Biography
After receiving her BA degree, magna cum laude, from Williams College in 1973, Professor Milne served as field director, then associate director, for the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, a land conservation organization. She received her JD degree in 1981, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center, where she served as lead case and notes editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. After clerking for the Honorable Frank M. Coffin, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Portland, Maine, she served as an attorney for The Washington Post. She subsequently was a tax attorney with the Washington law firm of Covington and Burling. She then became the legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, handling tax, trade, and health care issues falling within the senator's jurisdiction as chair of the Senate Finance Committee. Returning to New England, Professor Milne served as special counsel to Dartmouth Medical School from 1994 to 1999 and as consultant to the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation from 1995 to 2001.
Professor Milne first joined the faculty of Vermont Law School as an adjunct in 1994, when she taught a course on environmental taxation, and subsequently became a fulltime member of the faculty. She has pursued the field of environmental taxation in a variety of ways. In 1995, she researched Germany's environmental taxes as a fellow of the American Council on Germany. In 2000, she created the Environmental Tax Policy Institute at Vermont Law School, and in 2002 she organized and hosted the Third Global Conference on Environmental Taxation. She is a member of the steering committee for the conference series, now in its 19th year, and the Environmental Tax Policy Institute has co-sponsored many of the conferences. She has been a member of the American Bar Association Tax Section's Environmental Taxes Committee (subsequently the Energy and Environmental Taxes Committee) and was the committee's vice chair for important developments until 2007. She was the lead editor of the Handbook of Research on Environmental Taxation (Edward Elgar 2012) and editor of Environmental Taxation and the Law (Edward Elgar 2017) and has written extensively about the role of taxation in achieving environmental protection.
Publications
Books
Green Deals in the Making: Perspectives from Across the Globe (Stefan Weishaar et al. eds.), Edward Elgar Publishing (2022).
Environmental Taxation in the Pandemic Era: Opportunities and Challenges, (Hope Ashiabor, Mikael Skou Andersen, co-eds.), Edward Elgar Publishing, (Summer 2021).
Co-editor, ECONOMIC INSTRUMENTS FOR A LOW-CARBON FUTURE, Volume XXI of CRITICAL ISSUES IN ENVIRONMENTAL TAXATION. (Forthcoming August 2020).
Co-editor, ENVIRONMENTAL FISCAL CHALLENGES FOR CITIES AND TRANSPORT, CRITICAL ISSUES IN ENVIRONMENTAL TAXATION, VOL. XXI (2019).
Co-editor, CRITICAL ISSUES IN ENVIRONMENTAL TAXATION, VOL. XVIII: MARKET INSTRUMENTS AND THE PROTECTION OF NATURAL RESOURCES, (Edward Elgar 2016)
Co-editor, CRITICAL ISSUES IN ENVIRONMENTAL TAXATION, VOL. XVII:GREEN FISCAL REFORM FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE (N. Stoianoff et al., eds., Edward Elgar 2016)
Co-editor, CARBON PRICING: DESIGN, EXPERIENCES, AND ISSUE (L. Kreiser et al., eds., 2015)
Co-editor, ENVIRONMENTAL PRICING: STUDIES IN POLICY CHOICES AND INTERACTIONS (L. Kreiser et al., eds., 2015).
Author, ENERGY TAX INCENTIVES: THE UNITED STATES PERSPECTIVES, (International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation, Amsterdam, forthcoming 2015).
Co-editor, HANDBOOK OF RESEARCH ON ENVIRONMENTAL TAXATION, (J. Milne and M. Andersen, eds., Edward Elgar, Paperback, 2014.)
Co-editor, Economic Instruments for a Low-Carbon Future, Volume XXI of Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation (August 2020).
Preface for "Innovation Addressing Climate Change Challenges: Market-Based Perspectives," which will be Volume XX of Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation.
Articles
Renewable Electricity and Tax Expenditures: Lessons from Two Countries (with Marta Villar), 48 INTERTAX 369 (2020).
"How Durable is a Lockbox for Carbon Tax Revenue?", 17 Pittsburgh Tax Rev. 105 (2019; published 2020).
Janet E. Milne, Carbon Taxes in the United States: The Context for the Future, 10 Vt. J. Envtl. L. 1 (2008) (also reprinted in The Reality of Carbon Taxes in the 21st Century 1 (2009)).
With Stephen G. Dollinger, Energy and Environmental Taxes, 55 Tax Law. 1143 (2002) (part of the Annual Report on Important Developments by the American Bar Association's Tax Section).
Chapters
"Environmental Taxes" in Policy Instruments in Environmental Law 170-182, Vol. VIII of Elgar Encyclopedia of Environmental Law (Kenneth R. Richards & Josephine van Zeben eds., 2020).
Energy Tax Incentives: The United States Perspectives, International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (Amsterdam), (forthcoming 2015).
Other
Prologue, Aspectos Constitucionales Controvertidos de la Tributación Ambiental (P. Alderete and P. Córdoba, eds., Advocatus 2018).
Principal Researcher, Giving USA: East North Central Region, Am. Ass’n. Fund-Raising Couns. Tr. for Philanthropy (Indianapolis, Ind. 2000).
Commentaries
Legal Advocacy
Presentations
“Design Elements of an Effective Carbon Tax,” Chair: Session 1, United Nations Virtual Workshop on Carbon Taxation and Other Environmental Taxation (September 2022).
“Silent Partners: Environmental Taxation and ESG,” presented virtually, 23rd Global Conference on Environmental Taxation, Parma, Italy (September 2022).
"Carbon Pricing in the United States," Plenary Panel on the Future of Carbon Pricing, International Association of Energy Economics Conference, ENERGY, COVID, AND CLIMATE CHANGE (June 7, 2021).
Chair (with Mikael Skou Anderson, Aarhus University, Denmark, and Hope Ashiabor, Macquarie University, Australia, also Chairs), 21st Annual Global Conference on Environmental Taxation (September 24-25, 2020).
Moderator, "Carbon Pricing—The Paths Forward"; Presenter, "From Rhetoric to Reality: Is the Promise of a Lockbox for Carbon Tax Revenue Durable?" 20th Global Conference on Environmental Taxation, Cyprus, September 25–28, 2019.
Moderator, "Taxation and Environmental Protection" United Nations Economic and Social Council’s Special Meeting on International Cooperation in Tax Matters, April 29, 2019.
Presenter, “Understanding the Design Fundamentals of Carbon Taxes,” The Case for Putting a Price on Carbon, Environmental Business Council of New England, Boston, MA, October 26, 2018.
Keynote Address, 19th Global Conference on Environmental Taxation, Madrid, Spain, September 28, 2018.
“Carbon Taxes: The Basics” at a meeting organized by the energy committees of the towns of Hartford, Hartland, Norwich and Thetford, February 12, 2018.
Presenter, international carbon pricing webinar, organized by Carbon Pricing Workgroup of the Climate and Energy Funders Group (CEFG), December 5, 2017.
Lecture, "Combating the Climate Hoax: State Policy Shields and Swords," Smith College, November 9, 2017.
Organizer and Moderator, Carbon Pollution Taxes: A Conversation with International Experts, Montpelier, VT, December 1, 2016.
Presenter, "Carbon Tax Choices: A Tale of Four States," 17th Global Conference on Environmental Taxation, Groningen, The Netherlands, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Presenter, "Constitutional Competition Law and Energy Tax Incentives in the United States: A Comparison with the EU’s State Aid Rules," 17th Global Conference on Environmental Taxation, Groningen, The Netherlands, September 21-24, 2016.
Speaker, State Aid, Taxation and the Energy Sector, Copenhagen, Denmark, September 20, 2016.
Presenter, via Skype, "The Role of the Polluter Pays Principle and Other Legal Principles in Energy Taxes," Madrid, Spain, December 16, 2015.
Oral Testimony (by invitation), "Carbon Taxes: International Experiences," Vermont House Committee on Natural Resources and Energy, Montpelier, VT, April 22, 2015.
Speaker, "Carbon Taxes 101," Energy Independent Vermont Educational Forum, Montshire Museum, Norwich, VT, March 5, 2015.
Lecturer, Carbon Taxes: Dirty Words, Good Policy, Yale Environmental Law Association, Yale Law School, February 25, 2015.
Speaker via videoconference, "Energy Tax Incentives: The United States Perspective" Energy Taxation, Environmental Protection and State Aids: Tracing the Path from Divergence to Convergence, CEU San Pablo University in Madrid, Spain, January 29, 2015.
Speaker, "Adaptation: Market Sector Responses," Adaptive Planning for Flooding and Coastal Change in Virginia: Next Steps for the Commonwealth, William & Mary Law School, Williamsburg, Virginia, December 5, 2014.
Conference on Green Taxation in East Asia: Problems and Prospects, Hong Kong, Jan. 29, 2010.
Panelist, Briefing United States Senate Staff on Carbon Taxes, July 13, 2009.
Awards & Accomplishments
Other Accomplishments or Activities
Scientific Committee member, Crónica Tributaria, a journal focused on tax and finance law published by the Spanish government’s Institute for Fiscal Studies (2020-present).
General Editor, The International Library of Law and the Environment, (Edward Elgar) 2018-current.
Judicial Clerk, Hon. Frank M. Coffin, Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Portland, Maine, 1981-82.
Practiced tax law, with special emphasis on tax problems, as attorney with Covington and Burling, Washington, D.C., 1984-90.
Consultant, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, 1995-2001; analyzing tax and other data to determine patterns of charitable giving in New Hampshire for Commission on Charitable Giving and Volunteering.
Awards, Honors or Grants
Richard Brooks Distinguished Scholar Award
Service Work
Trustee, Connecticut River Watershed Council, 1994-96.
Member, American Bar Association's Energy and Environmental Taxes Committee (previously the Environmental Taxes Committee), 1994 to present, and Vice Chair, Important Developments, 1997 to 2007.
Member, environmental taxes committee, American Bar Association, since 1994.
Director, Vermont Advisory Board, Conservation Law Foundation, 2003 to present.
Member, board of directors, Upper Valley Land Trust, Hanover, NH, 1996-99.
Director, Upper Valley Community Foundation, Hanover, NH, since 1998.
Trustee, Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, Concord, NH, Chair of its Research Committee and Member of the Executive Committee, 2001-2007.
Trustee, Montshire Museum of Science, Norwich, VT, since 1997.
Affiliations
Special Counsel, Dartmouth Medical School, on affiliations with health care institutions and other academic matters, 1994-99.
Professor at Vermont Law School since 1995.