Gabe Pacyniak
Professor of Law
Education
- J.D. 2010, Georgetown University Law Center
- B.A., 2001, New College of Florida
Contact Information
Ph.:
505-277-6559
Office:
3413
pacyniak@law.unm.edu
Profile
Gabe Pacyniak is the Keleher & McLeod Professor of Law at the University of New Mexico School of Law. Gabe’s scholarship and policy work focuses on climate change and energy issues, with a focus on equity. He also is a co-supervisor of the School’s Natural Resources and Environmental Law (NREL) clinic, which provides law and policy representation to low-income and underserved communities on a broad range of NREL issues. He also serves as a co-convenor of UNM’s Just Transition to Green Energy Grand Challenge initiative. During the 2024-2025 academic year, Gabe served as the Director of the School’s Natural Resources and Environmental Law Program.
Gabe’s recent scholarship focuses on ensuring that energy is affordable to everyone in the clean energy transition and on assessing the opportunities and challenges with federal and state funding of local climate solutions. He has published work in the Missouri Law Review, Harvard Law & Policy Review, and Ecology Law Quarterly, among other publications.
During the academic year 2025-2026, Gabe is on research sabbatical. During this year he is based in Tarragona, Spain, with an appointment as a visiting scholar at the Centre d'Estudis de Dret Ambiental (CEDAT), Universitat Rovira i Virgili. His primary research focus during this year is on lessons learned from the European Union’s Just Transition Mechanism
Prior to joining the UNM faculty in August 2017, Gabe managed the climate change mitigation program at the Georgetown Climate Center and co-taught a climate change law and policy practicum course as an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law. He has previously served on the Albuquerque Energy Board, the New Mexico State Climate Change Task Force Technical Advisory Group, and the New Mexico Methane Advisory Panel. He holds a J.D., cum laude, from Georgetown University School of Law and a B.A. in philosophy from the New College of Florida.
In the News
- Bill Would Help Indebted Utility Customers, Albuquerque Journal (February 7, 2021)
- UNM announces next 'Grand Challenges', Albuquerque Journal (September 12, 2023)
- Study says New Mexico turning blind eye to several large polluters in climate change policy, Albuquerque Journal (February 5, 2023)
- How N.M. governor’s race may shift coal, CCS, E&E News (November 8, 2022)
Courses
Natural Resources and Environmental Law Clinic
Environmental Law
Please see instructor for course descriptions.
Publications
Articles
Keeping All The Lights On: A Roadmap to Affordable, Universal Electricity Service In the Clean Energy Transition, 50 Ecology L.Q. 93 (2023).
Available at: UNM-DR
Climate, Health, and Equity Implications of Large Facility Pollution Sources in New Mexico, PSE Healthy Energy and The University of New Mexico (2023) (co-authored with Angélica Ruiz, Shannon Sanchez-Youngman, and Elena Krieger)
Available at: UNM-DR
State Sequestration: Federal Policy Accelerates Carbon Storage, But Leaves Full Climate, Equity Protections to States, 14 San Diego Journal of Climate and Energy Law 95 (2023).
Available at: UNM-DR
Greening the Old New Deal: Strengthening Rural Electric Cooperative Supports and Oversight to Combat Climate Change, 85 MO. L. REV. 409 (2020).
Available at: UNM-DR
Making the Most of Cooperative Federalism: What the Clean Power Plan has Already Achieved, 29 GEO. ENVTL. L. REV. 301 (2017).
Available at: UNM-DR
New Strategies for Reducing Transportation Emissions and Preparing for Climate Impacts, 44 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 919 (2017) (co-authored with Vicki Arroyo and Kathryn A. Zyla).
Available at: UNM-DR
State Innovation on Climate Change: Reducing Emissions from Key Sectors, While Preparing for a “New Normal,” 10 HARV. L. & POL'Y REV. 385 (2016) (co-authored with Vicki Arroyo, Kathryn A. Zyla, and Melissa Deas).
Available at: UNM-DR
Controversy Reemerges Over Hiring, Review of Immigration Judges, 22 GEO. IMMIGR. L J. 805 (2008).
Available at: UNM-DR
Reports
Grid Modernization Baseline Report of New Mexico’s Electricity Sector, WHITEPAPER, New Mexico Energy, Minerals & Natural Resources Department (2020) (co-authored with Jacqueline Waite and Daren Zigich).
Available at: SSRN
New Mexico’s Renewable Portfolio Standard: Analysis of Existing Policy Design Elements and Compliance Obligations Beyond 2020, WHITEPAPER (2018).
Available at: UNM-DR
An Examination of Policy Options for Achieving Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions in New Jersey (Georgetown Climate Center, Rutgers University & World Resources Institute, 2017) (lead author).
Available at: UNM-DR
Reducing Transportation Emissions in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic: Fuel System Considerations (Georgetown Climate Center, 2017) (co-author).
Available at: UNM-DR
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Transportation: Opportunities in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic (Georgetown Climate Center and Cambridge Systematics, 2015) (lead author).
Available at: UNM-DR
