Cindy Jennings, MRLS 2008 Graduate, Accepted to "Leadship Denver 2010" Class

Cindy Jennings, MRLS 2008 graduate and vice president of marketing and client brand strategy for Cohn Marketing, has been selected to be part of the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation’s Leadership Denver Class of 2010.

According to the Chamber, "As one of the city’s most prestigious leadership programs, Leadership Denver brings together influential members from local business, nonprofit and government sectors to discuss and learn about the challenges facing the Denver Metro area. The program promotes community stewardship, while creating lifelong networks that foster professional goals."

Notable Leadership Denver Alumni include Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, President and CEO of Mile High United Way Christine Benero, and Elbra Wedgeworth, chief government and community relations officer for Denver Health.

Mining Firms Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton Top U.K. Corporate Governance Survey

U.K. mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton were ranked first and second respectively in a new survey conducted about corporate governance among the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 companies.

The survey, conducted by Resources Global Professionals, an international business consultancy, ranked companies in more than 60 categories. About 11 percent of the ranking was based on "green-related issues," according to a story in the Financial Times ("Miners Top Governance Survey," Sept. 27, 2009).

The ranking of two mining companies at the top of a distinguished grouping of companies was not necessarily surprising since major mining firms are now taking a closer look at how to preserve (or improve) their corporate reputations. Failure to do so can result in the loss of stock value and lead to higher interest rates, particularly on infrastructure-related loans.

Dr. Anita Halvorsson, Graduate Program Adjunct Professor, Speaks at Singapore Conference on "Sovereign Wealth Funds: Governance and Regulation"

Dr. Anita M. Halvorsson, an adjunct professor at the DU Sturm College of Law, recently spoke at a conference in Singapore entitled "Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs): Governance and Regulation."

Dr. Halvorsson, who regularly speaks about sustainable development-related topics at international meetings, provided this overview from Singapore:

"The goal of the conference was to examine the role that norms and law might have in the context of the future governance and regulation of SWFs. It also included the potential of voluntary regimes, such as the General Principles and Practices of SWFs, adopted in 2008. The five panels were made up of academics, officials from SWFs, the IMF, and also people advising SWFs. The conference was organized by the National University of Singapore Law Faculty and the Asian Society of International Law.

"My paper was entitled 'The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund Addresses the Interrelated Challenges of Climate Change and Sustainable Development – A Model for Regulating Other Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs).'

"The Norwegian Government Pension Fund - Global (GPFG) was set up to ensure that the country’s oil wealth can benefit all generations of Norwegians. This long-term goal is to be reached in accordance with sustainable development principles, taking into account economic, social, and environmental concerns.

"In 2004 the Norwegian Parliament adopted ethics guidelines for the GPFG, specifically prohibiting investments that would put the fund at risk of contributing to systematic human rights violations, serious environmental damage, and gross corruption. The GPFG recently underwent an evaluation process. The Norwegian Government has now decided to focus more on environmental, specifically climate change issues, and is considering setting aside some of the fund’s assets for investments in companies developing climate friendly energy and to invest specifically in developing countries. Taking into account the long term nature of the GPFG, the government sees a need to analyze the effects that climate change will have on the financial markets. In addition, it has set out to focus on companies’ impact on climate change, recognizing that if they emit large amounts of green house gases (GHGs) it will entail a cost in the future, thus bringing down the rate of return for the GPFG.

"The purpose of this paper was to examine how the Norwegian government is trying to resolve the challenge of balancing financial returns with sustainable development in regulating the GPFG and the possibility of applying this model to other SWFs. Also I posited the sustainable development needs to be included in the newly adopted General Accepted Principles and Practices (Santiago Principles) for SWFs and I suggested a text for a new GAPP Principle 25.

"Singapore is a wonderful city state, clean, compact and vibrant. It was amazing to be able to see little India, Chinatown, and the Malaysian Heritage Center with nearby Muslim shops all in the space of an afternoon."

Dr. Halvorsson teaches "Sustainable Development Law & Policy" in the autumn and "Climate Change Law" in the spring semesters. Many thanks to her for this informative summary about this importance conference. Students participating in her classes greatly benefit from Dr. Halvorsson's active and influential involvement in conferences on leading issues such as this one.

(The first picture was taken from the window of GIC, one of Singapore's two SWFs; the second picture was of Dr. Halvorsson, on the far left, along with colleagues from Switzerland and Germany.)

Denver-Based Investment Banking Firm Pursues Energy Projects

Ward Cerny, a vice president with the Denver-based investment banking firm of Green Manning & Bunch, specializes in financing-related issues for the firm's energy and power clients.

An active advocate for renewable energy, Mr. Cerny says, "Colorado is a great place [for the wind energy industry] because there is lots of wind and geographically it is in the center of the nation and that is where many wind energy companies want to be located."

I first met Mr. Cerny, who has a bachelor's degree in international business from George Washington University and an MBA from the University of Chicago, several months ago at an ABA-sponsored teleconference focusing on renewable energy. It intrigued me that an investment banker was interested in the new energy economy and even, in the case of Mr. Cerny, was a member of the American Wind Energy Association. So Ann Vessels, the director of DU's externship program and I met him for lunch last week to talk about a side of renewable energy that often does not attract enough attention but is absolutely critical to the success of renewables: project finance.

Among Mr. Cerny's observations:

• Wind power has emerged as the top source of renewable energy, with worldwide capacity expanding from 16,000 megawatts of electricity capacity in 2000 to more than 120,000 MW in 2008 (annual growth rate of 28 percent).

• The credit crisis has had a short-term effect on annual wind installations, as access to project finance is tight and many tax equity investors have left the market.

• Volatility in fossil fuel prices, specifically those of oil and natural gas, threatens to price wind power out of some markets.

• Wind component manufacturers and service companies have continued to vertically integrate in order to secure their supply chain, but as the supply chain develops, he expects to see the industry trend toward consolidation into a few major assembly companies with a larger group of sub-tier suppliers.

• Utilities and large independent power producers will continue to be the dominant acquirers of wind power producing assets, as large power producers hedge against the uncertainty and price volatility of carbon.

• Governments worldwide have pledged $415.5 billion through economic stimulus packages toward greener energy developments.

He also made this extremely interesting comment: "The skill set needed for upstream oil and gas work is nearly the same as in windpower. They are very similar." In addition, he mentioned that developing coal-fired power and wind power is quite similar: "In 10 years there will be a very gray area when comparing the skills needed to do either."

As we neared the end of the conversation Mr. Cerny pointed out that despite what some might hope for, the rapid replacement of fossil fuels with renewable sources is still a ways in the future. While the use of oil and gas will not go away anytime soon, the need to nurture the development of renewables must nevertheless be a key strategy in America's energy future. And in some instances -- as mentioned above -- skills developed in one energy sector may serve one well in another sector.

The development of "human capital," meaning professionals who are familiar with the entire energy industry, is key to the country's energy future, he concluded.

Ward Cerny embodies the spirit of the new energy economy that is taking shape in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains in an energy city called Denver.

Former Colorado Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Love Kourlis Speaks About American Legal System to Graduate Students

Rebecca Love Kourlis, who served on the Colorado Supreme Court from 1995 through 2006, spoke about the American legal system to a gathering of graduate students earlier this week.

Justice Kourlis told the students -- many of whom were foreign students now studying at DU -- about her own background, including her early years practicing law in Denver and in western Colorado and of her tenure from 1987 through 1994 as a Colorado State District Court judge. Then she shifted to explaining her current role as executive director for the DU-based Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, a national, non-partisan organization dedicated to improving the process and culture of the civil justice system.

For many students Justice Kourlis' remarks provided a new context in which to examine the American legal system. In this regard, she spoke about the work of the Institute as it relates to addressing the challenges for the legal system. In particular, she pointed to three primary reasons the Institute was established:

• As currently organized, the civil justice system is too focused on the needs of judges and not enough on the needs of "the users," that is to say those who appear before judges. "We are not running the justice system as well as we might from the standpoint of the users," she said.
• Confidence in the American legal system is "going the wrong way," she said. "People worry that they cannot afford to get in the system. We felt that was not acceptable; people need confidence they will be treated fairly and their experience in the system is affordable and predictable."
• How judges are selected, trained, and evaluated needs close attention if the integrity of the system is to be maintained she said.

Following those introductory remarks, Justice Kourlis took questions from the diverse group of graduate students (students from eight different countries attended the presentation). Among the questions the students asked related to the practice of attorney advertising in the U.S., the use of contingency fees, and how the jury system works from a judge's perspective. With respect to the last question, Justice Kourlis reflected on her years as a trial court judge when she presided over many jury trials. In particular, Justice Kourlis emphasized that "the jury system is a really important part of our democracy," noting that the jury system allows individual citizens to become more familiar with how the legal system works. Justice Kourlis also spoke of her support for cameras in courtrooms unless the case involves a juvenile.

The one hour meeting was marked by a great deal of curiosity on the students' part as well as Justice Kourlis' interest in how legal systems work in the foreign students' countries. Several students with whom I spoke afterwards voiced their appreciation that Justice Kourlis had made time to speak with them and had done so in a clear and understandable manner. They seemed particularly struck by the fact that an individual of Justice Kourlis' stature was interested in their countries' legal systems.

Justice Kourlis was accompanied by Pam Gagel, the Institute's assistant director and a 1985 graduate of the DU College of Law and an accomplished lawyer in her own right.

From my perspective, it was great to see the program's students listening to and learning from one of America's leading experts in the field of improving the justice system, no small task to be sure but a timely and key one to the foundation of America's legal system.

Natural Gas: An Increasingly Important Option for U.S. Energy Generation?

National Public Radio broadcast a fascinating three-part series last week about the role of natural gas in the U.S. energy portfolio. Among the questions addressed were whether natural gas could be a "transition" fuel as the economy moves to a more renewables-based economy and why natural gas was given so little attention -- in fact almost none -- in the recently passed U.S. House measure known as the Waxman-Markey energy bill.

For those interested in where gas stands in the context of U.S. energy policy, you will want to check out these broadcasts: "Rediscovering Natural Gas by Hitting Rock Bottom" (Part 1, Sept. 22, 2009); "Who's Looking at Natural Gas Now? Big Oil" (Part 2, Sept. 23, 2009); and "With Little Clout, Natural Gas Lobby Strikes Out" (Part 3, Sept. 24, 2009).

If these stories interest you -- and anyone interested in America's energy challenges should be interested in a fuel that has been deemed "the cleanest of all fossil fuels" by Christopher Flavin at the Worldwatch Institute -- also check out a new U.S. Department of Energy publication called "Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States: A Primer."

Also, have a look at Mr. Flavin's recent commentary "The New Case for Natural Gas."