Denver Law Student Robert N. Miller II Wins Academic Scholarship From the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators

Second year Denver Law student Robert N. Miller II has been awarded an academic scholarship by the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN).

AIPN is an independent not-for-profit professional membership association that supports international energy negotiators around the world and enhances their effectiveness and professionalism in the international energy community. It is composed of more than 3,300 members in more than 80 countries, representing numerous international oil and gas companies, host governments, law firms and academic institutions.

Mr. Miller is currently working in the oil and gas industry while attending law school. In a letter to the AIPN scholarship committee, Mr. Miller said, "I understand the field of international petroleum negotiation is extremely important to global stability. I am hopeful that my hard work, and determination, paired with the support of the AIPN, will assist me in becoming a successful international petroleum negotiator."

Justin R. Pidot, Former Environmental Appellate Litigator at the U.S. Department of Justice, Joins Denver Law Faculty in August

Justin R. Pidot, former attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, Environment & Natural Resources Division, will join the Denver Law faculty as an Assistant Professor in August. He will teach Environmental Law as well as Property Law.

Professor Pidot, who most recently served with the Appellate Section of the Environment & Natural Resources Division, is a graduate of the Stanford Law School where he served as editor-in-chief of the Stanford Environmental Law Journal. His undergraduate degree is from Wesleyan University.

Before joining the Department of Justice, Professor Pidot clerked for Judge Judith W. Rogers, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He also completed a fellowship at the Georgetown Environmental Law & Policy Institute.

Don C. Smith, Director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program said, "Justin Pidot was an appellate litigator at the Department of Justice, where he presented argument in more than a dozen federal appellate cases and acted as the staff attorney on two cases heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. He will be a great addition to what is already one of the best environmental and natural resources faculties in the U.S."

Public Utilities Regulation Intensive Course Includes Influential Lineup of Colorado Utilities Sector Leaders

Denver Law's one-week intensive short course, Public Utilities Regulation, which concluded last week, included some of the utilities sector's leading figures including the president of a major investor owned utility and a member of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.

The course provided students an exceptional chance to learn about recent innovations in the policy and economics of utility regulation while simultaneously providing the opportunity to listen to the sector's leaders talk about the challenges and opportunities they face.

Taught by Adjunct Professors Dr. Catherine Keske, Professor at Colorado State University, and Matt Futch, Senior Policy Manager and head of the Colorado Governor's Energy Office Utilities Program, Public Utilities Regulation was unique in introducing students to the philosophies and business practices of a wide range of industry leaders. Among the leaders who were part of the course were:

• Ken Anderson, President of Tri-State, a wholesale electric power supplier owned by the 44 electric cooperatives that it serves
• Matt Baker, Member of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission
• David Eves, President of Public Service Company of Colorado, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy
• Peter Fox-Penner, author of Smart Power and an internationally recognized leader in energy and the relationship of utility policy and economics
• Alice Maddon, Wirth Chair in Sustainable Development, School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado Denver
• Allan Schurr, Vice President Strategy and Development, Global Energy and Utilities for IBM
• Max Tyler, State Representative and member of the Colorado General Assembly

Dr. Keske, one of the adjunct professors, said, "We were fortunate to bring together wonderful resources for our students. Our guest speakers shared both perspective and details about the present and future dynamics of the energy industry. Pooling the resources of DU Law, Colorado State University, and the Colorado Governor's Energy Office also proved to be a tremendous success. However, above all else, we were fortunate to have a group of engaged and intelligent students. I had a ball teaching this class!"

Don C. Smith, Director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program, said, "There are few industries facing as many challenges as well as opportunities as the public utilities sector. These challenges and opportunities must take account of environmental, economic, and public policy factors. No where is this clearer than in the electricity generation and distribution business. This course provided students a unique, and indeed enormously valuable look at all of these factors.

"Hearing the wide range of guest speakers was particularly valuable to the students. In fact, the speakers, when considered together, probably represented the finest gathering of their type in an individual law school course anywhere in the country. This is exactly the type of learning experience that Denver Law is committed to bringing to our students."

Jan Laitos, John A. Carver Jr. Professor of Law at Denver Law, to be Featured Speaker at Buenos Aires Mining Seminar in August

Jan Laitos, John A. Carver Jr. Professor of Law at Denver Law, will be the featured speaker next month at a prestigious seminar in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The event, "Current Trends in the Regulation on Cyanide and Open Pit Mining," is being sponsored by one of the leading Latin American law firms Marval O'Farrell & Mairal.

Professor Laitos will speak about the U.S. and international experience associated with regulations on the use of cyanide as well as regulations on open pit mining. Also speaking at the seminar will be Luis E. Lucero, Francisco A. Macias, and Leonardo G. Rodriguez, all members of the firm.

Mr. Rodriguez is a 2008 LLM graduate of Denver Law's renown Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Graduate Program. He was recognized as the top student in his 2008 graduating class, an honor given to the student with the highest grade point average.

Denver Law Sponsors the 24th National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Industry Growth Forum, Nov. 8-11, 2011

Denver Law has become affiliated as a sponsor for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's 24th Industry Growth Forum, to be held at the Grand Hyatt Denver in downtown Denver on November 8-11, 2011.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) Industry Growth Forum is the United State's premier event for emerging clean energy and energy efficiency technology start ups to gain exposure and feedback from venture capitalists, corporate investors, government agencies, and strategic partners.

Since 2003, presenting start ups have in total raised nearly $4 billion in growth financing.

NREL expects nearly 200 applicants to compete for a small number of slots where clean tech start ups will present their cutting-edge business plans.

Don Smith, Director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program at Denver Law, said, "Denver Law's sponsorship of this important industry gathering reflects our commitment to a growing participation in the renewable energy sector. Over the past three years, our renewable energy course offerings have grown from one to three. Moreover our faculty is writing and speaking about renewables. Our goal is clear -- to be the premier location among U.S. law schools to study about these important issues. We are well along this path and we are enthusiastically moving ahead."

Public Utilities Regulation, Intensive One-Week Three-Credit Course, Kicks Off Today

A new one-week three-credit intensive course, Public Utilities Regulation, begins today at Denver Law. The course will present law practitioners with recent innovations in the economics and policy of utility regulation.

The course is being taught by two experts in the field, Dr. Catherine Keske, an Assistant Professor of Resource Eonomics at Colorado State University, and Matthew Futch, Utilities Program Manager at the Colorado Governor's Energy Office.

Students will learn the social science of utility regulation, and will gain insight into how utility regulation is conducted in the state of Colorado and in the United States. On the last day of class students will participate in student-led debates on utility regulation issues.

Don C. Smith, Director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program at Denver Law, said, "Students in this course will benefit from the expertise of Dr. Keske and Mr. Futch, both highly recognized figures in the area of utilities regulation. Moreover, students will benefit from guest lectures from individuals in the industry and government sectors who are involved with utility regulation. Put simply, the course will bring together a perfect combination of expertise and timely consideration of the key issues being faced by utilities and those who regulate them."

Public Utilities Regulation is another in a series of one-week intensive courses that are being offered by Denver Law. The courses allow students an opportunity to learn from experts who would not otherwise be available in a regular semester course format.

Profile of Adjunct Professor Troy A. Eid, who will teach "Environmental Law, Energy & Natural Resources in Indian County"

In the fall 2011 semester Denver Law will introduce an important new course, “Environmental Law, Energy & Natural Resources in Indian Country,” which will be taught by nationally recognized American Indian law expert Troy A. Eid.

An earlier blog posting, which can be accessed by clicking here, described the course and included the syllabus.

Today Mr. Eid tells Environment and Natural Resources 21 about the course and why he is teaching it.

ENR21: Why is this an important and timely course?

TAE: This new course explores the vibrant and increasingly important role that tribes play in contemporary U.S. society through the prism of environmental law, energy, and natural resources. I've designed this course to be accessible to any interested graduate student. It doesn't matter if you've previously studied Indian law, or if you've lived or worked on or near an Indian reservation.

The University of Denver College of Law already has a nationally recognized Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program. This new course provides a bridge between that Program and "Indian Country,” the legal term that the U.S. Congress uses to define Indian Reservations and other Native American lands held in trust by the federal government for the benefit of Indian tribes and nations.

Federal statutes use the terms "Indians" and "Native Americans" to include American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians. These are the descendants of indigenous people who lived in what is now the United States long before Europeans arrived.

Today, the federal government officially recognizes 565 different Indian tribes and nations. Each is "sovereign" -- self-governing political entities whose roots pre-date the U.S. Constitution. Our Constitution expressly recognizes three sources of sovereignty within our system of government: The federal government, states, and Indian tribes.

Yet few non-Native Americans are directly exposed to the modern reality -- and enduring strength -- of self-governing Indian tribes and nations within the U.S. political system. Our popular culture tends to be backward-focused, dominated by stereotypes or misconceptions about Native Americans and tribal governments.

The connections between Indian Country and environmental and natural resources law and public policy are increasingly important but not always well-understood. For instance, roughly three percent of the total land area of the United States consists of Indian Country, yet these same lands contain at least 10 percent -- and perhaps much more -- of our country's estimated energy reserves.

Some of the biggest natural gas development projects in the country, for example, are currently taking place on Indian tribal lands. Energy infrastructure projects and public works frequently enter Indian lands or reach into non-tribal public and private lands where tribal governments continue to have current legal interests under the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, and other laws.

At the same time, innovative technologies, such as shale and coal gasification, hold enormous potential for strengthening tribal governments that have often been deprived of a credible tax base by operation of federal laws and U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Tribes are developing their own renewable energy projects using solar, wind and geothermal resources, encouraged by some federal and state policies and penalized by many others.

Tribal governments have also banded together through organizations such as the Denver-based Council of Energy Resource Tribes (CERT), a non-profit coalition of 58 energy-producing Indian tribes. To foster such development, many tribal governments are adjudicating their water resources in a way that will shape the economies of entire regions of the United States for decades to come.

Indian nations are asserting and reasserting their inherent sovereign powers by creating and implementing environmental policies and programs reflecting their own priorities and perspectives, and by informing federal and state policies through government-to-government consultation.

ENR21: What are your objectives with respect to the course?

TAE: It starts with basic cultural and civic literacy. Anyone who aspires to learn more about being an American -- whether a U.S. citizen or a guest from another country -- should gain insight into Indian Country and the people who make it special. This is especially true for those living, working and studying in Colorado and the West.

Many of the values and experience that make being a "Westerner" so unique, and which we admire and idealize, come in part from the indigenous people who've lived here from time immemorial and to this day. This includes concepts of sustainability, environmental stewardship, self-reliance, and individual respect for and accountability to a larger community and society.

How the U.S. government treats (and mistreats) Native Americans, tribal governments, and Indian lands through our modern legal system and institutions says a great deal about who we all are as Americans, where we've been, and what we hope to become.

There's also sheer pragmatism. As an attorney working in the trenches, my own law practices serves tribal governments as well as companies and institutions doing business with them. Navigating Indian Country can be incredibly confusing to lawyers with little or no prior experience. Yet it happens much more often than might be supposed, and to a great many attorneys and business leaders from all walks of life.

Non-Native Americans in my experience are sometimes stunned to learn that individual Indian tribes and nations have their own laws, court systems, administrative and regulatory agencies, and political agendas on the regional, national and international stage.

This course is to help prepare students for what they'll encounter in the "real world" of American Indian law and practice, while helping provide an introduction to this exciting aspect of being a Citizen of the West.

One thing is certain: Indian law will become more and not less important in the years ahead. The enduring strength of Indian tribes and nations as a cultural and political force, along with the massive natural resources of tribal nations and traditional lands, and the need to protect those resources and ensure environmental quality, make for an exciting future.

ENR21: How and why did you become interested in Indian law?

TAE: I've worked in and around Indian Country for nearly 25 years in different roles. As Colorado's United States Attorney from 2004-2008, I was responsible for felony prosecution on the two Indian nations headquartered within the boundaries of the state of Colorado, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.

Working as the Chief Legal Counsel to Colorado Governor Bill Owens, I participated in many negotiations with these tribes, including an agreement regulating air quality in Southwestern Colorado. Earlier in my career, I worked as a Legislative Assistant for a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona before I went to law school.

I'm not a Native American. My Mother is white and from rural Wisconsin. My Dad was Egyptian and immigrated to the United States in 1957, when he was 17 years old, with just $100 to his name.

Dad attended British schools in Cairo before the military coup in the early 1950s. Much of his own education, which focused on the cultural assimilation of young Egyptians of that era into the Colonial system, bore some similarity to some of the experiences of Native Americans in the United States.

Until the late 1970s, it was the policy of the U.S. government to assimilate Native American children and young people through boarding schools. Ironically, one of my clients today is a former Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school on the Navajo Nation. That school is now run by the Navajo Nation itself under a federal contract with the BIA. Its school board is elected from the community. Instead of punishing students for speaking Dine' (Navajo) as in the not-too-distant past, the school provides instruction in both languages and works to preserve and respect Navajo traditional law, culture and traditions.

Editor's note: Troy A. Eid chairs the Training Committee of the Navajo Nation Bar Association, responsible for training and testing lawyers seeking admission to practice before the Navajo Supreme Court and trial courts. He was a marshall in the annual Navajo Nation Fair parade in Window Rock, Arizona last fall.