Geraldine E. Edens
FAX: 202.496.7756
Experience
Geraldine E. Edens practices in areas involving environmental litigation, regulatory matters and issues regarding law and science. Ms. Edens has extensive experience counseling clients and litigating issues under the CAA including NESHAPs, mobile source regulation, Title V permitting, and New Source Review, as well as issues involving climate change, energy efficiency, and alternative energy. Recent work includes:
- providing strategic advice to major energy companies on greenhouse gas management and climate change;
- assisting alternative energy and “green tech” companies to identify and obtain government support;
- representing Cape Wind Energy in its efforts to construct a wind farm in Nantucket Sound and BP Alternative Energy in its effort to construct a wind farm in New York;
- challenging EPA’s failure to list nPB on the list of acceptable substitutes for ozone-depleting substances;
- representing the Greater Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce in challenges to EPA’s 8-Hour ozone NAAQS implementation rule;
- representing a manufacturer (as intervenor) in a citizen suit challenge to issuance of its Title V permit by the state;
- advising a munitions manufacturer on alternative means of control strategies to meet Title V permit requirements;
- representing a trade association in challenges to state bans on use of a gasoline additive (MTBE) on basis that such bans are preempted by the CAA. The representation involved extensive litigation under CAA Title II and the judicial review provisions of the Act;
- assisting a major chemical company in obtaining exemption from CAA volatile organic compound reporting requirements;
- assisting clients with comments on rule-makings on toxics emissions (MACT) standards; and
- assisting the government of Chile in the development of ambient air quality standards.
Other environmental litigation experience includes numerous cases brought under the National Environmental Policy Act, Superfund contribution actions; a Clean Water Act contaminated sediments enforcement case, and bringing and defending environmental claims in bankruptcy, including litigating In re: National Gypsum Co., the first ever bankruptcy estimation of remedy costs under Superfund.
Ms. Edens graduated from the University of Miami, School of Law, magna cum laude and Order of the Coif, where she was a member of the University of Miami Law Review. She has a Ph.D in Education from the University of Florida and a Master and Bachelor of Science from the University of Miami. Prior to her law firm experience, Ms. Edens was a professor at the University of Miami where she was a member of the graduate school faculty.
Education
- J.D., University of Miami, magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, 1991
- Ph.D., Education, University of Florida, 1983
- M.S., University of Miami, 1980
- B.S., University of Miami, 1973
Admitted
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Maryland
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York
Publications:
- "Alternative Energy and the Rebirth of NEPA," Natural Resources & Environment, Vol. 23, No 4, (Spring 2009), co-authored with Frederick R. Anderson.
- "Carbon Accounting: A Practical Guide for Lawyers," Natural Resources & Environment, (Winter 2008), co-authored with Peter L. Gray.
- "Climate Change and the National Environmental Policy Act," Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Journal, Vol. 41, No. 2, (2004), co-authored with Frederick R. Anderson.
- “OMB Proposes Independent Scientific ‘Peer Review’ of Regulatory Information,” The Environment Reporter, (October 31, 2003), co-author.
- “Federal Environmental Liability,”Environmental Aspects of Real Estate Transactions: From Brownfields to Green Buildings, ABA, (1999), co-author.
- "Federal Environmental Liability" and "Indoor Air Quality," Environmental Law Practice Guide: State and Federal Law, (1994), co-author.
Seminars and Presentations:
- Federal Climate Change Legislation, Alliance for Clean Energy New York, (Fall 2008).
Civic Activities:
- City Councilwoman, Gaithersburg, Maryland (1995-2007)
- Board Member, Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (1997-2001)
Professional Activities:
- The District of Columbia Bar
- American Bar Association
- Florida Bar Association