The Georgetown University Law Center will soon become a hub of climate change discussion between states and the federal government.

On Monday, Law Center Dean T. Alexander Aleinikoff announced the creation of the State-Federal Climate Change Resource Center, which will provide advice and solutions to state and federal agencies working against climate change, according to Georgetown Law Professor Lisa Heinzerling, who will serve as the center’s faculty director.

The new center, which is now open, will not have its own building but will be within the Law Center campus.

“We hope to have an effect through our information-sharing role,” Heinzerling said.

Vicki Arroyo (LAW ’94), who currently serves as the vice president of policy analysis and general counsel for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, will assume the position of executive director beginning in December.

Heinzerling said she hopes the center will promote the activities of state and local organizations and the positive effects they can have on climate change.

The center will work closely with states to create new policies and legislation regarding climate change, according to Heinzerling.

The process of building the center began last July when the Rockefeller Brothers Fund approached the director of the Harrison Institute for Public Law and GULC with this project, according to Heinzerling.

Georgetown Law Professor Robert Stumberg, who has worked with the Rockefeller fund, approached Heinzerling with the idea because of her background in environmental law and climate change matters, including her involvement in winning the 2007 Supreme Court case, Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency. The case upheld that the EPA has the ability to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clear Air Act.

Along with a faculty advisory board, Heinzerling and Stumberg worked with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation to create the center in time for a fall opening.

Heinzerling said the timing was urgent because of the current political climate and election.

“We hope to forge a partnership with states and the federal government in order to help with this very complicated issue,” Arroyo said.

According to Heinzerling, the founders chose GULC to house the center due for its association with the existing Harrison Institute, its excellent environmental faculty and its Washington, D.C., location.

For now, Heinzerling said that they are still in the organization stage and are looking to hire more personnel. After the center gets up and running, it will focus on its long-term goal of acting as a central convener for climate-change activism.

“We will take a lay of the land and see what exactly has been happening in the states in the absence of federal leadership,” Heinzerling said.

“