 Rena I. SteinzorClick here to read CPRBlog entries by Rena I. Steinzor
Rena I. Steinzor is a Professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law and has a secondary appointment to the University’s School of Medicine faculty. She is the President of the Center for Progressive Reform.
Professor Steinzor has taught an environmental law survey course, seminars in risk assessments and critical issues in environmental law and science, administrative law, contracts, torts and counseling and negotiation. She has written in the areas of (1) environmental federalism, including so-called "unfunded mandates" imposed on state and local governments by the federal government and the impact on public health of devolving authority and responsibility for solving environmental problems; (2) the implications of industry self-regulation on the protection of the environment and human health; and (3) so-called "market-based" alternatives to traditional regulation; and the soundness of the science used by EPA to make regulatory decisions. She is the editor, with Christopher Schroeder, of the CPR-sponsored book A New Progressive Agenda for Public Health and the Environment, published by Carolina Academic Press. She is also the editor, with Wendy Wagner, of the book Rescuing Science from Politics, published by Cambridge University Press in 2006. Her new book, Mother Earth and Uncle Sam: How Pollution and Hollow Government Hurt Our Kidswas published by the University of Texas Press in December 2007.
While in academia, Professor Steinzor spent her sabbatical year as the Academic Fellow at the Natural Resources Defense Council, assisting the organization in responding to proposals to reinvent environmental regulation, from the increased consideration of "sound" science in agency decision-making, to the substitution of "cap and trade" systems for traditional pollution controls, to proposals to make information provided to the government secret in the wake of the terrorists attacks of September 11, 2001.
Professor Steinzor also served as a consultant to the U.S. EPA Title VI Implementation Advisory Committee, authoring a report explaining the deliberations of this subcommittee of "stakeholders" concerned about the application of federal prohibitions on discrimination to environmental permitting decisions.
Professor Steinzor began her legal career in 1976, and entered academia in January 1994. From 1987 through 1993, she was associated - first as "of counsel" and ultimately as the partner in charge of the environmental practice - at Spiegel & McDiarmid, a 45-lawyer, Washington, D.C. firm representing approximately 400 cities, counties, states, and public agencies in the energy, environmental, communications, and transportation fields. The practice counseled federal, state, and municipal clients regarding compliance with federal and state laws and regulations and represented them in resolving federal enforcement actions, as well as cases alleging their liability under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund). While at Spiegel & McDiarmid, Professor Steinzor served as senior staff to the only municipal representative on the National Superfund Commission. She also served as co-counsel to the Alliance of Responsible Energy Systems for Energy Access, a nationwide coalition of publicly-owned electric systems formed to lobby Congress and intervene before EPA concerning the acid rain provisions of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, and as co-counsel to the Transmission Access Policy Study Group, a nationwide coalition of consumer-owned utilities, and consumer and environmental groups formed to lobby Congress regarding the transmission access provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 1992.
Prior to joining Spiegel & McDiarmid, Professor Steinzor served as Staff Counsel, Subcommittee on Commerce, Transportation, and Tourism of the Energy and Commerce Committee, U.S. House of Representatives (James J. Florio, Chairman). She was the primary staff person responsible for legislation that became the "Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986" (Public Law 99-499) and the "Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act" (Public Law 99-519). She also prepared legislation to reauthorize the Toxic Substances Control Act during the 98th Congress.
Professor Steinzor has published widely in the areas mentioned above.
Professor Steinzor has testified before Congress on several occasions: she provided testimony on environmental federalism before the Senate Committee on Government Affairs; she addressed issues involving Superfund cleanups and terrorist attacks on facilities handling hazardous substances before the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee; she addressed the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure on the implications of water quality trading; and she testified before the House Committee on Government Reform regarding the elevation of EPA to cabinet level status.
Rena Steinzor
University of Maryland School of Law
Baltimore, MD
410.706 0564
email
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