact Assessments (Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, November 2016)
• Considering the Effects of Climate Change on Natural Resources in Environmental Review and Planning Documents: Guidelines for Agencies and Practitioners (Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, September 2016)
• Survey of Climate Change Considerations in Federal EISs, 2012-2014 (Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, February 2016)
• Climate Change and Human Rights (United Nations Environment Programme, December 2015) (co-authored with Michael Burger)
• Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change on the Built Environment: A Framework for Environmental Reviews, 45 Environmental Law Reporter 11015 (2015)
• Designing a Climate Change Displacement Coordination Facility: Key Issues for COP 21 (Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, September 2015) (co-authored with Michael Burger)
• Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change on the Built Environment under NEPA and State EIA Laws: A Survey of Current Practices and Recommendations for Model Protocols (Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, August 2015)
• Balancing Economic and Environmental Goals in Distributed Generation Procurement: A Critical Analysis of California’s Renewable Auction Mechanism (RAM), 5(2) Geo. Wash. J. Energy & Envtl. L. 30 (2014)
• The Policy Implications of Livestock’s Contribution to Climate Change, GW Environmental and Energy Law Perspectives (Spring 2013)
• Assisted Migration: A Viable Conservation Strategy to Preserve the Biodiversity of Threatened Island Nations? (Columbia Center for Climate Change Law, May 2011)
• The EPA’s Proposed Transport Rule: Implications for Climate Change Regulation (Columbia Center for Climate Change Law, July 2010)

Books and Book Chapters

• “Climate Change and Public Health Impact Assessments,” in Climate Change and Public Health Law (Michael Burger & Justin Gundlach eds., forthcoming 2017)
• “Nitrous Oxide,” in Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization (Michael Gerrard & John Derbach eds., forthcoming 2017)
• “Scaling Up Local Solutions: Creating an Enabling Legal Environment for the Deployment of Community-Based Renewable Microgrids,” in Energy, Governance and Sustainability (Jordi Jaria i Manzano et al., eds., IUCN Academy of Environmental Law 2016) (co-authored with Chiara Pappalardo)
• “Climate Change and Environmental Impact Assessment,” in Decision Making in Environmental Law (LeRoy Paddock et al., eds., Edward Elgar 2016)
• “Debunking Revisionist Understandings of Environmental Cooperative Federalism: Collective Action Responses to Air Pollution,” in The Law and Policy of Environmental Federalism: A Comparative Analysis (Kalyani Robbins & Erin Ryan, eds. 2015) (co-authored with Robert Glicksman)
• Next Generation Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (ELI Press 2014) (co-edited with LeRoy Paddock)
• “The Netherlands,” in International Environmental Law: The Practitioner’s Guide to the Laws of the Planet (Brett Grosko & Roger R. Martella, Jr. eds., Chicago: ABA Book Pub. 2014) (co-authored with LeRoy Paddock)
• “Emerging Regulatory Frameworks for Hydraulic Fracturing and Shale Gas Development in the United States,” in The Law of Energy Underground (Donald N. Zillman et al. eds., Oxford University Press 2014)