PROGRAM OVERVIEW
CSE uses its economic, scientific and legal expertise to develop innovative policy solutions to some of humanity’s most tenacious challenges. We work on market based solutions as well as new or amended regulatory approaches. We work with partners to develop solutions that are internationally applicable but tailored to institutions that operate at the local level. We have successfully fought for changes in public policies to protect at risk forests, farmland, wetlands, and wildlife habitat, halt new fossil fuel infrastructure, change priorities for public finance and help alleviate the growing inequality divide through affordable housing and living wages. Our policy work takes two basic forms:
- Model legislation – CSE works with partners and legislators at the national, state, and local levels to draft model laws, resolutions, ordinances that speed the transition to a sustainable society and halt new projects or programs that accelerate climate change, extinction and poverty.
- Regulatory reform – CSE works within the administrative processes of federal, state, and local public agencies to update regulations, rules, and guidance manuals to better reflect legislative intent, best available science and best practice.
PROGRAM NEWS AND UPDATES

Ilhan Omar Just Introduced A Bill To Make People And The Planet Priorities For Economic Policy
On July 30th, Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) introduced the GPI Act of 2021, directing the Secretary of Commerce to establish a new metric for measuring US economic performance, setting budget priorities and guiding policy– the Genuine Progress Indicator. If her bill becomes law, the GPI would effectively unseat Gross Domestic ... Read More

Repairing America’s Tattered Forests: A roadmap for USDA-USDI compliance with Executive Order 140008
Sixty-one scientific, conservation community and faith organizations today called on the Biden Administration’s National Climate Task Force to reject the false solutions and narratives offered by Big Timber and instead embrace a climate-forestry for the US based on science, sustainable economics and environmental justice. The letter, coordinated by the Forest ... Read More

Oregon Department of Forestry Fails to Step Up to their Climate Responsibility
Conservation groups and community members are sounding the alarm in response to the Oregon Department of Forestry’s woefully inadequate plan to meaningfully address climate change as they are required to do under Governor Brown’s Executive Order EO 20-04. In March 2020, Oregon Governor Brown issued EO 20-04 to prevent the ... Read More