As 2025 comes to a close, People, Places, Planet takes stock of a year of profound change in environmental law—and looks ahead to the legal and policy questions that will shape 2026. Host Sebastian Duque Rios draws on insights from ELI convenings with leading scholars, practitioners, scientists, and policymakers to unpack how courts, agencies, and governments are redefining environmental authority and accountability.

The episode covers key U.S. Supreme Court decisions and previews cases to watch in the upcoming term, explores sweeping changes to NEPA and administrative law, and examines the growing treatment of climate change as a legal rights issue in both U.S. and international courts. It also looks at how these high-level legal debates are playing out on the ground—from data centers and AI infrastructure to clean water, cooperative federalism, and the shifting balance of state and federal power.

•  Supreme Court environmental law review and preview (1:47 )
•  NEPA after Seven County and CEQ rescission (14:57 )
• Climate change and rights in the courts (26:17 )
• The future of the endangerment finding (32:36 )
• On the ground: data centers, cooperative federalism, and WOTUS (36:42 )

See ELI's resources for more information:

• Annual Supreme Court Review & Preview (2025)
• The Future of NEPA Review: Unpacking the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition Decision
• Held v. Montana: A 2025 Update
• Unpacking the ICJ's Recent Opinion on Climate Change
• Scientific Support for the Endangerment Finding
• National Environmental Impacts of Data Center Proliferation
• Data Centers and Water Usage
• Celebrating Collaboration: ECOS and the Future of State-Level Environmental Policy