2011 LLM Graduate Nino Coppero Visits Denver in Role as Attorney for New Peruvian Copper Mine Owned by HudBay Minerals of Toronto

Nino Coppero, a 2011 LLM Graduate from the Denver Law Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Graduate Program, was in Denver last week in his role as attorney for a new copper mine being planned for southern Peru.

The new mine, Constancia, is located near Cuzco. It is owned by HudBay Minerals of Toronto.

While in Denver he met with a local engineering firm that is working on the processing plant permit.

Before joining HudBay Minerals, Mr. Coppero worked with the firm of Rodrigo, Elias & Medrano Abogados in Lima. At the firm he worked for Luis Carlos Rodrigo, a well known mining lawyer, who has also taught at Denver Law.

Mr. Coppero is a Fellow for the Sustainable Development Strategies Group and has taught mining and oil and gas law at the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences College of Law.

Editor's note: In the photo, Mr. Coppero is standing; Lucy Daberkow, Associate Administrative Director for the Graduate Program is on the left and Don Smith, Director of the Graduate Program, is sitting in front.

David Loomis, Environmental Planner for the U.S. Forest Service, to Speak on NEPA at Denver Law on September 8

David Loomis, an environmental planner for the U.S. Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Region, will talk about "The National Environmental Policy Act: A Practitioner's Perspective" on Thursday, September 8, from 12 noon to 1 p.m. in room 270 at the Sturm College of Law.

The noontime presentation is the first in the Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy guest speakers series that will run throughout the entire academic year. All interested students are welcome to attend. Food will be provided.

Mr. Loomis provides advice, guidance, and training to the 11 National Forests in the Region. He also supervises an externship for Denver Law students for the Region's strategic planning staff. He has a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master of Science in Land Use Planning Policy. He is a regular guest lecturer on NEPA issues at Colorado State University.

For further information, please contact Lucy Daberkow, Assistant Administrative Director for the Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Graduate Program, at ldaberkow@law.du.edu.

DU Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Graduate Program Brochure now Available Electronically

Denver Law's Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Graduate Program brochure, "Focus on the Global Horizon," is now available in "flip book" style on the program's website.

The brochure can be easily read around the world by anyone with Internet access. The "flip book" style allows viewers to read a page-by-page version of the brochure, which is identical to the hard copy brochure.

The brochure can be accessed by clicking here and then going to the right-hand side of the page.

One of the unique aspects of the electronic version of the brochure is that it incorporates a link to a video about the program, a feature that was never available with the hardcopy brochure.

Lucy Daberkow, Assistant Administrative Director of the Graduate Program, and Meghan Howes, Director of Communications for Denver Law, spearheaded the effort to make the brochure available on the web.

Ms. Daberkow said, "One of the cornerstones of our environmental and natural resources law graduate program is attracting a diverse student body made up of individuals from around the world. This new 'flip book' version of our brochure allows people worldwide to see and experience our program first-hand without the need to wait for days and sometimes weeks to receive a copy of the brochure. This new brochure will help us recruit even more diverse student groups in the future."

The 2011-2012 graduate program class is made up of students from 10 different countries. Click here to see more about the new class.

Justin Pidot, Assistant Professor at Denver Law, Weighs in on Delisting of Gray Wolf

Denver Law Assistant Professor Justin Pidot weighed in last week about Congress's decision to reinstate the delisting decision of the gray wolf in the mountain west.

Professor Pidot's comments came on the blog Legal Planet, a collaboration between the Univeristy of California Berkeley School of Law and UCLA School of Law. Legal Planet provides insight and analysis on energy and environmental law and policy.

Professor Pidot wrote in part, "...[S]tepping back from the arcane separation of powers questions dominant in the legal case, I think we ill-serve the Endangered Species Act and biodiversity conservation more generally when we object too strenuously to delisting canus lupis."

To read Professor Pidot's comments, please click here.

Professor Pidot teaches Environmental Law and Property Law.

Hani Yaafouri writes on escalating food prices and food shortages

This commentary lays out the reasons behind the escalating food prices and the shortages in food supply in the developing nations. In its state of security report in 2006, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FOA), estimated that 854 million people worldwide suffer from hunger and malnutrition including 820 million in developing countries due to shortages in food supply.

The increase in food prices is due to several factors. First, economic growth in some developing nations like China and India is straining our natural resources as demand for food has reached historic levels. Second, the rapid rise in petroleum prices due to constant unrest in the oil rich Middle East (Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria) and the escalating cost of shipping food supply across the globe are putting an unprecedented pressure on food prices due to the increase in transportation costs. Third, continuous increase in temperature due to climate change has impacted fresh water supply which is affecting crop production and supply. Fourth, the unprecedented demand from the biofuels sector is also affecting food prices.

Food shortages and escalating food prices are serious threats facing our world. The main reasons are attributed to unprecedented demand on our natural resources from the developing world, continuous increase in oil prices and the huge demand from the biofuels sector for agricultural lands. In order to mitigate these challenges, we need new agricultural policies and a new sustainable food frame work that increase the participation of developing nations in order to mitigate these challenges.

Hani Yaafouri
Masters of Resources Law Studies program graduate

Editor's note: Mr. Hani Yaafouri, who is originally from Lebanon, graduated from Denver Law's Masters of Resources Law Studies program in 2010.

Denver Law Adjunct Professor Catherine Keske Studies how to Convert Animal and Food Waste to Energy

Denver Law Adjunct Professor Catherine Keske is conducting work to determine how to convert animal and food waste into energy, in an economically feasible way.

One technology is "anaerobic digestion." This involves using microbes to convert the waste into methane. The methane is captured and is either used as biogas (to heat a boiler) or converted into electricity through a generator. The methane capture reduces green house gas emissions and creates energy.

Dr. Keske, a leading resource economist and professor at Colorado State University, says:

"My findings have shown that in the western U.S., scarce water resources yield different agricultural management practices than in the eastern U.S. Less water, as well as relatively low energy prices, make anaerobic digestion less economically feasible than in the eastern U.S. However, some western municipalities and agricultural operations have shown that they can successfully implement anaerobic digestion if they can appropriately offset the costs. Nuisiance lawsuit mitigation is another factor that could make the anaerobic digestion technology economically feasible.

"Right now I am working with early adoptors to identify the elements that have made anaerobic digestion economically feasible for their company. This way, we can replicate their work with other operations."

Dr. Keske has been funded by four different agencies (National Resource Conservation Service, the Colorado Governor's Energy Office, U.S. A.I.D. and Montana State University Extension) to study the issue. She works rather closely with Dr. Sybil Sharvelle, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State. Dr. Sharvelle is developing technology, which she calls, "dry digestion technology" that can make anaerobic digestion feasible in arid climates like Colorado. Should dry digestion technology become commercially available, costs associated with water will also be reduced and more operations might be able to adopt anaerobic digestion technology.

Interested readers can download the technical report written for the Colorado Governor's Energy Office by clicking here.

Don Smith, director of Denver Law's Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program, said, "Dr. Keske newest project demonstrates once again why we are thrilled to have her teach at DU. Her courses -- "Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment: Policy, Markets, and Economic Measurement" and "Public Utilities Regulation" -- are highly respected by our faculty and students. The courses contribute richness and breadth to our outstanding environmental and natural resources program, and we are delighted she is part of our program."

Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Announces Spring 2012 Scholarship Program: Applications Due October 3

The Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, one of the world's premier professional groups focusing on natural resources issues, has announced its Spring 2012 Scholarship Program.

The purpose of the program is to encourage the study of natural resources law by well qualified law students who have the potential to make significant contributions to scholarship in natural resources law. Scholarship applications are due October 3, 2011.

Full-time Denver Law students who can demonstrate a commitment to study natural resources law or who are undertaking the study of natural resources law are eligible to apply for this scholarship. Recent scholarship awards have ranged from $1,500 to $11,000.

Don Smith, director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program, encouraged Denver Law students to consider applying for the scholarship. "In recent years, Denver Law has been honored to have many of our students win substantial scholarships from the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation. These scholarships benefit students not only in terms of the money received but also in helping students network with many of the world's finest leaders and thinkers in the natural resources sector who are a part of this prestigious organization."

For a flyer about the program, please click here. The application for a scholarship is available by clicking here.