Denver Law Environmental Law Professor Rock Pring and Catherine Pring Featured in Panel Discussion at Recent International Bar Association Annual Meeting in Boston

Professor George Pring, third from left, and Catherine Pring, fourth from left.

Sturm College of Law Professor George (Rock) Pring and Catherine Pring were featured presenters recently at the International Bar Association's Annual Meeting in Boston. 

The Prings, internationally respected experts on the growing roles of environmental courts and tribunals, were part of a panel entitled "Environment and natural resources courts - do we need independent and specialized adjudicators?"  The Prings are co-authors of Green Justice: Creating and Improving Environment Courts and Tribunals, which was published by the Access Institute of the World Resources Institute.

The panel, which included several other experts from around the world, was moderated by Justice Brian Preston, Chief Judge of the New South Wales Land & Environment Court.  (Justice Preston visited Denver Law several years ago.)

Don Smith, Director of Denver Law's Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy program, said, "Rock and Kitty Pring are known around the world for their precedent setting work on environmental courts and tribunals.  The Prings continue to bring their insights and observations to a topic that is of major interest to those involved with environmental issues.  All who seek a more environmentally conscious world are indebted to these pioneers."

2013 Renewable Energy Conference Next Week

The 2013 Renewable Energy Conference will take place on Friday, October 18th. This is the third annual renewable energy conference and the event will focus on: "The World of Renewable Energy: State, National and International Perspectives on Renewable Energy Law and Policy."

The Conference will delve into a variety of topics including China's energy programs and the intersection with U.S. interests. In addition, the Conference will discuss challenges and opportunities in federal renewable energy policy. A major issue with renewable energy are the challenges associated with the transmission of the energy generated from renewable resources. A special panel will discuss those transmission challenges.

Registration information:
The deadline to register is Monday, October 14th.
Students are offered a discount rate of $37.50!!
The Conference includes breakfast, lunch, snacks, free parking and access to conference materials.

Join us for a full day of education and networking as key leaders examine state, national and international perspectives on renewable energy law and policy. 

Click here to register for the event!

Kimberly Jackson Discusses Her Position as Oil and Gas Planner

Kimberly Jackson, LLM'13, accepted a position in the CO Department of Public Health and Environment earlier this year as the state's Oil and Gas Planner. We recently caught up with Kimberly and learned more about what it means to be an Oil and Gas Planner.

Kimberly's primary responsibility is to collaborate with citizens, local municipalities, other states and the federal government to work on the planning and development of oil and gas operations. She shared, "Our goal as a Division is to ensure that oil and gas projects are being appropriately scoped, planned, and managed in a way that allows for the safe exploration and production of these energy resources without harming public health or the environment."

Her role includes a lot of stakeholder engagement, and involves anything from speaking to community groups about the impacts of oil and gas development, working with the oil and gas industry to ensure that they are in compliance with current state regulations, assisting local governments plan for oil and gas activities within their communities, collaborating with other states in our efforts to come up with effective oil and gas regulations, and assisting the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service in conducting Environmental Assessments on air quality impacts of oil and gas production in Colorado and throughout the region as a part of their National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis.    

When asked where she see's herself in a few years, Kimberly replied, "I am starting to become more involved in the inspection and permitting of oil and gas operations across the state of Colorado as well. My Division has a phenomenal oil and gas enforcement and permitting group, so I am being trained to conduct inspections as a part of this newly expanded team that is tasked with conducting on-site inspections as a way to ensure that oil and gas operators are conducting their work in a manner that is environmentally sound with appropriate control devices to reduce harmful emissions."

Kimberly worked for an oil and gas operator in North Dakota last year when an industry colleague told her that the state of Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment was creating a brand new position that focused specifically on our state’s oil and gas development with a particular emphasis on public health impacts as they relate to air quality. "I thought that my background as both a licensed nurse and environmental law practitioner would be a great fit for this new position, so I applied."

MillerCoors Brewery Goes Landfill Free

MillerCoors Brewery in Golden, CO
Photo Courtesy of Jorge DFW

MillerCoors is the largest brewery in the nation and has recently revolutionized its waste processing system. The Golden brewery creates 100 tons of waste per year and now recycles or re-uses nearly all of it.

The revolution in waste processing was due to the sustainability ethics of one man, a factory worker from Ohio. His name is Kelly Harris who was raised in a family centered on eco-conscious living. He was instilled with the message that you only have one planet, you had better be sure to take care of it.

He redesigned the company's business plan to reduce the amount of waste generated. His plan included easier efforts to incorporate waste materials into beneficial uses, such as animal food. Harris realized that their sustainability efforts had to go outside of their immediate operations to include those processes which yielded their supplies. This line of thought led MillerCoors to work collaboratively with the Nature Conservancy in an effort to reduce the amount of water needed to grow hops.

MillerCoors' ultimate goal is to produce zero waste. They are almost there now, but still incinerate non-recycleables. This is an example of how big companies can do more to help solve or at least reduce environmental problems.

As Harris signs each email: "Save the earth, its the only planet with beer."

Yewande Adeyemo, MRLS‘12, Accepts Position at Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Earlier this year, Yewande Adeyemo accepted a position as an Energy Industry Analyst at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in Washington D.C. Yewande graduated with her Master of Resources Law Studies degree in 2012. She was initially drawn to the ENRGP's small size and the variety of course offerings.

While in the program, she focused her studies on energy specific courses and took advantage of the related networking opportunities. Yewande shared, "After graduating from DU, I interned at the Solar Energy Industry Association. I did work on regulatory and legislative affairs. This combined with my degree helped paved the way for my current position as an Energy Industry Analyst at FERC."

Yewande enjoys the work that she does at the FERC, which is an independent agency that regulates the interstate transmission of electricity, oil and natural gas, as well as associated projects. In addition, the FERC assists consumers in obtaining reliable, efficient and sustainable energy services at a reasonable cost through regulatory and market means. As an analyst, Yewande applies rules and regulations to the analysis of cases. The work varies widely depending on the issues presented by the utility or gas company, meaning she never gets bored.

Yewande offered the following advice for other students in the program: "An internship post-graduation may be a necessary step to getting a foot in the door."

Congratulations to Yewande! We wish her all the best in her future!

Colorado Recovers From Flooding

Two weeks ago, Colorado was hit by an intense storm system which caused flash flood conditions. The state had been in the midst of a drought after battling wildfires earlier this year and was not prepared for the "biblical" rain fall (National Weather Service).

The TIME Science and Space reported that the average rainfall in September for the Boulder area is 1.7 inches, compared with the previous all time record of 9.59; the recorded 17.27 inches of rainfall that fell two weeks ago is extreme.

The flood waters caused damage to private property, contaminated water supplies, destroyed existing infrastructures such as roads, bridges, pipelines and electricity poles. The contaminants in the water mostly resulted from sewage spills caused by flooded septic tanks at the commercial (animal feed plants), private home and at the city level (Lyons). There are also concerns about contamination and cleanup from oil spills.

The floods caused several other energy problems as well. Rushing water damaged electrical equipment, power lines, and pipelines. Xcel is faced with repairing an estimated 20 miles of natural gas pipelines. However, they will need to wait until the flood damaged roads are able to stand the weight of the repair vehicles. In addition, Xcel will need to make strategic repairs in the short term to ensure safe operations and will need to re-engineer entire stretches of the existing infrastructures.

DU is hosting a Flood Relief Fundraising Feast event on October 8th. Please attend and help support the communities hit hard by the flooding.

New NREL Building Dedicated on Wednesday

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado recently became the subject of great interest to the U.S. Department of Energy. NREL has created a new facility that will research issues of generation, transmission, distribution and end-use challenges related to large scale implementation of renewable energy.

The building has been named the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) and will include a new liquid-cooled supercomputer, the most energy efficient of its kind in the world. The supercomputer will enable researchers to perform previously impossible modeling tasks. NREL officials have called the building a "game-changer" for renewable energy.

It is hoped that the new facility will help researchers solve the difficulties of renewable energy storage and transmission. Renewable energy has proven difficult to implement on a large scale due to its variable nature. The amount of power generated varies with each passing cloud or gust of wind. Researchers are now struggling to find a way for the current electricity grid to handle these fluctuations.

Energy Secretary Moniz, oversaw the dedication of the new facility on Wednesday and stated,
“The Energy Department has been at the forefront of large scale computation and modeling, and new NREL supercomputing capabilities will support the groundbreaking science and innovation we need to address the effects of global climate change and pave the way to a cleaner, more sustainable energy future.”

Angelica Oman

Graduate Program Assistant