Charles B. Howland, Board Member

Charles Howland is a Partner and Chair of the Environmental Group at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, LLP.  Through his practice, Mr. Howland helps clients address cutting edge issues associated with environmental remediation under federal and state clean up programs, and the potential intersection of these projects with renewable energy and other forms of sustainable development. He also works on strategy, financing, and permitting issues for energy-related projects generally, especially at the grid's edge, both as outside general counsel and on specific matters for clients.

Prior to joining Curtis, Mr. Howland served as a Senior Assistant Regional Counsel at the EPA's Mid-Atlantic Regional office, where he worked on some of the region’s most complex site clean-ups and enforcement actions, as well as on several workgroups which wrote national EPA enforcement guidance on municipal solid waste, tenant liability and former defense sites. Before joining the firm in 2018, he served as Senior Advisor to the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance working on several workgroups implementing Superfund Task Force reforms on enforcement, environmental liability transfer mechanisms and groundwater policy. Over the course of his approximately 30-year career at the EPA, he received numerous awards and commendations from the Department of Justice, the Federal Executive Board, and the EPA for his work. In 2019 he was appointed by EPA to the Superfund Working Group of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) as part of an effort to improve the next generation of Superfund cleanups and redevelopment of formerly contaminated sites, especially in underserved communities.

In 2017, Mr. Howland was appointed to the U.S. State Department Fulbright Fellow Specialist roster (environmental and energy law) for a three-year term, and in September 2019 spent two weeks at the UiT: Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, advising it on its creation of a new Nordic Master Programme in Environmental Law in collaboration with Sweden’s University of Uppsala and the University of East Finland. In 2018, he completed three terms as a member and co-chairman of the Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania Planning Commission. Until 2017 he taught energy law at the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, and he currently teaches Navigating the Regulatory State: Law, Science and Policy in the University of Pennsylvania Law School’s Master of Laws program. He also frequently publishes and lectures on environmental and energy law and policy in law, industry and academic forums.

In 2018, Mr. Howland began his involvement with the Center for Strategic Policy Innovation as a member of the Expert Advisory Panel for the Smart Grid Buildout Initiative, and recently joined the Board of Directors.