Environmental Attorney Starts New Role in Colorado County Office

After scoring wins litigating environmental cases, Liana James is getting ready for a new role tackling land use and affordable housing issues in Boulder, Colo.

James, an attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund since 2018, has also worked as an adviser to the director of the U.S. Committee on the Marine Transportation System as a John A. Knauss Marine Policy fellow, and as an associate at Pabian Law LLC near Boston.

“It can be challenging to find permanent work early on in your career,” James said. “You need to be willing to hustle, fight for positions and be willing to move around to different organizations.”

Photo courtesy of Liana James

Most recently, James and EDF supported New York, New Jersey and other states who argued the Environmental Protection Agency can’t reject a petition to act on pollution coming in from upwind states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the states, saying the agency failed to explain the “seemingly unworkable” demands it was expecting from New York’s petition.

“We knew the EPA was overstepping and wasn’t making a rational decision,” James said.

The ruling will allow EDF to pursue additional action for New Yorkers who are threatened by smog blowing across state lines, James said. The ruling may also serve as a guide to states seeking to push other states to act on air pollution.

“I think this is an exciting win that we’ll see the effects of for many years to come,” James said.

James also advocates against the use of heavy use oil in the Arctic as an adviser to the Clean Air Task Force. Her experience visiting Christmas Island in the Republic of Kiribati and seeing it slowly vanish due to climate change drew her to law school at the University of Maine to learn how to protect people from environmental problems.

While the Covid-19 pandemic hasn’t really affected her day-to-day tasks, James said it has highlighted the importance of the work she does, given that pollution contributes to asthma and other respiratory diseases.

“It has really changed my perception of the work,” she said.

James most recently worked on a challenge to the EPA’s recent finding that there’s no need for more stringent limits on mercury and other toxic air pollutants. But her two-year fellowship with EDF just ended: Her last day was July 24, and she’ll soon start as an assistant Boulder County attorney.

James said she spends her free time mountain biking, skiing, climbing and otherwise enjoying the outdoors around Colorado with her dog, King.