New Streaming Video Highlights Sturm College of Law Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program, "One of the Best in the World"

The Environmental and Natural Resources Law (ENRL) program at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law is featured in a new streaming video, which can be accessed by clicking here.

The video features interviews with various individuals who are involved with the program including Don C. Smith, ENRL director, Howard Kenison, a 1972 JD alum and nationally recognized environmental and energy law attorney who practices at Lindquist and Vennum, and Professor George (Rock) Pring, an internationally known environmental and resource law professor.

Students featured in the video are Kristi Disney, who will earn her JD and LLM in Environmental and Natural Resources Law degrees in 2011, and Matthew Wagner, who earned his Masters in Resource Law Studies degree in 2010.

Among other topics, the video points to the excellent externship program, headed by Professor Ann Vessels, which provides students a wide range of opportunities to work for federal, state, private, and non-profit institutions. Many consider the environmental and natural resources law externships available at the College of Law "second to none" in the United States.

Environmental and Natural Resources Law at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law: "Spring '10 Newsletter" Highlights Program Developments

A multitude of activities and events have been taking place in the Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy program at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.

The Spring '10 newsletter captures the energy and excitement that is the foundation of the DU program, which has often been recognized as one of the nation's premier program. Please click here to read the latest newsletter.

You will find articles about the successful Rocky Mountain Law Use Institute 19th Annual Land Use Conference, the Water Law Review Symposium, Distinguished Natural Resources Practitioner in Residence Howard Kenison, and what the program's faculty have been writing and speaking about.

Our program is strong and vibrant and continues to grow and excel. Check out the newsletter. We think you will agree.

DU Alumnus and Adjunct Professor Howard Kenison Recognized as "Colorado Lawyer of the Year"

University of Denver Sturm College of Law graduate Howard Kenison has been recognized as a Colorado Lawyer of the Year by LawWeek Colorado.

Mr. Kenison, a partner at Lindquist & Vennum, is teaching the "Practitioner in Residence" course this semester at the College of Law. He is a major U.S. figure in environmental law. He is immediate past president of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Environmental Law and was an ABA delegate to the World Justice Forum in Vienna, Austria, last November.

In recognizing Mr. Kenison, LawWeek Colorado reported on a significant environmental case that he recently won before the Colorado Supreme Court:

"Kenison and colleague Stuart Bennett recently won a nearly five-year legal battle over a toxic waste dump in Adams County. The state health department had issued a permit for a Massachusetts company to dump low-level radioactive waste about 60 miles east of Denver in Adams County. The county sued to stop the influx of waste. Kenison argued that the county had a clear prohibition on storing low-level radioactive waste there, and that the waste facility hadn't received county permission to dump it, which is against state law. State district courts and the Colorado Court of Appeals dismissed Adams Country's lawsuits on the grounds that the county, as a political subdivision of the state, can't sue a state agency. The Colorado Supreme Court in October [2009] reversed the lower courts in a 5-2 decision."

Howard Kenison, Prominent U.S. Environmental Lawyer and DU Alumnus, Participates in Green Energy Roundtable

Howard Kenison, chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Environmental Law and chair of the ABA Working Group on Environmental Issues and the Rule of Law, says that Colorado is in the top five -- and perhaps the top three -- in terms of state activities involving green energy technology.

Mr. Kenison, a DU law alumnus and chair of Lindquist & Vennum's Environment, Natural Resources, and Climate Change practice group, recently participated in a roundtable discussion ("Inside the Boardroom: Being Green and Generating Green Dominates Roundtable," June 15, 2009") about Colorado's leading role in green energy development sponsored by Law Week Colorado. 

Mr. Kenison pointed out that Colorado's impressive green energy technology standing is driven, in part, "by the fact that we're at a place where we have wind, we have solar, and we have a relatively good transmission grid, although we're going to need to do a lot of work to update that grid to bring renewables on line."

Despite Colorado's favorable geographic setting, however, Mr. Kenison said that the state should not assume "just by virtue of sunshine and wind that we'll become a green energy center. I think we have to work at it. I think we have to consciously decide that we as a state want to do that." 

The key is to have many stakeholders working together, he said adding:

"It means working with [utility company] Xcel [Energy], it means working with [utility firm] Tri-State, which just acquired maybe 200 megawatts of solar in New Mexico. And they now have to tap into their transmission system to bring it...to the front range...Whether you are utilities, whether you're in the environmental group, to get us to that point we have to make a conscious decision to do that. And that's what, I think, hopefully, [Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter] is doing. It sounds like he's doing it, because he keeps saying energy policy...and green energy, but we really have to do it as a team."

Mr. Kenison has been a long-time friend of the LLM/MRLS program, supportive of the graduate program's mission and always willing to provide advice about how to improve the program based on his wide-ranging experiences in the practice of environmental law.  

As a leader in environmental law, his observations about what is going on in Colorado, and nationally for that matter, merit close consideration.  Put simply, what he says matters.