Turner Clinic Representative Matters

The Turner Environmental Law Clinic continues to focus on matters related to sustainable energy and climate change. Clinic staff and students also work to protect the Southeast’s rivers, water resources, forests and imperiled species and have undertaken representations aimed at promoting urban agriculture and ensuring access to public information.  

In addition to its legal representations, the clinic serves as a legal resource by sponsoring monthly meetings with the public interest environmental law community. These gatherings ensure that important environmental issues in Georgia are addressed, provide a venue for sharing insights on effective strategies, and facilitate communication among Georgia’s environmental lawyers.  

Sustainable Energy and Climate Change

Plant Vogtle

On behalf of Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Center for a Sustainable Coast, Citizens Allied for Safe Energy, Georgia Women's Action for New Directions, Friends of the Earth, North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, Nuclear Information Resource Service, Nuclear Watch South, Savannah Riverkeeper and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, the clinic has raised numerous environmental concerns related to the construction and operation of two nuclear reactors at the Plant Vogtle site on the Savannah River near Augusta, Ga. More>

Turkey Point

On behalf Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, National Parks Conservation Association and two concerned individuals, the clinic and its co-counsel, Everglades Law Center, petitioned to intervene in the permitting proceeding for Florida Power & Light's Turkey Point nuclear reactor facility in Homestead, Fla., raising nine separate environmental issues. More>

Impacts of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Disaster

Within 30 days of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster and in collaboration with 45 nonprofit organizations participating in more than 23 licensing, re-licensing, and design certification proceedings, the clinic prepared and filed a petition to suspend all Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing decisions pending completion of an investigation into the disaster. More>

Urban Agriculture and Farming

A clinic team studied the urban agriculture practices of cities with challenges and objectives similar to Atlanta. Its results can be found in the report, Urban Agriculture: A Sixteen City Survey of Urban Agriculture Practices Across the Country, which has been touted as the most comprehensive study on urban agriculture ever compiled. More>

Protection of Water Resources

The clinic continues its long-standing project of monitoring new reservoir proposals in Georgia. Additionally, last year, the clinic resumed work on a project focused on water quality and pollution in Georgia waterways. More>

Protection of Cypress Trees

The clinic is partnering with the Southern Environmental Law Center to study the declining cypress tree population in Georgia. Throughout 2012, the clinic and the Southern Environmental Law Center will work to develop innovative solutions to protect this valuable resource.

Community Outreach

In 2011, the clinic hosted a delegation of Chinese environmental lawyers, scholars, judges and journalists, first at a lunch seminar with GreenLaw and then at a private conference at Emory Law. Professor Bill Buzbee and Director Mindy Goldstein lectured about American environmental law and the role of the Turner Environmental Law Clinic. The delegation, sponsored through the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations’ program on environmental law, sought the clinic’s expertise on U.S. environmental law. Helping Chinese environmental activists and lawyers address China’s pollution problems and start to establish a true rule of law is a critical step in addressing global challenges such as climate change.