The Scale of Networks? Local Climate Change Coalitions

This Essay considers how cities' climate advocacy fits into regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and impacts. In particular, it integrates Janet Levit's exploration of bottom-up lawmaking with Hari Osofsky's work on law and geography to examine the role of cities in transnational environmental networks. Using the examples of Tulsa and Portland, the piece considers the scale of U.S. cities' involvement in the problem of climate change and the implications of these efforts for climate policy. It argues that a "bottom-up networking" approach to understanding these municipal initiatives illuminates a richer version of their regulatory role critical to making progress on this pressing problem.