Tuoya Saren

My work sits at the intersection of environmental law, administrative law, and AI governance, with a particular focus on the ways new technologies and the clean energy transition are reshaping public decision-making.

I am especially interested in what happens before a government reaches its final decision—how information is gathered, alternatives are screened, analysis is produced, and institutional judgment takes shape. As agencies increasingly rely on artificial intelligence and face growing pressure to accelerate permitting and infrastructure development, I ask not only whether decision-making can become faster, but also what may be lost in the process: identifiable responsibility, reasoned judgment, meaningful public participation, and the ability of courts and affected communities to understand and challenge government action.

These concerns connect my work on AI-assisted environmental review with my broader research on community benefits agreements, offshore wind, and the environmental governance of AI data centers. Across these projects, I am interested in a common institutional problem: how can law enable technological innovation and faster infrastructure deployment without allowing accountability to disappear from the decision-making process?

Before coming to Emory, I practiced energy law in China, advising wind and solar projects from development through operation. I worked closely with permitting, contracts, regulatory compliance, and project implementation. Many of the questions I now study began in that practice. It taught me that legal rules must do more than appear coherent on paper; they must work under real institutional, technical, and commercial constraints while still protecting the interests of those affected by public decisions.

Moving between Chinese energy practice and U.S. legal research, I keep returning to one question: what would it take for a public decision to be both workable in practice and worthy of public trust?