Speakers Series Continues: Working for a Renewable Energy Developer and a Green Technology Firm

The focus of the second in the University of Denver Sturm College of Law Speakers Series sponsored by the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program will feature two Sturm College of Law graduates speaking about their experiences working in the clean energy and technology sectors. They will be speaking in room 170 on Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010.

Danny Splettstosser, who graduated with a Masters in Resource Law Studies (MRLS) degree in 2008, will discuss his role as Associate Director for enXco and EDF EN Canada. These firms are involved in developing solar and wind energy projects. In this role he is involved in critical aspects of the company's solar business unit, emerging technologies, and mergers and acquisitions. He also has a B.A. in speech communication and political science from Colorado State University. Before coming to DU he was the deputy research director for Ken Salazar's 2004 Colorado U.S. Senate campaign.

Leslie Weise, who graduated with a Masters in Environmental and Natural Resources Law (LLM) in 2008, is vice president of business development for CoolEnergy, a Boulder-based clean technology firm. CoolEnergy has developed the SolarFlow System home energy system that enables home and building owners to reduce their energy bills by as much as 75 percent while providing U.S. homeowners annual returns of 20 percent. Ms. Weise also has degrees in engineering from Boston University, and a JD and a Masters of Intellectual Property from Pierce Law Center.

Food will be available at the event.

The Environmental and Natural Resources Law Speaker Series features presentations by leaders in these sectors. The next lecture in the Speakers Series will be Nov. 9, 2010, when Kate Iverson, Associate General Counsel for the Denver metropolitan Regional Transportation District (RTD) will talk about Fastracks, the new light rail system being developed in the metro area.

Colorado Supreme Court to Hear "Water Case of the Decade" at the Sturm College of Law; Oral Argument Set for Jan. 20, 2011

The Colorado Supreme Court will hear what has been described as "the water law case of the decade" on Jan. 20, 2011, at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Knowing the importance of this particular case and that many DU law students will be interested in the case, the Sturm College of Law approached Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs about the possibility of having the Supreme Court hear the case at DU and the Court agreed.

The case, commonly referred to as the Farmers Reservoir & Irrigation Company matter, involves five or six long-standing key Colorado water law doctrines. The case will attract the attention of water lawyers from all around the state as well as various groups such as the Agricultural Ditch and Reservoir Company, the Cache La Poudre Water Users Association, the Conejos Water Conservancy District, the Golden Canal and Reservoir Company, the Rio Grande Water Users Association, the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District, and the city of Westminster.

The Supreme Court will hear the case, which will be open to College of Law students, in the law school courtroom on the first floor. The exact details of when the case will be heard on Jan. 20 are pending, but they will be available in the near future.

Don C. Smith, director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program, said, "The importance of this case is well understood by all water users in Colorado. It will be an extraordinary privilege for the Sturm College of Law to host the Colorado Supreme Court for this case. Every student who is interested in natural resources law, and especially water law in Colorado, should plan to attend the oral hearing."

More details about the key issues in the case will be posted on the blog in the weeks prior to the hearing. In addition, additional information about how to attend the hearing will be forthcoming before the end of 2010.

New Book Addresses Fundamental Challenges China Faces in Terms of Environment and Natural Resources: Good News & Bad News

A recently published book about China, When A Billion Chinese Jump: How China Will Save Mankind -- or Destroy It, provides for some sobering reading about the impact of China's rapid and continuous market growth over the last several decades.

There is no question that the Chinese have followed a similar growth pattern as western countries have with the consequent environmental impacts. But the larger question is exactly where China goes from here. And does the West have much of a leg to stand on when it comes to criticizing China's industrial performance in relation to environmental degradation bearing in mind their own growth histories.

Consideration of these questions, and many others, provides the basis for a fascinating -- perhaps sometimes even frightening -- view of what the world may look like in future years as China moves steadily on in an economic sense.

Written by Jonathan Watts, who covers east Asia for the London Guardian newspaper, the book seems destined to be one of the pillars of work for those trying to understand where China is and where it is going.

A recent review of the book in the Financial Times ("Nature Will Constrain China's Growth," Oct. 4, 2010) makes this observation:

"Watts' assertion is that China cannot follow the path of other industrializing nations, which polluted first and cleaned up later. 'This model relied on those at the clean-up stage being able to sweep the accumulated dirt of development under a new and bigger rug,' he writes, arguing that there is no rug big enough to accommodate China's future appetites."

Another review in the London Guardian ("When a Billion Chinese Jump by Jonathan Watts," July 17, 2010) suggests:

"We are barely three decades in to China's industrial and consumption revolution. There are still hundreds of millions of poor Chinese who wish to prosper and consume in a country that wastes so much energy that its average per capita carbon emissions already equal those of France. The most worrying thing about the Chinese industrial revolution is not even the appalling damage that Watts meticulously chronicles, but the capacity for more that is still in the system."

Added to all of this is the observation, made just last week at a University of Denver lecture by Professor David Shambaugh who is himself a China expert, that dealing with environmental issues is one of the great political and social challenges ahead for China.

There are no easy answers to all of this. On the one hand, China desires what other sovereign nation states want -- a growing and vibrant economy, unrestrained to any significant degree by the policies of other nation states. The West certainly would not have paid a wit of attention to the Chinese during their industrialized revolution. But on the other hand we now clearly understand that the consequences of slap-dash economic growth can now reverberate across the globe and do so without regard to whether a country or society has enjoyed the benefits of that economic development.

It is no longer enough to now what is going on in one's own backyard or even neighborhood. Key challenges, and opportunities, now lie thousands of miles or kilometers away. Put simply, what happens in Beijing no longer stays in Beijing (to borrow from the saying "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.) This fascinating, albeit troubling book confirms that and is worthy of the attention of all of us.

--Don C. Smith

¡Lo logramos! Success!

¡Esta noche todos somos Chilenos!

Tonight, in every corner of the world from the highest peaks to the largest cities to the smallest farms and villages, we are all Chileans!

The first of the 33 miners trapped nearly 1/2 mile beneath the earth in Chile for 69 days has been rescued in the last few minutes. Of course there are 32 more miners needing to stand again on the surface of northern Chile.

However for this moment it is impossible for anyone in the world -- and especially anyone associated with natural resources -- not to be thrilled and emotional at the rescue of the first miner.

From all of us in Denver to all of our amigos and colleagues in Chile and across the world, we can think of only one thing to say:

¡Esta noche todos somos Chilenos!

Tonight we are all Chileans!

--Lucy Daberkow & Don Smith

The View From Our Window: Elk Meadow Park, Colorado

While these photos are not literally from our windows at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, they were taken at Elk Meadow Park, which is only a short distance (25 miles, 40 kilometers) from the law building. I took them yesterday afternoon just as the sun was beginning to go down after a mostly (but not entirely) cloudy and drizzly autumn afternoon.

For those of you who have not visited Colorado in the autumn, these pictures depict the golden leaves of Quaking Aspen trees. There's really no bad time to visit Elk Meadow Park, which is part of the Jefferson County open space, but it is difficult to beat the warm days and cool afternoons and evenings.

If you want to know more about this park, click here.

Experiences, such as my hike in Elk Meadow Park, remind all of us why living and studying in Colorado is such a great experience.

--Don C. Smith

Maria Carolina Crespo, 2010 LLM Graduate, Begins Work as Foreign Associate at Washington, D.C. Office of Crowell & Moring

Maria Carolina Crespo, a May 2010 LLM graduate from the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Graduate Program at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, has started an internship as a foreign associate at the firm of Crowell & Moring.

Ms. Crespo's position, which is at the firm's Washington, D.C., office, is part of the Visiting International Scholar Program (VISP). Each year the firm selects two foreign lawyers who have completed an LLM degree in the USA to be visiting scholars for a period of nine months.

She will be part of the firm's International Trade and Arbitration Department. As a member of the VISP, Ms. Crespo will have the opportunity to network and work with members of the firm, share ideas, and build a stronger relationship between Crowell Moring and Ms. Crespo's home firm of Estudio Beccar Varela in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

ENRL Director Don C. Smith Attends Brussels Product Launch of "Manual of European Environmental Policy," the Authoritative EU Environmental Law Source

Recently I attended the on-line product launch of the Manual of European Environmental Policy (MEEP), the most highly-respected environmental publication of its kind in the 27-member state European Union. (Until now the publication has only been available in print.)

To say that EU policy makers have great respect for the MEEP is hardly an overstatement since two former chairs of the powerful European Parliament Committee on Environment, Public Health, and Food Safety, Ken Collins and Caroline Jackson, have served on the the board of directors of the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), which produces the content for the MEEP. Ms. Jackson served as chair from 2005-2010.

The Institute, with offices in Brussels and London, is considered by many EU watchers to be the authoritative source when it comes to understanding the context, consequences and even to some degree the future of EU environmental policy. In fact, I would go so far as to say that anyone -- irrespective of where in the world they are -- who wants to know about the "state of the art" in terms of environmental policy making is entirely missing the boat if they do not know about and consult the MEEP on a regular basis. Put simply, there is no substitute for the context-setting and careful analysis provided by the MEEP.

This summer I was asked to join the MEEP Editorial Advisory Board, an offer I was delighted to accept since I have been a North American observer of EU environmental policy for more than a decade now. Beginning with my role as an Associate Publisher in the Elsevier Science Environmental Science and Technology group in the late 1990s, I became interested in how the EU was trying to "decouple" economic growth and environmental degradation.

It was during this period that I completed a Master of Laws (LLM) from the University of Leicester (England) Faculty of Law in European Union Law. (My thesis considered the impact of the EU's commitment to sustainable development in relation to its desire to build out a more coordinated transport system, a topic I found particularly fascinating in light of the fact that the U.S. has considered nothing of the sort.) Since 2005 I have taught about EU Environmental Law & Policy.

Consequently, the opportunity of playing a role, albeit a minor one, in what I consider the gold standard of EU environmental policy publications was one that thrilled me.

During the event (and afterwards at dinner) I was able to meet and enjoy the company of a veritable "who's who" of European Union environmental policy including (in alphabetical order):

• Camilla Adelle, IEEP Associate and Managing Editor of MEEP
• David Baldock, Director of IEEP
• Andrew Farmer, Senior Fellow at the IEEP and Editor-in-Chief of MEEP
• Nigel Haigh, Director of IEEP from 1980 to 1998 and the founder of the MEEP
• Ralph Hallo, Director of Brussels Strategies, a European public affairs consultancy based in the Netherlands
• Sir John Harman, Chairman of the U.K. Environment Agency from 2000-2008
• Caroline Jackson, former member of the European Parliament from the UK
• Hugo G. von Meijenfeldt, Deputy Director General, Ministry of the Environment in the Netherlands and special envoy for climate change

It was an enormously interesting experience for me to listen to these leaders consider the current issues facing the European Union. The "richness" of the dialogue between and among these leaders was as enjoyable as anything I have encountered in quite some time.

To be sure, the EU has its challenges and its obstacles. In particular, the EU can only wait and wonder whether its climate change policy will catch on in the rest of the world. Last December at the Copenhagen UN climate change conference, the EU found itself a bit wrong footed when other members of the international community could not figure out who was speaking on behalf of the EU. That was a loss for the EU and one that must be remedied for the EU to be taken more seriously on the global stage.

On the other hand, the 27 member state governmental entity seems -- at least for the time being -- committed to delivering on its climate change policy initiatives. Moreover, the EU is setting global environmental standards in any number of economic sectors (more on that in a few days).

In summary, while my meeting with the luminaries of EU environmental policy was relatively brief I hope it is the first of many such meetings in the future. And before anyone jumps to a conclusion and reports me to The Wall Street Journal editorial page as being "too pro European," let me say that the solutions that may work in the EU will not always work in the U.S. and vice versa. But gaining more understanding of how a different group approaches environmental issues -- many of which are the same as in the U.S. -- is not only beneficial for me, but also the students I teach and the readers of this blog.

I look forward to continuing to think and write about the EU, its environmental aspirations, and how those aspirations might inform those of us who while not living in the EU are very interested in how a different group approaches its environmental challenges.

(As a footnote, the MEEP is now published by London-based Earthscan, which has a wonderful reputation for publishing timely and important environmental, energy, and natural resources publications.)

--Don C. Smith