A recent informal survey of the nine Pennsylvania law schools (University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne, Penn State, Dickinson, Widener, Villanova, University of Pennsylvania, Drexel and Temple) shows that each school offers basic courses in environmental law and at least some aspects of energy law. There is also an increasing focus on linking environmental law and energy law into new ways of teaching the legal and policy connections between these two fields. While each law school strives to offer a “national” perspective on legal issues, the emergence of Pennsylvania’s vast reserves of shale gas as a major international producer of natural gas has clearly impacted the breadth and depth of energy and environmental curricula at several law schools, most notably Pitt and Penn State. At other schools, the threat posed by climate change and the relationship of greenhouse gases to combustion of carbon-based fuels has brought focus to issues of sustainability and renewable sources of energy.

How do the nine law schools address these issues as they strive to educate the next generation of energy/environmental lawyers? The following summary, while incomplete, offers a glimpse into the variety of courses and other offerings at each law school.