Friday, Sept. 18, 2026 | King Hall, Room 1001 | 9 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. | MCLE Credits Available | No Registration Fee | Livestreamed
California remains a climate policy leader in a time of shifting federal priorities. UC Davis School of Law’s California Environmental Law and Policy Center invites you to join an engaging discussion of past, present, and future climate, energy, and transportation strategies, regulatory innovations, and legal challenges to our decarbonization progress. Together, we’ll examine how California can maintain its momentum in a changing national landscape.
Join us at 8 a.m. for coffee and pastries. Lunch will be provided. Networking reception to follow in courtyard.
Featuring Plenary Speaker California State Senator Christopher Cabaldon and a Video Address by California Attorney General Rob Bonta
Agenda
8:00–9 a.m.
Coffee and Pastries
9–9:15 a.m.
Welcome and Opening Remarks
- Donna Shestowsky, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law
- Tracy Winsor, Co-Director, California Environmental Law and Policy Center
9:15–9:45 a.m.
Morning Plenary Speaker
- California State Senator Christopher Cabaldon, introduced by UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May
9:45–11 a.m.
Panel 1: A Climate Conversation — Persistence and Imagination Needed!
Facing hostile federal actions, persistence and imaginative approaches are needed to maintain California's decarbonization progress. Three state agencies are in the cross-hairs — the California Air Resources Board, the California Energy Commission, and the California Public Utilities Commission. This roundtable conversation will feature a leader from each to highlight climate, energy, and transportation strategies and current challenges and opportunities.
Moderator: Ellen Peter, former Chief Counsel of the California Air Resources Board
- Steve Cliff, Executive Officer, California Air Resources Board
- Le-Quyen Nguyen, Deputy Executive Director for Energy and Climate Policy, California Public Utilities Commission.
- Nancy Skinner, Commissioner, California Energy Commission
11–11:15 a.m.
Morning Break
11:15 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Panel 2: Implications of Federal Abandonment of the Endangerment Finding
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2026 recission of its 2009 “endangerment finding” for vehicles’ greenhouse gas emissions removed a foundational justification for federal climate regulation. This panel will discuss the 2009 finding’s historical significance, related rescissions and rollbacks on the horizon, and the ripple effects, legal perils, and new options these actions expose for the federal government, industry, and anyone interested in climate change. Panelists will examine the implications of the rollback on future climate regulation, litigation, and other policy.
Moderator: Tracy Winsor, Co-Director, California Environmental Law and Policy Center
- Theodore McCombs, Deputy Attorney General, California Department of Justice
- Kevin Poloncarz, Partner, Covington & Burling LLP
- Craig Segall, Senior Advisor, UC Berkeley Center for Law, Energy & Environment
12:30–1:30 p.m.
Lunch
1:30–1:45
Video Address
- California Attorney General Rob Bonta
1:45–3 p.m.
Panel 3: Climate Federalism
As California continues to assert its climate regulatory authority, it faces mounting challenges in court, including from the current federal administration. This panel will discuss concepts of federalism that lay the foundation for states’ reserved power to regulate, examples of states’ exercise of that power to develop climate policy, significant litigation that has resulted from the exercise of that power, and broader questions regarding how California can preserve its regulatory prerogatives in a shifting federal landscape.
Moderator: Richard Frank, Senior Fellow and Founder, CELPC; Professor of Environmental Practice (Ret.), UC Davis School of Law
- Vikram D. Amar, Daniel J. Dykstra Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law
- Ken Alex, Director, UC Berkeley Center for Law, Energy & Environment
- Ian Fein, Deputy Solicitor General, California Department of Justice
3–3:15 p.m.
Afternoon Break
3:15–4:30 p.m.
Panel 4: The Future for California’s Transportation Policies
Transportation remains California’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, and the strategies for decarbonizing it continue to evolve in the face of federal headwinds. This panel will take stock of where the state’s transportation policy stands today and where it is headed next, from demand-side tools and consumer incentives to advances in electric vehicle efficiency, range, and charging infrastructure.
Moderator: Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program, Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE), UC Berkeley School of Law
- Roland Hwang, Policy Director, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis; Co-Director, Sustainable Freight Center, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis
- Abigail Ramsden, Senior Public Policy Manager, Rivian
- Michelle Buffington, Division Chief, California Air Resources Board Mobile Source Control Division
4:30–4:40 p.m.
Closing Remarks
4:45–6:30 p.m.
Networking Reception
Questions? Email us.
California MCLE credits will be available. MCLE certificates will be emailed within a week of the event.
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