The Vanderbilt EELU Conference on Environmental Law Is Setting the Legal Framework for Climate Litigation That Will Play Out Over the Next 30 Years

On January 21, the room at Vanderbilt Law School did not appear to be the site of the planning of the next thirty years of environmental law in the United States. Coffee thermoses, folding chairs, and slightly crooked name tags were all present. However, the panelists kept returning, almost unintentionally, to one unsettling notion: the courts might have to do the heavy lifting because the legislative branch has been silent on climate change. The Fourth-Annual State of the Environment Conference felt heavier than its modest setup suggested because of that suggestion.

The true significance of the conference might not become apparent for years. Seldom do conferences make their own announcements. However, after listening to Mike Vandenbergh’s opening panel, you had the impression that the legal and academic communities were quietly getting ready for a protracted battle. Private climate governance was discussed by Ethan Thorpe. Regional data gaps were outlined by Think Tennessee’s Erin Hafkenschiel. The Conservation Law Foundation’s Brad Campbell sounded like a man who has read too many appellate briefs and is aware of what is about to happen.

Things became more detailed in the State of Water panel. The Southern Environmental Law Center’s George Nolan described Tennessee’s aquatic biodiversity in the same way that some people describe a ventilator-dependent patient. Jenny Howard, general counsel for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, spoke with the cautious demeanor of someone who is aware that lawyers will later analyze everything she says. The consultant, Barry Sulkin, was more direct. The underlying theme was that water litigation in the Southeast is going to have a significant impact.

Then there was energy. Jim Rossi was the moderator of a panel that, almost by coincidence, turned into a discussion about data centers, which could be the most significant environmental issue of the coming ten years. Demand curves are bending upward in unexpected ways, according to Teresa Boyles-Aplin of Nashville Electric Service. Utility cost-shifting was opposed by Steve Smith of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. Tiffany Wilmot encouraged aspiration. There was genuine tension in the room. It was difficult to ignore how rapidly AI has evolved from a tech story to an environmental one as this was happening.

The panels themselves did not produce the most illuminating document. It originated from a paper submitted to SSRN a few weeks later in which Vandenbergh, Thorpe, and Williams argued that in a deregulatory era, private actors rather than governments might be the only practical lever. The article argues that corporate users, AI providers, data centers, and utilities can be guided toward lower energy demand by focusing on demand-side rather than supply-side responses and referencing the literature on private ordering. In hindsight, it seems like a strategy memo masquerading as academic writing.

Zoning, conservation easements, and public funding were the topics of the gentler land use panel, which was moderated by Christopher Serkin and included Lucy Kempf, Alice Hudson Pell, and Noel Durant. However, the conversation continued to touch the same nerve even there. Climate adaptation, growth pressure, and property rights. Nashville is a large city. The map of conservation is getting smaller. There will be lawsuits after.

There is a perception that what is taking place at Vanderbilt is more of a slow-building doctrine than a conference. The KlimaSeniorinnen ruling from the European Court of Human Rights is already widely referenced. Eventually, American courts will have to deal with that vocabulary. It’s still unclear if they do it voluntarily or reluctantly. However, on January 21, the attorneys in Nashville appeared to be getting ready for both.