Insights

Permitting Reform: Renewable Energy Catalyst, or Pandora’s Box?

Clara Chavez-Ives February 26, 2026

New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s State of the State and Executive Budget raise concerns over green development. Background New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s annual State of the State address on January 13—her last before the November election—and her Fiscal Year 2027 Executive Budget, released the following week, did not address climate change directly. But several environmental topics, viewed through an affordability lens, were among her priorities for the current legislative

A World Contaminated: On PFAS, PCBs and the Inheritance of Pollution

Rosie Semlyen February 6, 2026

Over the last century, industrial capitalism has left behind man-made substances that endure in the environment, often with harmful impacts. Plastics, radioactive waste and industrial chemicals like PFAS and PCBs have become embedded in the systems that sustain life, accumulating in rivers and soils, in wildlife and in human bodies. These materials move slowly, persistently and invisibly, and their effects on human and ecological health will continue long after the

CEE Attends Seventh UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi

Clara Chavez-Ives and Samira Siddique December 18, 2025

What is UNEA? “If we don’t transform our economic and finance systems, we can’t transform our environmental and food systems. We need the whole of society and government working together.” This sentiment, articulated by British chemist Sir Robert Watson, was a dominant message out of the seventh session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7). UNEA, which took place from December 8 to 12, in Nairobi, Kenya, under the theme

“All of the Above” is Not a Solution: NESE Pipeline Undermines New York’s Climate Commitments

Maggie Greenfield December 17, 2025

Editor’s Note, 1/20/26: Since publication of this piece, there have been significant developments regarding Empire Wind and other major offshore wind projects in the U.S. Empire Wind is referenced below as a high-stakes renewable energy project for New York, for which Governor Hochul may have traded approval of the NESE pipeline earlier this year. This followed a Trump Administration stop-work order issued in May 2025, which cited inadequate environmental review

On Pilgrimage with the Wolf and the Wild Forest Creature: Lessons for the Climate Movement

Erin Lothes December 16, 2025

As pilgrims around the world gathered at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, two surprising guides walked beside us: the wolf of Gubbio, friend of St. Francis, and the Curupira, the fierce forest guardian of the Amazon. Their stories of wild ways, similar yet different, invite us to imagine new ways of caring for our common home at a moment when the world urgently needs courage, clarity and commitment. In “Laudato Si’”

Reflections from Ratiwennahní:rats

Olivia “Liv” Watyana’li:yo Bigtree December 12, 2025

I am now nearing the end of my time at Ratiwennahni:rats (a Kanien’kéha Mohawk language immersion program). In a couple weeks, we will be done with the first half of the year. Amongst us students, what we do post-graduation determines our ability to maintain and continue our fluency. It creates a heavy weight of responsibility to know that whatever we choose to do shapes our futures as speakers. Kanien’kéha (Mohawk