Institute for Energy and the Environment

Institute Staff

Michael Dworkin

Director and Professor of Law

Michael Dworkin is a leader in America's energy and environmental sectors. He has been a utility regulator, an environmental litigator, and a successful small businessman. He received a BA from Middlebury College and a JD from Harvard Law School. Professor Dworkin clerked for the D.C. Court of Appeals, represented U.S. EPA in appellate litigation, and was general counsel of the Vermont Public Service Board before becoming its chairman for six years. He speaks frequently at conferences and with clients, addressing energy policy, costs, and potentials. He is a director on the boards of the Electric Power Research Institute and the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.
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Donald M. Kreis

Associate Director and Professor of Law

Donald Kreis most recently served as general counsel to the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, where he was involved in legislation, rule making, and contested cases dealing with electric industry restructuring, renewable energy, energy efficiency, carbon cap-and-trade initiatives, utility mergers, and ratemaking. Professor Kreis has served judicial clerkships with the Vermont Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, and the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. He received a BA from Middlebury College, a JD from University of Maine School of Law, and a MS from Columbia University of Graduate School of Journalism.

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Betsy Baker

Associate Professor of Law and Senior Fellow for Oceans and Energy

Betsy Baker brings her knowledge of international law and organizations to emerging issues in oceans and energy resources. Teaching and writing about law of the sea led her to her current work in the Arctic Ocean, as part of the science crew mapping the U.S. continental shelf. She has worked at law firms and research institutions in the U.S. and Germany, earning her BA from Northwestern University, her JD from Michigan, and her LLM and Dr. iur. from Kiel’s Christian Albrechts-Universitaet in Germany, where she lived and worked for over a decade. A frequent speaker on continental shelf and Arctic legal issues, she is also an Affiliate Professor of Law and Arctic Policy at the University of Alaska – Fairbanks.
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Peter Bradford

Adjunct Professor

A former member of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission and former chair of the New York and Maine utility regulatory commissions, Peter Bradford has taught at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and currently is an Adjunct Professor at Vermont Law School teaching “Nuclear Power and Public Policy”. A member of the China Sustainable Energy Policy Council, he served on a recent panel evaluating the reliability of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Panel advising how best to replace the remaining Chernobyl nuclear plants in Ukraine, a panel on the opening of the Mochovce nuclear power plant in Slovakia, and the Keystone Center collaborative on nuclear power and climate change. He is the author of “Fragile Structures: A Story of Oil Refineries, National Securities and the Coast of Maine” and many articles. He is a graduate of Yale University and the Yale Law School and is Vice Chair of the board of The Union of Concerned Scientists.

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Mark Cooper

Senior Research Fellow for Economic Analysis

Mark Cooper is a Senior Research Fellow for Economic Analysis at the Institute for Energy and the Environment; his current project is Energy Assessment. Dr. Cooper holds a PhD from Yale University and is a former Yale University and Fulbright Fellow. He has provided expert testimony in over 250 cases for public interest clients including Attorneys General, People’s Counsels, and citizen interveners before state and federal agencies, courts, and legislators in almost four dozen jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada. Dr. Cooper has published numerous books and articles on energy, telecommunications and high technology industries. His energy related publications include: "A Consumer Analysis of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Standards: The Cornerstone of Consumer-Friendly Energy/environmental Policy (Consumer Federation of America)May 2009); “The Failure of Federal Authorities to Protect American Energy Consumers from Market Power and Other Abusive Practices,” Loyola consumer Law Review, 19:4 (2007); “Recognizing the Limits of Markets, Rediscovering Public Interest in Utilities,” in Robert E. Willett (ed), Electric and Natural Gas Business: Understanding It! (2003 and Beyond) (Houston: Financial Communications: 2003); “Economics of Power: Heading for the Exits, Deregulated Electricity Markets Not Working Well,” Natural Gas, 19:5, December 2002; "Protecting the Public Interest in the Transition to Competition in New York Industries," The Electric Utility Industry in Transition (Public Utilities Reports, Inc. & the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, 1994); "The Seven Percent Solution: Energy Prices, Energy Policy and the Economic Collapse of the 1970s," in Energy Concerns and American Families in the 1980s (Washington, D.C.: The American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, 1983); "Policy Packaging for Energy Conservation: Creating and Assessing Policy Packages," in Jeffrey Harris and Jack Hollander (Eds.), Improving Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Progress and Problems (American Council for An Energy Efficient Economy, 1982). Energy and Equity: Rising Energy Prices and the Living Standard of Lower Income Americans (Westview Press, 1982).

Institute Staff