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Randy Hertz, William Sorrell, and Paulo Machado to be honored at Vermont Law School Commencement

Vermont Law School — 06 May 2013 16:00:00 EST

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—May 6, 2013

CONTACT:
Peter Glenshaw, Director of Communications, Vermont Law School
Office: 802-831-1318, cell: 603-738-8487, home: 603-795-4764, pglenshaw@vermontlaw.edu
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SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt.—The Vice Dean of NYU Law School and a national leader on clinical education, Randy Hertz, will serve as the speaker at 2013 Commencement at Vermont Law School (VLS). In addition to conferring an honorary degree upon Professor Hertz, VLS will also confer honorary degrees upon Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell and the “Father of Brazilian Environmental Law,” Professor Paulo Affonso Leme Machado.

The 38th Commencement at VLS will be held at 10am on the Village Green of South Royalton, Vermont, on Saturday, May 18, 2013. More than 300 students are expected to be conferred juris doctor (JD), master of laws (LLM), and master’s degrees at the graduation ceremony.

“Randy Hertz is an untiring, nationally recognized advocate for clinical legal education who has made an exemplary commitment to the poor and minorities,” said Marc Mihaly, President and Dean of Vermont Law School. “In addition to embodying the spirit of VLS with his dedication to the disadvantaged and underserved, Professor Hertz played a key role with the American Bar Association’s MacCrate Report, which called for dramatic changes in the way that legal education is delivered and helped spark a national dialogue on this important topic.”

Randy Hertz serves as a vice dean, professor of clinical law, and director of clinical and advocacy programs at New York University (NYU) Law School. Before joining the NYU faculty, he worked at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, in the juvenile, criminal, appellate and special litigation divisions. He is the co-author of “Trial Manual for Defense Attorneys in Juvenile Court," and "Federal Habeas Corpus Law and Practice." Hertz is an editor-in-chief of the NYU Journal, Clinical Law Review, and the Chair-Elect of the Council of the ABA's Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. He is the recipient of the American Bar Association's Livingston Hall award for advocacy in the juvenile field; the Association of American Law School's William Pincus Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Legal Education; and the NYU Award for Distinguished Teaching by a University Professor.

Professor Paulo Affonso Leme Machado will receive an honorary juris doctor degree from Vermont Law School. Known as the “Father of Brazilian Environmental Law,” Professor Machado is one of the most influential environmental attorneys in the history of Brazil and throughout much of Latin America and South America. Professor Machado was the first public prosecutor in Brazil to champion environmental causes in a country with no public interest bar, and established the rights of environmental protection as defensible and legal entities in Brazilian law. After the fall of the military dictatorship that governed Brazil until 1985, Professor Machado became the principle author of the environmental sections of the new Brazilian constitution that guaranteed the rights to a clean environment to individuals, and the rights of nature. Professor Machado was a key architect in the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Rio Summit) and a key speaker in the recent Rio+20 Conference. He is the recipient of 45 awards and honorary degrees, author of 22 books, 34 book chapters in Brazilian publications, 32 book chapters in books published outside Brazil, and a total of 109 articles.

Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell will receive an honorary juris doctor from VLS. A native and resident of Burlington, VT, Sorrell is the current and longest serving Attorney General in the history of the state of Vermont, having served as Vermont’s Attorney General since 1997. Sorrell is considered a national leader among state attorney generals, and is well known for this work on issues involving tobacco litigation and other issues, including childhood obesity. Sorrell received his undergraduate degree (magna cum laude) from the University of Notre Dame and his juris doctor from Cornell Law School. Before becoming attorney general, he served in private and public practice, and as Vermont’s secretary of administration. Sorrell served as the President of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) from June of 2004 to June of 2005. Prior to his presidential year, he served as the chair of the NAAG Tobacco Committee and co-chair of its Consumer Protection Committee. In June of 2003 he was chosen by his fellow attorneys general to receive NAAG’s Kelley-Wyman Award, given annually to the “Outstanding Attorney General” who has done the most to further the goals of the nation’s attorneys general. In 2008 the American Legacy Foundation endowed in his name an annual lecture on Tobacco Issues. In 2009, the Vermont Medical Society recognized Sorrell as its "Citizen of the Year" and for 2010, the National Humane Society recognized him for Humane Law Enforcement.

More information about Commencement can be found here.

Vermont Law School, a private, independent institution, has the top-ranked environmental law program and one of the top-ranked clinical training programs in the nation, according to U.S.News & World Report. VLS offers a Juris Doctor curriculum that emphasizes public service; two Master’s Degrees (Master of Environmental Law and Policy, and Master of Energy Regulation and Law), and three post-JD degrees—LLM in American Legal Studies (for foreign-trained lawyers), LLM in Energy Law, and LLM in Environmental Law. The school features innovative experiential programs and is home to the Environmental Law Center, the South Royalton Legal Clinic, and the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic. For more information, visit www.vermontlaw.edu.

Vermont Law School Signs Articulation Agreement with Wesleyan University

Vermont Law School — 08 Apr 2013 16:00:00 EST

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—April 8, 2013

CONTACT:
Peter Glenshaw, Director of Communications, Vermont Law School
Office: 802-831-1318, cell: 603-738-8487, home: 603-795-4764, pglenshaw@vermontlaw.edu
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SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt.—Vermont Law School and Wesleyan University announced today that they have signed an articulation agreement that will enable graduates from Wesleyan’s College of the Environment who meet certain academic standards to be guaranteed admission to Vermont Law School’s JD, JD/Master’s or Master’s degree programs.

President Michael S. Roth of Wesleyan University signed the agreement on Wednesday, April 3rd, and President and Dean Marc Mihaly of Vermont Law School signed the agreement this week.

“We are delighted to sign this agreement with Wesleyan University and look forward to welcoming qualified graduates from its College of the Environment to the master’s and the JD degrees offered at Vermont Law School,” said Dean Mihaly. “Students from Wesleyan fit the profile of our most successful students—they are smart and committed to making a difference in their communities and, indeed, in the world.”

U.S.News & World Report recently ranked Vermont Law School as the #1 environmental law school in the nation for an unprecedented fifth consecutive year. Vermont Law School has been ranked #1 or #2 in the U.S. News rankings for environmental law every year since 1991, and it has been ranked number one for 16 of those 23 years.

“We’re excited to provide this option for students in the College of the Environment to take their interdisciplinary exploration of environmental issues to the next level through advanced study of the law, policy and regulation,” said Roth. “The COE was conceived of as a place where scholars can think about translating their research into action in the public sphere. Vermont Law School offers superb programs in environmental law and policy. Earning a JD or Master’s degree there certainly will empower our graduates to make an even greater difference in the world.”

“In my mind, Vermont Law School is the premier school for environmental law in the country,” remarked Barry Chernoff, director of College of the Environment and Robert Schumann Professor of Environmental Studies. “Pursuing further study in environmental policy, regulation and law will enable our students to influence critical environmental issues facing our country—and the world—over the next century.”

Under the agreement, graduates of Wesleyan’s College of the Environment will be guaranteed admission, with a waiver of all application fees, into Vermont Law School’s JD, Master of Environmental Law and Policy (MELP), or Master of Energy Regulation and Law (MERL) programs. Qualified applicants must complete all requirements to earn a Bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan; complete a minimum of 15 credits for a JD, or 16 credits for a Master’s, at Wesleyan; have a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 or higher; earn an LSAT score of 150 or higher for the JD; and present a letter of recommendation from the director of the College of the Environment. The agreement applies to those who have graduated from Wesleyan within four years.

College of the Environment students are especially well-prepared to pursue this type of work after graduation, said Chernoff, because Wesleyan requires them to do their primary scholarship in a particular discipline, and then examine environmental issues from multiple lenses for the Environmental Studies linked major. Majors are also required to complete a capstone project on an environmental topic, principally from the perspective of their primary major, which offers good practice in real world environmental research. The emphasis on critical thinking from an interdisciplinary perspective, which takes into account the viewpoints of all stakeholders, gives “our students a great basis for doing environmental policy work in the future,” Chernoff said. He added that a significant number of COE graduates currently go on to earn law degrees. Current students he consulted about a partnership with Vermont Law School gave universally positive feedback.

Vermont Law Review to Examine Future of Lawyers and Legal Profession

Vermont Law School — 03 Apr 2013 16:00:00 EST

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—April 3, 2013

CONTACT: Peter Glenshaw, Director of Communications, Vermont Law School

Office: 802-831-1318, cell: 603-738-8487, home: 603-795-4764, pglenshaw@vermontlaw.edu

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SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt.—Vermont Law Review will host a symposium on Friday, April 5^th, 2013, that examines one of the most compelling issues in legal education today-the future of lawyers and the legal profession.

Participants in the symposium include the following:

Paul Reiber, Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court
Phil Malone, Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard Law School
Harold Eaton, Presiding Superior Court Judge for Orange County and Windsor County, Vermont
Deborah Jillson, President of eDiscovery Division, Daegis
Pavani Reddy, Director of Customer Discovery and Innovation, LexisNexis
David Mears '91, Vermont Commissioner of Environmental Conservation and former director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Legal Clinic at Vermont Law School
Kevin Colangelo '94, co-founder of one leading legal outsourcing firms, Pangea3, and currently the Managing Partner at Yuson & Irvine LLC
Bob Paolini, Executive Director of the Vermont Bar Association
Margaret Barry, Associate Dean for Clinical and Experiential Programs, Vermont Law School
Oliver Goodenough, Professor of Law and Director, Center for Legal Innovation, Vermont Law School
Marc Mihaly, President & Dean of Vermont Law School

"Every year, the Vermont Law Review hosts two conferences aimed at addressing some of the most pressing legal issues of the day," said Peter Keays '13 and Editor-in-Chief of Vermont Law Review. "The future of the legal profession is a critical issue, and we are eager to foster a discussion on such a relevant and timely topic. We are delighted to have such a strong group of panelists gathered for this symposium."

The symposium will be held from 12pm - 5pm on Friday, April 5, 2013, in Chase Center at Vermont Law School. The event is free and open to the public. The event coincides with Family Visiting Day, which enables parents and family members of current students to attend classes, meet professors, and learn more about Vermont Law School.

Vermont Law Review is a journal of legal scholarship published by Vermont Law School students in consultation with the faculty and administration of Vermont Law School. Its main objectives are to present readers with timely, topical information concerning the legal profession and legal scholarship, and to afford Vermont Law Review members an educational experience, which will hone their skills in research, writing, legal analysis, and leadership.

Vermont Law School will authorize four (4) hours of Vermont CLE credit for this event for $15. Payment is requested by check or cash at the symposium. Please email lawreview@vermontlaw.edu to indicate your interest in attending the event.

Vermont Law School, a private, independent institution, has the top-ranked environmental law program and one of the top-ranked clinical training programs in the nation, according to U.S.News & World Report. VLS offers a Juris Doctor curriculum that emphasizes public service; two Master's Degrees (Master of Environmental Law and Policy, and Master of Energy Regulation and Law), and three post-JD degrees—LLM in American Legal Studies (for foreign-trained lawyers), LLM in Energy Law, and LLM in Environmental Law. The school features innovative experiential programs and is home to the Environmental Law Center, the South Royalton Legal Clinic, and the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic. For more information, visit www.vermontlaw.edu.

Food Talk Radio comes to VLS

Vermont Law School — 01 Apr 2013 16:00:00 EST

"Food Talk Radio"—A 30-minute radio show has been launched by the Vermont Law School (VLS) Center for Agriculture and Food systems and Vermont Law students who are passionate about food and agriculture issues.

Produced by VLS students in cooperation with Royalton Community Radio, "Food Talk Radio" episodes are available online (www.facebook.com/cafscenter) and cover topics of both local and national interest concerning food, agriculture, policy, and the law.

The first episode covers the following topics:

Emily Lyons '14 on the Farm Bill;

Interview with the owners of the hot local eatery in South Royalton, Vermont—The Worthy Burger;

A debate on labeling genetically modified foods;

Interview with Vermont farmer and former Vermont state representative, David Ainsworth; and an

Interview with VLS President and Dean Marc Mihaly on VLS's role in training next generation of legal experts in food and agriculture.

"I'm thrilled with the creativity of this first episode," said Laurie Ristino, Director of the Center for Food and Agriculture Systems at Vermont Law School. "There is so much to discuss both nationally and locally in Vermont about the role of law in food and agriculture. Food Talk Radio is a dynamic forum for bringing together people interested in these issues."

Scholar and Social Entrepreneur to Lead Environmental Law Center

Vermont Law School — 18 Mar 2013 16:00:00 EST

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — March 18, 2013

CONTACT:
Peter Glenshaw, Director of Communications, Vermont Law School
Office: 802-831-1318, cell: 603-738-8487, home: 603-795-4764, pglenshaw@vermontlaw.edu
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SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt.—A water law scholar who began her career by founding and leading a non-profit environmental law firm has been appointed as the new director of Vermont Law School’s Environmental Law Center (ELC). Melissa Scanlan is currently the Water Law and Policy Scholar at the University of Wisconsin Law School. She will assume leadership of the ELC in June 2013.

“Melissa Scanlan brings a robust background as a scholar, activist, and social entrepreneur,” said President and Dean Marc Mihaly. “I am incredibly excited about what she will do for the students and faculty of Vermont Law School as the new director of the ELC,” he said.

Scanlan received her JD degree and her MS degree in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California at Berkeley. She received her BA in World Politics from the Catholic University of America.

After graduating from Berkeley in 1999, Scanlan received two prestigious fellowships: an Equal Justice Works Fellowship, which mobilizes the next generation of lawyers committed to equal justice, and an Echoing Green Fellowship, which supports emerging global social entrepreneurs with seed funding. Scanlan used these fellowships to launch Midwest Environmental Advocates (MEA), the first non-profit environmental law center in Wisconsin. Under Scanlan’s leadership MEA grew into a thriving firm, with offices in two cities, providing legal and technical assistance to grassroots groups working for clean air, water, and government accountability.

After serving as MEA’s founder, executive director, and senior counsel, she was a lead consultant in the creation of the Center for Water Policy in 2011. The Center, which was launched with a $2.6M endowment, is an interdisciplinary water policy think tank within the new School of Freshwater Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Selected as a Wisconsin Super Lawyers Rising Star in 2006, 2007, and 2008, Scanlan has represented clients in high impact lawsuits and shaped public policy in areas ranging from the Great Lakes Compact and water supply issues to enforcement and implementation of the Clean Water Act. She currently serves on the Board of the Environmental Law Section of the State Bar of Wisconsin and the Sierra Club’s National Litigation Committee.

Scanlan’s scholarship focuses on the public trust doctrine, trans-boundary water agreements, the intersection of law and science, and empirical research about water management.

“I am thrilled to join Vermont Law School and the Environmental Law Center, which has been a leader in environmental scholarship and advocacy for more than 35 years,” Scanlan said. “Under the leadership of Marc Mihaly and John Echeverria, the ELC established leading centers on issues such as energy and the environment, agriculture and food systems, and environmental governance in China. I welcome the challenge to further the reach of the ELC and educate the next generation of environmental change makers.”

For the past two years, Professor John Echeverria has served as the Acting Director of the ELC. He will be returning to the VLS faculty following a sabbatical leave during the 2013–14 academic year.

“I am extraordinarily grateful for John’s service to the ELC for the past two years,” said Mihaly. “He has worked tirelessly to lead its operation while also continuing to teach, research, and publish. We look forward to welcoming him back after a well-deserved sabbatical.”

Vermont Law School, a private, independent institution, has been ranked by U.S. News as the #1 environmental law school in the nation for an unprecedented five consecutive years, and has been ranked #1 or #2 in the U.S. News rankings for environmental law every year since 1991. VLS offers a Juris Doctor curriculum that emphasizes public service; two Master’s Degrees (Master of Environmental Law and Policy, and Master of Energy Regulation and Law), and three post-JD degrees—LLM in American Legal Studies (for foreign-trained lawyers), LLM in Energy Law, and LLM in Environmental Law. The school features innovative experiential programs and is home to the Environmental Law Center, the South Royalton Legal Clinic, and the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic. For more information, visit www.vermontlaw.edu

Public Risk, Private Profit; Ratepayer Cost, Utility Imprudence

Vermont Law School — 14 Mar 2013 16:00:00 EST

REPORT: FL, SC AND GA RATEPAYERS TO FOOT BILL FOR $20 BILLION IN EXCESS COSTS IF NUCLEAR REACTOR PROJECTS ARE NOT STOPPED

Ratepayer-Unfriendly “Advance Cost Recovery” Financing Schemes Are Keeping “Uneconomical” Reactor Projects Alive; Warning Sounded for IA, UT, MO and Other States Toying With Advanced Cost Recovery Financing.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 14, 2013—Saddled with an “advance cost recovery” financing arrangement that allows the nuclear industry to make them pay in advance for the construction of new reactors, electricity ratepayers in South Carolina, Florida and Georgia, are faced with a stark choice today: Either “eat” roughly $6 billion already invested in costly new nuclear reactors or shell out even more when the region’s increasingly “uneconomical” reactor projects pile up $20 billion or more in excess costs.

That is the main conclusion of “Public Risk, Private Profit, Ratepayer Cost, Utility Imprudence,” a major new report by economic analyst Mark Cooper of the Vermont Law School Institute for Energy and the Environment. (The report is available online at http://216.30.191.148/vlsreport and http://www.vermontlaw.edu/Academics/Environmental_Law_Center/Institutes_and_Initiatives/News.htm.)

Cooper also concludes that the dire prospects ahead for ratepayers in the Southeast U.S. should send a clear warning to ratepayers and lawmakers in other states—including Iowa, Missouri and Utah—that have toyed with adopting “advance recovery financing” (sometimes called “construction work in progress” or CWIP financing) to erect traditional large-scale nuclear reactors and so-called “small modular reactors,” which recently received the Golden Fleece Award from Taxpayers for Common Sense.

In the wake of rising cost overruns at the Vogtle nuclear reactor project in Georgia, skyrocketing cost estimates for the Levy reactors in Florida, and the shuttering of the problem-plagued Crystal River reactor site, the Cooper study scrutinizes the economics of two Southeast U.S. reactors -- the V.C. Summer project in South Carolina and the proposed Levy reactor project in Florida. In both cases, the ratepayers of the utilities building the reactors are at significant peril of footing the bill for tens of billions of dollars in excess costs if the reactor projects proceed.

Report author Mark Cooper said: “For ratepayers, this is a real pick-your-poison situation: Either pull the plug now and ‘eat’ an average cost per reactor of one or two billion dollars already sunk into each reactor … or let the reactors proceed and pay $10 billion or more per project in excess costs over the life of the reactors. In the face of escalating nuclear construction costs, cheap natural gas, rising competition from increasingly inexpensive wind and other renewables, falling consumer demand, and a heightened focus on energy efficiency, the economics of these new nuclear reactor projects could not be more abysmal for ratepayers. The fact that advance cost recovery for nuclear reactors shifts the risk of construction from stockholders to ratepayers is the one and only thing that is keeping these uneconomical reactor projects alive today.”

Peter A. Bradford, adjunct professor at the Vermont Law School, a former member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and a former utility commission chair in New York and Maine, said: “The claim that having customers pay for power plants years before they generate electricity somehow saves customers money is completely false. In most cases, customers lose money under these rate-setting policies, which might more accurately be called ‘advanced cost enhancement’ rather than ‘advanced cost recovery.’ Only in a best case scenario—which does not exist in the U.S. today—do customers have a chance of breaking even. They will never—absolutely never—come out ahead.”

Key conclusions of the Cooper report include the following:

“Advance cost recovery” financing is driving new reactors, not marketplace economics. “The critically important role of advanced cost recovery … in creating the new nuclear fiasco is demonstrated by the behavior of utilities. All of the projects for which engineering, production, and construction (EPC) have been signed involve guaranteed advanced cost recovery. Three-quarters of the states where advanced cost recovery existed quickly saw an EPC contract signed. Not one of the projects proposed in a state without advanced costs recovery has moved to the EPC phase.”
New nuclear reactors will impose tens of billions of dollars in excess costs on their ratepayers. “The exact amount (of the excess costs) will vary depending on the assumptions made about the construction costs, the discount rate (cost of capital), the projected cost of gas, and the cost and availability of other alternatives. The best estimate of the excess costs that will be borne by South Carolina ratepayers and the South Carolina economy is in the range of $10 billion. With future cost overruns and adjusting for the discount rate, the Levy reactors in Florida would have a similar level of impact. Other states implementing an advanced cost recovery statute today would likely face even larger excessive costs.”
The time to protect ratepayers is now. “Time is of the essence in conducting prudence review of these massive construction projects since the statutes guarantee cost recovery and costs mount quickly. Although the estimated costs for reactors in the Southeast are in the range of $60-$70 billion today, less than $6 billion has been spent to date. The excessive costs of completing the reactors far exceed the sunk costs at present, which means they should be cancelled. However, as more and more is spent, under the perverse logic and incentives of advanced cost recovery those sunk costs become a burden that ratepayers will have to shoulder for decades.”
New nuclear reactors are unable to deliver power at an economical price. “The facts on the ground that have created this economic fiasco for ratepayers include: nuclear cost overruns; declining natural gas prices; the falling cost of other alternatives like wind and solar; slowing demand growth; and climate change policy that is emphasizing targeted incentives and performance standards for low carbon resources, rather than hefty carbon costs.
Advance cost recovery is an inherently anti-ratepayer approach. “Advance cost recovery destroys the consumer protection that lies at the heart of utility regulation, as a 2012 analysis prepared by the staff of the Iowa Utilities Board concluded. In a comprehensive assessment of a proposed advanced cost recovery statute in that state, which was ultimately rejected by legislators, the staff found several problems with the financing scheme, including the fact that advanced cost recovery alters the most fundamental principle of rate-setting by shifting the risk of construction so dramatically that the resulting scheme of cost recovery virtually eliminates stockholder risk in the investment.”

CONTACT: Will Harwood, (703) 276-3255 or wharwood@hastingsgroup.com; and Alex Frank, (703) 276-3264 or afrank@hastingsgroup.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE: A streaming audio replay of the news event will be available on the Web at http://216.30.191.148/vlsreport and http://www.vermontlaw.edu/Academics/Environmental_Law_Center/Institutes_and_Initiatives/News.htm as of 5 p.m. EDT on March 14, 2013. The Cooper report and a related news release are available at the same URLs.

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Listen to the report

Vermont Law School Ranked Number One in Environmental Law for Fifth Consecutive Year

Vermont Law School — 12 Mar 2013 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt.—The U.S.News & World Report has released its rankings for the Best Graduate Schools for 2014, and has ranked Vermont Law School as the #1 environmental law school in the nation for an unprecedented fifth consecutive year.

Vermont Law School has been ranked #1 or #2 in the U.S. News rankings for environmental law every year since 1991, and it has been ranked number one for 16 of those 23 years.

"This ranking reaffirms that VLS is a school with national impact on one of the most important issues of our time," said President and Dean Marc Mihaly. "I am extremely proud of the entire VLS community for their hard work and commitment to our environmental curriculum, clinics, and institutes."

"VLS offers the largest and most environmental diverse curriculum in the nation," said acting director of the Environmental Law Center, Professor John Echeverria. "Whether it's agriculture, energy, water, land use, climate change, China, and now Myanmar, VLS is deeply engaged in teaching, research, and advocacy in each of these areas. We are grateful for the continued recognition from U.S. News, and look forward to continuing to make a difference in the lives of our students, community, and the world," he said.

U.S. News also cited VLS in its advice to students regarding "4 Factors" to weigh along with the best law school rankings.

For more information on the U.S. News rankings regarding Vermont Law School, please visit here: http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/environmental-law-rankings.

CONTACT: Peter Glenshaw, Director of Communications, Vermont Law School

Office: 802-831-1318, cell: 603-738-8487, home: 603-795-4764, pglenshaw@vermontlaw.edu

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Entergy v. Shumlin: Vermont Law Expert Available to Comment

Vermont Law School — 09 Jan 2013 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt.—Constitutional law expert Cheryl Hanna, a professor at Vermont Law School, will be attending the oral arguments in Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC et al. v. Shumlin et al. before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City on Jan. 14, 2013, and is available for comment. She is also planning to write a post-argument analysis that will be available at www.vermontlaw.edu.

This case is an appeal from a January 2012 ruling by Federal District Court Judge Garvan Murtha in which he held that federal law preempted Vermont's attempts to shutter the plant. The decision said that state legislators were primarily motivated by safety concerns when passing legislation, an area under exclusive federal control. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a 20-year extension of Vermont Yankee's federal license, which was to expire Wednesday, March 21, 2012, but the state's lone reactor still hasn't received a permit from the Vermont Public Service Board. Vermont Yankee continues to operate pending both this appeal and a decision from the PSB.

An expert on the U.S. Supreme Court and constitutional law, Hanna is a frequent commentator for the media, including Vermont Public Radio and WCAX-TV 3 News. She has followed the Vermont Yankee litigation closely and written several blog posts on the litigation. Her faculty bio is available at http://www.vermontlaw.edu/Our_Faculty/Faculty_Directory/Cheryl_Hanna.htm and she can be reached via voice or text on her cell phone at 802-233-8818 or at her email channa@vermontlaw.edu.

##

CONTACT:
Carol Westberg, Director of Marketing and Communications
Vermont Law School
Office: 802-831-1309
cell: 603-381-5444
cwestberg@vermontlaw.edu

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Vermont Law School to Support Environmental Reform in Myanmar

Vermont Law School — 11 Dec 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt.—Vermont Law School (VLS) announced today that it has received a one-year grant from the blue moon fund to support environmental governance training and education in Myanmar as the nation prepares for considerable foreign investment.

Coming on the heels of a historic visit by President Barack Obama, the $300,000 grant recognizes that the next phases of political and economic reform in Myanmar represent an opportunity to protect large areas of the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot from the looming threat of development. Accordingly, the initial emphasis of the project is to provide key government officials, legislators, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and business leaders with a range of legal and policy tools that can be quickly adopted to provide broad scale protection of the country's key biodiversity areas.

The project is expected to begin in early 2013. It will focus on developing a comprehensive program that utilizes legal and policy tools to protect valuable natural resources. Preparing advice for members of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (the legislature of Myanmar) on integrating environmental considerations in foreign investment decisions is among the planned activities.

"This grant offers Vermont Law School a unique opportunity to expand its footprint into Southeast Asia," said Marc Mihaly, president and dean of VLS. "Our deep experience building capacity and developing environmental governance policies in China will allow us to make a constructive difference to this emerging and important nation."

Following a scoping mission earlier this year to Myanmar, members of the U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law at VLS realized that their expertise and success in advancing the rule of law to protect China's environment could be applied to the fragile ecosystems of Myanmar. "We saw first-hand the need and opportunity for economic development, but also the impact it would have on Myanmar's environment," said Siu Tip Lam, Assistant Professor of Law and Program Director. "Our interest lies in assisting Myanmar's leaders to enact and enforce strong protections for Myanmar's valuable and abundant environmental resources in ways that enable the country's sustainable development."

In addition to assisting with the rapid adoption of strong environmental protections for Myanmar's natural resources, the project will help improve knowledge of, and skills in, environmental law among government officials, members of the judiciary, NGOs, business leaders and educators. The project will also aim to help create a broad environmental regulatory framework that will allow for both sound environmental management and the encouragement of sustainable investment opportunities.

Founded in 1973, VLS (www.vermontlaw.edu) became the top-ranked environmental law school in the United States by training its students to act as agents of change in pursuit of the VLS mission, "law for the community and the world." It currently has 56 full-time, 10 part-time and 75 adjunct faculty and some 735 students pursuing JD and other advanced degrees, including a Master of Environmental Law and Policy (MELP) and an LLM in Environmental Law.

In 2006, with the support from the USAID, VLS launched the U.S.-China Partnership (www.vermontlaw.edu/china) to advance environmental governance and rule of law in China. In addition to receiving renewals of the USAID grant in 2009 and 2012, the U.S.-China Partnership is also currently administering two environmental advocacy programs in China funded by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Kunming.

Based in Charlottesville, VA, blue moon fund (www.bluemoonfund.org) was established in April 2002 by Diane Edgerton Miller and Patricia Jones Edgerton. Together they shared more than 70 years of experience in philanthropy and dedication to preserving the sustainable quality of life on our planet. blue moon fund emerged from the 2001 restructuring of the W. Alton Jones Foundation, which had been created in 1944 by Pat's father and Diane's grandfather, W. Alton Jones. Led by Diane, blue moon fund is continuing with a strategic, initiative-based philanthropy that helps improve the human relationship to the natural world. The blue moon fund is characterized by its holistic approach, its risk taking, its nimbleness, and its commitment to cutting-edge ideas in both programs and investments.

CONTACTS:
Carol Westberg, Director of Marketing and Communications, Vermont Law School
Office: 802-831-1309, cell: 603-381-5444, cwestberg@vermontlaw.edu;

Martin Cosier, U.S.-China Partnership LLM Fellow,
cell: 802-565-0087, martincosier@gmail.com

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Vermont Law School Releases Updated National Smart Grid Privacy Policy to Empower Electric Customers

Vermont Law School — 10 Dec 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT—Putting electric customers first, Vermont Law School's Institute for Energy and the Environment today presented an updated smart grid privacy policy designed to serve as a model for utility companies nationwide.

The policy is available at: www.VermontLaw.edu/smartgrid.

Under the policy, intended to protect consumers while supporting a national rollout of a smart electric grid, utility companies would ensure customer information is not disclosed to third parties except when the customer consents, disclosure is required to provide reliable electric service or disclosure is required by law, such as warrants or "sunshine" laws.

With increased focus on releasing data to third-party innovators through the Green Button Initiative and ongoing concerns about access to the data through the legal system, this updated version of the model privacy policy more specifically addresses these issues.

The policy is intended to regulate the information practices of electric utilities that are implementing new wireless technology in an effort to improve energy reliability, increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve the environment. But the technology also raises privacy concerns because smart meters provide real-time data on electricity use that may indicate how many people are in the house, what they are doing, what appliances are being used and other data that is valuable to advertisers and other companies.

Kevin Jones, VLS's smart grid project leader, said the privacy policy provides clarity on data privacy concerns and protects customer information from unauthorized disclosure, while granting customers access to their own information.

"This policy can be used in the existing form or can be altered to fit each utility's needs and local, state and federal laws," he said. "Our goal is to help develop a national model for consumer protection, while enabling broad adoption of smart grid technology. We welcome input on how we can improve this model policy going forward."

The privacy policy was developed to encompass nine key principles:

Make privacy the default setting.

Provide complete privacy protection.
Know the law regarding public disclosure in your state.
Only store/provide access to necessary information.
Obtain written consent before disclosing to most third parties.
Educate customers about the implications of sharing data with third parties.
Notify customers when data is disclosed.
Develop a plan for contingencies.
Make your privacy policy accessible to customers.

VLS's smart grid research project utilizes case study research to examine legal, regulatory and other policy changes that can best ensure smart grid implementation in the United States improves reliability, enhances consumer value and meets clean energy goals.

CONTACT:
Carol Westberg, Director of Marketing and Communications
Vermont Law School

office: 802-831-1309
cell: 603-381-5444
home: 603-643-1261
cwestberg@vermontlaw.edu

Kevin Jones, Smart Grid Project Leader
office: 802-831-1054
kbjones@vermontlaw.edu

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Vermont Law Students Provide Ideas, Energy As Non-Voting Board Members on Local Nonprofits

Vermont Law School — 12 Nov 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- In an unusual partnership, Vermont Law School students are serving as non-voting volunteer board advisors to Upper Valley nonprofit groups dealing with social justice, educational, environmental and other community issues.

The VLS Board Fellows program provides the nonprofits with fresh insight, energy and ideas from the students, while the students gain valuable experience in nonprofit management and governance and a deeper understanding of social issues.

Many business schools, including the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, have such programs, but VLS's is one of the few and one of the largest at law schools, said Associate Professor Betsy Schmidt, a nonprofit and social enterprise law expert who directs Vermont Law's Board Fellows program. Business schools also are ahead of law schools in offering nonprofit and social enterprise courses, but VLS currently has about 40 students in a growing number of classes dealing with law and policy issues in the fast growing field.

"Our Board Fellows program improves our relationship with the community and shows that Vermont Law continues to innovate and address market realities," Schmidt said. "Our expansion in this field positions us to be a major player in an emerging and exciting area of the law."

The students attend the organizations' board and committee meetings and complete a project that the board is undertaking. Project examples include helping with strategic plans, grant proposals and annual reports. The students cannot practice law or cast board votes but can discuss governance and other issues. The students spend from one semester to two years in their roles depending on the needs of the nonprofits and the students' schedules.

Currently, 19 students participate as Board Fellows at 11 nonprofits. A new class of Fellows will start in January, and the program will host a "meet and greet" for interested students and nonprofits on Dec. 3 to begin the application process.

The following students and nonprofit leaders are available to comment:

VLS student Jared Carpenter, jcarpenter@vermontlaw.edu
VLS student Norika Kida Betti, nkida@vermontlaw.edu
Rebecca Foulk, Health Hub and High Horses Therapeutic Center, Rebecca.foulk@gmail.com
Jeff Schuman, Friends of the Winooski, North Branch Nature Center, jefflynn.vt@gmail.com
Sheryl Tewksbury, Global Campuses, slt@globalcampuses.org, 802-274-2163

More information about the Board Fellows program and the upcoming "meet and greet" is available from Professor Schmidt at 802-831-1103 or bschmidt@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School

Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Sen. Leahy to Receive Achievement Award From Vermont Law School

Vermont Law School — 09 Nov 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, will receive the 2012 annual Achievement Award from Vermont Law School's Washington, D.C., Alumni Association on Nov. 27 in the U.S. Capitol Building.

The award recognizes organizations and people who have demonstrated outstanding achievements as leaders, catalysts, and educators, particularly in the field of environmental policy.

Leahy is being recognized for his continued support of Vermont Law School, the VLS-based U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law and the Vermont-based Institute for Sustainable Communities for their promotion of environmental rule of law and advocacy in China. Leahy also was selected for his work on the 2008 Farm Bill and leadership in the organic agriculture movement, which has earned him the nickname "Father of Organics."

Previous award recipients include Jon Wellinghoff, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; Lisa Jackson, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; and most recently Jane Lubchenco, undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School

Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

NarcoLaw Blog: Federal Prosecutor Turned Law Professor Tackles “War on Drugs”

Vermont Law School — 08 Nov 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Michele Martinez Campbell, who as a federal prosecutor in New York City battled drug kingpins and traffickers before she joined academia, looks at U.S. narcotics law and policy in a scholarly way in her new NarcoLaw blog.

Martinez Campbell, now a criminal law professor at Vermont Law School and a crime novelist, questions current approaches to America's drug problem. In her first blog post, she discusses Tuesday's ballot initiatives that legalized recreational use of marijuana in Colorado and Washington.

"If the war on drugs is a failure, what are the consequences for narcotics law and policy?" she said. "What should we do instead? Legalize, educate, treat? What evidence is there that these strategies would be more effective than the prohibition approach we've been following? What would legalization even look like and what potential collateral consequences would it have?"

Check out NarcoLaw as Martinez Campbell and leading scholars and practitioners in law, medicine, sociology and other fields address these questions.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School

Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Illinois Utility’s Smart Grid Struggle Underscores Need For Clear Policies, Vermont Law School Study Shows

Vermont Law School — 01 Nov 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- A clash over Commonwealth Edison Co.'s plan to modernize its electrical grid underscores the need for clear cost recovery policies for utilities nationwide if the smart's grid's reliability and environmental benefits are to be realized, a new Vermont Law School study suggests.

Read the ComEd study. Kevin Jones, smart grid project leader for VLS's Institute for Energy and the Environment, is available to comment at 802-353-2334 or kbjones@vermontlaw.edu.

"While ComEd has successfully implemented a smart grid pilot and subsequently developed a full scale, smart grid implementation plan consistent with Illinois law, the ongoing controversy between the Illinois Commerce Commission, ComEd and the Illinois Legislature on cost recovery threatens further progress," Jones said. "As states such as California and Vermont have demonstrated, clear state policies will speed smart grid implementation. In Illinois, uncertainty over state cost recovery policy is delaying the benefits for ComEd customers and the environment."

Jones said ComEd's struggle to clarify cost recovery policy for its smart grid pilot programs have been dramatic and public, significantly impacting the perception of the company and the benefits of smart grid investments with both the Illinois news media and the public it serves.

"The utility has faced significant challenges in reaching a balanced cost recovery approach that ComEd, state regulators, the Illinois Legislature and the courts could all accept," Jones said. "ComEd's experience suggests that something as far-ranging in impact as smart grid deployment requires a solid policy foundation based on clear policy leadership from state legislators and regulators. When cost recovery is uncertain and subject to expensive regulatory lag, utilities may observe ComEd's experience and decide against making the types of investments required to achieve the full benefits of the smart grid."

Vermont Law is studying the legal, policy and regulatory hurdles to upgrading the U.S. electric system with smart grid technology, including case studies of six organizations across the country to recommend best practices that can be replicated nationwide: Commonwealth Edison, Central Vermont Public Service Company, Pecan Street Project, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Salt River Project and San Diego Gas and Electric.

Read Chicago Tribune coverage of the ComEd smart grid dispute. Read the IEE's previous case studies on the SRP and SMUD. Read more about VLS's Smart Grid Research Project.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School

Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Law School to Host Vermont House Debate

Vermont Law School — 25 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- The Vermont Law School Student Bar Association will host a public debate between the candidates for the Vermont House of Representatives Windsor-Orange 1 seat at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 30, in Oakes 012.

Professor Mark Latham, vice dean for Academic Affairs, will moderate the debate between Democratic incumbent Sarah Buxton and Republican challenger David Ainsworth. The race is a rematch of the 2010 election when Buxton, a VLS alumnus, unseated the incumbent Ainsworth by one vote.

VLS does not endorse or oppose political candidates.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School

Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Presidential Debate: Vermont Law School Expert Available to Comment on Business Issues

Vermont Law School — 16 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Vermont Law School Professor Jennifer Taub is available to provide analysis of economic, business, finance and banking issues in tonight's presidential debate.

Taub can be reached on her cell phone at 917-833-6804.

She is an expert in financial reform, corporate governance and mutual fund regulation. Her forthcoming book titled "The Great Betrayal: How Washington Bailed Out Wall Street but Left Main Street Underwater" is under contract with Yale Press.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School

Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Law School to Inaugurate President and Dean Marc Mihaly

Vermont Law School — 15 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Vermont Law School President and Dean Marc Mihaly will discuss the future of legal education and VLS's initiatives to adapt to the changing legal landscape at his inauguration on Friday, Oct. 26.

The event will include a panel discussion of the "New World of Legal Education" at 1 p.m. in the Chase Community Center. The inauguration ceremony will be held at 3 p.m. on the South Royalton Town Green. A reception will follow in the Chase Center.

Mihaly, one of the nation's leading environmental attorneys, became VLS's eighth president and dean on Aug. 1. He was a visiting professor in 2004-05 and joined the regular faculty in 2005. He served as acting associate dean of environmental programs and director of the Environmental Law Center in 2005-06 and then as associate dean and director from 2007-12. He is an expert in land use, urban planning and energy law and policy.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School

Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Law School Names Senior USDA Attorney as First Director of Center for Agriculture and Food Systems

Vermont Law School — 10 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Vermont Law School announced Wednesday that Laurie Ristino, a senior attorney and administrator at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has been selected as the first director of VLS's Center for Agriculture and Food Systems.

Ristino, who will also serve as an associate professor of law, was selected after a national search.

"As the nation's top-ranked environmental law school, we're excited to have Laurie join our team and are confident she will advance the Center's goals of advocating for community-based agriculture in Vermont, New England and across the United States," said President and Dean Marc Mihaly.

The Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, which was created last year as a result of an anonymous gift, is developing a comprehensive program in agriculture and food policy. Its mission is to promote economically and environmentally sustainable agriculture and food systems through legal and policy research and scholarship; to provide public education and technical legal assistance; and to educate the next generation of scholars, practitioners and advocates.

Ristino is a senior counsel with the Office of the General Counsel at the USDA in Washington, D.C., where she advises the Natural Resources Conservation Service and Forest Service on a host of legal issues. A national expert in the conservation and preservation of American working lands, she has advised the USDA on conservation program implementation under the 2002 and 2008 farm bills and has been advising on the 2012 farm bill development. She also is a professorial lecturer in law at George Washington University Law School, where she teaches a course that explores the critical need to develop sustainable American food systems.

Ristino described her vision for the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems as serving three important roles: education, engagement, and advocacy. "Given Vermont Law School's location in a progressive agricultural state with access to leading thinkers in the environment and agriculture, the Center is in a unique position to provide service to the Vermont community, while contributing nationally to sustainable agriculture and food systems law and policy," she said. "This is the right time to be engaging in food and agriculture issues given the unprecedented public interest in this area and the undeniable need for safe and sustainable food for the world."

More information about the Center is available at http://www.vermontlaw.edu/cafs

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School

Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Professor Benjamin Sovacool writes in Science: Deploying Off-Grid Technology to Eradicate Energy Poverty

Vermont Law School — 05 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- A new article in Science by a Vermont Law School professor offers new ideas to make renewable electricity and heat available to low-income, rural households.

The article, published today and based on field research in 10 Asian countries, offers design principles to overcome barriers to deploying off-grid technology to eradicate energy poverty, said author Dr. Benjamin K. Sovacool, a visiting associate professor at Vermont Law School, where he manages the Energy Security and Justice Program at the Institute for Energy and the Environment.

"Rural energy users must be viewed not as passive consumers but as active participants in energy projects," Sovacool said. "None of these principles or this shift in focus is necessarily new. Yet, energy development practitioners may be too busy, too determined to push a particularly 'favorite' technology, or too proud to learn from each other and the academic literature to take them into account. In some cases, maldevelopment or negative impacts can occur if programs waste precious resources. Practitioners, and those interested in energy development, could start by shifting how they conceive of energy technology and program structure. No matter how dazzling and promising advances in energy science and technology may be, it will have an extremely limited effect in eradicating energy poverty unless programs take these principles into consideration."

Sovacool is available to comment at 802-831-1053 or sovacool@vt.edu

His research interests include the barriers to alternative sources of energy supply such as renewable electricity generators and distributed generation, the politics of large-scale energy infrastructure, designing public policy to improve energy security and access to electricity, and building adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change in least developed Asian countries.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School

Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum: Vermont Law Expert Available to Comment

Vermont Law School — 01 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt.—Human rights expert Stephanie Farrior, a Vermont Law School professor and former legal director of Amnesty International, is available to comment on today's arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum.

The case, which tests whether U.S. courts can hold accountable those accused of violating human rights in foreign countries, involves a lawsuit filed by Nigerian nationals against European oil companies for aiding the Nigerian military in killing and torturing civilians who protested oil exploration in Nigeria.

Farrior is director of Vermont Law's International and Comparative Law Programs and a co-founder of the Center for Justice and Accountability, which helps survivors of torture and other severe human rights abuses hold the perpetrators accountable through the Alien Tort Statute and other laws. Her faculty bio: http://www.vermontlaw.edu/Our_Faculty/Faculty_Directory/Stephanie_Farrior.htm

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School

Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

National Experts to Explore Agriculture, Food Systems at VLS

Vermont Law School — 17 Sep 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Kathleen Merrigan, the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department's chief policy manager for promoting local and regional food systems, will give the keynote address at Vermont Law School's inaugural Conference on Agriculture and Food Systems on Friday, Sept. 28, 2012. The event, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., is free and open to the public.

The conference will bring together national experts to address the major legal and policy issues related to agriculture and food systems. It will feature speakers with diverse specialties and points of view on food and public health, sustainable animal agriculture, public regulation of genetically modified organisms, agriculture and water quality, localizing food and the future of agriculture production nationally and in Vermont.

The conference also will highlight VLS's Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, which was established last year to train the next generation of legal advocates to help communities and organizations address the complexities posed by local, sustainable, community-based agriculture.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School

Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Human Rights Advocate to Discuss War on Terror

Vermont Law School — 07 Sep 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Gabor Rona '78, International Legal Director of Human Rights First, will discuss the war on terror at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 13, in the Yates Room of Debevoise Hall at Vermont Law School. The event is free and open to the public.

Rona's talk, "Is There Still a War on Terror? The Intersections of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in the Fight Against Terrorism," will include the conflict in Syria, drone warfare, waterboarding and other interrogation techniques, the tenth anniversary of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and other issues.

Rona, whose talk is hosted by Vermont Law's International Law Society, advises Human Rights First on international law and coordinates international human rights litigation. He also teaches at Columbia Law School.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School

Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Law School Receives $1.5 Million Grant to Create “Legal Ecosystem” in Southwest China

Vermont Law School — 06 Sep 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Vermont Law School has received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. State Department to support a three-year project designed to improve environmental and public health in China.

"The result will be increased citizen participation and progress on a scale that will have meaningful impact on southwest China's burgeoning environmental issues," said Professor Jason Czarnezki, faculty director of the U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law at Vermont Law.

The U.S.-China Partnership will work with Southwest Forestry University in Kunming, Yunnan Province, to create a "legal ecosystem" that includes an environmental and biodiversity law clinic to serve nongovernmental organizations, communities and underserved citizens. The school will host workshops to educate environmental leaders, lawyers and citizens on legal avenues to address environmental and public health issues.

"In addition, the law clinic, through a deepened understanding of the communities' needs and the experience of handling cases, will improve advocacy for changes in the law in consultation with local environmental protection agencies," Czarnezki said. "The program also will train government officials and judges to improve enforcement and implementation of environmental laws as it will be a collaborative effort seeking to build bridges between different sectors of the Chinese environmental law community."

The project's goal is help legal advocates, citizen groups, NGOs and government agencies to act individually and together within Yunnan Province and to create a model for advancing environmental governance for the entire region.

Vermont's Congressional delegation - U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, Sen. Patrick Leahy and Sen. Bernie Sanders - supported Vermont Law's grant proposal to the State Department. "This project will empower China's citizens to participate in and use legal avenues to address local environmental issues and to strengthen their communities," Welch said. "Vermont Law School continues to positively and practically influence the impact of the law on the environment in China."

Vermont Law School is a leader among U.S. law schools working on environmental governance in China, whose severe pollution affects global climate change and air quality and public health in the United States. Since 2006, the U.S.-China Partnership has trained thousands of Chinese lawyers, government officials and educators, giving them the skills and academic infrastructure needed to solve environmental and energy challenges in China through the rule of law.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School

Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VLS’s New Dean to Focus on Innovation, Affordability Amidst Changing Legal Landscape

Vermont Law School — 27 Jul 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. --Marc Mihaly, Vermont Law School's new dean and president, will start work on Aug. 1 with a focus on adopting innovative changes and holding down costs in an effort to help the school and its graduates succeed in the changing legal landscape.

Mihaly is available to meet with the media to discuss his vision for VLS.

He assumes VLS's top post at a time of unprecedented transition in legal higher education and the legal job market. VLS is the nation's top-ranked environmental law school, and many of its alumni pursue careers nationwide and globally in environmental stewardship, social justice and public service.

"Law schools don't know what will happen and some of them are 'dead schools walking,'" said Mihaly, who previously was director of VLS's Environmental Law Center. "I don't think success will look anything like the present. All these changes have been a long time coming and the recession just accelerated the process. But VLS can do this -- we're small, nimble, able to move more quickly than other schools. I believe VLS will benefit from being a national leader in adapting our curriculum, expanding our Distance Learning program and rethinking what we teach, who we teach, our educational products and what our graduates can do with their degrees."

The Board of Trustees announced March 12 the appointment of Mihaly as VLS's eighth president and dean, effective August 1. He will succeed Jeff Shields, who will retire July 31 after eight years as president and dean.

Mihaly, one of the nation's leading environmental law attorneys, was a visiting professor in 2004-05 and joined the regular Vermont Law School faculty in 2005. An expert in the areas of land use, urban planning and energy law and policy, Mihaly received his BA degree from Harvard College and, after service in the Peace Corps, received his JD degree from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley, where he was editor in chief of the Ecology Law Quarterly. He then served with the environmental unit of the California Attorney General's Office and with the San Mateo County Legal Aid Society.

Mihaly cofounded Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger (San Francisco) in 1980 and served as its managing partner for 17 years. His practice included three decades of trial and appellate litigation practice on behalf of governments and community-based organizations on environmental issues. He developed the firm's low-income housing practice, initiated the energy practice and focused on all aspects of growth limitation. He has provided advice and counsel to state, regional and local governments as well as specialized environmental agencies on all aspects of environmental law. His work has included the design of sophisticated regulatory regimes to regulate development and to secure public benefits through private development. He advises environmental regulators on government law issues relating to the form and structure of their regulatory programs.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School

Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Electricity Use Drops, Customer Satisfaction Rises In Major Utilities’ Smart Grid Programs, Vermont Law School Studies Show

Vermont Law School — 19 Jun 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Electricity customers are using less power and seeing other benefits under smart grid programs adopted by two of the nation's largest public power utilities, according to study results released today by Vermont Law School's national smart grid research project.

The VLS Institute for Energy and the Environment's (IEE) case studies of the Salt River Project (SRP) in the Phoenix area and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) suggest:

• Clear policies speed smart grid results: SRP and SMUD both demonstrate that strong internal policy leadership facilitates effective smart grid implementation. While implementation has been criticized in some regions as benefiting the utilities, the leadership of SMUD and SRP, as well as other publicly owned power utilities, suggests there are strong benefits for customers. Additionally, California and other states with clear policies are moving steadily toward their goals rather than getting bogged down in debate over what the goals should be.

• Smarter technology clears the way for more efficient electric usage, which can lead to environmental improvement: The SRP's success with time-of-use rates and customer pre-pay service offers clear promise for voluntary dynamic pricing that is enhanced by smart technology. SRP's pre-pay program experience-giving customers timely information about their electric usage and letting them control their consumption-has resulted in satisfied customers and a 12 percent drop in power use. SMUD's pioneering leadership in clean technology is enhanced by the integration with smarter technology at the customer meter and throughout the distribution system, which opens new opportunities for increasing customer value.

"SRP and SMUD are unique public power utilities with rooted histories that are making aggressive steps to modernize its electric system," said Kevin Jones, the IEE's smart grid project leader. "Like other utilities that are today's leaders in smart grid implementation, these efforts in many ways still mark a starting point, rather than an ending point in establishing a truly smart grid."

The IEE's final report is due later this year on case studies of six diverse utilities across the country in order to recommend best practices that can be replicated nationwide: Commonwealth Edison, Central Vermont Public Service Company, Pecan Street Project, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Salt River Project and San Diego Gas and Electric. The IEE is studying the legal, policy and regulatory hurdles to upgrading the U.S. electric system with smart grid technology. The federal government has awarded $3.4 billion in stimulus funds to utilities and other entities, making the smart grid a key part of the U.S. clean energy agenda.

The IEE's research is designed to help understand which laws and policies will best ensure that a smart grid improves electric reliability, enhances customer value and helps meet the nation's clean energy goals. The Electric Power Research Institute estimates that fully implementing a smart electric grid nationwide will cost $1.3 trillion to $2 trillion, with benefits likely exceeding costs by a factor of three or more. Research from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory estimates that with full implementation of a smart electric grid by 2030, U.S. energy consumption and carbon emissions could be reduced by 12 percent.

Read the IEE's case studies on the SRP and SMUD. Read more about VLS's Smart Grid Research Project.

Jones is available to comment at 802-353-2334 or kbjones@vermontlaw.edu.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Jerry Sandusky Trial: VLS Expert Michael McCann Expert Available to Comment

Vermont Law School — 04 Jun 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Vermont Law School Professor Michael McCann is available to provide insight on the child molestation trial of former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky. Jury selection begins Tuesday.

McCann, one of the nation's top sports law experts, can be reached at (cell) 617-875-6132 or mmccann@vermontlaw.edu

McCann's Sports Illustrated column today provides a primer on the Sandusky trial.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VLS Experts Available to Comment on DOMA Court Ruling

Vermont Law School — 31 May 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Vermont Law School has faculty experts available to comment on today's federal appeals court ruling that the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally denies federal benefits to married gay couples.

• Professor Cheryl Hanna, a constitutional law expert: (Cell) 802-233-8818 or channa@vermontlaw.edu
• Professor Greg Johnson, whose expertise includes gay and lesbian legal issues: (Office) 802-831-1284 or gjohnson@vermontlaw.edu
• Professor Jackie Gardina, an expert in gay and lesbian legal issues: (Office) 802- 831-1272 or jgardina@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Law School Marks First Anniversary of Nation’s First Fully Online Environmental Master’s Program

Vermont Law School — 15 May 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Vermont Law School's distance learning program is thriving one year after starting to offer the nation's first fully online master's degrees in environmental law and policy.

VLS, the top-ranked environmental law school in the country, on May 16, 2011, kicked off the first fully online master's degree programs in U.S. environmental law for lawyers and non-lawyers working in the law, public policy and other fields in the United States and overseas.

Enrollment is growing for the online Master of Environmental Law and Policy (MELP) and online LLM in Environmental Law for post-JD attorneys, which together have nearly 100 students, mostly from the United States, with a few from other countries. The program is designed for people who need to work while completing their graduate degree, but who want the same quality of education offered on campus, including in-depth and personal discussion between students and professors.

Distance learning serves the fastest-growing population of graduate students, and more law schools are offering master's degrees entirely online in specialized areas of law, such as the environment, taxation, health care, estate planning or business transactions.

"Our asynchronous, interactive program design incorporates the latest learning research," said Associate Professor Rebecca Purdom, VLS's director of Distance Learning and assistant dean of Environmental Programs. "Our program is simply more available to a wider array of students and professionals than the synchronous, video-based programs currently offered by most law schools."

VLS also is leading law schools in the development of the appropriate standards for distance education, said Purdom, who is chair of the Working Group for Distance Learning in Legal Education, which she coordinates with VLS Professor Oliver Goodenough and the Harvard Program for the Legal Profession. The American Bar Association currently allows up to 12 credits of distance education toward a Juris Doctor degree, but in July will consider a proposal to allow up to a full semester to be taken via distance learning toward a JD. The Working Group has submitted comments on the proposed change to the ABA and is creating a best practices guide for law schools about to embark on distance learning efforts. The Working Group has also developed a model law school distance learning policy.

"While times are tight and it's been challenging to take on a new investment, Vermont Law School should be proud and grateful that our leaders had the foresight to step into the brave new world of distance learning over the past year," Purdom said. "We're watching the mass-market introduction of these programs with interest, but we're confident that a selective, highly personal and interactive program design will ultimately win the day."

Purdom can be reached at 802-831-1217 or rpurdom@vermontlaw.edu

Learn more information about VLS's distance learning program.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Commencement Weekend Highlights to Include Opening of Center for Legal Services, Talk by Nature Conservancy President

Vermont Law School — 15 May 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Vermont Law School will mark its 37th annual commencement weekend May 18-19 with a talk by the head of the world's leading conservation group and the opening of a new legal clinics building to benefit needy families and the environment.

VLS will officially open the Center for Legal Services at 11:30 a.m., Friday, May 18 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that includes U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Gov. Peter Shumlin, Vermont Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Reiber and other officials. The historic building at 190 Chelsea St. underwent a $3.5 million renovation to convert it into the new home for the South Royalton Legal Clinic and the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic. The two clinics provide millions of dollars of free legal services annually in the name of environmental stewardship, social justice and public interest.

Mark Tercek, the president and chief executive officer of The Nature Conservancy, will discuss new strategies needed in conservation and ways that VLS graduates can play a role in protecting the environment. His talk will be at 3:30 p.m., Friday, May 18 in the Chase Community Center. The Nature Conservancy is the world's leading conservation organization working around the world to save the lands and waters that sustain all life.

Vermont Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Reiber will deliver the keynote speech at commencement at 10 a.m., Saturday, May 19 on the South Royalton town green. Honorary degrees will be awarded to Reiber, Tercek and Edwin Colodny, a former VLS trustee, former president and CEO of US Airways, former interim president of the University of Vermont and former interim CEO of Fletcher Allen Health Care.

The events are free and open to the public. More information is available at our Commencement pages.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Law School to Host LGBTI Conference

Vermont Law School — 02 Apr 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Vermont Law School's International and Comparative Law Program, Alliance, and International Law Society will host a conference on Saturday, April 7, to promote international advocacy to protect the human rights of LGBTI people.

The event, titled "A World of Change: Global Activism on LGBTI Issues," is free and open to the public. It starts at 9 a.m. in the Chase Community Center.

The conference will examine the early struggles in the movement and discuss the development of international legal standards; strategies on using U.N. human rights mechanisms; lessons learned on building a movement across the globe; and current challenges for future advocacy. Panels and group breakout sessions will provide opportunities to learn how to participate in campaigning on these issues today.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Legal Panel to Explore Skiing, Snowboarding and Resort Law

Vermont Law School — 26 Mar 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Vermont Law School's Sports Law Institute will host a panel discussion on emerging legal issues in skiing, snowboarding and resort law in Vermont and nationwide at 12:45 p.m., Thursday, March 29 in the Chase Community Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Topics will include tort implications of participating in ski and snowboarding; the role of assumption of risk in personal injury litigation involving ski and snowboarding; new state laws that promote safety, such as requiring skiers and snowboarders under 18 to wear helmets; the structuring of licensing and related ski and snowboarding contracts; the impact of international law on multi-national ski, snowboarding and resort transactions; the impact of controversial new regulations promulgated by the International Ski Federation; the ways the law can improve underprivileged persons' access to ski and snowboarding; and how changes to the law might address the expected impact of climate change on the ski, snowboarding and resort industries.

Professor Michael McCann, director of the Sports Law Institute and one of the nation's leading sports law experts, will introduce the panel's speakers: VLS Associate Professor Brian Porto; Jaimesen Heins, associate general counsel at Burton Snowboards in Burlington; Andrew Maass, a Rutland attorney and the past president of the Association of Ski Defense Attorneys; and Parker Riehle, the president of the Vermont Ski Areas Association.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Yankee: Vermont Law School Experts Available to Comment on Deadline for Disputed Nuclear Plant

Vermont Law School — 15 Mar 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Vermont Law School has experts available to comment on legal issues as next week's deadline for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant approaches.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission last year approved a 20-year extension of Vermont Yankee's federal license, which was to expire Wednesday, March 21, but the state's lone reactor still hasn't received a permit from Vermont Public Service Board. Critics lost a federal lawsuit but have vowed to continue efforts to shut down the plant, although the board isn't expected to issue its decision for several months, and Vermont Yankee is expected to continue operating in the interim.

Available to comment are:
• Professor Pat Parenteau: 802.831.1305, pparenteau@vermontlaw.edu
• Professor Cheryl Hanna: 802.831.1282, channa@vermontlaw.edu
• Assistant Professor Don Kreis: 802.831.1374, dkreis@vermontlaw.edu
• Professor Michael Dworkin, 802.831.1319, mdworkin@vermontlaw.edu
The VLS experts are analyzing the case on the school's Vermont Yankee lawsuit faculty commentary blog.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Law Review Symposium to Explore Prison Privatization

Vermont Law School — 15 Mar 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- The Vermont Law Review will host a symposium on prison privatization from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Friday, March 23, at the Chase Community Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Most U.S. prisons are operated by the federal, state and local governments, but since the 1980s a growing number of correctional facilities are being run by private companies contracted by governmental agencies in an effort to reduce costs.

Seven percent of the nation's 1.5 million prisoners-the largest inmate population in the world-are held in dozens of privately run prisons across the country, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The symposium, titled "Prison Privatization: Optimizing Our Use of a Privatized Resource," will explore costs, quality, security, management and other issues involved in privately operated prisons.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Law School Ranked First in Environmental Law for Fourth Consecutive Year

Vermont Law School — 13 Mar 2012 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- U.S.News & World Report has ranked Vermont Law School's environmental law program as the best in the nation for an unprecedented fourth consecutive year. The 2013 Best Grad Schools rankings were released today.

VLS also placed among the nation's top programs for dispute resolution (rank 16th) and clinical training (rank 23rd).

"The entire VLS community is proud of this continued recognition of our environmental curriculum, clinics and institutes," said Professor John Echeverria, acting director of VLS's Environmental Law Center (ELC), which offers the largest selection of environmental law courses in the nation. "The dedication of our faculty, students, staff and alumni has made them global leaders in teaching, scholarship and professional achievement, and VLS's innovative programs continue to break new ground in legal education."

VLS has placed first 15 times and never placed lower than second since the U.S. News environmental specialty rankings began in 1991. VLS's top ranking this year marks the first time that a school has been ranked number one in the environmental specialty for four consecutive years. To develop its specialty rankings, U.S. News asked legal educators to identify the top programs.

"Vermont Law School is simply the strongest and best place for those considering environmental law as a career," said Dean Jeff Shields. "We have the largest and deepest environmental and energy law programs in the world."

VLS's Dispute Resolution Program, which wasn't ranked last year by U.S. News, has been a leader for more than 30 years in teaching the negotiation, mediation and arbitration skills that empower lawyers to create valuable solutions outside the courtroom for their clients.

VLS's Clinics and Experiential Programs, whose U.S. News ranking improved from 30th last year to 23rd this year, put theory into practice in a variety of ways - from on campus clinical work to externships in law firms, corporations, nonprofits, courts and government offices, at home and abroad.

"Our success as a place to learn law and policy is enhanced by our unique structure of clinics, institutes, centers and off-campus experiential programs," Shields said. "Our joint programs with Yale, Cambridge, Dartmouth, Renmin, Thunderbird and Cergy-Pontoise allow our students to use the world's greatest universities to supplement what they find on our campus. And our incredible alumni network at the World Bank, the United Nations, on Capitol Hill and at leading law firms and NGOs opens opportunities for our students and graduates that are compelling."

The ELC's multidisciplinary program in law, policy, economics, science and ethics attracts law and graduate students, lawyers, government officials, teachers, scientists, journalists and citizen activists. Since 1978, the ELC has trained environmental leaders in government, nonprofits, corporations and private practice in the United States and abroad. The ELC administers the Master of Environmental Law and Policy (MELP) degree program for lawyers and non-lawyers and the Master of Laws (LLM) in Environmental Law, a post-Juris Doctor degree for experienced attorneys who seek to specialize.

Vermont Law School offers clinical, research and experiential environmental programs through the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, the Land Use Clinic, the Institute for Energy and the Environment, the Land Use Institute, the Environmental Tax Policy Institute, the U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law and the Environmental Semester in Washington. The ELC's Summer Session offers a broad curriculum, a Visiting Distinguished Environmental Scholars program and a lecture series that features summer faculty members, distinguished summer scholars and summer media fellows speaking about current issues in their fields.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Nation’s Top-Ranked Environmental Law School Selects Environmental Leader as New President and Dean

Vermont Law School — 12 Mar 2012 16:00:00 EST

President and Dean, Marc Mihaly

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- The Vermont Law School Board of Trustees announced today the appointment of Marc Mihaly as VLS's eighth president and dean, effective August 1.

Mihaly, one of the nation's leading environmental lawyers, will succeed Jeff Shields, who will retire July 31 after eight years as president and dean of the nation's premier environmental law school. Mihaly currently serves as associate dean for VLS's Environmental Programs, director of the Environmental Law Center and professor of law.

Board Chairman Ed Mattes said Mihaly was chosen, after a thorough national search, because of his leadership skills, strategic vision and scholarly accomplishments.

"Marc is an inspiring leader who grasps the shifting legal landscape," Mattes said. "He comes with tremendous institutional knowledge, enabling VLS to react swiftly and strategically. As a proven entrepreneur, fundraiser and communicator, he will be well positioned to take advantage of new opportunities."

The school's offerings include dynamic JD and LLM degrees, a renowned masters program in Environmental Law and Policy, as well as international dual-degree programs. It also offers a wide range of experience-based and interdisciplinary learning and is a leader in the field of distance learning. VLS has a strong commitment to community, environmental stewardship and public service.

Mihaly said he is honored to be named as new president and dean of VLS. "I am looking forward to continued involvement in Vermont Law School and its mission to train lawyers and others to serve their clients and the public with high levels of professional knowledge and skill, moral integrity and humane vision," he said. "We also will continue efforts to deliver a program that is affordable to students and prepares them for employment and long careers."

Mihaly, who joined VLS in 2004, received his BA degree from Harvard College and his JD degree from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley. After service in the U.S. Peace Corps in Central America, he served with the environmental unit of the California Attorney General's Office and with the San Mateo County Legal Aid Society. In 1980, he co-founded Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger in San Francisco, one of the nation's leading public interest environmental law firms, and served as its managing partner for 17 years.

Mattes is available to comment at 914.661.2096. Mihaly is available to comment at 202.957.8432.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, home: 802-649-2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Supreme Court to Hear Oral Arguments at Vermont Law School

Vermont Law School — 07 Mar 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- The Vermont Supreme Court will oral arguments in six cases starting at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, March 28, in Oakes Hall in the high court's annual session at Vermont Law School.

The court will consider the following cases:

• In re Joint Petition of Green Mountain Power Corp. et al., 2011-277 & 2011-366/367, 9:30 a.m. - 10:20 a.m.: These consolidated cases concern Green Mountain Power Corp.'s development of a wind turbine project in Lowell, known as the Kingdom Community Wind Project. The Public Service Board (PSB) issued a certificate of public good (CPG) in May 2011, approving the project subject to certain conditions. The nearby towns of Craftsbury and Albany, along with a citizens group called Lowell Mountains Group, Inc., appeal the issuance of the CPG and related orders. The appellants allege that the PSB erred in numerous findings and rulings, including issues surrounding noise standards, habitat fragmentation and associated easements, economic considerations and the loss of natural communities. The appellants also argue that their due process rights were violated because the PSB did not hold a public hearing before issuing two orders (concerning habitat mitigation and the economic viability of the project) after it already issued the CPG. The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources appears as an appellee only with respect to the question of whether the project will have an undue adverse effect on the natural environment.

• State v. Vuley, 20 11-087, 10:30 a.m. - 11 a.m.: The defendant appeals his convictions for two counts of first-degree arson arising from repeated fires at his home in Colchester. The defendant claims that the trial court erred by instructing the jury that it could use the so-called "doctrine of chances," which holds that certain uncommon events are unlikely to occur repeatedly by accident, to find that he "willfully and maliciously" set the fires. He argues that this instruction violated his constitutional right to due process by allowing the jury to find that he possessed this state of mind in setting the fires based solely on the number of fires. He also argues that the trial court erred in denying his motions to sever the trials for each offense and to dismiss the charges, and that there is insufficient evidence to support his convictions.

• State v. Paro, 2011-184/185, 11 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.: The defendant, who has entered a conditional guilty plea to DUI, appeals the trial court's denial of her motion to suppress evidence obtained after a traffic stop. A Hartford police officer observed the defendant idling her Chevrolet pick-up truck in the parking lot of Northeast Foreign Cars in the middle of the night. Having been burglarized before, the business was on the Hartford Police Department's "directive patrol list." Mindful of these past crimes and thinking it strange that an American-made truck was idling at a foreign car repair shop at such an hour, the officer decided to investigate further. As the officer turned his cruiser around, defendant drove off. Based on these facts, the officer executed a traffic stop, after which the defendant was arrested for DUI. The defendant claims that the traffic stop was unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article 11 of the Vermont Constitution. She argues that the officer did not have "reasonable and articulable suspicion of criminal activity" before making the stop, as required by both constitutions. As a result, she argues that the evidence obtained after the stop should be suppressed.

• State v. M.W., 2011-229, 1:30 p.m. - 2 p.m.: Does a statute restricting competency evaluations of defendants violate the separation of powers doctrine by divesting trial judges of the power to order a competency evaluation at the Vermont State Hospital? The statute at issue, 13 V.S.A. § 4815(g)(1), provides that a court "shall not order" an inpatient examination unless a mental health professional determines that the person is in need of treatment. The defendant was arraigned and the judge ordered an outpatient competency evaluation, which determined that he may be suffering from a mental illness. While free on conditions of release, the defendant was arrested for illegal trespass. The court then ordered a mental health screening, which determined that he suffered from a medical condition, not a mental illness. Thus, because defendant was not a person "in need of treatment," the court did not send him to the state mental hospital, but set conditions of release and bail. The State's Attorney argues that the statute usurps the trial judge's authority. The Attorney General has intervened and argues that the interlocutory appeal should be dismissed as moot or as improvidently granted, and that the statutory restriction does not violate the separation of powers doctrine.

• Shattuck v. Peck, 2011-145, 2 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.: This case involves an attempt to use the equitable powers of the court to divide property after a long-term romantic relationship. Appellant Victor Shattuck and appellee Donna Mae Peck were involved in a romantic relationship for more than 12 years. The parties were never married, but they lived together, shared expenses and coordinated estate planning. In the 1990s, they shared a residence on her property in Springfield. By 1999, Shattuck had purchased land in Cavendish. They agreed to transfer their respective properties to each other as joint tenants, each with a survivorship right. In 2005, the couple moved to a newly constructed home on the Cavendish property and began renting out the property in Springfield. They later became concerned that the rental income would adversely affect government benefits she was receiving on account of a disability. Accordingly, she quitclaimed both the Springfield and Cavendish property to Shattuck and he arranged financing to pay off the Springfield mortgage and refinance outstanding debt on the Cavendish property. Although the couple lived together as a family in Cavendish, the record indicates that Peck paid "rent." In 2007, both parties executed wills naming each other as residuary beneficiaries. In 2010, they broke off their relationship and Shattuck moved out of their shared residence in Cavendish. He later filed a complaint seeking her eviction from the property, a writ of possession and past due rents. She counterclaimed that the Cavendish property, as well as another property in Springfield, were the subject of a partnership between the parties. The Civil Division found Peck had failed to present sufficient evidence that either a partnership or constructive trust was created, and it resolved all issues in favor of Shattuck. Peck appeals.

• Columbia v. Lawton, 2011-151, 2:30 p.m. - 3 p.m.: This case presents a constitutional question. In short: What rights does a man have who claims to be the biological father of a child when another man has already been legally declared the child's father pursuant to Vermont's parentage statute? A putative biological father brought an action to establish parentage over a 2-year-old child. However, a previous parentage order had already determined that a different man is the child's father. The section of the parentage statute on "standing" reads: "An action to establish parentage in cases where parentage has not been previously determined either by an action under this subchapter or by adoption, may be brought by a . . . person . . . alleging himself . . . to be the natural parent of a child." 15 V.S.A. § 302(a) (emphasis added). It was this section of the parentage statute that the trial court ruled precluded the present putative biological father from seeking to establish parentage (because parentage had already been established as to someone else). Both the mother and the putative biological father were pro se during the first round of arguments in this matter. The putative father argued that he received no notice of the earlier parentage action, and therefore had no opportunity to attempt to assert his rights to parentage. Recognizing the constitutional concerns that the case raised, the Court sought additional briefing from Court-appointed counsel.

Vermont Court Rules apply for media coverage.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235,jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont’s Top Judge to Give VLS Commencement Speech

Vermont Law School — 07 Mar 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Vermont Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Reiber will deliver the keynote speech on May 19 at Vermont Law School's 37th annual commencement.

The public is invited to attend the 10 a.m. event on the South Royalton town green.

Reiber, who graduated Suffolk Law School in 1974, served in private practice in Rutland and as a partner in the law firm Kenlan, Schweibert & Facey from 1986 until his appointment as an Associate Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court in 2003. He was sworn in as Chief Justice in 2004.

Honorary degrees will be given to Reiber; Mark Tercek, president of the Nature Conservancy; and Edwin Colodny, a former VLS trustee, former president and CEO of US Airways, former interim president of the University of Vermont and former interim CEO of Fletcher Allen Health Care.

More information is available at our Commencement pages.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Human Rights Case in Supreme Court: Vermont Law School Expert Available to Comment

Vermont Law School — 28 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Vermont Law School Professor Stephanie Farrior, an international human rights expert and former legal director of Amnesty International, is available to comment on today's U.S. Supreme Court case involving Royal Dutch Shell Oil, which is accused of aiding and abetting the Nigerian government in committing atrocities in the 1990s.

Farrior can be reached at 802.831.1373 and sfarrior@vermontlaw.edu.

"This is one of the most important human rights cases before the Supreme Court in years," said Farrior, who oversaw Amnesty International's legal work during the Pinochet extradition hearings and helped to found the Center for Justice and Accountability, which helps survivors of torture and other severe human rights abuses hold their persecutors accountable.

At issue in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum is whether foreign nationals in the United States can sue corporations or other entities in U.S. courts under the Alien Tort Statute for alleged violations of human rights committed abroad. The case has potential ramifications for American and international law and for corporate responsibility for human rights around the globe.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Smart Grid Collaboration, Outreach Key to Reenergizing U.S., Vermont Law School Study Suggests

Vermont Law School — 20 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Collaboration, clear policies and consumer outreach are fueling the successful implementation of Central Vermont Public Services' smart grid plan, according to results of the first case study in Vermont Law School's national smart grid research project.

CVPS, Vermont's largest investor owned utility, this month begins a year-long process of installing smart meters for its customers. According to VLS's case study results:

• Collaboration is arguably the most important lesson that the CVPS study provides. It has made developing and implementing CVPS SmartPower and other utilities' smart grid investments more efficient, cost-effective and technically sound.
• Since 2007, Vermont's Legislature and Public Service Board have been looking to develop smart grid infrastructure and dynamic rate options, which balances flexibility for investments in a rapidly developing field of technology with measures to ensure those investments are prudent.
• CVPS's efforts at consumer outreach and consumer behavior research are laying the groundwork for a smooth transition in its smart grid implementation.

"These results provide interesting lessons for the rest of the country," said Kevin Jones, smart grid project leader for VLS's Institute for Energy and the Environment (IEE). "As this case study demonstrates, smart grid implementation is off to a productive start. Ongoing policy refinements, project development and infrastructure investment will be needed in order to achieve the smart grid's full, long-term potential."

Jones said one area where more work needs to be done is formalizing a customer data privacy policy. The Vermont PSB is reviewing the establishment of privacy principles, which would include a clear utility smart grid privacy policy that would be available to customers. In November, the IEE released a draft model utility smart grid privacy policy.

In 2011, the IEE launched its smart grid research project, which involves case studies of seven utilities in order to recommend best practices that can be replicated nationwide: Commonwealth Edison, Central Vermont Public Service Company, Long Island Power Authority, Pecan Street Project, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Salt River Project and San Diego Gas and Electric. VLS's final report is due later this year.

The research is designed to help understand which laws and policies will best ensure that a smart grid improves electric reliability, enhances customer value and helps meet the nation's clean energy goals. The Electric Power Research Institute estimates that fully implementing a smart electric grid nationwide will cost $1.3 trillion to $2 trillion, with benefits likely exceeding costs by a factor of three or more.

VLS researchers are studying the legal, policy and regulatory hurdles to upgrading the U.S. electric system with smart grid technology. The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $3.4 billion in stimulus funds to utilities and other entities nationwide, making the smart grid a key part of the U.S. clean energy agenda.

"While the anticipated benefits of a smart electric grid range from improved reliability to the potential for reduced costs, one of the lesser understood benefits is an improved environment," Jones added. "Studies have estimated that by 2030, a smart grid could reduce carbon emissions as well as energy use by approximately 12 percent."

Read the CVPS case study results. Read more about VLS's Smart Grid Research Project.

VLS is actively participating in the new Center for Energy Transformation and Innovation (CETI). CETI is a partnership between Sandia National Laboratories and a broad array of Vermont stakeholders. CETI supports the development and dissemination of smart grid best practices to move the nation toward a 21st century energy infrastructure.

Kevin Jones, the project's leader, is available to comment at 802.831.1054 or kbjones@vermontlaw.edu.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Law School, Middlebury College Sign Agreements

Vermont Law School — 15 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Vermont Law School and Middlebury College have signed an agreement that guarantees qualified Middlebury students and graduates admission to VLS.

Both institutions will benefit from the agreement - VLS administrators anticipate an increase in the number of strong applicants and Middlebury students will have a wider range of opportunities following graduation.

The agreement is one of several steps that VLS has taken in recent years to expand coordination with undergraduate institutions. Those efforts also include full scholarships for one or two students from Middlebury and five other schools. There is no limit as to the number of Middlebury students or alumni who may apply to VLS.

"The agreements are good recruiting tools for the undergraduate schools and they keep VLS on the radar of pre-law advisors and faculty and top students who may be interested in law school," said Kathy Hartman, VLS's associate dean for enrollment management.

"It's a natural fit given Middlebury's strong environmental studies program and student involvement in sustainability issues as well as VLS's ranking as the No. 1 environmental law school in the country," said Nan Jenks-Jay, Middlebury College dean of environmental affairs. "As students are thinking more in advance about attending graduate and professional schools, these collaborative institutional relationships become attractive options for them."

The agreement also applies to students who have completed graduate degrees from one of Middlebury's programs or schools, including the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Middlebury Language Schools, and Bread Loaf School of English.

"For example, it's an ideal match for Monterey graduates in the international environmental policy program," added Jenks-Jay. "What we are really doing is providing additional opportunities for all of our students following graduation."

VLS has signed similar agreements with 11 undergraduate schools and another two are in progress. The contract with Middlebury is unusual since it includes students and alumni of the undergraduate college as well as those who have completed Middlebury's graduate programs. The agreements are intended to improve coordination between VLS and undergraduate schools whose students are interested in attending law school. Under the agreements, students and graduates at the undergraduate institutions are guaranteed admission to VLS if their GPA and LSAT credentials are equal to or stronger than the median for VLS's entering class. Their undergraduate files must also contain no evidence or concerns about their character that would make them inappropriate candidates for law school. Ten students have enrolled at VLS under the agreements since the program started in 2004.

VLS has agreements with Assumption College, Burlington College, Champlain College, Green Mountain College, Lake Forest College, Middlebury College, Northland College, Schreiner University, The Sage Colleges, Wilson College and Woodbury College (now the Woodbury Institute of Champlain College). Agreements are in progress at Dartmouth College and Hampshire College.

VLS also started an Environmental Law Scholarship program with six undergraduate institutions in fall 2011. The "feeder school" program provides a full-tuition scholarship to one or two top students or graduates from six schools each year who have a significant record of environmental and public service, a GPA of 3.65, and an LSAT score of 160 or higher. The program includes candidates for a law degree, an environmental law and policy master's (MELP), and a joint law-MELP degree. The participating schools are Middlebury, Dartmouth, Oberlin, Lake Forest, Hampshire and Colorado College. The first students in the Environmental Law Scholarship program will enroll in fall 2012. Middlebury and the other participating schools determine which of their students to nominate for a scholarship. VLS will have the final decision on whether a scholarship will be awarded.

Middlebury College is one of the most highly regarded liberal arts colleges in the nation. Middlebury is unique among these schools in being a classic liberal arts college that also offers graduate and specialized programs operating around the world.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VLS Study: Iowans' Electric Bills Could Skyrocket Under Nuclear Financing Bill

Vermont Law School — 14 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. -- Mark Cooper, a Vermont Law School expert on nuclear reactor financing, warned today that a bill pending in the Iowa Senate to allow MidAmerican to charge in advance for the construction of new nuclear reactors could lead to significantly more expensive utility bills for state consumers, up to $70 higher a month ($840 per year).

In a report titled "Nuclear Socialism Comes to the Heartland of America: Early Cost Recovery for New Nuclear Reactors in Iowa and The Return of Electricity Rate Shock," Cooper shows how the examples of four Southeastern U.S. states -- North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia -- have led to major harms to consumers when "early cost recovery" or "construction work in progress" is used to finance nuclear reactors.

If the Iowa Senate measure becomes law, Iowa would become only the fifth state in the U.S. to impose such confiscatory, anti-consumer special interest legislation at the request of the nuclear power industry, Cooper said. His analysis concurs with the staff of the Iowa Utilities Board, which examined the controversial nuclear financing scheme before the state Legislature (HF 561), and concluded that it poses a serious threat to Iowa ratepayers.

The Cooper report notes: "In addition to the dismal economics of nuclear power, the primary reason that the practice is limited to a very few states is that advanced cost recovery is fundamentally flawed, placing ratepayers at extraordinary risk for an excessive and unnecessary cost burden that runs into the billions of dollars. The staff of the IUB has raised a number of concerns about the advanced cost recovery legislation now stalled in the Senate that reflect the long-standing and well-documented concerns of ratepayer and consumer advocates."

Cooper is senior fellow for economic analysis at VLS's Institute for Energy and the Environment and the author of "Policy Challenges of Nuclear Reactor Construction, Cost Escalation and Crowding Out Alternatives" (2009).

"Past experience and current developments in the few Southeastern U.S. states that have allowed advanced cost recovery for nuclear reactors indicate that removing consumer protections will impose significant costs on Iowa ratepayers and expose them to extraordinarily dangerous risks," he said. "The push for early cost recovery for construction of nuclear reactors in Iowa and elsewhere is driven by one basic truth about new nuclear reactors: They are totally uneconomic. The markets won't touch these projects so the industry's only alternative is to enlist state lawmakers to leave consumers holding the bag."

The Cooper report notes: "In the four states in the Southeast where funds are being collected from ratepayers under new advanced cost recovery for nuclear reactor construction in the Southeast, each individual nuclear reactor project costs $15 to $20 billion. Over $4 billion has already been approved for advanced cost recovery, yet it appears increasingly unlikely that the most of reactors will ever be built. Ratepayers will have paid billions but received nothing for their money. If reactor construction moves forward as proposed, almost $85 billion of construction costs will move into the utility rate-base causing rapid increases in typical consumer bills within a decade. Less costly, more consumer and environment friendly alternatives will be crowded out of the resource mix."

The Cooper report also points out:

New nuclear reactors cannot compete with a large number of alternatives resources that are widely available to meet consumer needs for electricity.
They are so risky, they cannot raise capital in normal financial markets.
In order to build new nuclear reactors, the utilities are demanding the suspension of the regulatory rules and financial market mechanisms that protect ratepayers and balance the interests of consumers and utility shareholders.

Listen to a streaming audio replay of a related news event.

Cooper can be reached at markcooper@aol.com or 301.384.2204.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

New Nuclear Reactors: VT Law School Experts Available For Follow Up

Vermont Law School — 10 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School experts Peter Bradford and Mark Cooper are available to comment for follow up stories on costs, safety and other factors in connection with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's approval of two new reactors at a nuclear plant in Georgia.

Credit: Southern Company.

It was the first license granted to build a nuclear reactor in the United States since 1978, a year before the Three Mile Island accident.

The $14 billion Vogtle expansion project, which will create the largest nuclear power complex in the country, is being closely watched by utilities and others nationwide. A coalition of antinuclear groups said it would file suit to block the NRC's decision.

Bradford, a former member of the NRC who teaches nuclear power and public policy as an adjunct professor at VLS, and Cooper, senior research fellow for economic analysis at VLS's Institute for Energy and the Environment, are internationally recognized for their expertise in nuclear energy.

Bradford can be reached at perubrad@aol.com or 802-824-4296.

Cooper can be reached at markcooper@aol.com or 301.384.2204.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

EPA Awards Vermont Coalition $34 Million Contract To Advise on ENERGY STAR Program

Vermont Law School — 07 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- The EPA has awarded three Vermont groups, including Vermont Law School's Institute for Energy and the Environment (IEE), a $34 million contract to provide technical, analytical and outreach assistance to the national ENERGY STAR program in the commercial, institutional, and industrial sectors.

"This blanket purchase agreement is great for the global environment and also good news for the economy," said Professor Michael Dworkin, director of the IEE. "Projects that improve energy efficiency will save money and help put people back to work."

Partnering with the IEE in the contract are The Clark Group, a national environmental consulting and government affairs firm in Montpelier and Washington, D.C., and the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC), which is known for its management of Efficiency Vermont, the nation's first energy efficiency utility.

"All three groups have unparalleled experience in energy efficiency program design, analytics, and implementation," said Lisa Mahoney, a partner in The Clark Group's Vermont office.

The ENERGY STAR program seeks to improve energy efficiency in homes and businesses throughout the United States. In 2010, ENERGY STAR programs reduced greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 33 million vehicles and saved Americans nearly $18 billion in utility payments.

Christine Donovan, a managing consultant at VEIC, said: "One of the great benefits of this project is that it combines energy solutions with profitability-it's been proven time and again that capitalizing on energy efficiency is good for a company's environmental performance as well as its bottom line."

Under the contract, the EPA may acquire up to $34 million in services from The Clark Group, VEIC and IEE over five years. The maximum of $34 million represents the cap that the EPA can spend in retaining services from the Vermont coalition. Actual fees will depend upon the specific tasks ordered by the EPA.

More information is available from: Michael Dworkin at 802-831-1319 (IEE), Lisa Mahoney at 802-225-5945 (The Clark Group), Kelly O'Brien Lucci at 802-540-7630 (VEIC).

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

From Burmese Pythons to Zebra Mussels: New Study Proposes Federal Law to Limit Nonnative Animal Species

Vermont Law School — 02 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- A new study by a Vermont Law School alumnus proposes a detailed comprehensive federal law to curtail invasive and exotic animal species that are causing environmental, economic and public health risks across the American landscape.

"Forget the war on drugs. What the United States needs is a war on invasive animal species," writes Jane Graham, author of the study, titled "Snakes on a Plain, or in a Wetland: Fighting Back Invasive Nonnative Animals-Proposing a Federal Comprehensive Invasive Nonnative Animal Species Statute." The article is published in Volume 25, Issue 1 of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal.

The proposed law addresses creatures great and small-from Burmese pythons that are devouring native wildlife in the Everglades (according to a study by the U.S. Geological Study released Monday) to the lions, tigers and bears released from a private compound in Ohio in October.

Scholars and regulators have advised the federal government to create a comprehensive scheme, but no such statute or proposed statute exists.

"U.S. laws dealing with the critical problem of invasive species are lacking central pieces and are uncoordinated," writes Graham, who received an LL.M. in environmental law from Vermont Law School in 2011. "A new comprehensive statute could improve mechanisms for prevention, punishment, cost recovery and incentives."

The United States' current menagerie of federal, state and local laws are ineffective in controlling Burmese pythons, Asian carp, zebra mussels, exotic pets and other invaders that are causing a growing amount of environmental degradation, economic waste, public health risks, human injuries and wildlife trafficking, according to the study.

Graham argues that current federal statutes and frameworks-including the Lacey Act, Executive Order 13112, National Invasive Species Act and laws that deal with single species-are either too broad or too narrow; lack cost recovery and incentive tools; are reactive; do not have the force of law; are too vague; or lack significant penalties.

Other laws-such as the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act and Animal Health Protection Act as well as state laws, public nuisance laws, free market solutions and exotic pet restrictions-also are insufficient, according to the article.

The article proposes a model federal law that calls for:

• A "clean" list of species that are allowed into the country instead of the current "dirty" list that prohibits specific species.
• A process that explains exactly how risk assessment decisions will be determined.
• Uniform restrictions on exotic-and potentially all-animal ownership.
• Increased public awareness of invasive animal laws.
• Higher and uniform fines and criminal penalties for violations.
• Methods to fund restoration of ecosystems damaged by invasive species
• Entrepreneurship and partnerships between government and private businesses.

Graham is available to comment at janecynthiagraham@gmail.com or 561.271.5766. Her article was written with guidance from her master's thesis advisor VLS Assistant Professor Pamela Vesilind. Graham is currently Everglades Policy Associate for Audubon of Florida in Miami.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

New Vermont Law School Course To Show Legal Ropes to Utility Executives

Vermont Law School — 01 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School will offer a unique new course this summer designed to help senior electric utility executives gain a better understanding of the legal basics critical to operating an effective utility company.

The rigorous two-week class will give executives the legal foundation to more fully understand the utility regulatory framework, the role of federal and state energy regulatory commissions and how to operate more effectively within these structures.

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) supported VLS's Institute for Energy and the Environment (IEE) development of the course, which is modeled after similar utility executive training courses at MIT and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

"We expect 12 to 15 high-potential, forward-thinking electric utility executives to attend this special course," said Professor Michael Dworkin, director of the IEE.

Beginning with the basic functions of government and building on the interplay among state, federal and regional oversight when planning new energy infrastructure, the VLS course will offer a broad overview of the legal framework governing the utility.

"Many utility executives work their way through the utility ranks from business and engineering backgrounds and don't have a strong understanding of the law as it relates to running a utility business," Dworkin said. "EPRI recognized this gap in the executive training ranks and asked VLS to fill it."

Mike Howard, EPRI's president and CEO, said VLS's course, titled "Legal Essentials for Utility Executives," will be of great value to its attendees. "This is a must-attend program for utility executives interested in building their credentials and gaining a better understanding of the laws and lawyers they will have to effectively deal with throughout their career," he said.

EPRI, an independent, nonprofit organization, conducts research and development relating to the generation, delivery and use of electricity for the benefit of the public.

The VLS course will be June 17-30 at the Vermont State House in Montpelier. Registration deadline is March 15. More information is available at www.vermontlaw.edu/legalessentials

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Land Use Expert to Explore New York City’s Rezoning

Vermont Law School — 31 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- A New York University School of Law expert will discuss New York City's massive rezoning effort at Vermont Law School's eighth annual Norman Williams Distinguished Lecture in Land Use Planning and the Law at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 2 at the Chase Community Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Professor Vicki Been, director of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at the NYU School of Law, will deliver a lecture titled "Explaining the Motivations Behind Land Use Regulation: New York City's Rezonings of Almost One Quarter of Its Land."

Since 2002, New York City has enacted more than 100 neighborhood-sized zoning changes throughout the city. Been will explore the city's motivations for making these changes, their implications for the future of the nation's most important urban area and the lessons policymakers and courts can draw from a comprehensive analysis of a city's rezoning decisions.

The Williams Lecture is hosted by Vermont Law School's Land Use Institute and Environmental Law Center.

About the Williams Lecture
Norman Williams came to VLS in 1975 after a distinguished career in public service and teaching, particularly in land use planning. He played a key role in founding VLS's Environmental Law Center. The Norman Williams Distinguished Lecture in Land Use Planning and the Law series is a gift of Frances Yates, trustee of VLS, in memory of Norman Williams and Anya '90 and Charles Yates '90.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Law School Raises Record $15.3 Million in Capital Campaign

Vermont Law School — 26 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School has surpassed its goal of $15 million for the Campaign for Vermont Law School, with total gifts and commitments currently totaling $15.3 million.

The funds will support student financial aid, a new Center for Legal Services, programs that improve national environmental and energy policies, and educational initiatives that produce highly skilled lawyers at home and abroad.

VLS hopes to raise another $1 million to $2 million before closing the campaign when Dean and President Jeff Shields retires at the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

It has been VLS's most successful capital fund drive in its nearly 40-year history, surpassing the $11.3 million raised in 2005 for the renovation of historic Debevoise Hall, the main administration building, and the $6 million raised in 1998 for the construction of Oakes Hall, the main classroom building.

The campaign was launched silently in September 2008 with a gift from trustee Fran Yates that went toward the purchase of the former Freck's department store, a historic building and landmark in downtown South Royalton. The building, which is being renovated according to VLS's standards for stewardship of the environment, will house the law school's clinical programs and become the new Center for Legal Services.

"This project represents the best of what a Vermont Law School education provides with a focus on the importance of clinical opportunities for students," said Shields. "The Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC) and the South Royalton Legal Clinic (SRLC) have a long history of community service, and this building provides them with a new state-of-the-art home and room to grow."

Building on the generous gift that helped launch the Center for Legal Services project, Dean Shields, Chairman of the Board of Trustees Ed Mattes ‘83 and campaign committee chair and trustee Jimmy Hanson '83 pushed forward with a plan to create robust financial support for core environmental programs and scholarships for VLS students.

"Vermont Law School has some of our country's leading experts in energy policy and environmental law," Dean Shields said. "Our faculty have been asked by President Obama to serve in senior government positions and by our state's leadership to draft legislation that affects the way in which Vermont utilities construct their business models. It's rewarding to see philanthropic support for this work and the students who can carry forward this legacy of leadership.".

Fundraising highlights of the Campaign for Vermont Law School include:

• $9.5 million for VLS's Institute for Energy and the Environment, U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law, ENRLC and SRLC
• $1.3 million for student scholarships and loan repayment assistance programs
• $2 million for the Center for Legal Services
• $1.25 million to launch a new Center for Agriculture and Food Systems

Vermont Law School's alumni include about 6,000 individuals, many of whom work in fields relating to environmental law and energy policy. Founded in 1972, VLS is a private, independent law school that has focused on foundation and government grants in its fundraising efforts to date. At the same time, the Campaign for Vermont Law School has seen more than 2,000 VLS alumni contribute to the effort since 2008, with annual giving totaling more than $1.3 million during this period, which is also a record.

"VLS alumni have committed to this effort in a way they never have before," said Shields. "The law school's programs are in a position of strength today due in large part to their generosity."

Dean Shields and Chairman Mattes will launch the public phase of the campaign at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 26 at the Vermont State House in Montpelier. The media are invited to attend.

VLS officials will discuss the evolving state of legal education and the legal profession. They also will discuss how VLS is adapting to that changing landscape, in part, by emphasizing clinical and experiential programs that prepare its graduates to be skilled litigators, policy analysts, public interest advocates, entrepreneurs and leaders in other areas.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law School to Host “After Irene” Symposium

Vermont Law School — 24 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School will explore environmental issues arising out of Tropical Storm Irene at a symposium on Friday, April 20.

The symposium, titled "After Irene: Law and Policy Lessons for the Future," will start at 8:15 a.m. in the Chase Community Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Among the issues to be discussed are the environmental effects of using heavy equipment to restore stream banks and channels; river corridor management; emergency relief mitigation and planning; natural disaster policy; and the federal flood insurance program.

The symposium will be hosted by VLS's Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, Environmental Law Society and Freshwater Working Group.

There will be a range of national and state guest speakers, including David Mears, a former VLS professor who is commissioner of Vermont's Department of Environmental Conservation.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law School Launches Energy Security & Justice Project

Vermont Law School — 24 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School has launched the Energy Security & Justice Project to expand global access to sustainable energy and craft national energy policies that adapt to climate change without worsening socioeconomic inequality.

The Project, which is overseen by Associate Professor Benjamin Sovacool, expands the international law and policy focus of VLS's Institute for Energy and the Environment.

The Project's researchers investigate how to provide ethical access to energy services and minimize the injustices and human impacts of current energy production and use. The researchers explore how to equitably provide available, affordable, reliable, efficient, environmentally benign, proactively governed and socially acceptable energy services to households and consumers. One track of the program focuses on a lack of access to electricity and reliance on traditional biomass fuels for cooking in the developing world. Another track analyzes the moral implications of existing energy policies and proposals in the United States.

"Too often, national and international energy policies have focused on protecting adequate supplies of conventional fuels with little or no regard for the long-term consequences to the people and cultures the policies are intended to benefit," said Sovacool, an internationally recognized energy security expert. "The Energy Security & Justice Project is a rare effort to broaden the scope of energy security research and examine the human factors responsible for the ultimate success or failure of these policies."

The Project, in cooperation with the MacArthur Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Asia Research Institute, and the National University of Singapore, has published a series of case studies examining energy security in Asia. The case studies include China's Renewable Energy Development Project, Malaysia's massive expansion of hydroelectric dams in Sarawak and Bangladesh's effort to install two million solar home systems.

In addition, Sovacool's team has partnered with Morgan Bazilian, special advisor to the Director-General of the United Nation's program on international energy and climate policy, to explore new approaches to energy governance in Energy Policy, the world's leading journal on energy supply, demand and utilization (Read the Energy Policy article).

"Global energy policymakers are experiencing an ‘a-ha' moment that questions everything we ever thought about energy security, climate change and adaptation" said Christopher Cooper, the Project's senior research fellow. "Just as global development policy underwent a radical transformation after efforts that looked good on paper failed in the field, energy policymakers are reexamining just what it means to be energy secure."

Available to comment are:
• Associate Professor Benjamin Sovacool: 802.831.1053 or bsovacool@vermontlaw.edu
• Senior Research Fellow Christopher Cooper: 202.251.7166 or ccooper@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law School Receives $1.25 Million Grant for Agriculture Center

Vermont Law School — 19 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School has received a $1.25 million grant to support its new Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, which advocates for community-based agriculture across the United States.

The anonymous grant, which will be distributed over four years, will allow the center to hire a director with national experience and to expand its agricultural law and policy curriculum and training, research and support programs.

"This generous grant recognizes Vermont Law School's growing strength in agricultural law and policy," said Professor John Echeverria, acting director of the Environmental Law Center.

The agriculture center builds on Vermont's reputation for small-scale agricultural innovation and ethos of environmental and social sustainability. It will provide support for community-based agricultural systems, sustainable agriculture advocates, agencies, food hubs, incubators and farmers.

"This center is unique in its focus on sustainable food, food safety and the regulatory, tax and governance systems that support agricultural policy," said Dean Jeff Shields.

VLS is launching a national search for a director to work with VLS's environmental faculty, Food and Agricultural Law Society students, alumni who work in organizations such as the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the Center for Food Safety, and the Vermont Department of Agriculture, and a network of national and international advisors.

The VLS agriculture center is:
• Expanding the law school's curriculum to create a comprehensive academic program in agriculture and food policy.
• Continuing research and education projects, such as The Farmer's Handbook for Energy Self-Reliance. The handbook is distributed to more than 4,000 farmers and taken to more than a dozen farmers' forums and conferences nationally.
• Organizing conferences for agricultural leaders such as the 2010 Food, Fuel, and the Future of Farming, which brought together more than 200 scholars, activists, policy leaders and farmers.

The center focuses on legal and policy issues related to community-based agriculture, including the regulation of food, the Farm Bill and agricultural subsidies, energy-efficient food production, energy independence for farmers and other issues that are key to retaining a successful working landscape for rural communities.

Current projects range from agriculture policy to individual faculty and student research in a variety of areas. Recent projects include a study of the regulatory barriers to grain production in Vermont, the Open Space Vermont blog, and a survey of property tax incentives for U.S. agricultural lands.

The center also is supporting the research of key scholars in sustainable agriculture and food issues by hosting a Sustainable Food Systems Summer Scholar during VLS's summer session. Last year's inaugural Summer Scholar was Mary Jane Angelo, a professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and a former senior attorney for the Environmental Protection Agency. This year's Summer Scholar will be Stephanie Tai, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School and an expert on the role of environmental and health sciences in developing regulatory safeguards.

More information about the VLS agriculture center is available at http://www.vermontlaw.edu/x12888.xml

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Board Strikes Down Previous Local Approval for Power Plant in Pennsylvania

Vermont Law School — 12 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- A 2006 local conditional use permit granted to Robinson Power Company, LLC (RPC) for the proposed construction of a 272-megawatt waste coal power plant was unanimously struck down Monday by the Robinson Township Board of Supervisors of Washington County, Penn.

The board approved a new conditional use permit that reflects the concerns of local residents and environmental groups over the impacts to air and water quality associated with power plants. Instead of the original waste coal power plant proposed, RPC is instead seeking to build one 150-MW natural gas plant and one 150-MW waste coal plant. Neither has received final approval from the board.

The new conditional use permit includes 55 conditions and the board retained the authority to revoke the permit if RPC violates any of a number of the conditions. For the first time, the board is requiring quarterly monitoring for six dangerous air pollutants at the fence line of the property and additional groundwater sampling of potentially impacted areas.

The decision comes after months of hearings on RPC's application to modify the 2006 permit to add natural gas as a fuel source for the power plant. The Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), local community group Residents Against the Power Plant (RAPP) and the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC) from the Vermont Law School challenged RPC's application. They argued RPC was proposing an entirely new project that required the board to take a fresh look. The 2006 decision, they argued, was based on facts that are no longer valid, including a state air quality permit that had been revoked in 2010 and no longer applied to RPC's new plans.

The groups also presented the board with documents showing decades of violations at the 600-acre waste coal site where RPC proposed burying coal ash from the power plant, including a recent release of contaminated sediment that fouled a creek more than half a mile downstream from where the facility is permitted to discharge treated wastewater.

Instead of modifying just one of the conditions, as sought by the RPC, the board voted instead to nullify the 2006 permit and issue a new permit with provisions for local accountability and more protections for public health.

Cathy Lodge and other members of RAPP have long argued that the plant would cause harm to their families' health, land, water and animals. "We moved to the country so our children could grow up on land free from pollution, not across the street from a power plant. I see the new conditional use permit as an important first step in providing more protections for my family and community."

Lisa Widawsky Hallowell, an attorney with EIP, said: "This is how the process is supposed to work. The citizens showed up and presented their health and environmental concerns to the board and those concerns were taken seriously enough that the Board took back RPC's prior approval. We will continue to fight to keep dirty new pollution sources out of this community and all of western Pennsylvania and to hold polluters accountable to environmental laws."

For years, the proposed Beech Hollow waste coal power plant has been a contentious issue for residents near the proposed site. The project has been rife with permitting problems, ongoing pollution concerns and a ack of transparency of exactly what would be constructed and operated. Lisa Graves-Marcucci, PA outreach coordinator for EIP, said: "It's always been about health protections. Since 2005, the citizens and I have been working for more accountability to protect the people of the neighboring communities. This board has taken important steps to include health as a major priority."

In the previous 2006 permit fight, the board blocked some citizens from participating in the public hearing, but this time the board included all who wanted to speak and all facts presented.

Ken Rumelt, staff attorney with the ENRLC, said: "The board heard all the evidence and decided they couldn't simply rubber stamp this project. The board has put everyone on notice that this community takes its health and welfare very seriously and is not going to allow anyone to come in and put their well-being at risk."

More information is available from:
• Lisa Hallowell, attorney, EIP: lhallowell@environmentalintegrity.org, (202) 294-3282
• Ken Rumelt, staff attorney, ENRLC: krumelt@vermontlaw.edu, (802) 831-1630
• Lisa Graves-Marcucci, coordinator of PA community organizing, EIP: lgmarcucci@environmentalintegrity.org, (412) 897-0569

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Political Advisor Colmon Elridge III to Mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day at Vermont Law School

Vermont Law School — 09 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Colmon Elridge III, the youngest gubernatorial executive assistant in the nation, will be the keynote speaker Tuesday, Jan. 17 at Vermont Law School's observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The event, which is from 12:45 p.m. in the Chase Community Center, is free and open to the public.

Elridge's talk, titled "Building the More Perfect Union," will discuss King's contention that America's failure to ensure civil rights violates the mandate of the founding fathers, who realized that the union would never be perfect but that Americans should still pursue a more perfect union.

Elridge became executive assistant to Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear in 2009 when he was 27. He is executive vice president of Young Democrats of America and served as the first black National Committeeman for the Kentucky Young Democrats. In 2007, he introduced then-presidential candidate Barack Obama when he visited Lexington.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

EPA’s Mercury Rules: VT Law School Expert Available to Comment

Vermont Law School — 16 Dec 2011 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School Associate Professor Teresa Clemmer is available to comment on the EPA's new rules to limit mercury and other toxic air pollution from power plants. The rules are to be announced Friday.

Clemmer, a nationally known expert on air pollution, can be reached at 802.831.1136 or tclemmer@vermontlaw.edu

The EPA's new rules would require power plants that burn coal to cut more than 90 percent of the mercury from their exhaust within three years. The plants also would have to cut arsenic, acid gases and other pollutants that cause premature deaths, respiratory and heart disease and cancer.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Today’s House Vote on Keystone Pipeline: VT Law School Experts Available to Comment

Vermont Law School — 16 Dec 2011 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School has experts available to comment on the House's expected vote today to fast-track approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline proposal.

Professor Pat Parenteau, whose expertise includes climate change and environmental policy and litigation, can be reached at 802.831.1305 or pparenteau@vermontlaw.edu

Professor John Echeverria, whose expertise includes climate change and land use regulation, can be reached at 802.831.1386 or jecheverria@vermontlaw.edu

Professor Gus Speth, whose expertise includes climate change, can be reached at 802.831.1192 or gspeth@vermontlaw.edu

The House is expected to pass a bill today to extend the payroll tax cut and speed the approval process of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The State Department has delayed a decision on the pipeline until 2013 to further study's its environmental impacts, and President Obama has said he will reject any effort to link the pipeline to extending the payroll tax cut.

The Keystone provision directs the president to grant a permit for the pipeline within 60 days, but not if he determines the pipeline "would not serve the national interest." He would then have 15 days to explain his decision to Congress, but the timeframe would require a decision by the spring if the bill passes before the end of the year.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Conservation Groups Petition for Emergency Federal Listing of Rare Tree Frog Threatened by Pipeline Project

Vermont Law School — 12 Dec 2011 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- A coalition of conservation groups and scientists petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today to immediately list a tiny tree frog endemic to Puerto Rico under the Endangered Species Act.

Read the petition for an emergency listing, which was filed by Vermont Law School's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC).

The coquí llanero, which is known to live only within a small wetland complex, is threatened with imminent extinction from the proposed construction of the Vía Verde natural gas pipeline project, which would damage lands and waters critical to the frog's only known habitat.

The Fish and Wildlife Service proposed ESA protection for the dime-sized frog in October, but a proposed listing carries no legal protection. ESA protection will require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to consult on the project and ensure no harm to the frog or its critical habitat.

The Corps issued a draft environmental assessment for the pipeline on Nov. 30, signaling its intent to approve the project as proposed. Construction could begin early next year, prompting the need for immediate protection under the ESA.

"This tiny tree frog depends on wetland vegetation that only occurs within a 600-acre parcel that is threatened by the construction of the pipeline," said amphibian expert Neftalí Ríos, who discovered the species in 2005.

"It is evident that Via Verde threatens to destroy this extraordinary frog's last remaining habitat, so we urge the Fish and Wildlife Service to take swift action," said Jaclyn Lopez, a staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Professor Pat Parenteau, senior counsel to the ENRLC, said: "Unless the Fish and Wildlife Service moves quickly to list this species, its fate may be decided before there is a chance to save it."

According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, in addition to development, the coquí llanero is threatened by other factors, including habitat degradation for flood control projects and competition from invasive wetland plant species. It also is challenged by its highly specialized ecological requirements and limited population distribution, low reproductive capacity, water and soil pollution, use of herbicides, brush fires, and inadequate regulations for its protection.

In October, the coalition of conservation groups filed a notice of intent to sue the Army Corps of Engineers under the ESA pending approval of the proposed pipeline through ecologically sensitive areas in Puerto Rico. Under the ESA, the Corps must consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure that the project will not threaten the survival of any of the 44 species that will be affected.

The Corps' analysis has been sharply criticized by scientists who are most familiar with the 44 species. The 92-mile pipeline, which has provoked widespread opposition over environmental and safety concerns, would traverse the island of Puerto Rico. It would run through heavily populated areas as well as mountains, rainforests, natural reserves, karst regions, coastal areas and other sensitive areas inhabited by endangered wildlife and plants, including manatees, hawks and snakes. The project's sponsor maintains that the pipeline will reduce electric rates, but opponents maintain there are more cost effective and less damaging alternatives.

The coalition seeking an emergency listing of the coquí llanero includes the Ciudadanos del Karso (Citizens of Karst), Federación Espeleológica de Puerto Rico (Speleological Federation of Puerto Rico), the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club.

Available to talk to the media are:
• Professor Pat Parenteau: 802.831.1305, pparenteau@vermontlaw.edu
• Attorney Jaclyn Lopez: 415.436.9682 ext. 305, jlopez@biologicaldiversity.org

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Nation’s Premier Environmental Law School Unveils Top 10 Environmental Watch List for 2012

Vermont Law School — 12 Dec 2011 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School today released its second annual Top 10 Environmental Watch List, spotlighting the nation's most critical environmental law and policy issues of 2011 and how they may play out in 2012.

The Watch List is available at http://watchlist.vermontlaw.edu/

This year's report contains 10 essays, plus a Special Mention essay and three additional issues to watch in 2012. The issues were chosen based on their significance to the environment and public well being and whether a key development is expected in the coming year.

"This year's Watch List is especially important given the continuing fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan," Dean Jeff Shields said. "We also saw unprecedented attacks on the EPA as well as the Obama administration's mixed messages on environmental issues, which have been confusing to the public, conservationists and industry alike. Our Watch List helps to clarify these issues and others that are so critical in the coming election year."

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law School to Unveil Top 10 Environmental Watch List for 2011-12

Vermont Law School — 05 Dec 2011 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School will release its second annual Top 10 Environmental Watch List at 9 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 12, 2011, to spotlight the nation's most critical environmental law and policy issues of 2011 and how they may play out in 2012.

The report, which is produced by the top-ranked U.S. environmental law school, will be available at http://watchlist.vermontlaw.edu/

Advance embargoed copies are now available upon request, along with advance interview arrangements, by contacting John Cramer at 802-831-1106 or jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

The Watch List is written by VLS's Environmental Law Center faculty and Vermont Journal of Environmental Law students, who provide common-sense insight into current and upcoming judicial, regulatory, legislative and other issues.

The report's goal is promote public understanding of environmental issues that affect our everyday lives and the natural world.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Draft Environmental Assessment Released On Controversial Pipeline Project in Puerto Rico

Vermont Law School — 30 Nov 2011 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School has experts available to discuss the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' release today of its draft environmental assessment for the permit application for the controversial Via Verde natural gas pipeline project in Puerto Rico.

The Corps announced Tuesday that the document is available for a 30-day public comment period beginning today, after which the Corps will finalize the document and determine future actions.

Journalists must notify the Corps' Nancy Sticht via e-mail (Nancy.J.Sticht@usace.army.mil) by noon today to participate in a media roundtable on Thursday, Dec. 1, at 10 a.m. EST. Members of the media can call in to the roundtable by dialing 888.622.5357 and entering participant code 286290. Read the Corps' news release.

Vermont Law School's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC) has filed a notice of intent to sue the Corps based on numerous violations of the Endangered Species Act and other federal laws. The ENRLC is serving as co-counsel for a coalition of community and conservation groups. Read the VLS news release.

Available to talk to the media are:
• Professor Pat Parenteau: 802.831.1305, pparenteau@vermontlaw.edu
• Associate Professor Teresa Clemmer, acting director of the ENRLC: 802.831.1136, tclemmer@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Rights on Land and Water: Takings Law Conference to Explore Environmental Regulations

Vermont Law School — 15 Nov 2011 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School and Georgetown University Law Center will co-host the 14th annual Conference on Litigating Takings Challenges to Land Use and Environmental Regulations on Friday, Nov. 18, in Washington, D.C.

The conference will bring together some of the nation's leading scholars and practitioners to discuss cutting edge issues raised by recent and pending court cases and new initiatives involving land use and environmental regulation.

Key questions to be asked:
• Is the government liable for a taking for causing or contributing to the flooding of private lands?
• Does a lack of "reasonable investment-backed expectations" bar a takings claim?
• Can courts and litigators make sense of the notoriously muddy Penn Central analysis?
• What novel and difficult takings problems is climate change likely to produce?
• How do private rights in land and water differ, and what are the implications of these differences for takings litigation?

Professor John Echeverria, one of the nation's top experts on takings law, is available to comment at 802.831.1386 or jecheverria@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Smart Grid Collaboration Needed to Repower U.S., VT Law School Study Suggests

Vermont Law School — 15 Nov 2011 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- The United States needs unprecedented collaboration among electric utilities, government, industry and academia to create a smart grid with clear policies, empowered customers, demonstrated cost savings and a greener environment, according to early results in Vermont Law School's national smart grid research project.

Researchers at VLS's Institute for Energy and the Environment are studying the legal, policy and regulatory hurdles to upgrading the U.S. electric system with smart grid technology. The federal government has awarded $3.4 billion in stimulus funds to utilities and other entities, making the smart grid a key part of the U.S. clean energy agenda.

Vermont, California, Texas and a handful of other states have taken the lead in finding a well-balanced approach to demonstrating and implementing a smart grid system.

VLS is conducting case studies of seven diverse utilities across the country in order to recommend best practices that can be replicated nationwide: Commonwealth Edison, Central Vermont Public Service Company, Long Island Power Authority, Pecan Street Project, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Salt River Project and San Diego Gas and Electric.

VLS's final report isn't due until 2012, but the study's early results suggest:

Kevin Jones

• Clear state policies will speed smart grid results: California and other states that have set clear policies are moving steadily toward their goals rather than getting bogged down in debate over what the goals should be.
• Statewide collaboration can spur progress and innovation: Unprecedented collaboration among Vermont's utilities, government, industry and academia has secured federal stimulus money for the rollout out of a statewide smart grid and broadband system. The unique linking of broadband for underserved areas and a smart grid communications network is achieving state policy objectives with noteworthy efficiency.
• Delivering smarter rates: The Salt River Project's success with time-of-use rates and customer pre-pay service offers clear promise for voluntary dynamic pricing. The project's pre-pay program experience-giving customers timely information about their electric usage and letting them control their consumption-has resulted in satisfied customers and a 12 percent drop in power use.
• Demonstrating the smart grid's future: The Pecan Street Project's focus on how a smart grid can provide value to customers and the environment demonstrates the new technology's end-use potential.
• Uncertainty will impede the smart grid: Without clear cost recovery policies for utilities, the smart's grid's reliability and environmental benefits won't be fully realized.

VLS's final report will address legal, regulatory, structural and other barriers, including privacy concerns; policy requirements; energy efficiency and demand response; distributed generation and storage; electric vehicle integration; and distribution automation.

Read more about VLS's Smart Grid Research Project.

Kevin Jones, the project's leader, is available to comment at 802.831.1054 or kbjones@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations, Vermont Law School
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Empowering Electric Customers: VT Law School Unveils Innovative National Smart Grid Privacy Policy

Vermont Law School — 08 Nov 2011 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Putting power customers first, Vermont Law School's Institute for Energy and the Environment today presented a draft smart grid privacy policy designed to serve as a model for utility companies nationwide.

The policy, which was presented at the American Public Power Association's Legal Seminar in Memphis, Tenn., is available at: www.VermontLaw.edu/smartgrid

Under the policy, which is intended to protect consumers while supporting a national roll out of a smart electric grid, utility companies would ensure customer information is not disclosed to third parties except when the customer consents, disclosure is required to provide reliable electric service, or disclosure is required by law, such as warrants or "sunshine" laws.

The policy is intended to regulate the information practices of electric utilities that are implementing new wireless technology in an effort to improve energy reliability, increase efficiency and reduce costs. But the technology also raises privacy concerns because smart meters provide real-time data on electricity use that may indicate how many people are in the house, what they are doing, what appliances are being used and other data that is valuable to advertisers and other companies.

"This policy can be used in the existing form or can be altered to fit each utility's needs and local, state, and federal laws," he said. "Our goal is to help develop a national model for consumer protection, while enabling broad adoption of smart grid technology. We welcome broad input on how we can improve this model policy going forward."

The privacy policy was developed to encompass nine key principles:

1. Make privacy the default setting.
2. Provide complete privacy protection.
3. Know the law regarding public disclosure in your state.
4. Only store/provide access to necessary information.
5. Obtain written consent before disclosing to most third parties.
6. Educate customers about the implications of sharing data with third parties.
7. Notify customers when data is disclosed.
8. Develop a plan for contingencies.
9. Make your privacy policy accessible to customers.

Jones is available to comment at 802.831.1054 or kbjones@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Penn State Sex Abuse Scandal: VT Law School Expert Available to Comment

Vermont Law School — 08 Nov 2011 17:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School Professor Michael McCann, an expert in sports law and social psychology and the law, is available to comment on the alleged sexual abuse of young boys by a Penn State football coach.

McCann can be reached at (cell) 617.875.6132, (office) 802.831.1207 or mmccann@vermontlaw.edu

The Pennsylvania attorney general and the state police commissioner have criticized Penn State administrators and football officials, saying they failed to meet their legal and moral responsibility to report the allegations to authorities.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Wielding a Green Gavel: Chinese Judges Receive New Training to Crack Down on Polluters

Vermont Law School — 03 Nov 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- China's green regulations, green lawsuits and green activism are making some progress in reducing pollution from the nation's economic boon, but a lesser known environmental initiative also is underway - delivering green justice from the bench.

Under a pilot program, Vermont Law School's U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and two Chinese organizations are overhauling the way Chinese judges are educated and trained in environmental rule of law.

The goals are:
• To empower judges, so they're better prepared to resolve significant environmental disputes and apply pollution laws that are widely ignored by companies that foul the country's air, land and water.
• To help the National Judges College of Supreme People's Court to create its first environmental law curriculum. The college is the China's training institution for the courts.

"Many of China's environmental regulations are ambiguous, making it difficult for courts to interpret and enforce the law consistently, and China's judges often lack the training, knowledge, skills and confidence in environmental law to adjudicate these complex cases," said Assistant Professor Siu Tip Lam, program director of VLS's U.S.-China Partnership.

U.S. and Chinese judges, scholars, lawyers and government officials - including Wang Canfa, the head of the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims (CLAPV) in Beijing and one of China's most celebrated environmental advocates -- started discussions in September 2010 on how to improve environmental governance training for judges. Those discussions led to a June 2011 meeting of the taskforce to create the curriculum. About 30 judges will attend the first pilot training workshop Nov. 8-10 in Yunnan Province.

The training will include the legal and practical issues that environmental court judges struggle with in public interest cases brought by environmental advocacy groups and public authorities - rather than pollution victims -- who seek injunctive relief, remediation and punitive damages that have been rarely, if ever, been issued by Chinese courts in the past.

The project is based on a training program that the EPA has successfully delivered to judges in many countries. It includes training key National Judges College (NJC) instructors and judges to develop an environmental law curriculum to be included in the regular training program for all judges at the NJC. The curriculum will provide judges with knowledge of environmental laws, a better understanding of the environmental protection principles behind the laws, and the tools to apply those principles in deciding environmental cases and enforcing compliance orders.

China's environmental courts, which started in 2007, are experimenting with rules that allow the procuratorates, environmental protection bureaus and related agencies, and environmental nongovernmental organizations to bring civil cases on behalf of the public interest. Last year, VLS's U.S.-China Partnership helped its partners to open China's first public interest environmental law firm and a new university legal advocacy center for environmental health and safety issues.

As part of the environmental adjudication training project, the U.S.-China Partnership next year will bring two NJC judges to study at Vermont Law School and the EPA, and will host a study tour for judges from China's Supreme People's Court and environmental courts.

The project is directed by the U.S.-China Partnership in cooperation with CLAPV at the China University of Political Science and Law, China's Southwest Forest University, and the EPA. The project, which is to be completed by December 2012, is funded by grants from the U.S.-China Legal Cooperation Fund and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Keystone XL in Nebraska: VT Law School Experts Available to Comment

Vermont Law School — 01 Nov 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School has faculty experts available to comment on the Nebraska state legislature's convening of a special session today to debate whether to seek changes to a planned $7 billion oil pipeline traversing the state.

TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas would cross the ecologically sensitive Sand Hills area of Nebraska, which sits atop a major source of the region's water, the Ogallala aquifer.

VLS faculty available to comment are:

• Professor Pat Parenteau, whose expertise includes environmental law, land use planning and regulation, and water resources: 802.831.1305, pparenteau@vermontlaw.edu
• Professor Jack Tuholske, whose expertise includes environmental, land use and water resources law: 406.396.6415, jtuholske@vermontlaw.edu
• Professor John Echeverria, whose expertise includes environmental law and land use planning and regulation: 802.831.1386, jecheverria@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

New Politics Needed to Drive New Economy, Says Environmental Pioneer Gus Speth

Vermont Law School — 27 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School Professor Gus Speth, a founder of the modern environmental movement, will conclude his three-part lecture series on America's future by laying out his plan for a new U.S. economic and political order on Thursday, Nov. 3.

The talk, titled "Writhing Free of an Old Skin: Forging a New Politics to Drive the New Economy," will be from 5:15 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. in the Chase Community Center. The event is free and open to the public.

The lecture series, titled "America, Rising to Its Dream: Charting Passage from Today's Decline to Tomorrow's Rebirth," examines the causes and consequences of the economic, political, social and environmental problems plaguing the United States. Speth said the solution is a social movement that creates a new economic and political system based not on growth but on fairness, justice, sustainability, peace, well being and living in harmony with the planet.

Speth, who joined VLS in 2010, is a former dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, administrator of the U.N. Development Programme, chair of the U.N. Development Group, founder of the World Resources Institute and co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

More information is available from Suzanne Todd at stodd@vermontlaw.edu. Vermont CLE credits are available.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Citizens, Conservation Groups Threaten Federal Lawsuit Over Controversial Pipeline Project in Puerto Rico

Vermont Law School — 26 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- A coalition of community and conservation groups alerted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this morning that it intends to sue the Corps within 60 days over the agency's handling of a proposed natural gas pipeline line through ecologically sensitive areas in Puerto Rico.

On behalf of these groups, Vermont Law School's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC) filed a notice of intent to sue based on numerous violations of the Endangered Species Act. The notice of intent was sent to the Corps' office in Jacksonville, Fla. Read the notice of intent.

In public comments, the groups also have raised concerns about the Corps' compliance with several other federal laws that do not require a 60-day advance notice before filing a lawsuit. The ENRLC is serving as co-counsel for the coalition along with the University of Puerto Rico Environmental Law Clinic, Puerto Rico Legal Services and other attorneys.

The Corps has 60 days to respond to the notice of intent to sue; a lawsuit can be filed after that period. The Corps is expected to issue a draft environmental assessment of the Vía Verde project before the end of the year. The coalition has urged the Corps to hold public hearings and conduct a more thorough environmental impact study before issuing the permit that would allow construction to begin.

"Our clients' objective is to ensure that the Corps fully complies with federal laws designed to safeguard endangered species and sensitive ecosystems as well as to protect the citizens of Puerto Rico from safety risks and other adverse impacts of the proposed pipeline," said VLS Professor Pat Parenteau, senior counsel for the ENRLC.

The 92-mile pipeline, which has provoked widespread opposition over environmental and safety concerns, would traverse the island of Puerto Rico. It would run through heavily populated areas as well as mountains, rainforests, natural reserves, karst regions, coastal areas and other sensitive areas inhabited by more than 40 species of endangered wildlife and plants - including manatees, hawks and snakes -- while providing no real cost savings to the Puerto Rican people.

"With its limestone topography and recognizable haystack formations, the forested mountains and caves of the karst region are cherished by Puerto Ricans and they contain some of the most biologically diverse habitat in the world," said José Colón of Citizens of the Karst.

In August 2010, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority submitted an application to the Corps for a wetlands dredge-and-fill permit for the Vía Verde pipeline project. Such permit applications require the Corps to comply with the Endangered Species Act and a host of other federal laws. Supporters of the project say it would reduce the island's high electricity costs, but opponents say the true costs have not been fully disclosed and that the project is unlikely to improve consumer rates and may even worsen them.

The notice of intent to sue accuses the Corps of failing to adequately consider the project's potential impacts on endangered species before issuing a wetlands dredge-and-fill permit under the Clean Water Act. The notice also calls into question whether the Corps adequately consulted with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Corps' failure to consult with the National Marine Fisheries Services over potential impacts on coastal species, such as endangered corals and sea turtles. These interagency consultations are critical in light of the recent proposed listing of the coquí llanero as endangered. "This tiny tree frog depends on wetland vegetation that only occurs within a 400-acre territory that could be damaged or destroyed by the construction of the pipeline," said amphibian expert Neftalí Ríos.

"The citizens of Puerto Rico are in favor of newer, cleaner and cheaper energy alternatives that can be achieved without this unnecessarily damaging and unjustified project," said Professor Pedro Saadé Llorens, director of the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Puerto Rico. "They believe their energy and environmental needs can be met by providing natural gas to southern coast energy plants and by pursuing efficiency and renewable energy alternatives instead of cutting a six-foot deep trench 92 miles through some of the most pristine ecological habitat in the world. In short, our clients are promoting the best interests of their communities based on sound environmental and economic information."

"The pipeline will cause permanent and unnecessary damage to Puerto Rico's unique and priceless natural heritage," said Jaclyn Lopez, a staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

The coalition includes Ciudadanos del Karso (Citizens of Karst), Federación Espeleológica de Puerto Rico (Speleological Federation of Puerto Rico), Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña, Inc. (Puerto Rico Ornithological Society), Vegabajeños Impulsando un Desarrollo Ambiental Sustentable (Vegabajeños Supporting Sustainable Environmental Development), Comite Utuadeño Contra el Gasoducto (Utuadeño Committee Against the Pipeline), the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and several individual citizens.

Available to talk to the media are:

• VLS Professor Pat Parenteau: 802.831.1305, pparenteau@vermontlaw.edu
• VLS Associate Professor Teresa Clemmer, acting director of the ENRLC: 802.831.1136, tclemmer@vermontlaw.edu
• UPR Professor Pedro Saadé Llorens: 787.999.9573, 787.766.3063, 787.397.9993, saadellorensp@microjuris.com
• Attorney Hadassa Santini Colberg, Puerto Rico Legal Services: 787.728.8686 ext. 1256, 787.969.2922, hsantini@servicioslegales.org
• Attorney Jaclyn Lopez, CBD: 415.436.9682 ext. 305, jlopez@biologicaldiversity.org

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235,mailto:jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Public Trust Doctrine Can Fight Farm Pollution Runoff, VT Law School Study Finds

Vermont Law School — 18 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- The public trust doctrine, an ancient legal principle used recently in a novel effort to protect the earth's atmosphere from greenhouse gas emissions, can help fight farm runoff, the biggest polluter of the nation's waters, a Vermont Law School study finds.

The article, titled "Wildlife, Water Quality and the Public Trust Doctrine: A Means of Enforcing Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution Management Plans," is available on the New York State Bar Association's web site and SSRN.

The study was authored by third-year JD student Veronique Jarrell-King, who won first place in the New York State Bar Association's Animal Law Writing Competition, the nation's most prominent animal law student writing contest.

"Even though the Clean Water Act has proven successful in many respects, it has failed to properly address agricultural nonpoint source water pollution," the study reports. "This lack of sufficient legislation has left our nation's waters polluted and has detrimentally affected much of the wildlife that depend on these waters for survival. In an effort to prevent further deterioration of our water systems, the public should consider using the public trust doctrine as a means of requiring state and local agencies to consider the public's interests in wildlife and water quality when developing, regulating, and reevaluating nonpoint source pollution control plans."

The public trust doctrine, a common law doctrine that dates to Roman times, requires the government to manage natural resources in the best interest of its citizens. The doctrine has often been used to challenge government actions that harm water, wildlife, land and most recently the earth's atmosphere, but it is not frequently used to combat nonpoint source pollution from farms, the study reports. Nonpoint source pollution, which is runoff from farms, construction sites and other broad areas, is the leading cause of water pollution today. By far, the heaviest nonpoint contributor to water pollution is agricultural runoff, which is a major source of fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, sediment, salts, nutrients and pathogens.

California has a common law system that is best suited to apply the public trust doctrine to enforce nonpoint source pollution control plans, but citizens in other states may also be successful using the doctrine to clean up their surface and ground waters, the study says.

"Through the public trust doctrine, citizens have the potential to challenge a state legislature's or agency's failure to consider the public's interest in wildlife when developing and reviewing nonpoint source pollution control plans, even in the face of strong political pressure from agricultural lobbyists," the study reports.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Perfect Solar Storm: VT Law School Study Recommends Better Preparation, Coordination to Protect Power Grid

Vermont Law School — 17 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- With the planet overdue for a severe solar storm, policymakers and utilities should promptly begin coordinating efforts to protect the electrical grid's vulnerable components, prepare system operators and automate procedures, a Vermont Law School study recommends.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center says an increase in the number of solar storms -- or eruptions of electrically charged gas from the sun -- is expected over the next three to five years.

"While it may be difficult during this time of fiscal austerity to imagine devoting substantial funds to a threat that we have never had to face, a comprehensive plan to prepare for a severe solar storm will cost far less now than will addressing the catastrophic impacts to the North American electricity grid when the perfect solar storm finally arrives," according to the article.

The study, titled "Not Your Father's Y2K: Preparing the North American Power Grid for the Perfect Solar Storm," is published in the Electricity Journal.

Solar storms, whose bursts of electromagnetic energy interfere with the Earth's magnetic field, have the potential to inflict massive damage on high-voltage transmission lines, communication satellites, GPS navigation systems, data centers, air traffic control facilities and other critical infrastructure, including water distribution, sewage, medical care, phone service and fuel supply systems, the study reports.

In 2010, the Space Weather Enterprise Forum, a coalition of federal and private space officials who monitor geomagnetic disturbances and their effects on critical infrastructure, issued a report stating that the nation is not ready for a solar storm of even modest size.

"Electric utilities and transmission system operators need not wait passively for the perfect solar storm," the article says. "A series of eight recommendations, adopted as part of a comprehensive strategy, could address many of the threats a large solar storm imposes on critical parts of the North American bulk power system."

The study's recommendations:

• Incorporate solar storms into North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) reliability standards
• Improve solar storm forecasting
• Upgrade solar storm early warning and alert systems
• Use smarter grid technologies to improve situational awareness
• Expand automatic protective mechanisms
• Automate voltage stabilization
• Invest in domestic manufacturing of system components
• Coordinate policy action

Read the article's abstract. Copies of the full article are available from the authors at VLS's Institute for Energy and the Environment:

• Senior Research Fellow Christopher Cooper: 202.251.7166 or ccooper@vermontlaw.edu
• Associate Professor Benjamin Sovacool: 802.831.1053 or BSovacool@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Hard Place and a Rock: Coal Won’t Provide U.S. Energy Security, VT Law School Study Finds

Vermont Law School — 14 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- The United States' energy security won't improve--and economic, social and environmental risks will expand exponentially--if the nation switches from oil to coal for most of its electricity and transportation needs, a Vermont Law School study finds.

The study, titled "From a hard place to a rock: Questioning the energy security of a coal-based economy," is published in Energy Policy. Read the study.

Myriad processes are required to render coal safer and cleaner, meaning a transition to a coal-based economy would require vastly more coal to generate the same amount of energy, the study reports.

"Every aspect of a coal-based economy exacts greater external costs from the increased mining, transportation, processing, combusting and clean up of coal," according to the study. "Some of these costs will be reflected in higher energy costs, squeezing a burdened underclass and crippling an economy in tentative recovery. But many costs will not be reflected in energy prices. These include the increased deaths from coal mining, the increased morbidity and mortality associated with inhalation of particulates, the devastation of the sight and soul of rural mining communities, and the heightened competition over dwindling sources of potable water.

"In theory we may achieve the technological capability to transition from oil dependency to an independent coal-based economy. But, pursuing more CCS (carbon capture and storage) and CTL (coal-to-liquids) research and development risks delaying more durable measures and diverts resources from more effective alternatives like energy efficiency and renewable resources."

The study's authors are available to comment:
• Associate Professor Benjamin Sovacool: 802.831.1053 or BSovacool@vermontlaw.edu
• Senior Research Fellow Christopher Cooper: 202.251.7166 or ccooper@vermontlaw.edu
• Professor Pat Parenteau: 802.831.1305 or pparenteau@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office 802.831.1106, cell 540.798.7099, home 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Speth Envisions Revolutionized America as Lecture Series Continues

Vermont Law School — 13 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School Professor Gus Speth laid out a grim assessment of the United States on Oct. 6, saying corporate, political and military greed were destroying the nation in the first of three lectures calling for a grassroots revolution.

In his second lecture on Thursday, Oct. 20, Speth will envision a reborn America based on a platform of fairness, justice, peace and a sustainable economy. In his third lecture on Thursday, Nov. 3, he will explain how that new economic and political system can be accomplished.

The lecture series, titled "America, Rising to Its Dream: Charting Passage from Today's Decline to Tomorrow's Rebirth," is free and open to the public. The lectures will be from 5:15 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. in the Chase Community Center.

Speth, a founder of the modern environmental movement, joined VLS in 2010. He is a former dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, administrator of the U.N. Development Programme, chair of the U.N. Development Group, founder of the World Resources Institute and co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

More information about the lecture series is available at www.vermontlaw.edu/ or from Suzanne Todd at stodd@vermontlaw.edu.Vermont CLE credits are available.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

U.S. Electric Grid Needs Cohesive Cybersecurity Policy, VT Law School Study Finds

Vermont Law School — 13 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Securing America's electric grid is a key part of preventing terrorist attacks on the country's power, water supply and telecommunication systems, but the United States lacks a comprehensive cybersecurity policy for its electricity sector despite having plentiful government policies for protecting other infrastructure, according to a Vermont Law School report.

"Smart-grid technology, which may rely on computer networks to intelligently manage electricity, makes having a cohesive policy all the more important," Zhen Zhang, an attorney specializing in energy and environmental law and a global energy fellow at VLS's Institute for Energy and the Environment, wrote in a recent article in National Defense.

In a recent article in Environmental Practice, Zhang said mandatory government cybersecurity standards in the electric industry need improvement, but that at a basic level they are protecting information networks, resources, and systems from cyber and physical threats. "The electric industry's cybersecurity standards may serve as a model for other industries," she said.

Read the National Defense article. Read the Environmental Practice article.

Zhang can be reached at zzhang001@gmail.com

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

NAFTA Continues to Decimate Mexican Hog Industry, VT Law School Study Finds

Vermont Law School — 11 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- NAFTA's poorly-negotiated trade liberalization policies have been manipulated to exploit Mexican consumers, farm owners and laborers, leading to the demise of that nation's hog industry, according to Vermont Law School Assistant Professor Pamela Vesilind.

Vesilind, an animal law expert, analyzes the latest developments in this issue, which over the past 20 years has left Mexico with more meat but far fewer farmers, in a study titled "NAFTA's Trojan Horse & the Demise of the Mexican Hog Industry." The article is published in the University of Miami Inter-American Law Review.

"In many ways, this transformation echoed the industrialization of agriculture in the southern and mid-western United States in the late 1980s and the 1990s, but with one critical distinction: In the U.S., domestic corporations led the agriculture transformation," Vesilind writes. "Not so in Mexico, where the catalysts were primarily foreign-owned, multinational corporations, mostly second-generation corporations to the American agricultural ‘revolution.' These industrial farming corporations thrived in Mexico, but their success has been devastating to Mexican agriculture."

The article discusses NAFTA's tariff rate quotas, how they failed to protect Mexican hog farmers and how foreign-owned corporations were able to apply a two-sided strategy to take over more than one-third of domestic pork production while developing Mexico into a leading importer of U.S. pork products. The article also reviews why industrial animal farms-or confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs)-are unsustainable without considerable government support, why the CAFO model is even more unsustainable in emerging nations like Mexico, and the U.S. pork lobby actively opposes NAFTA reform.

Vesilind, whose expertise includes animals in agriculture, is available to discuss her NAFTA study and other animal law and policy issues at 802-831-1320 or pvesilind@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law School Researcher Calls for Shifting Nuclear Liability to Plant Operators

Vermont Law School — 06 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School energy researcher Mark Cooper on Wednesday called for the repeal of the Price-Anderson Act and for shifting the liability for nuclear accidents from governments and the public to plant operators.

Cooper, senior research fellow for economic analysis at VLS's Institute for Energy and the Environment, made his recommendations in an article, titled "Nuclear liability: The market-based, post-Fukushima case for ending Price-Anderson," in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Article highlights:

• The Price-Anderson Act and international treaties unfairly shift the huge liabilities of nuclear accidents from plant operators to governments and the public, creating a "moral hazard" that encourages unsafe and uneconomic practices.

• Over many decades, regulators have failed to create a system of rules that can substitute for the market discipline of private insurance and ensure safe nuclear plant operations.

• The Fukushima disaster creates an opportunity to phase out current liability regimes, so operators seeking new nuclear licenses have to acquire insurance or otherwise bear the full liability for nuclear accidents.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

“Meddlers” or “Guardians”: VLS Event to Explore Mediation’s Role

Vermont Law School — 05 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School's Dispute Resolution Program will mark its 30th anniversary on Wed., Oct. 12 with a conference that explores the controversy, current status and future prospects of mediation in the public arena. The "Mediator and Public Policy" event starts at 9:30 a.m. in the Chase Community Center.

The 10 a.m. panel, titled "Activist Mediators: Unethical Meddlers or Guardians of Durable Solutions?," brings together the authors of three seminal articles, published in the Vermont Law Review in 1981, that launched an ongoing nationwide discussion of the role of mediation in public conflicts.

"Three giants in the field of mediation will revisit a 30-year-old debate that's been discussed in over 100 law review articles, numerous books and countless conferences," said Associate Professor Sean Nolon, director of VLS's Dispute Resolution Program. "These panelists have vastly divergent views of how mediators should be accountable to the parties in a dispute and are not shy about expressing their disagreements."

Following the conference, VLS and Pepperdine University Law School will co-host the fifth annual East Coast Professional Skills Program Oct. 13-15 in Woodstock, where national leaders in dispute resolution join participants from around the world in an intensive three-day training program.

VLS's Dispute Resolution Program lets students explore more efficient and cooperative processes for dispute resolution through clinics, courses, conferences, workshops and research offerings.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Law Reviews’ Symposium to Examine Impacts of Sorrell v. IMS Health

Vermont Law School — 03 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- The Vermont Law Review and the University of New Hampshire Law Review will co-sponsor an Oct. 14 symposium to explore issues stemming from the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Sorrell v. IMS Health.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will be from 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., on Friday, Oct. 14, at the University of New Hampshire School of Law campus in Concord.

The symposium, titled "Constitutional Constraints on State Health Care and Privacy Regulation after Sorrell v. IMS Health," will examine federalism and health care regulation (including state single-payer systems), privacy regulation, commercial data as speech and the implications for policy issues ranging from smart-grid deployment to the off-label use of pharmaceuticals.

In June 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Vermont's Prescription Confidentiality Law violated the Free Speech Clause, reasoning that speech in the aid of pharmaceutical marketing is a form of expression protected by the First Amendment.

For more information and to register, visit http://law.unh.edu/lawreview/symposium.php For specific questions, email sorrellconference@gmail.com CLE credits can be applied for at the cost of $115.

The Vermont Law Review, a legal journal edited and managed by students at Vermont Law School, publishes articles contributed by prominent legal scholars as well as student-written notes and comments.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Environmental Leader Gus Speth Charts “America’s Rebirth”

Vermont Law School — 26 Sep 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School Professor Gus Speth, a founder of the modern environmental movement, will call for a new American economic and political order in a three-part lecture series this fall starting Oct. 6.

"I think most Americans appreciate that our dear country is adrift in a sea of troubles," Speth said. "The lectures will explore how that came about and what we need to do to set a course for an attractive future for our children and grandchildren."

• Thursday, Oct. 6 Portrait of a Nation in Trouble: Why America Is at the Bottom of the OECD in Virtually Everything Important (OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)
• Thursday, Oct. 20 In the Beauty of the Morning: Envisioning America the Possible
• Thursday, Nov. 3 Writhing Free of an Old Skin: Forging a New Politics to Drive the New Economy

More information about the lecture series is available at www.vermontlaw.edu/ or from Suzanne Todd at stodd@vermontlaw.edu Vermont CLE credits are available.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law School to Mark “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Law’s Repeal, Welcomes Military Recruiters Back to Campus

Vermont Law School — 22 Sep 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School will host a ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 29, to mark the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" law and the impending return of military recruiters to campus after more than 25 years. The event will be at 4:30 p.m. in the Yates Common Room in Debevoise Hall.

Speaking will be Dean Jeff Shields, Professor Jackie Gardina and Alex Manning, a 2006 VLS graduate who was discharged from the military under the "don't ask, don't tell" law. Manning, a former agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, is a criminal law and family law attorney in Georgia.

VLS was one of only two law schools in the nation that prohibited military recruiters on campus because of the law, which prevented gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military -- and VLS was the only law school that forewent some federal funds because of its stance on "don't ask, don't tell." Shields has notified the Pentagon that military recruiters are allowed back on campus, and VLS's Career Services office is scheduling visits with representatives from the Judge Advocate General's Corps in the Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force.

VLS's nondiscrimination policy, which has remained unchanged since 1985, requires all employers to affirm that they do not discriminate based on protected characteristics, including sexual orientation. VLS's policy reflects no bias against the armed forces as a career for the school's graduates, but it opposed the military's long-standing discrimination in recruitment and discipline on the basis of sexual orientation.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law School Helps Update Vermont’s Comprehensive Energy Plan

Vermont Law School — 21 Sep 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School's Institute for Energy and the Environment (IEE) is playing an important role in updating Vermont's Comprehensive Energy Plan. A draft of the plan is open for public comment until Oct. 10.

The IEE was commissioned by the Vermont Department of Public Service (DPS) to craft a background to the plan, which addresses Vermont's energy future for electricity, thermal energy, transportation and land use. The plan, which was last updated in 1998, is being developed by the DPS in collaboration with other state agencies, the public and stakeholders such as VLS.

"Our goal was to support the plan and create a map of the regulatory and legal landscape of Vermont's energy policy," said Professor Michael Dworkin, director of the IEE. "The plan is to be used by decision makers and a lay audience who are looking for the forest, not the trees."

The plan's background crafted by the IEE evaluates the legal and decision-making aspects of Vermont's energy policy; identifies inconsistencies, tensions and other problems with the Legislature's energy goals and current laws; and identifies ways to resolve those problems.

The plan's primary purposes are to inform Vermonters about the challenges of maintaining a safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable energy supply; to examine efforts to address these energy challenges; and to make recommendations to achieve Vermont's energy goals.

Available to comment are Professor Dworkin at 802.831.1319 or mdworkin@vermontlaw.edu, and IEE Senior Global Energy Fellow Roman Sidortsov at 802.831.1384 or rsidortsov@vermontlaw.edu

The draft plan is available at: www.vtenergyplan.vermont.gov

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Indian Activist Studies Vermont Yankee Opposition, Seeks to Stop Plans for World’s Largest Nuclear Plant

Vermont Law School — 21 Sep 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Indian activist Vaishali Patil will visit Vermont Law School on Friday, Sept. 30, to learn more about efforts by Vermont lawmakers and citizen groups to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

Her lecture at 12:45 p.m. in Oakes Hall, room 110, is free and open to the public. The event is sponsored by VLS's International Law Society and Environmental Law Society.

A grassroots advocate for the constitutional, human and land rights of women and tribal people in India, Patil will discuss opposition to a proposal to build the world's largest nuclear power plant on the earthquake-prone coastline south of Mumbai, India. The Jaitapur project is supported by the Indian government but opposed by farmers, fishermen and other community members, thousands of whom have been arrested in acts of non-violent civil disobedience.

Patil is visiting Vermont to learn more about efforts by Gov. Peter Shumlin, the Vermont Legislature and community groups to close Entergy's Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. She also will speak at 7 p.m., Wed., Sept. 28 at the Montpelier Unitarian Church.

More information about the VLS event is available from Ida Nininger at inininger@vermontlaw.edu.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235,mailto:jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

FTC Commissioner Julie Brill to Deliver 2011 Waterman Lecture

Vermont Law School — 19 Sep 2011 16:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Julie Brill will discuss consumer protection and other issues at Vermont Law School's 2011 Sterry R. Waterman Lecture at 4 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 27 at the Chase Community Center. Her talk is titled "Finding Heroes in a Small World". It is free and open to the public.

Brill, who was sworn in as an FTC commissioner in 2010, works on issues most affecting today's consumers, including protecting consumers' privacy, encouraging appropriate advertising substantiation, guarding consumers from financial fraud and maintaining competition in industries involving high tech and health care. Brill has received several national awards for her work protecting consumers. She has testified before Congress, published numerous articles and served on many national expert panels focused on consumer protection issues such as pharmaceuticals, privacy, credit reporting, data security breaches and tobacco.

Previously, she was the senior deputy attorney general and chief of consumer protection and antitrust in Vermont for more than 20 years. She has received several national awards for her work protecting consumers. She clerked for Vermont Federal District Court Judge Franklin S. Billings, Jr., from 1985 to 1986. She graduated from New York University School of Law.

The Sterry R. Waterman lecture is named in honor of the late senior judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and a former president of the Vermont Law School Board of Trustees.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Community Day to Focus on Irene-Recovery Efforts

Vermont Law School — 09 Sep 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School and the Town of South Royalton will host their first annual Community Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 24 to celebrate the relationship between the state's only law school and the historic community where it is located. That relationship has been highlighted by VLS's relief and recovery efforts for residents who have been hit by Tropical Storm Irene.

Chris Foy '12 removes mud from a South Royalton resident's barn after Tropical Storm Irene. Credit: Valley News - Polina Yamshchikov

In the wake of Irene, the day's focus has changed from generally strengthening VLS-community relations to supporting efforts to revive Royalton and to lift community spirits. Activities, which will take place on the VLS campus, the Town Green and Carpenter Field, will include storm-recovery information tables as well as campus tours, a climbing wall, lawn games, local bands, free food and ice cream, raffle, clowns, face painting and more.

"This event will build awareness of the opportunities and services that Vermont Law School and the community offer each other," said Peter Gill, associate director of VLS's Student Affairs and Community Relations Officer. "This mutual support can be seen in how VLS and the community have worked together during Irene."

VLS and South Royalton have had a collaborative relationship since the school opened in 1973. Among the assets that VLS brings to the community are free legal services at the South Royalton Legal Clinic and the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic; student community service projects, including prevention of domestic violence, promoting home energy efficiency and aiding teen mothers; free campus lectures on local, national and international issues; a fitness center; and the Magic Mountain Children's Center.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law School Clinical Students Prompt Enforcement Actions at Largest Coal Refuse Pile East of Mississippi River

Vermont Law School — 08 Sep 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Federal mining authorities identified several deficiencies in the wastewater treatment system at the largest coal refuse pile east of the Mississippi River during a recent inspection prompted by Vermont Law School's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC) and the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) ) on behalf of their client Residents Against the Power Plant (RAPP).

The U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) on Aug. 30 inspected the Champion Processing Coal Refuse Disposal Area, a 600-plus acre site in Washington County in southwestern Pennsylvania. The Champion site contains more than 35 million tons of coal refuse generated from more than 60 years of processing coal from nearby mining operations.

Federal inspectors found Champion had failed to maintain the stability of a treatment facility in conformity with good engineering design. Federal inspectors also asked the EIP and ENRLC to provide more information on water supplies that may be impacted by the coal refuse site.

State officials accompanied OSMRE representatives during an inspection earlier last month and cited Champion for failing to maintain its water treatment facilities to ensure compliance with effluent limitations. State and federal officials also observed water bypassing the collection system and are awaiting test results to determine whether to take additional enforcement actions.

The OSMRE's decision to grant an inspection came nearly 18 months after the ENRLC first asked the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Oct. 27, 2010, to address potential violations of federal and state air, groundwater and surface water regulations that were identified by the ENRLC and EIP. The two groups also pressed federal authorities to address the unnaturally neon blue "Beaver Pond" north of the coal refuse pile that is visible from Route 22.

Although the OSMRE does not typically grant inspections, the agency determined that federal action at the Champion site was necessary because the Pennsylvania DEP failed to adequately address violations that were previously identified. In addition, the OSMRE is investigating whether Champion has provided adequate financial assurance to cover the cost of full reclamation and is asking state regulators to address potential violations from fugitive dust emissions and groundwater pollution based on information submitted by the ENRLC.

"Our clients and the EIP are pleased that federal authorities recognized the need to investigate potential violations that have gone unaddressed for years," said Ken Rumelt, an ENLRC staff attorney who accompanied OSMRE representatives on the Aug. 30 inspection, adding that the ENRLC student-clinicians were instrumental in gaining the OSMRE's attention. "The OSMRE has already identified violations during its limited involvement at the Champion site and has prompted state authorities to take notice of our concerns."

Cathy Lodge, a nearby resident and the founder of RAPP, said: "After the Pennsylvania DEP and the regional OSMRE office denied our request to inspect two ponds at the Champion site that we fear may be harming our community, we are pleased that some actions are finally being taken."

RAPP and EIP also oppose the site owner's proposal to use the coal refuse as fuel for a waste coal-fired power plant that would be constructed nearby, then return the coal combustion waste to the site for disposal in mines. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is deciding how to regulate disposal of coal combustion waste under federal waste disposal laws - namely whether to promulgate federally enforceable protections, which EIP and other environmental groups support, or using the unenforceable "guidelines" that states can choose to adopt or ignore, which the environmental groups oppose for failing to protect public health and the environment. OSMRE will be making a similar determination about how to regulate coal combustion wastes dumped into mines.

Waste coal power plants are a major source of air pollution, including greenhouse gases. Coal combustion wastes from power plants also create a significant threat to groundwater, particularly when disposed in unlined pits and in abandoned mines. Coal combustion waste is known to contain toxic metals, including arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, selenium and other pollutants.

"Coal refuse and coal ash pollution leads to serious environmental problems such as acid mine drainage and the release of toxic metals such as arsenic, selenium, and hexavalent chromium in to the environment," said Lisa Widawsky, an EIP attorney who attended the Aug. 30 federal inspection. "The residents living near the Champion site have a right to know whether their water and air contain these dangerous pollutants, and we are thankful that OSMRE agreed that this site warrants closer inspection and cited the Champion Processing for regulatory violations."

The owners of the Champion site have also proposed constructing a gas turbine and waste coal power plant on the Beech Hollow property adjacent to the Champion site. The Robinson Township Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission had a public meeting on Sep. 12 to discuss a zoning change needed for the gas turbine unit.

Read the OSMRE letter granting the inspection.

For more information, contact Kenneth Rumelt, ENLRC staff attorney, at (802) 831-1031 or krumelt@vermontlaw.edu,or Lisa Widawsky, EIP attorney, at (202) 263-4452 or Lwidawsky@environmentalintegrity.org.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Yankee Trial Starts: VT Law School Experts Available to Comment on Federal Case That May Influence Nuclear Power Across U.S.

Vermont Law School — 08 Sep 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School faculty experts will attend opening arguments at the Vermont Yankee federal trial on Monday, Sept. 12, and are available to comment throughout the trial.

They also will continue to analyze key developments in the case on the school's Vermont Yankee lawsuit faculty commentary blog.

Professors Pat Parenteau and Cheryl Hanna will attend Monday's opening arguments in U.S. District Court in Brattleboro. Professor Michael Dworkin and Assistant Professor Don Kreis also are available to comment.

Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC et. al. v. Shumlin et. al. is being watched nationwide because of its potential to affect nuclear power across the United States. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has renewed Entergy's current operating license, which expires in March 2012. But the Vermont Legislature won't allow the state Public Service Board to issue a certificate of public good, which is required under Vermont law.

Entergy's lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of Vermont's law giving Vermont lawmakers veto power over the reactor's operation, as well as the right of any state utility commission nationwide to determine whether nuclear power should be part of a mix of electricity generation produced within any state.

• Professor Parenteau is available at 802.831.1305 (office) or pparenteau@vermontlaw.edu
• Professor Hanna is available at 802.831.1282 (office), 802.233.8818 (cell) or channa@vermontlaw.edu
• Assistant Professor Kreis is available at 802.831.1374 (office), 603.277.0330 (cell) or dkreis@vermontlaw.edu
• Professor Dworkin is available at 802.831.1319 (office) or mdworkin@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law School Continues Aid to Irene-Damaged Communities

Vermont Law School — 02 Sep 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT—Heading into the Labor Day weekend, Vermont Law School students, faculty and staff will continue volunteering to help Vermont residents affected by Tropical Storm Irene, including offering legal aid and assistance filling out FEMA applications.

"Vermont Law School is determined to do whatever it can to help in our local community and across the region," said VLS Dean Jeff Shields.

VLS student James Olaleye '13 cleans up storm damage in South Royalton.

Since the storm struck Sunday:

• Hundreds of VLS students, faculty and staff have helped to clean up homes damaged by floodwaters in South Royalton and other communities. The students also are delivering food, beds and other supplies. Two students have suffered minor injuries during the cleanup.
• VLS's Land Use Clinic and South Royalton Legal Clinic are helping residents to fill out FEMA applications in the VLS library from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Sept. 6-9. From Sept. 10-30, clinic hours will be 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. The South Royalton Legal Clinic also will provide civil legal assistance. For more information, call 802.831.1028. Residents should bring their Social Security number, address, contact telephone number, insurance information, total household income, bank routing and account information (if they want FEMA funds directly deposited into their bank account) and a description of losses caused by the disaster. If residents need additional legal advice, VLS volunteers will put them in contact with someone who can assist them.
• VLS has assigned two of its staff—Sarah Buxton, a member of the Vermont House of Representatives, and Peg Trombly, a former chairman of the South Royalton Select Board—to work full time on relief efforts in local communities for the foreseeable future. Another staff member, Abby Armstrong, a long-time volunteer in her hometown of Sharon, has been assigned to aid Sharon town officials this weekend.
• The VLS faculty has loosened class attendance requirements, so students can continue to volunteer during normal class time and make-up assignments later.
• VLS is allowing additional staffers to volunteer for short-term community relief efforts while continuing to receive their school paychecks.
• Eight faculty and staffers whose homes are cut off have been put on paid administrative leave. Faculty and staffers whose commutes have been extended to several hours because of road closures are being allowed to work flexible schedules.
• VLS is offering counseling to VLS students, staff, faculty and their relatives who need support.
• VLS is soliciting cash donations for Operation Revive Royalton to aid South Royalton and Royalton residents affected by Irene.
• Alumni and Reunion Weekend on Sept. 16-18 will continue as scheduled but with opportunities for alumni to volunteer for Irene relief efforts.
• VLS has created a web page for post-Irene updates.
• VLS has established the VLS Relief Fund to accept financial contributions to aid VLS students, staff and faculty whose homes have been destroyed, damaged or cut off by floodwaters.
• VLS has created an email address—contributions@vermontlaw.edu—for students, staff and faculty to match volunteer needs and services.
• Many VLS students, faculty and staff will be volunteering in various communities this weekend and are available to comment. They include Sarah Buxton at 802.233.0274 or sbuxton@gmail.com and third-year students Meredith Crafton at 206.280.7011 or merecrafton@gmail.com and Janssen Willhoit at 802.431.5118 jwillhoit@vermontlaw.edu.

VLS's classes started Wednesday, two days late, because of an electricity, telephone and Internet outage. All systems have been restored. Floodwaters caused an estimated $500,000 in damage on campus to two buildings, three riverside parking lots, the outdoor classroom and Internet servers.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law School to Lift Ban on Military Recruiters on Campus

Vermont Law School — 22 Jul 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT –– Vermont Law School will lift its ban on military recruiters on campus when the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law is formally repealed in late September.

VLS, which has denied campus access to military recruiters for more than 25 years because “don’t ask, don’t tell” conflicts with the school’s non-discrimination policy, notified the U.S. Department of Defense on July 19 that its recruiters will be welcome back on campus when the law is fully repealed and the Pentagon agrees to abide by VLS's non-discrimination policy.

VLS is one of only two law schools in the nation that have prohibited military recruiters on campus because of the "don't ask, don't tell" law, which prevents gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military—and VLS is the only law school to forgo some federal funds because of its stance on "don't ask, don't tell."

"This law school has stood fast to our position of principle, in the face of significant pressure, to insist that the ‘don't ask don't tell' law be repealed," Dean Jeff Shields said.

Legislation to repeal the law was approved by Congress and signed by President Obama in December 2010. U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is expected to announce this afternoon that the Pentagon has certified that the law’s repeal will not affect military readiness. President Obama is expected to certify the repeal, which would become effective in 60 days, or late September.

Shields said VLS was moving forward in rescinding its campus ban because the official repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” was imminent and the school wants to be well positioned to welcome military recruiters for the fall employment recruiting season.

Shields, in a letter Tuesday to the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary of defense for military personnel policy, said VLS will rescind its policy to deny access to military recruiters on campus. Shields also asked that VLS again be made eligible for Department of Defense funding as well as federal funding from other departments and agencies that excluded VLS because of its stance on “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“We had continued that longstanding practice of denying campus access with regret because all constituents of Vermont Law School hold the Armed Forces and the several Judge Advocate General's Corps in the highest respect,” Shields wrote. “Nor has our practice reflected any bias against military service as a career for our students or graduates. We recognize the importance to the country of an able corps of lawyers of high quality in the Armed Services and the value to our students of the professional opportunities that JAG service provides. In fact, a number of our students and recent graduates have accepted JAG commissions and internships, and some are presently serving with distinction on active duty.

“Our practice reflected our long and strongly held institutional belief that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, like discrimination on the basis of race and other prohibited grounds, is an unacceptable practice that weakens national unity and arbitrarily deprives the military and all sectors of our society of the abilities and services of individuals of high talent and dedication. Our practice has also been consistent with the public policy of the State of Vermont as reflected in its nondiscrimination legislation. Our campus is now open to fully support the recruiting efforts of the Armed Services.”

Shields cited the leadership of Scott Cameron, former chair of the Board of Trustees; Professor Jackie Gardina, who organized annual student trips to Washington, D.C., to lobby for the law's repeal; Professor and former Dean Kinvin Wroth; and a number of other trustees and faculty members over the years.

VLS students and JAG recruiters have maintained a strong relationship despite the impediment of having to meet off campus over the years. On average, VLS has the same number of graduates and interns entering JAG as law schools nationwide that have long allowed military recruiters on campus.

Vermont Law School has prohibited military recruiters on campus almost continuously since 1985 when the school adopted a nondiscrimination policy for all employers. The policy prohibits employers from using VLS’s Career Services Office for recruitment on campus unless they give written assurance that they do not discriminate in hiring on a variety of grounds, including sexual orientation. JAG recruiters declined to provide that assurance. In 1990, the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) adopted a requirement that member schools deny campus access for recruitment to employers who decline to provide written assurance that they do not discriminate on those grounds. VLS operated under both its own and the AALS policies since 1990. The "don't ask, don't tell" law was enacted in 1993 under the Clinton administration as a compromise to excluding gay men and lesbians entirely from military service.

In 1995, Congress adopted the Solomon Amendment to withhold some federal money from law schools and universities that do not give military recruiters the same access to campus as other employers. In 2000, the Defense Department announced that if any school or department of a university prohibited military recruiters, the entire university would be denied federal funding under the Solomon Amendment. In response, the AALS suspended its nondiscrimination requirement so far as it affected JAG recruiters, but imposed more stringent requirements of “amelioration” upon law schools that allow JAG recruiters on campus. Since then, nearly all law schools affiliated with a college or university bowed to central university pressure and allowed JAG to recruit on campus and complied with the "amelioration" requirement. VLS, however, as an independent institution, continued to deny military recruiters access to campus.

VLS has not sought federal appropriations, grants or contracts covered under the Solomon Amendment since 2000. The federal law has made VLS ineligible to receive federal funds from the Departments of Defense, Transportation, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and certain related agencies. As a result, VLS has forgone the opportunity to receive an estimated $500,000 a year in federal funds. The school has continued to receive funding from other federal agencies, including the Departments of State and Energy. In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Solomon Amendment, but the VLS faculty, trustees and students repeatedly reaffirmed the school's nondiscrimination policy and its practice of denying access to military recruiters until the "don't ask, don't tell" law is repealed.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law School, China’s Premier Law School Collaborate On Environmental Research, Rule of Law Projects

Vermont Law School — 11 Jul 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- U.S. and Chinese law students will work together under a new collaboration between Vermont Law School and China's premier law school aimed at improving environmental rule of law and legal education in China.

VLS's U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law and Renmin University of China Law School have signed two agreements to allow semester-long student exchanges between the two institutions and collaboration between VLS and Renmin students on cutting-edge environmental law research projects. The projects will focus on improving environmental legal education, training and enforcement of environmental laws and regulations in China.

The agreements further a memorandum of understanding signed in January 2011 under which VLS provides support for Renmin Law School's new clinical legal education program focused on environmental information transparency.

Vermont Law School, the top-ranked environmental law school in the United States, is the leading American law school working on environmental governance in China. Since 2007, VLS and its U.S. and Chinese partner institutions have trained thousands of Chinese judges, lawyers, prosecutors, government officials, scholars and law students. Most recently, VLS started developing an environmental law training curriculum for Chinese judges and helped to open China's first public interest environmental law firm and a university legal advocacy center for environmental health and safety issues.

Renmin University Law School is regarded as China's top center for legal training and legal policy research. Founded in 1950, it was the first institution of higher legal education in the People's Republic of China. Renmin's faculty and students are frequently commissioned by the Chinese central government to draft key national laws, regulations and rules.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Yankee Perjury Investigation: VT Law School Expert Available To Comment

Vermont Law School — 07 Jul 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School Professor Cheryl Hanna is available to comment on Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell's announcement today that Entergy officials won't be charged with perjury for repeatedly misleading Vermont state officials about the existence of underground piping carrying radionuclides at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

Hanna, a constitutional law expert, can be reached at 802.233.8818 and channa@vermontlaw.edu

Read Hanna's commentaries about the Vermont Yankee federal lawsuit on the VLS faculty blog.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Yellowstone River Oil Spill Ramifications: VT Law School/Montana Expert Available To Comment

Vermont Law School — 07 Jul 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School Adjunct Professor Jack Tuholske, who is a private practice attorney in Missoula, Montana, is available to comment on the environmental, legal and policy ramifications of the Yellowstone River oil spill.

Tuholske is an expert in public interest environmental litigation throughout the West. He has been lead counsel in dozens of seminal decisions in Montana environmental, land use and constitutional law, as well as cases under the federal Endangered Species, Clean Water and National Environmental Policy Acts.

He can provide analysis of the Yellowstone spill's implications, including conservation groups' efforts to use the spill to secure broader pipeline safety rules now before Congress and to oppose the planned Keystone XL pipeline, a $7 billion U.S.-Canada oil link.

Tuholske is available at 406.396.6415 and jtuholske@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Roger Clemens Trial: Prof. Michael McCann Available To Comment

Vermont Law School — 07 Jul 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School Professor Michael McCann is available to comment on Roger Clemens's federal perjury trial that begins Wednesday.

McCann, one of the nation's top sports law experts, can be reached at (cell) 617.875.6132, (office) 802.831.1207, mmccann@vermontlaw.edu

McCann, who is director of VLS's Sports Law Institute, previews the Clemens trial in his Sports Illustrated column on Monday.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

New Grant Trains Chinese Judges to Enforce Environmental Laws

Vermont Law School — 27 Jun 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School's U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law has received a grant to help judges enforce environmental justice in China.

China's rapid industrialization has caused severe pollution in recent years, but the nation's judges often lack the knowledge and skills in environmental law to adjudicate these complex cases.

VLS and China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL), along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will use the $80,000 grant from the US-China Legal Cooperation Fund to help China's National Judges College to train judges in environmental governance and rule of law.

The project, which starts this month, includes training key instructors and judges to develop an environmental law training curriculum for the regular training program for all judges. The curriculum will provide judges with knowledge of environmental laws, a better understanding of the environmental protection principles behind the laws and the tools to apply those principles in deciding environmental cases and enforcing compliance orders.

"Ultimately, the effective implementation of China's environmental laws and regulations can improve environmental quality and reduce pollution, with benefits not only to the health and welfare of local people and communities but to global welfare with respect to water and air pollution, which has a trans-boundary effect," said Assistant Professor Siu Tip Lam, program director of the U.S.-China Partnership. "It will also benefit businesses that are already complying with environmental laws by leveling the playing field and reducing competitive pressure from non-complying businesses."

Since 2007, VLS has been collaborating with CUPL to conduct environmental law training for Chinese judges, lawyers, prosecutors, government officials and scholars. VLS recently helped to open China's first public interest environmental law firm and a new university legal advocacy center for environmental health and safety issues.

VLS Assistant Professor Siu Tip Lam and Professor Jason Czarnezki, program director and faculty director, respectively, of the U.S.-China Partnership for Environment Law and Renmin University of China Law School officials.

In addition to Chinese judges needing more training in environmental issues, many of China's environmental regulations are ambiguous and the law-making process often fails to consider enforcement concerns, making it difficult for courts to interpret the law consistently and assign liability. Nevertheless, recent efforts by non-governmental organizations, academia and the media have helped to develop some legal solutions to these problems. For example, since the establishment of China's first environmental court in 2007, more than 40 such courts have sprung up across the country. They have experimented with innovative rules that allow the procuratorates, environmental protection bureaus and related agencies, and environmental NGOs to bring civil cases on behalf of the public interest.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Dean Shields To Retire

Vermont Law School — 24 Jun 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School President, Dean and Professor Jeff Shields today announced his retirement effective August 1, 2012, after four decades as a practicing attorney and legal educator.

Shields, 65, became Vermont Law School's seventh dean in August 2004 after serving as a partner at the Chicago and Washington, D.C., law firm of Gardner Carton and Douglas, where he was nationally recognized for his expertise in not-for-profit law, corporate law, health care law and international trade law. He received his BA in economics, magna cum laude, from Harvard College in 1967 and his JD from Yale Law School in 1972.

Shields announced his retirement to VLS trustees, faculty, students, staff and alumni this morning.

"I have loved this job," he said. "The opportunity to lead an institution with a mission of public citizenship, public service and environmental advocacy has been exhilarating. The quality and values of our trustees, faculty, staff, students and alumni have lifted me every day since I started here on Aug. 1, 2004.

"My recent bout with cancer, from which I have recovered, has prompted me to want to spend more time with my family, especially my wife, Genie Bird Shields, and to pursue other interests," he said. "There are a number of major projects underway which will be completed during the 2011-2012 academic year. Their completion will make it a particularly auspicious time for the next dean to begin his or her own initiatives."

During Shields' tenure, VLS solidified its position as the nation's premier environmental law program but also expanded the school's international reach. He strengthened the Career Services office to help graduates find jobs and recruited well known faculty members who have a combination of professional and academic experience. He helped to create the school's Institute for Energy and the Environment, U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law, Distance Learning masters programs, Land Use Clinic, Sports Law Institute and other programs. VLS expanded its full-time faculty, increased its endowment from about $8 million to $12 million, crafted a campus master plan and will complete a $15 million capital campaign and two major building projects by next summer -- the new Center for Legal Services, which will house the South Royalton Legal Clinic and the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, and a new fitness center.

"I have had the good fortune to serve under an extraordinary board and with a great group of deans, department directors, faculty and staff colleagues," said Shields, whose trademark bow tie has been a fixture on campus for nearly a decade. "The positive accomplishments during the last seven years have been due to the creativity and hard work of our remarkable VLS family. With their help, I hope to make my last year as dean my most productive."

The VLS Board of Trustees is forming a search committee for a new dean.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Prescription Drug Law, Offer to Purchase CVPS: VT Law School Experts Available to Comment

Vermont Law School — 23 Jun 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School faculty experts are available to comment on two news items today.

• The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc., overturning Vermont's physician data mining law that limited how drug manufacturers could use information about the kinds of drugs that doctors prefer to prescribe to their patients. The Court ruled in favor of pharmaceutical companies and data miners who say the law violated their First Amendment rights.

Professor Cheryl Hanna, a constitutional expert, is available at: cell 802.233-8818.

• An offer by Gaz Metro of Canada, the parent company of Green Mountain Power, to purchase Central Vermont Public Service. CVPS is currently seeking Vermont Public Service Board approval for a sale to Fortis Inc., another Canadian company.

Professor Michael Dworkin, director of the VLS Institute for Energy and Environment, is available at: office 802.831.1319 or cell 802.249-7840.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Pollution as Public Nuisance: VT Law School Panel to Discuss Supreme Court's New Ruling in Global Warming Case

Vermont Law School — 23 Jun 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School scholars and a federal judge will discuss the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling earlier this week in the global warming case American Electric Power v. Connecticut at 4:30 p.m., Thursday, June 30 in the Chase Community Center.

The Supreme Court on June 20 unanimously overturned a 2009 federal appeals court decision that allowed several states and environmental groups to sue coal-fired electric utilities on the grounds that their emissions create a public nuisance by contributing to global warming. The case tried to use common law -- or a judge-made remedy -- to force industries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but the Supreme Court said the matter must be addressed by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Air Act rather than the courts. The EPA plans to make a final decision about whether it will issue final greenhouse gas regulations by May 2012.

VLS professors Pat Parenteau and John Echeverria will joined by Judge Peter Hall of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, who wrote the opinion that the Supreme Court reviewed in the AEP case.

The panel discussion is part of the VLS Environmental Law Center's Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Brown Bag Lecture Series. Each lecture is worth one VBA CLE credit. Lectures are free and open to the public.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Yankee Lawsuit: VT Law School Experts Available to Comment on Key Hearing, Will Host Public Forum on Troubled Nuclear Plant

Vermont Law School — 20 Jun 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School faculty experts are available to comment on a key hearing Thursday and Friday in U.S. District Court on the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

VLS faculty also will debate the lawsuit at a public forum at 4:30 p.m., Monday, June 27 in the Chase Community Center.

The future of nuclear power nationally could be influenced by the outcome of Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC et. al. v. Shumlin et. al., which is why the case is being watched so closely nationwide.

The hearing set for Thursday and Friday is on Entergy's motion for a preliminary injunction to keep the plant operating pending a hearing on the case's merits. Judge Gavin Murtha has scheduled a trial on the merits for October, so the narrow question presented at this juncture is whether Entergy will suffer "irreparable harm" between now and October.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given Entergy, which owns Vermont Yankee, a license to operate for another 20 years after its original 40-year federal license expires in March 2012. But the Vermont Legislature has refused to allow the state Public Service Board to issue a certificate of public good, which is required under state law.

Entergy's lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of Vermont's law giving the state legislature veto power over the reactor's operation, as well as the right of any state utility commission to determine whether nuclear power should be part of a mix of electricity generation produced within the state.

VLS faculty are providing analysis of the case's environmental, constitutional and political implications on their "Vermont Yankee Lawsuit" commentary blog.

VLS faculty available to comment include:
• Professor Pat Parenteau, whose expertise includes climate change: 802.831.1305, pparenteau@vermontlaw.edu
• Adjunct Professor Peter Bradford, a former member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission: 802.824.4296, perubrad@aol.com
• Professor Michael Dworkin, director of VLS's Institute for Energy and the Environment: 802.831.1319, mdworkin@vermontlaw.edu
• Assistant Professor Don Kreis, an expert on energy and regulatory law: 802.831.1374, dkreis@vermontlaw.edu
• Professor Cheryl Hanna, a constitutional expert: 802.831.1282, channa@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Tuesday’s Hot Topics Talk: Is the Kyoto Protocol Dead?

Vermont Law School — 20 Jun 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Professor Dan Bodansky of Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law will discuss the status of the Kyoto Protocol at noon, Tuesday, June 21, in Oakes Hall, room 007.

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, according to the United Nations. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Bodansky's talk is part of the Vermont Law School Environmental Law Center's Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Brown Bag Lecture Series. Each lecture is worth one VBA CLE credit. Lectures are free and open to the public.

Learn more about upcoming Hot Topics lectures, including topics, times, dates and locations.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, home: 802.649.2235, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

“Brown to Green” Conference Aims to Revitalize Brownfields

Vermont Law School — 20 Jun 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School will host a "Brown to Green 2011" conference on Thursday, June 23, to provide developers and their professional advisors with tools for identifying, transacting and redeveloping brownfields in Vermont.

The conference will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Chase Community Center. Deb Markowitz, Vermont's Secretary of Natural Resources, will give the keynote address from noon to 1 p.m.

Panelists will include private practitioners, law school professors, government attorneys and program personnel from federal, state and regional brownfields programs. Brownfields are contaminated industrial or commercial sites in need of cleanup. Conference sessions will guide participants through the transactions and site preparation process. Emphasis will be placed on the state and federal regulatory framework, practical risk management vehicles, environmental investigation, and utilization of financial and technical assistance programs.

The event is sponsored by VLS's Land Use Institute, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation and Vermont Bar Association.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

AEP v. Connecticut: VT Law School Experts Available to Comment On Today's U.S. Supreme Court Ruling

Vermont Law School — 20 Jun 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School has faculty experts available to comment on the U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous ruling this morning in the global warming case American Electric Power v. Connecticut.

The Court overturned a 2009 federal appeal court decision that allowed several states and environmental groups to sue coal-fired electric utilities on the grounds that their emissions create a public nuisance by contributing to global warming.

The case tried to use common law to force industries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but the Court ruled that the Clean Air Act and the EPA's actions under the Act displace the claims that are made under public nuisance laws.

VLS climate change experts include:
• Professor Patrick Parenteau: 802-831-1305, pparenteau@vermontlaw.edu
• Professor John Echeverria: 802-831-1386, jecheverria@vermontlaw.edu
• Professor Martha Judy: 802-831-1345, mjudy@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Today’s Hot Topics Talk: The Politics of Vermont’s Fish and Wildlife

Vermont Law School — 17 Jun 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Patrick Berry, commissioner of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, will discuss the interplay of politics and policy in the legislative, regulatory and resource management arenas at noon, today at the Historical Museum Society in Montpelier.

Berry is Vermont Law School's former director of Governmental Affairs and Environmental Advancement.

His talk is part of the VLS Environmental Law Center's Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Session Brown Bag Lecture Series. Each lecture is worth one VBA CLE credit. Lectures are free and open to the public.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Today’s Hot Topics Talk: Carbon Capture and Sequestration in the EU

Vermont Law School — 16 Jun 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Javier Garcia-Lomas Gago '10, an attorney with Perez Moreno LLP in Seville, Spain, and an adjunct professor at Vermont Law School and the University of Seville, will discuss carbon capture and sequestration in the European Union at noon, today in Oakes Hall, room 007.

Garcia-Lomas Gago will discuss the legal framework for the CCS Directive-the geological storage of carbon dioxide-that was recently passed by the EU, and how the EU member states have implemented this directive.

VLS's Environmental Law Center presents Hot Topics in Environmental Law: Summer 2011 Brown Bag Lecture Series. Each lecture is worth one VBA CLE credit. Lectures are free and open to the public.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Yankee Lawsuit: New Commentary Available

Vermont Law School — 15 Jun 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School Professor Cheryl Hanna today posted a new commentary on the school's faculty blog about the environmental, constitutional, political and other implications of the federal lawsuit over the troubled Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

Read the post, titled "States' NIMBY Argument Unlikely to Prevail."

Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC et. al. v. Shumlin et. al. is being closely watched across the country because of its potential to affect nuclear power in the United States. Entergy Corp., which owns Vermont Yankee, is suing Vermont in U.S. District Court over whether federal laws governing nuclear power pre-empt state ones.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Today’s Hot Topics Talk Let the Sunshine In: Trends in Transparency

Vermont Law School — 10 Jun 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Assistant Professor Don Kreis will give a Hot Topics talk, titled "Let the Sunshine In: Trends in Transparency," from noon to 1 p.m. today at the Historical Museum Society in Montpelier.

Kreis's talk will focus on how Vermont is doing when it comes to holding energy and environmental decision makers publicly accountable.

Kreis, a former Associated Press reporter and editor who has a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, is associate director of Vermont Law School's Institute for Energy and the Environment.

VLS's Environmental Law Center presents Hot Topics in Environmental Law: Summer 2011 Brown Bag Lecture Series. Each lecture is worth one VBA CLE credit. Lectures are free and open to the public.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Report Finds Greater Reliance on Efficiency, Wind and Long-Term Contracts Reduces Risks and Ratepayer Costs

Vermont Law School — 07 Jun 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- A Vermont Law School report released today offers a comprehensive approach to resource acquisition in the electricity sector and highlights the increasing importance of efficiency, renewables such as wind power, and long-term contracts to lower risk and costs in meeting future electricity needs.

Mark Cooper, senior fellow for economic analysis at VLS's Institute for Energy and the Environment, presented his findings at the annual meeting of the Mid-America Regulatory Conference in Rapid City, South Dakota, where he was on a panel to discuss the potential marriage between natural gas and renewables.

Cooper is available to comment at 301-807-1623 (cell) and markcooper@aol.com

Read an executive summary and the full report, titled "Least-cost Planning for 21st Century Electricity Supply."

"Regulators and utilities must adapt to the increasing complexity and ambiguity that resource acquisition faces in the electricity sector," Cooper said. "The core principles of prudence and least cost planning should be reaffirmed, but a resource plan for America's electricity supply in the rest of the 21st century must also:

• be hedged against risk.
• maximize options to reduce uncertainty.
• be flexible with respect to outcomes that are, at best, vague.
• be insulated against ignorance of the unknown.

The report uses four fields (financial portfolio and real option analysis, technology risk assessment, reliability and risk mitigation management, and Black Swan Theory) to build a practical framework for regulators and utilities to evaluate electricity resources. The framework offers specific advice to utilities and regulators:

• Identify the trade-offs between cost and risk and lower risk through hedging.
• Reduce exposure to uncertainty by buying time.
• Keep options open by acquiring small assets that can be added quickly.
• Minimize surprises by avoiding assets that have unknown or uncontrollable effects.
• Create systems that monitor conditions and can adapt to change in order to maintain system performance.
• Buy insurance where possible.
• Recognize that diversity is the best insurance.
• Build resilience with diversified assets by increasing the variety, balance and disparity of the resource mix.

The report applies the framework to rank seventeen resources based on the cost estimates from two well-known sources-Lazard, Wall Street and the California Energy Commission.

"The empirical analysis shows that the current utility bias in favor of large, central station facilities makes long-term commitments in exactly the wrong way for the current decision making environment," Cooper said. "It commits to assets that have high risk (e.g., fossil fuel and nuclear facilities) or create large exposure to uncertainty (large size, high capital costs, or long lead times) with technologies that have vague long-term prospects (unstable resource availability and poorly understood environmental impacts)."

"Gas has an important role to play, but the dash to gas that is developing is being significantly overdone because it unnecessarily exposes ratepayers to risk, uncertainty and vagueness," Cooper said. "A more balanced approach that begins with a great deal more efficiency and locally abundant renewables such as wind-that can be acquired more quickly and in much smaller increments with long term fixed-price contracts-yields lower expected costs when combined with natural gas."

Cooper has 30 years of public policy analysis experience and has given 350 pieces of expert testimony before federal and state legislatures and regulatory bodies on behalf of consumer, low-income and public-interest groups, people's counsels and attorneys general.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Yankee Lawsuit: VT Law School Faculty Offer Insight Into Critical Case for U.S. Nuclear Power

Vermont Law School — 02 Jun 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School today launched a commentary blog where its faculty experts will provide ongoing analysis of the environmental, constitutional, political and other implications of the federal lawsuit over the troubled Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC et. al. v. Shumlin et. al. is being closely watched across the country because of its potential to affect nuclear power in the United States. Entergy Corp., which owns Vermont Yankee, is suing Vermont over whether the federal or state government has final approval in the reactor continuing to operate.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VLS Commencement Day to Include Address by Amy Goodman, Groundbreaking for New Center for Legal Services

Vermont Law School — 10 May 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Amy Goodman, the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, will be the commencement speaker May 21 at Vermont Law School's 36th graduation ceremony. The public is invited to attend the event, which begins at 10 a.m. on the South Royalton town green.

Amy Goodman

Groundbreaking for the Center for Legal Services will be at 8:30 a.m. at 190 Chelsea Street along the town square. The historic building will undergo a $3.5 million renovation and conversion into the new home of the South Royalton Legal Clinic and the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic.

Goodman is the first journalist to receive the Right Livelihood Award, known as the "alternative Nobel Prize," for "developing an innovative model of truly independent grassroots political journalism that brings to millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded by the mainstream media." Democracy Now!, a daily, independent news program airing on more 800 TV and radio stations in North America, is the largest public media collaboration in the United States.

Commencement week events include a guest lecture at 4 p.m., May 20, in Oakes Hall 012 by Annie Leonard, author of The Story of Stuff, who has spent nearly two decades investigating and organizing on environmental health and justice issues.

Edward Mattes, Jr., '83, chair of the Board of Trustees, will preside over commencement exercises. Honorary degrees will be given to Goodman, Leonard and Scott Cameron '80, former chair of the Board of Trustees. The student speaker will be Cory Steckler, who will receive a Juris Doctor degree and a Master of Environmental Law and Policy degree.

More information is available at our Commencement pages.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Six VT Law School Students Named Schweitzer Fellows for 2011-12

Vermont Law School — 06 May 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship announced today that six Vermont Law School students are among the 27 graduate students selected for the 2011-12 class of New Hampshire-Vermont Schweitzer Fellows.

Debevoise Hall

Over the next year, these students will join about 240 Schweitzer Fellows nationwide in carrying out service projects to meet the health needs of underserved individuals and communities. The VLS students are:

• Theo Fetter ‘12 and William Tucker ‘12 will work with landlords in South Royalton to improve energy efficiency and bring a "community greening" model to other towns.
• Sarah Mooney ‘13 will work to improve land use management for the Vermont Department of Corrections in Windsor.
• Ida Nininger ‘13 will aim to empower adults with special needs by helping them create a greeting card initiative.
• Vikram Patel ‘13 will create a food pantry that emphasizes nutrition and healthy eating education.
• Kate Thomas ‘13 will mobilize youth volunteers to improve senior citizens' health and quality of life.

Upon completion of their initial year, these students will become Schweitzer Fellows for Life and join a network of more than 2,000 individuals who throughout their careers will address the health needs of underserved people.

Since 1996, VLS Schweitzer Fellows have each contributed at least 200 hours of service annually to community projects they create. The 2010-11 VLS Fellows are Kelly Connolly ‘12, Renee Gregory ‘11, Maximilian Merrill ‘12, Allison Silverman ‘12 and Michelle Tarnelli ‘12.

Read the Schweitzer Fellowship blog.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law School Launches First Online Degree in Environmental Law

Vermont Law School — 05 May 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School, the nation's premier environmental law and policy school, will launch two online degree programs on May 16, including America's first online master's degree program in environmental law for non-lawyers.

The all-online format is designed to deliver a robust educational experience that is flexible and accessible for professionals who need to continue working while completing their degree. Students enrolled in the inaugural online Master of Environmental Law and Policy (MELP) and the online LLM in Environmental Law, for post-JD attorneys, will develop the expertise to address the world's increasingly complex environmental issues.

Professor Marc Mihaly

After several years of research that included online pilot courses, VLS decided to embrace distance learning to serve the fastest-growing population of graduate students in the United States. Professor Marc Mihaly, director of the VLS Environmental Law Center (ELC), said distance learning provides the best avenue for the nation's top-ranked environmental law school to reach individuals who want expertise and resources in environmental law and policy but who can't venture to South Royalton to take classes or participate in degree programs. More than 100 students are expected to enroll in the first year and 230 students in the second year.

"By providing a platform for students to explore environmental law and policy with our world-class faculty at their own pace and within their own constraints, we will extend Vermont Law School's unique brand of excellent environmental legal training and commitment to public well-being to a vast array of communities and to the world," Mihaly said.

Vermont Law School, which has been at the forefront of environmental law and policy since 1978, has been ranked #1 by U.S. News & World Report 14 times since their specialty rankings began in 1991.

VLS's bold venture will lead nonprofit, mission-driven law schools in the development of the appropriate standards for distance education, according to Associate Professor Rebecca Purdom, director of distance learning.

Associate Professor Rebecca Purdom

"Other institutions are watching us, looking to our example as the way to offer responsible, effective and valued legal education in the 21st century," she said. "VLS will set the standard for a new kind of distance education."

Learn more about the online master's programs.

Professor Purdom can be reached at 802.282.3070 (cell), 802.831.1217 (office) or rpurdom@vermontlaw.edu

Professor Mihaly is available at 802.831.1214 or mmihaly@vermontlaw.edu

MEDIA CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
802-831-1106, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Offshore Drilling in Alaskan Arctic: VT Law Schools Experts Available to Comment

Vermont Law School — 04 May 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School has faculty experts available to comment on proposals for offshore oil drilling in the Alaskan Arctic, including Shell Oil's controversial request to the federal government this week to drill up to 10 exploratory wells over the next two years.

The environmentally fragile and remote region potentially holds 27 billion barrels of oil, but Shell's proposal has drawn increased scrutiny from government regulators, conservationists and others in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

• Associate Professor Betsy Baker, whose expertise includes Arctic law and policy, law of the sea, and oceans and energy, can be reached at 617.872.4403 (cell), 802.831.1270 (office), bbaker@vermontlaw.edu
• Professor Patrick Parenteau, whose expertise includes ocean and coastal resources, climate change and endangered species, is available at 802.831.1305 (office), pparenteau@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law School’s Summer Session Exhibit to Highlight Local Artist

Vermont Law School — 04 May 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School's Environmental Law Center (ELC) will present the works of Vermont artist Phyllis Chase on campus from May 18 through August 5.

The exhibit, which will be in the portico between Cornell Library and Debevoise Hall, celebrates the ELC's tradition of featuring Vermont landscapes by local artists on the VLS summer session catalog cover and poster. The exhibit will be the first of what may become an annual exhibit by the summer session catalog artists.

The ELC has selected Chase's artwork for the summer session catalog cover for the past two years. Chase, a plein air oil painter who also paints still lifes and interiors, is known for her colorful and evocative landscapes and silkscreens. Her work has been exhibited nationwide. "As a plein air painter, it is my complete joy to stand for hours at a time on location, trying to crack the code of how light attaches itself to this beautiful land. I also feel it is something like a mission to record the barns, villages, lakes and mountains of Vermont as we still experience them even into the 21st century."

Chase's exhibit at VLS will include interiors and landscapes. Original oil paintings and limited edition giclee prints will be for sale; 20 percent of all sales will be donated to the ELC. A reception will be from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., June 9 in Yates Common Room.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law School’s U.S.-China Partnership Names New Faculty Director

Vermont Law School — 04 May 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School Professor Jason Czarnezki, an internationally recognized scholar in environmental and natural resources law and policy, has been appointed faculty director of VLS's U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law.

Professor Jason Czarnezki

"I am honored to have the opportunity to continue the Partnership's work in building China's capacity for individual and institutional action to solve environmental and energy problems," Czarnezki said.

Established in 2006, the U.S.-China Partnership works to improve China's environmental governance and rule of law, including criminal and civil enforcement of environmental laws and regulations that have been widely ignored during China's economic boom. "We're excited to have such an accomplished scholar join our team," said Assistant Professor Siu Tip Lam, program director of the Partnership.

Under the leadership of Czarnezki and Lam, the Partnership will enter a new era of increased scholarship and academic exchange with Chinese institutions that solidifies VLS's role as the leading U.S. law school working on Chinese environmental and energy law and policy issues.

Czarnezki will work with Lam to:

• Expand research and policy development projects on Chinese environmental and energy law;
• Coordinate research and scholarship between U.S. and Chinese scholars and students;
• Help develop and implement capacity building programs for Chinese government officials, scholars and lawyers.
• Strengthen the VLS curriculum on Chinese environmental law and policy;
• Develop internship programs for VLS students in China;
• Create academic and student exchanges between VLS and Chinese institutions;
• Promote scholarly publication and lectures by VLS faculty and students on China's environmental issues.

Czarnezki, who received a law degree from The University of Chicago, has held academic appointments at Marquette University Law School, DePaul University College of Law, and Sun Yat sen (Zhongshan) University in Guangzhou, China, where he spent the 2009-2010 academic year as a J. William Fulbright Scholar. He has presented his work on environmentalism, natural resources law, food policy, global climate policy and U.S.-China relations at universities, public interest organizations, government institutions, and conferences throughout the United States and Asia. He is working on a series of articles about U.S. government involvement in Chinese environmental policy and an edited volume on the future of Chinese environmental policy.

Assistant Professor Siu Tip Lam

Lam, who has been the U.S.-China Partnership's program director since May 2010, will continue to direct its capacity building programs in China. Lam came to VLS from the Massachusetts Attorney General Office, where was an assistant attorney general in the Environmental Protection Division. She received her law degree from Northeastern University Law School. A native of Hong Kong, she speaks Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese.

"Professor Czarnezki will deepen our ability to serve students and faculty from China and the U.S. as we further integrate our work in China with our academic program here in Vermont," said Dean Jeff Shields.

The U.S.-China Partnership has trained more than 1,000 Chinese lawyers, judges, government officials and others, conducted numerous workshops and undertaken other initiatives. The Partnership recently helped to establish China's first public interest environmental law firm and a new university legal advocacy center devoted to environmental health and safety issues.

Much of the Partnership's work has been done through grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development. VLS's partners include Sun Yat-sen University Law School, the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims at the China University of Political Science and Law, the Vermont-based Regulatory Assistance Project, and the China Environment Forum at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Military Recruiters to be Welcomed Back at Vermont Law School Once “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Repeal is Finalized

Vermont Law School — 03 May 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School, which has denied access to military recruiters for more than 25 years, will notify the U.S. Department of Defense that its recruiters are welcome back on campus once the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" law is finalized.

Professor Jackie Gardina.

VLS is one of only two law schools in the nation that prohibit military recruiters on campus because of the "don't ask, don't tell" law, which prevents gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military--and VLS is the only law school that foregoes some federal funds because of its stance on "don't ask, don't tell."

Legislation to repeal the law was approved by Congress and signed by President Obama in December, but the repeal won't be effective until 60 days after the president, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of defense certify that policies and regulations are in place and military readiness will not be affected. Once the repeal is finalized, VLS Dean Jeff Shields will notify the Pentagon that military recruiters are allowed back on campus.

VLS's nondiscrimination policy, which has remained unchanged since 1985, requires all employers to affirm that they do not discriminate based on protected characteristics, including sexual orientation. VLS's policy reflects no bias against the armed forces as a career for the school's graduates, but it opposes the military's long-standing discrimination in recruitment and discipline on the basis of sexual orientation.

Shields said VLS is eager to have military recruiters back on campus. He noted that many VLS alumni are veterans or currently serving in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. VLS students and JAG recruiters have maintained a strong relationship despite the impediment of having to meet off campus over the years-on average, VLS has the same number of graduates and interns entering JAG as law schools that allow military recruiters on campus nationwide.

Dean Jeff Shields.

"This law school has stood fast to our position of principle, in the face of significant pressure, to insist that the ‘don't ask don't tell' law be repealed," he said. "Many of our trustees, staff, students and faculty, led by Professor Jackie Gardina, have worked hard for repeal of this law. We recognize the importance to the nation of having highly qualified lawyers in the armed services and the value to our students of the professional opportunities that JAG service provides. Our policy reflects our long and strongly held institutional belief that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation-like discrimination on the basis of race, gender and other prohibited grounds-is an unacceptable practice that weakens national unity and arbitrarily deprives all sectors of our society of the abilities of people of high talent and dedication."

Professor Jackie Gardina added: "Many members of the VLS community, past and present, have contributed to the repeal of this discriminatory law. I am honored to be part of such a community. The federal government, including the military, should be leaders when it comes to equality and nondiscrimination issues. To hold them to a lower standard than private employers would be wrong."

Gardina, a former board member of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and the president-elect of the Society of American Law Teachers, called for Defense Secretary Gates to halt all investigations and discharges under "don't ask, don't tell" while the repeal is being finalized.

Vermont Law School has prohibited military recruiters on campus almost continuously since 1985 when the school adopted a nondiscrimination policy for all employers. The policy prohibits employers from using its Career Services Office for recruitment on campus unless they give written assurance that they do not discriminate in hiring on a variety of grounds, including sexual orientation. JAG recruiters have declined to provide that assurance. In 1990, the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) adopted a requirement that member schools deny campus access for recruitment to employers who decline to provide written assurance that they do not discriminate on those grounds. VLS has operated under both its own and the AALS policies since 1990. The "don't act, don't tell" law was enacted in 1993 under the Clinton administration as a compromise to excluding gay men and lesbians entirely from military service.

In 1995, Congress adopted the Solomon Amendment to withhold some federal money from law schools and universities that do not give military recruiters the same access to campus as other employers. In 2000, the Defense Department announced that if any school or department of a university prohibited military recruiters, the entire university would be denied federal funding under the Solomon Amendment. In response, the AALS suspended its nondiscrimination requirement so far as it affected JAG recruiters, but imposed more stringent requirements of Aamelioration@ upon law schools that allow JAG recruiters on campus. Since then, nearly all law schools affiliated with a college or university have bowed to central university pressure and allowed JAG to recruit on campus and have complied with the "amelioration" requirement. VLS, however, as an independent institution, has continued to deny military recruiters access to campus.

VLS has not sought federal appropriations, grants or contracts covered under the Solomon Amendment since 2000. The federal law has made VLS ineligible to receive federal funds from the Departments of Defense, Transportation, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and certain related agencies. As a result, VLS has foregone the opportunity to receive an estimated $500,000 a year in federal funds. The school has continued to receive funding from other federal agencies. In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Solomon Amendment, but the VLS faculty, trustees and students have repeatedly reaffirmed the school's nondiscrimination policy and its practice of denying access to military recruiters until the "don't ask, don't tell" law is repealed.

Read a commentary by Professor Gardina--Anatomy of Social Change: Repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law School Students Urge Scrutiny of Controversial Natural Gas Pipeline Proposal

Vermont Law School — 28 Apr 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC) is urging federal authorities to scrutinize a controversial proposed natural gas pipeline in ecologically sensitive areas across Puerto Rico.

The ENRLC is serving as co-counsel in this matter to the Environmental Law Clinics at the Inter American University School of Law and the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, which represent a number of residents and organizations in Puerto Rico who are concerned about the potentially significant impacts of the Via Verde pipeline proposal.

A news conference was held this morning at the Inter American University School of Law in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

VLS officials available to comment are:
• Sheryl Dickey, an assistant professor and ENRLC staff attorney, at 802.831.1626 and sdickey@vermontlaw.edu
• ENRLC Fellow Michelle Walker at 802.831.1624 and mwalker@vermontlaw.edu
• Associate Professor Teresa Clemmer, director of the ENRLC, who attended the news conference, at tclemmer@vermontlaw.edu

The 92-mile pipeline would traverse the island of Puerto Rico, running through rainforests, natural reserves, coastal areas and other sensitive natural areas affecting dozens of endangered or threatened species in one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world. The total project area is about 1,672 acres of land and includes impacts to an estimated 369 acres of waters.

Staff attorneys and student-clinicians at the three clinics submitted a comprehensive letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asking the Corps to deny the dredge-and-fill permit for the project. The clinics said the applicant, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, has not submitted sufficient information for the Corps to conduct its review under the Clean Water Act. If the Power Authority submits the necessary information, the clinics want the Corps to formally consult the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service about the potentially significant impacts on federally listed endangered and threatened species, as required under the Endangered Species Act. The clinics also urged the Corps to prepare an environmental impact statement to fully inform government decision-makers and citizens about the potential consequences of the project, as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

"The Corps must prepare an environmental impact statement given the high level of uncertainty regarding the totality of environmental impacts associated with the proposed pipeline and the public controversy surrounding the project," the clinics' letter said, adding that the Power Authority should consider other alternatives for reducing Puerto Rico's dependence on oil to produce electricity.

Read the clinics' comment letter to the Corps.

The final, signed version of the letter will soon be available on the ENRLC website.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law School Student Wins Prestigious National Award

Vermont Law School — 27 Apr 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School student Ben Leoni '11 has been selected by the Burton Awards for Legal Achievement as a winner of the 2011 Distinguished Legal Writing Awards. Leoni is the first VLS student to win the award, which is the highest honor in legal writing in the United States.

The VLS Legal Writing Program nominated Leoni's article, "Resolving Disputes in the Northern Forest: Lessons From the Connecticut and Moosehead Lakes," which was published in the Fall 2010 issue of the Vermont Law Review. The article dealt with environmental dispute resolution among private landowners and other stakeholders in the public land-use debate over logging, development, recreation and conservation in the vast forest stretching across northern New England.

"I'm very surprised and honored by this award," said Leoni, who will practice law at Curtis, Thaxter, Stevens, Broder & Micoleau, LLC in Portland, Maine, after receiving his J.D. degree in May.

Established in 1999, the Burton Awards honor partners in law firms and law school students who use clear, plain and concise language rather than archaic, stilted legalese. This year, 15 student-authors were selected by a committee of professors from Harvard, Penn and Michigan law schools and luminaries from the bench such as former Chief Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Last year's winners came from law schools that included Columbia, Emory, Georgetown, Iowa, Penn and William & Mary. The award winners will be feted at a black tie dinner at the Library of Congress on June 13. The guest speaker will be U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will accept the 2011 Book of the Year in Law Award.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

New Study Finds America Addicted to “Crystal Eth,” Recommends Investment in Other Biofuel Alternatives

Vermont Law School — 26 Apr 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Long heralded as a green alternative to fossil fuel, corn-based ethanol has become a costly distraction that chiefly benefits corporate, political and lobbying interests rather than the American public, the environment, small farmers and rural communities, according to a new report by Vermont Law School's Institute for Energy and the Environment (IEE) and Food & Water Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.

Titled "Crystal Eth: America's Crippling Addiction to Taxpayer-financed Ethanol," the report concludes that corn-based ethanol is unlikely to significantly reduce America's dependence on imported oil, has a negligible ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, contributes to environmental degradation in coastal waters and has been an economic boon for agribusiness giants managed in absentia rather than small and medium-size, locally owned farms, farm cooperatives and ethanol refineries.

Read the report.

The report examines the political contributions and lobbying efforts of some of the largest corporate ethanol refiners to garner ever-larger subsidies, and how the growth of corporate consolidation in the corn-based ethanol sector has been an unintended result of America's renewable transportation fuel politics, policies and subsidies. The report estimates that ethanol refiners have received at least $22.8 billion in total government financial support between 1999 and 2008.

The report recommends that:
• Corn-based ethanol subsidies should be phased out completely over the next few years in favor of subsidies to biofuel alternatives that are more efficient, economically feasible and environmentally friendly, such as cellulosic and algae biofuel refiners.
• The renewable fuel standard should be amended to lower the amount of corn-based ethanol qualifying for government quotas.
• Renewable fuel standards should be increased for second- and third-generation biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol and algae-based biodiesel, which should only receive support if they meet sustainability criteria to qualify for subsidies. These could include a net energy gain for cellulosic or other biodiesel fuels, reduced water utilization, limiting the indirect land use impact on food production and eschewing emerging higher-risk technologies such as nanotechnology and synthetic biology.
• Farmers who produce and consume their own biofuels on the farm should be rewarded by an energy tax credit for each gallon of ethanol, biodiesel or vegetable oil that they use instead of fossil fuels.

Congress has mandated that biofuel use must reach 36 billion gallons annually by 2022.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VLS’s New Sports Law Institute Gives Students Opportunities in Sports, Law and Business

Vermont Law School — 25 Apr 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School has established a Sports Law Institute (SLI) to prepare students for the growing opportunities at the intersection of sports, law and business.

Professor Michael McCann

The SLI is headed by Professor Michael McCann, one of the nation's foremost experts on sports law. He is a legal analyst for Sports Illustrated and editor-in-chief and publisher of the award-winning Sports Law Blog.

The SLI's deputy director is Associate Professor Brian Porto, who has written about legal issues in sports for more than two decades.

The SLI's launching further broadens the curriculum and experiential learning opportunities at VLS, whose environmental law, international law, dispute resolution and other public-service oriented programs are nationally recognized for excellence.

The SLI serves as an educational, research and professional vehicle for exploring connections between law and sports. The institute engages in original research, promotes experiential learning and employment opportunities for VLS students and alumni and connects the VLS community with academic and professional sports law activities. The SLI also provides cutting-edge commentary on some of the biggest controversies in sports law.

Associate Professor Brian Porto

"Sports law has an emerging role in legal education and will continue to gain importance," McCann said. "It encompasses a wide range of legal topics, including antitrust law, labor law, intellectual property/licensing, contracts, commercial law, business law, immigration law, property, torts and criminal law. That breadth makes sports law an excellent device for studying the law. Sports law is also a valuable learning tool because it presents complex legal issues in fact-patterns that students generally find approachable and understandable. Our focus ranges from the ski and snowboard slopes in Vermont to the parks, courts, rinks and fields found in the big leagues and minor leagues all over the country."

More information is available at: www.vermontlaw.edu/sportslaw

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

San Francisco Giants Owner Bill Neukom’s Talk Postponed

Vermont Law School — 25 Apr 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- San Francisco Giants owner Bill Neukom's talk on sports, law and business slated for noon, Wednesday, April 27 in Vermont Law School's Chase Community Center has been postponed.

Neukom's schedule changed at the last minute. The media will be notified when a new date has been set for his VLS talk, which will be sponsored by the Sports Law Institute.

Neukom has been the Giants' managing general partner and chief executive officer since 2008. Previously, he was Microsoft's general counsel and the president of the American Bar Association.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Free Speech Case Before U.S. Supreme Court: VT Law School Expert Available to Comment

Vermont Law School — 21 Apr 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School Professor Cheryl Hanna is available to comment on Sorrell v. IMS Health, Inc., a free speech case from Vermont that will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, April 26. Hanna, a Constitutional law expert, and 10 students from her Constitutional Law class will travel to Washington, D.C., to attend the arguments.

"The question before the Court is whether Vermont can require market research firms, or ‘data miners,' to get doctors' permission before selling their prescribing history to drug companies," Hanna said. "Drug companies use this information to tailor their marketing efforts to individual doctors. This practice is called ‘detailing.' This case is extremely important as it pits the privacy interests we all have in protecting the commercial use of our personal information against the free speech rights of companies to provide accurate and non-misleading information to consumers. In recent cases, including Citizens United and Westboro Baptist Church, the Court has preferred free speech to government regulation. Vermont's law is one of many nationwide that has attempted to restrict the use of data mining. What happens in IMS Health will have significant implications for free speech rights for corporations and data mining companies as well as for consumers."

Hanna's Constitutional Law class has used Sorrell v. IMS Health to study the commercial speech doctrine and to work with the Vermont Attorney General to host a moot court of the case at Vermont Law School.

Hanna can be reached at 802.233.8818 (cell) and channa@vermontlaw.edu

Read more about Sorrell v. IMS Health.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Gulf Oil Spill Legacy: VT Law School Experts Available to Comment

Vermont Law School — 19 Apr 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School has several faculty experts available to comment on the legal and regulatory legacy of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico a year after the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

Scientists are still assessing the blowout's ecological damage in the wake of the April 20, 2010, spill, which dumped nearly five million barrels of oil and nearly two million gallons of dispersants into the gulf. Drilling in the gulf was temporarily suspended and the U.S. Justice Department is considering penalties against BP, but the company is seeking permission to resume drilling and Congress is considering opening new offshore areas to oil and gas exploration. President Obama has called for both stricter offshore safety rules and increased domestic oil production.

VLS experts include:

• Associate Professor Betsy Baker, law of the sea, oceans and energy: 802-831-1270, bbaker@vermontlaw.edu
• Associate Professor Martha Judy, environmental liability, natural resources damages and wildlife: 802-831-1345, mjudy@vermontlaw.edu
• Professor Michael Dworkin, director of the VLS Institute for Energy and the Environment, 802-831-1319, mdworkin@vermontlaw.edu
• Professor Mark Latham, Clean Water Act, corporations, environmental enforcement and regulation, 802-831-1226, mlatham@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

AEP v. Connecticut: VT Law School Experts Available to Comment

Vermont Law School — 19 Apr 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School has several faculty experts available to comment on the implications of American Electric Power v. Connecticut, which will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, April 19.

The Court will hear arguments in an appeal of a 2009 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that allowed several states and environmental groups to sue coal-fired electric utilities on the grounds that their emissions were creating a public nuisance by contributing to global warming. The case, which was originally brought in 2004, is one of three around the country trying to use common law to force industries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

VLS faculty with climate change expertise who are available to comment include:

• Professor Patrick Parenteau: 802-831-1305, pparenteau@vermontlaw.edu
• Professor John Echeverria: 802-831-1386, jecheverria@vermontlaw.edu
• Associate Professor Martha Judy: 802-831-1345, mjudy@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Yankee Files Suit to Stay Open: VT Law School Experts Available to Comment

Vermont Law School — 18 Apr 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School has several experts available to comment on Entergy's lawsuit filed this morning seeking to prevent the state of Vermont from shutting down the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant on March 21, 2012.

Entergy's request today for declaratory and injunctive relief in U.S. District Court in Vermont follows the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission's renewal on March 21 of Vermont Yankee's operating license through March 21, 2032. The lawsuit is available on Entergy's website at www.entergy.com.

• Professor Michael Dworkin, director of the VLS Institute for Energy and the Environment and former chairman of the Vermont Public Service Board: 802-831-1319, mdworkin@vermontlaw.edu
• Professor Patrick Parenteau, former director of the VLS Environmental Law Center and the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, whose expertise includes environmental policy and litigation: 802-831-1305, pparenteau@vermontlaw.edu
• Adjunct Professor Peter Bradford, former member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission: 802-824-4296, perubrad@aol.com

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

CFL’s to Be Distributed Free During Energy Efficiency Day of Action

Vermont Law School — 18 Apr 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT --Vermont Law School students, faculty and staff will go door to door on Saturday, April 23, to exchange less efficient incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent light bulbs during an Energy Efficiency Day of Action in the South Royalton area. The CFL's will be given out free.

Team members will meet at 10 a.m. in Oakes Hall Classroom 107. The media are welcome to accompany them. More information is available from Allie Silverman '12, who is spearheading the project as part of her Schweitzer Fellowship, at asilverman@vermontlaw.edu

The project's goal is to help homeowners and tenants save energy, cut utility bills and reduce pollution and to strengthen VLS's relationship with the local community. CFL's use 75 percent to 80 percent less electricity than incandescent bulbs and last 10 to 13 times longer. Homeowners and tenants will be asked to fill out a short questionnaire to determine their average energy use and other information. Using GPS, the VLS teams will collect data points for the location of each home, the number of residents and light bulb sockets, average energy use, number and type of appliances, and any energy efficiency work done on the home. Follow-up visits will be conducted within the year to determine the effectiveness of the effort.

VLS's partners in the project include the Environmental Protection Agency, Efficiency Vermont, COVER Home Repair, Dartmouth Energy Collaborative, local churches and others. The event is being held in memory of Blair Hamilton of Burlington, who received an honorary law degree from VLS in 2010 for his commitment to environmental and social justice. Hamilton, who died April 8, was an international leader in energy efficiency research, policy, design and implementation.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law School Students Push for Citizen Participation in Environmental Enforcement in Vermont

Vermont Law School — 15 Apr 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- If the Vermont Senate passes a bill this session to allow public participation in state environmental enforcement actions, it will culminate years of diligence by student clinicians in Vermont Law School's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC).

The bill, which the Vermont House passed Wednesday by a 109-25 vote, would allow residents who have been directly affected by pollution, as well as the general public, to comment on enforcement penalties and corrective actions for people or businesses that violate environmental laws. Penalties and corrective actions are currently set by the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) without public participation, often in agreements negotiated with the polluters.

The public participation bill resulted largely from a Clean Water Act petition that the ENRLC filed on behalf of the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) on Aug. 14, 2008. The petition asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to either require Vermont to bring its clean water program into compliance with federal requirements or to take back the program, which was delegated to the state in 1974. A major piece of the petition centered on Vermont's failure to provide adequate public participation in environmental enforcement actions, which has also been recognized by both the EPA and the Vermont Environmental Court.

ENRLC students and attorneys worked for eight months to prepare the petition-reviewing thousands of pages of documents from state and federal agencies, researching the underlying law and pulling them together into a compelling, 61-page document. The ENRLC made numerous subsequent filings on behalf of the CLF with updated evidence and recommendations for corrective action that the state could take. ENRLC students and attorneys attended several meetings with officials from EPA Region 1 and the ANR in an effort to make progress on the petition. The petition is still pending with the EPA.

As counsel for the CLF, the ENRLC participated in negotiations with the EPA and ANR that led to the version of the bill as introduced and guided the ANR's proposed changes to the bill during the committee process, thus ensuring that the changes agreed with Clean Water Act requirements. The current bill provides for both notice and comment on settlements and citizen intervention in some circumstances.

"Public participation is extremely important because it helps ensure that citizens of the state have input into whether their natural resources are being adequately protected," said Laura Murphy, a staff attorney and assistant professor at the ENRLC.

Read the petition and subsequent filings.

ENRLC members who contributed to the petition are Laura Murphy, the supervising attorney on the petition, and student clinicians Emily Stark, Rebecca Turner, Meghan Clark, Jane Kim, John Meyer, Ross Elwyn, Craig Sparks, Graham Zorn, Paul Ballenger, Tracy Wyeth, Evan Belser, Quincy Hansell, Siobhan McIntyre, Shahin Milani, Leslie Welts, Megan Dickie and Toby Dachman.

The ENRLC's student clinicians put their legal training to work in real-world cases and projects. By providing free legal representation to community groups and public interest organizations, student clinicians learn to become competent, ethical attorneys in environmental and natural resources law. They not only receive great training but make a real difference in the world by taking action to protect public health and conserve natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law Students to Hold Vigil Against Violence

Vermont Law School — 07 Apr 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School will host its annual Take Back the Night candlelight vigil at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 14 on the South Royalton town green. The event, which is sponsored by Law Students for Reproductive Justice, is free and open to the public.

The event is intended to recognize the prevalence of sexual and community assault, remember survivors and victims, break the silence and eradicate violence.

Take Back the Night events started in Europe in 1976 and have continued throughout the world as a sign of empowerment for women, men and children. Survivors and their advocates are encouraged to attend to speak out about sexual violence. Anonymously submitted comments will also be read aloud at the vigil by a member of Law Students for Reproductive Justice.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VLS Unveils Fifth White Paper on Arctic Oil and Gas Development

Vermont Law School — 30 Mar 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- As the Arctic warms and pressure grows to exploit seabed natural resources at the top of the world, Vermont Law School's Institute for Energy and the Environment (IEE) has released the fifth installment in its White Paper series titled "Implementing the Arctic Offshore Oil and Gas Guidelines." The fifth paper was commissioned by the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) for presentation at the Inuit Leaders' Summit on Resource Development in Ottawa in February.

The White Paper series was launched last fall with a study of U.S. and Canadian laws and regulations at the time of the Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010, and suggests how both countries can use the Arctic Guidelines to more effectively regulate offshore hydrocarbon development in the western Arctic. Based on that study, the ICC approached VLS Associate Professor Betsy Baker to prepare a similar study for Greenland and the Russian Federation. The latest White Paper examines the offshore regulatory regimes in those countries, which are facing increased interest in their potentially hydrocarbon-rich Arctic offshore areas.

Baker, an expert in Arctic law and policy and a senior fellow for Oceans and Energy at IEE, was one of a handful of outside experts invited to Ottawa to speak to Inuit leaders from around the North as they sought common ground for the best approach to resource development.

The Arctic Offshore Oil and Gas Guidelines are a non-binding set of recommendations and practices prepared by the Protection of the Marine Environment working group of the Arctic Council. The Arctic Council was established in 1996 as an intergovernmental forum to promote cooperation among the eight Arctic States and Arctic Indigenous communities. The IEE White papers examine how each country studied reflects the recommendations contained in the Arctic Guidelines.

Betsy Baker, Associate Professor, climbing the ship of the USS Healy.

"Canada and the United States are both actively reviewing their practices for regulating offshore drilling in the Arctic," Baker said. "Greenland, which recently gained self-governance, ties its new status directly to control over its own mineral resources and its new laws reflect this. Russia, too, is reexamining its relevant legislation as it courts international investment in its Arctic hydrocarbon potential. As Arctic coastal states revise and possibly move toward harmonizing their regulatory systems for this fragile and resource-rich region, the Arctic Guidelines can be used to promote even stronger national and circumpolar standards. These are urgently needed if the Arctic states want to put in place adequate protections proactively rather than responding to a disaster such as the Exxon Valdez or Deepwater Horizon after the fact.".

An estimated 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas resources lies in the Arctic, whose melting sea ice is rapidly opening new areas to drilling, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Student contributors to the White Papers include Lisa Campion, who has commercial fishing experience in Alaska; Catherine Peterson, who grew up in an Inupiat village in Alaska; Ben Jones, who was education director for the Blueberry River First Nation in British Columbia; Keisha Sedlacek, who has interned with the Marine Mammal Commission; Roma Sidortsov, a Russian-trained lawyer in the LLM program at VLS, where he also earned his JD; and Zhen Zhang, a Global Energy Fellow at the IEE.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Read the White Paper series

Former New York Times Reporter Chris Wren to Discuss Arab Revolt

Vermont Law School — 30 Mar 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT—Chris Wren, a former foreign correspondent for The New York Times, will discuss the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 6 at the Chase Community Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Christopher Wren speaking with students at VLS.

Wren, whose talk is titled "The Rule of Law and the Arab Revolt: A Journalist's Perspective," reported and edited for the Times for nearly 29 years. He was the Times' bureau chief in Cairo from 1977 to 1980. He also headed the Times' bureaus in Moscow, Beijing, Ottawa and Johannesburg and later covered the United Nations. He reported from throughout the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, China, Africa, South America and Canada. He has written five books and co-authored three others and is on the advisory board of the VLS International and Comparative Law program.

"The spontaneous uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa have been prompted by popular demands for free elections, fair employment, term limits for rulers, the dismantling of institutional corruption and the ousting of brutal officials," Wren said. "Such reforms would hardly ruffle the West, but they are toppling Arab regimes and recasting the face of the Middle East and North Africa. The Al-Jezeera television network and various social media have given protesters instant communication. They are motivated neither by Islamist or Marxist ideologies, but by aspiration for the rule of law they see in the West. Arab people long feared their governments; now the same governments fear their people. Yet the triumph of rule of law is far from assured."

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Forum to Discuss Single-Payer Health Care System

Vermont Law School — 28 Mar 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT—Vermont Law School will host a community forum Saturday to discuss how proposals in the Vermont Legislature will affect Vermonters' access to affordable health care.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will be from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the South Royalton School. Breakfast and lunch will be served. The event is sponsored by the VLS chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.

The forum will explore calls for a statewide, publicly funded health insurance to be set up by the middle of the decade. Bills before the House and Senate propose a universal health care program by making Green Mountain Care available to every Vermonter. The bill first would have the state comply with last year's federal health reform law by creating a health insurance marketplace that would let people comparison shop for health insurance. The House bill has passed committee and the Senate bill is in committee.

Panelists will include Steve Kimbell, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration; state Rep. Sarah Copeland-Hanzas, D-Orange County; and Peg Franzen, president of the Vermont Workers' Center.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

China Opens First Public Interest Environmental Law Firm With Help from Vermont Law School

Vermont Law School — 25 Mar 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT—China's first public interest environmental law firm was officially launched today with assistance from Vermont Law School's U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law, which also has helped to create a new university legal advocacy center devoted to environmental health and safety issues.

The public interest law firm, which is the first in China devoted to combating pollution, received a license from the Beijing Judicial Bureau in December and held a formal launch event today. The Huanzhu (translated as Environmental Aid) Law Firm's mission is to provide legal services to pollution victims and handle citizen-action lawsuits intended to enforce environmental laws and regulations. The firm does not charge fees for public interest cases, but may charge fees for other types of cases to serve as an example to the private bar that environmental law is a sustainable practice. The firm does not represent polluters who have violated or been accused of violating the law. VLS's partner in the program is the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims (CLAPV).

In January, Sun Yat-sen University Law School (SYSU) launched its Environmental and Worker Health and Safety Advocacy Center in Guangzhou. The center handles pollution and workplace injury cases involving environmental health and safety issues. The center combines the expertise and resources of SYSU's existing environmental law and labor law clinics and provides experiential training to students to help them advocate for pollution victims and workers and educate them about their rights.

The new law firm and legal clinic are funded by a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. State Department to VLS's U.S.-China Partnership. The grant will help to expand the use of civil lawsuits, or "green litigation," to more effectively enforce environmental laws, fight pollution and protect workers in China. Chinese prosecutors currently focus on criminal prosecutions in environmental cases, in part, because they lack a formal civil judicial enforcement role. The State Department grant is the latest in a series of federal grants that have made Vermont Law School the leading U.S. law school working on environmental law, policy and energy issues in China. The new grant includes $500,000 annually over three years.

"This is a groundbreaking environmental advocacy initiative in China," said Assistant Professor Siu Tip Lam, director of the U.S.-China Partnership.

China's rapid industrialization has caused severe environmental degradation, prompting the nation's leaders to seek new ways to allow steady growth, while protecting the air, land, water and public health. That's where the U.S.-China Partnership comes in, providing training in environmental governance to lawyers, judges and others to help China enforce environmental laws and regulations that have been widely ignored.

Since 2006, the U.S.-China Partnership has trained more than 1,000 Chinese lawyers, judges, government officials, faculty, students, business owners and others, conducted numerous workshops and undertaken other initiatives. Much of the work has been done through grants from the U.S. Agency for International Development. VLS's partners include SYSU, CLAPV at the China University of Political Science and Law, the Vermont-based Regulatory Assistance Project, and the China Environment Forum at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Ocean Law Conference to Explore Energy Development, Protecting Marine Resources

Vermont Law School — 25 Mar 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT—Vermont Law School will host a conference on Friday, April 1, to explore ways to strengthen international ocean regulations and protect marine ecosystems, while exploring offshore energy resources.

Titled "Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning: The Intersection between Energy, CMSP, and Our Future Needs," the event will be from 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. in the Chase Community Center. It is free and open to the public.

In 2010, President Obama established America's first National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, Our Coasts, and Great Lakes. One of the priorities of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force is creating a coastal and marine spatial plan, which is a comprehensive, science-based approach to analyzing current and anticipated uses of ocean, coastal and Great Lakes areas. CMSP identifies areas most suitable for various activities to reduce environmental impacts, promote compatible uses and preserve critical ecosystems while meeting economic, environmental, security and social objectives, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The VLS conference's first panel will focus on offshore energy and how it fits into CMSP, including implications of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The keynote speaker, Meg Caldwell, who is director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program at Stanford Law School, will discuss CMSP as a tool to minimize human-use conflicts in the ocean and how CMSP will be used to protect our marine resources and coastal communities. The conference's second panel will focus on the national framework for coastal and marine spatial planning.

For more information, visit www.vermontlaw.edu/oceanlawconference.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

New Study Shows Nuclear Economics Worse After Fukushima

Vermont Law School — 24 Mar 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Japan's nuclear crisis and other nuclear incidents make the construction of new nuclear reactors, which has been uneconomic in market economies, even less attractive, according to a new study at Vermont Law School.

Mark Cooper, a senior fellow for economic analysis at VLS's Institute for Energy and the Environment, discussed his findings in testimony Thursday before the Standing Committee on Natural Resources in the House of Commons in Ottawa, Canada.

Cooper's analysis of the history of nuclear accidents and their impact on the economics of nuclear reactor construction shows a clear correlation between major incidents and increases in costs.

The construction costs for reactors completed after Three Mile Island (TMI) but before Chernobyl were 95 percent higher than those completed before TMI, which resulted in electricity costs that were 40 percent higher, according to Cooper. The construction costs of the reactors completed after Chernobyl were 89 higher than those completed between TMI and Chernobyl, which resulted in electricity costs that were 42 percent higher. The cost escalation started with TMI and persisted. Its primary cause was the lengthening of the construction period. Contemporaneous accounts and analyses shortly after TMI point to design changes required by safety concerns. The trend remains the same after Chernobyl.

"The high risk, cost and long lead times of nuclear, combined with the rich portfolio of alternative resources available to meet electricity needs at much lower cost and risk for decades, means that the idea of a nuclear renaissance never made economic sense," Cooper said. "The idea that a renaissance would involve construction of large numbers of reactors in a short period of time was particularly problematic from both the economic and safety points of view. There was no reason for the government to put taxpayers and ratepayers at risk by overriding the judgment of the capital markets, and there is less reason today. The economic analysis that was used to create the myth of the ‘nuclear renaissance' vastly underestimated the economic cost of nuclear reactors and totally ignored the societal impacts of nuclear reactors. The economics of nuclear reactors was bad and economics will likely be dealt another blow by the Fukushima incident."

Cooper, who has testified more than 350 times before federal and state legislatures and regulatory bodies on energy, said policy makers, regulators and financial analysts would be irresponsible if they did not thoroughly re-examine energy policy, safety and the economics of nuclear reactors in light of Japan's nuclear crisis. "If they do what they are supposed to, nuclear reactor construction will be much more costly and much less inviting as a policy option as a result of the Fukusima accident."

Nuclear utilities have sought to secure massive subsidies that shift the risk of nuclear construction away from utility stockholders onto taxpayers, in the form of governmental loan guarantees, and ratepayers, in the form of advanced cost recovery, but plummeting natural gas prices, declining demand growth and stable costs for other low carbon alternatives have resulted in cancellations or postponements of nearly all of the almost two dozen projects that were talked about or proposed, Cooper said.

Cooper is available at markcooper@aol.com or 301.384.2204. To read Cooper's testimony, click here.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Russian Delegation to Discuss Legal Aid, Access to Justice

Vermont Law School — 24 Mar 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- A delegation of Russian lawyers and judges will visit Vermont Law School's South Royalton Legal Clinic (SRLC) on Thursday, March 31, to discuss Russia's effort to strengthen its civil legal aid programs. Before their VLS visit, the Russians will spend several days learning about Vermont Legal Aid and the Vermont court system as part of their effort to provide legal services to the poor.

The delegation will meet with staff attorneys and student clinicians at SRLC, which serves Vermont residents who can't afford counsel and need assistance with legal issues. The visit to VLS will be similar to previous visits from Russian delegations except that the focus will not be on clinical legal education, which is now established in many places in Russia, but on creation and operation of civil legal aid programs.

Delegation members, who are from Karelia, Russia, will visit VLS under the auspices of the Open World Program, the only exchange program in the U.S. legislative branch of government. The local sponsoring organization is the Vermont Karelia Rule of Law Project. In recent years, the Russian Federation created a national legal aid demonstration program; Karelia was one of 10 demonstration regions.

More information about the Russian delegation's visit is available from Professor Jim May, director of the SRLC, at 802.831.1500 or jmay@vermontlaw.edu; Karin Bourassa of the Vermont/Karelia Rule of Law Project at 802.651.9300 or kbourassa@rarolc.net; and Kathy Stankevich, Vermont/Karelia's Open World Coordinator at 802.885.7207.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office:802.831.11, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Russian Nuclear Experts to Discuss Chernobyl, Japan Nuclear Crisis

Vermont Law School — 22 Mar 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Russian nuclear experts will discuss the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, Japan's nuclear crisis and design similarities between the Japanese reactor and the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant at 12:45 p.m. today at Vermont Law School.

The brown bag lunch discussion will be in the Map Room on the first floor of Debevoise Hall.

The Russians' visit is part of an informational tour of U.S. nuclear facilities titled the "Global Nuclear Legacy Project" sponsored by Beyond Nuclear, an anti-nuclear energy and weapons group. Chernobyl liquidator Natalia Manzurova, anti-nuclear leader Nataliya Mironova and Chelyabinsk spokesperson Tatiana Muchamedyarova will share their Chernobyl experiences in the wake of Japan's nuclear crisis. The group will be joined by Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear.

More information is available at http://www.beyondnuclear.org/home/2011/3/21/russian-chernobyl-experts-make-timely-visit-to-the-us.html

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Barry Bonds’ Trial: Professor Michael McCann Available to Comment

Vermont Law School — 21 Mar 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- As Barry Bonds' perjury trial gets underway today, Vermont Law School Professor Michael McCann is available to comment about what's at stake for the home run king, baseball itself and steroid use among professional athletes.

Nearly four years after his initial indictment, Bonds will be tried on charges in U.S. District Court in San Francisco that he lied to a federal grand jury in 2003 when he testified that he had never knowingly used steroids.

McCann, a nationally recognized sports law expert and the director of VLS's Sports Law Institute, can be reached on his cell phone 617.875.6132, office phone 802.831.1207 and email mmccann@vermontlaw.edu

Read McCann's latest column on Bonds in SI.com.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Supreme Court to Hear Oral Arguments at Vermont Law School

Vermont Law School — 17 Mar 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT—The Vermont Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in seven cases at Vermont Law School in Oakes Hall on Wednesday, March 23, in the high court's annual session at the state's only law school.

The court will consider the following cases:

• Rutland Herald v. City of Rutland v. AFSCME Council 93, Local 1201, 2010-344, 9:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.: Whether documents related to the investigation of three Rutland City Police Department employees accused of viewing child pornography while on duty are subject to Vermont's Public Records Act.

• Rutland Herald v. Vermont State Police & Office of Attorney General, 2010-434, 10:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.: Whether documents related to the investigation of a Vermont State Police employee suspected of viewing child pornography while on duty are subject to Vermont's Public Records Act.

• In re JLD Properties of St. Albans, LLC, 2010-097, 11:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.: Whether the Vermont Environmental Court erred in affirming the site plan, conditional use approval, zoning and Act 250 permit for a proposed Wal-Mart in the town of St. Albans.

• State of Vermont v. Jeremy Robitaille, 2010-078, 1:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.: Whether the trial court erred in denying the motions of an assault and robbery suspect to exclude his statement to police. The defendant argued the officer failed to contact a public defender for him as required by the Vermont Public Defender Act and his statement was obtained in violation of his Miranda rights.

• Rathe Salvage, Inc. v. R. Brown & Sons, Robert & Stephanie Brown, 2010-356, 1:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.: Whether a new trial should be granted to R. Brown, in part, because the court denied the transporter's motion to allow the testimony of a polygraph expert who examined the transporter.

• Paul Blanchard v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 2010-250, 2:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.: Whether the trial court erred in granting summary judgment to Goodyear, holding that Blanchard did not establish that benzene from the tire plant caused his rare form of blood cancer, non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, or that Goodyear's use of benzene caused the injury.

• Richard Daniels, Mascoma Savings Bank v. The Elks Club, et al., 2010-181, 3:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.: Whether the trial court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of Richard Daniels, a Hartford Elks trustee, who purchased the Elks Club mortgage from Mascoma Bank and moved to foreclose on the property. Appellants, including the junior creditors, argue that Daniels, Mascoma, and the Elks colluded in the foreclosure action and inflated the value of the mortgage, which will likely result in less money remaining for the junior lien holders when the property is foreclosed.

Vermont Court Rules apply for media coverage: http://www.vermontjudiciary.org/MasterDocument/CourthouseEtiquette.pdf

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Jessica Wilkerson Selected as First Recipient of Erin Woolley Award

Vermont Law School — 15 Mar 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Jessica Wilkerson '12 has been selected as the first recipient of the Erin Woolley Memorial Scholarship.

The Class of 2010 raised more than $83,000 to create the endowed annual award in the name of Woolley, 26, of Bangor, Maine, who died in 2010 after a year-long battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma. She received a JD degree posthumously at last year's commencement. The amount raised for the scholarship more than doubled the VLS record for class gift funds.

The $2,500 scholarship is awarded to a second- or third-year student who has overcome personal adversity, is ranked in the middle of the class and has demonstrated commitment to domestic or international women's or children's issues or is a champion for economic and social justice. Award recipients are selected by the dean of students, the director of financial aid, the dean and a representative of the Class of 2010 or the Student Bar Association.

"Jessica was selected because she is dedicated to advancing the cause of social justice, and we believe that Erin would be proud to see Vermont Law School students who have Jessica's commitment and willingness to serve others," said Shirley Jefferson, dean for Student Affairs and Diversity.

Wilkerson, who received a bachelor's degree from the University of Puget Sound in 2006, is slated to graduate in May 2012 with a JD degree and a Master of Environmental Law and Policy degree. She is focusing on international human rights, reproductive rights and gender equality issues at VLS. She is chair of the VLS Law Students for Reproductive Justice as well as Northeast regional coordinator and resident blogger for the group. She has been involved in the production of the Vagina Monologues for the past two years at VLS and is a member of the Equal Justice Foundation. She is a member of the VLS Moot Court Advisory Board and is completing an independent research paper on Feminist Legal Theory and birth choice. She also volunteers at Safeline, a local domestic and sexual violence action network.

Woolley graduated summa cum laude in 2006 from the University of Maine, Orono. After college, she worked in the Maine courts as a legal advocate for women and children seeking refuge from domestic violence. At VLS, Woolley was co-chair of the Women's Law Group, secretary of Law Students for Reproductive Justice and a legal intern for Safeline. She planned to practice family law after graduating from VLS.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Law School Ranked First in Environmental Law For Third Consecutive Year

Vermont Law School — 15 Mar 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- U.S.News & World Report has ranked Vermont Law School's environmental law program as the best in the nation for the third consecutive year. The 2012 Best Grad Schools guidebook appears on www.usnews.com/grad on Tuesday, March 15, and on newsstands on April 5.

"I'm proud of this continued recognition of the depth and breadth of our environmental curriculum, clinic and institutes," said Professor Marc Mihaly, director of the school's Environmental Law Center (ELC). "Our success reflects the dedication of our wonderful faculty and students. Our graduates bring strong skills and environmental direction to their legal and policy positions in government, nonprofits, law firms and corporations."

Vermont Law School has placed first 14 times and never placed lower than second since the U.S. News environmental specialty rankings began in 1991. To develop its specialty rankings, U.S. News asked legal educators to identify the top programs.

Vermont Law School also placed among the top 100 law schools where law firms tend to recruit (number 96). This is the first year that U.S. News has ranked law schools based on the opinions of recruiters and hiring partners at the nation's most highly regarded law firms.

"Employer recognition of the excellence of our graduates continues to grow," Dean Jeff Shields said. "This is not surprising given the exceptional preparation in writing, speaking and critical thinking that takes place at Vermont Law School."

The ELC offers the largest selection of environmental law courses in the nation. The multidisciplinary program in law, policy, science and ethics attracts law and graduate students, lawyers, government officials, teachers, scientists, journalists and citizen activists. Since its creation in 1978, the ELC has trained people to be environmental leaders in government, nonprofits, corporations and private practice - locally, nationally and internationally. The ELC administers the Master of Environmental Law and Policy (MELP) degree program for lawyers and non-lawyers and the Master of Laws (LLM) in Environmental Law, a post-Juris Doctor degree for experienced attorneys who seek to specialize.

Vermont Law School offers clinical, research and experiential environmental programs through the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, the Institute for Energy and the Environment, the Land Use Institute, the Environmental Tax Policy Institute, the U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law, and the Environmental Semester in Washington. The ELC's Summer Session offers a broad curriculum, a Visiting Distinguished Environmental Scholars program and a lecture series that features summer faculty members, distinguished summer scholars and summer media fellows speaking about current issues in their fields.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802.831.1106, cell: 540.798.7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Law School Selects Firm to Design New Fitness Center

Vermont Law School — 14 Mar 2011 04:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Law School today signed a contract with a nationally renowned firm, Eck/MacNeely Architects of Boston, to lead the design of the school's new fitness facility.

Construction of the $1.4 million project is slated to start in October and be completed in August 2012. The 4,100-square foot, two-story facility will have a contemporary, environmentally sustainable design that is compatible with the historic architecture of South Royalton and Vermont Law School. The new facility, which has been in the planning for several years, will be built on the same site as the current fitness center, which will be razed.

VLS took the unusual step of having students act as the project's client-Mary Stubblefield-Clemmensen, Marissa Knodel and Janssen Wilhoit, who are all first-year students, represented the student body. They gathered input from their classmates on what features they wanted in the fitness center, such as a green design, multi-purpose exercise space, cardiovascular and weight-training equipment, lockerrooms, a dedicated sound system and the potential to add a lap pool.

"It's unheard of to have students act as the clients every step of the way," said Jim McGrath, director of VLS Facilities, "but this will be a student facility, so who better to have as the client? These three students have put a tremendous amount of work into this project. They've really understood the architectural concepts."

Eck/MacNeely won an architectural competition to lead the project over two other Boston firms, Albert, Righter, Tittman and Kennedy/Violich, whose designs evoked a vintage train station and a modernistic covered bridge, respectively. All three firms offered sophisticated, distinctly different proposals for a sustainable building and a new visual standard for the campus. Eck/MacNeely's proposal offers what firm partner Jeremiah Eck calls sensible sustainability based on proven energy saving principles. By fitting best within the context of the school and community, the design provides VLS with a new visual standard for growth.

"The Eck/MacNeely building brings a visual reference that interprets but does not mimic the context of either the campus or the community," Dean Jeff Shields said. "It's the restraint and modesty I love most about this building. They have done significant work in responding to the student's architectural program and the school's mission to remain at the forefront of smart sustainability. Careful, intelligent growth is a very important cultural effort not only for VLS but also for the South Royalton community and beyond."

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802-831-1106 , cell: 540-798-7099 , jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Tonight’s NFL Labor Deadline: Sports Law Expert Michael McCann Available to Comment

Vermont Law School — 11 Mar 2011 05:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- As Friday's midnight deadline approaches in the NFL labor showdown, Vermont Law School Professor Michael McCann is available to comment on what's next in the potential lockout.

With the NFL on the verge of its first work stoppage in nearly 25 years, Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association head DeMaurice Smith met at a federal mediator's office today, the day the league's twice-extended labor contract was set to expire, the AP reported.

McCann, a nationally recognized sports law expert and director of VLS's Sports Law Institute, predicts:

1. The labor talks break off and the NFLPA decertifies.
2. The owners file a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board to try to block the decertification on grounds that the union is acting in bad faith and has been trying to get the NFL exposed to anti-trust litigation all along.
3. The NFLPA files a request for a temporary restraining order with U.S. District Judge David Doty, who has jurisdiction in NFL-NFLPA labor matters, that blocks the NFL from executing a lockout.
4. Judge Doty could take up to a month to make a decision.

McCann analyzes the NFL labor situation in his SI.com column.

Journalists can reach McCann on his cell phone 617-875-6132, office phone 802-831-1207 and email mmccann@vermontlaw.edu

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Judge Vacates Omya’s Waste Disposal Permit

Vermont Law School — 03 Mar 2011 05:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Vermont Environmental Court Judge Merideth Wright today notified the parties of her decision to vacate Omya's final solid waste disposal certification, ruling that the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) must incorporate the public trust analysis required by Vermont's groundwater protection law into the solid waste certification process.

Wright's ruling, which remands Omya's final certification to ANR to perform this analysis, is the first interpretation of Vermont's 2008 law designating groundwater of the State as a public trust resource. "Vermont Law School's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, with the help of VLS student clinicians, has played an important part in establishing a groundbreaking precedent that will help protect the groundwater resources of the State for future generations of Vermonters," said ENRLC Acting Director Teresa Clemmer.

"For years, Omya has dumped its waste into unlined pits, which has caused the groundwater under its mineral processing facility in Florence, Vermont, to become contaminated with arsenic and aminoethyl ethanolamine," according to the lead ENRLC attorney on the case, Sheryl Dickey. The citizens group Residents Concerned about Omya (RCO) has been advocating for protection of the groundwater in the vicinity of the Omya facility for more than seven years.

On behalf of RCO, the ENRLC filed appeals challenging solid waste and Act 250 permits issued by the ANR that allow Omya to dispose of its calcium carbonate waste. In 2008, on behalf of RCO, the ENRLC appealed ANR's issuance of Omya's interim solid waste certification to the Environmental Court. In 2010, they again appealed to the Environmental Court ANR's issuance of Omya's final certification. Omya may appeal today's ruling to the Vermont Supreme Court.

ENRLC attorney Sheryl Dickey is available to comment at 802-831-1626 .

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802-831-1106 , cell: 540-798-7099 , jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

VT Law Symposium to Explore China’s Environmental Governance

Vermont Law School — 25 Feb 2011 05:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT—The Vermont Journal of Environmental Law and the U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law will explore climate change, energy needs and other issues on March 2 at VJEL's annual symposium at Vermont Law School. The event, which starts at 9:30 a.m., is free and open to the public.

Titled "China's Environmental Governance: Global Challenges and Comparative Solutions," the symposium will bring together scholars from China, Vermont and elsewhere in the United States. Panelists will discuss solutions to climate change and enforcement and legal remedies to environmental issues. Professor John Nagle of the University of Notre Dame Law School will be the keynote speaker. His talk is titled "How Much Should China Pollute?"

China's rapid industrialization has caused severe environmental degradation, including greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming worldwide. The crisis has prompted China's leaders to seek new ways to allow steady growth, while protecting the air, land, water and public health. VLS's U.S.-China Partnership provides training in environmental governance to lawyers, judges and others to help China enforce environmental laws and regulations that have been widely ignored.

CFL’s to Be Distributed Free During Energy Efficiency Day of Action

Vermont Law School — 21 Feb 2011 05:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT --Vermont Law School students, faculty and staff will go door to door Saturday to exchange less efficient incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent light bulbs during an Energy Efficiency Day of Action in the South Royalton area. The CFL's will be given out free.

Team members will meet at 10 a.m. at the Chase Community Center. The media are welcome to accompany them.

Homeowners and tenants will be asked to fill out a short questionnaire to determine their average energy use and other information. Using GPS, the VLS teams will collect data points for the location of each home, number of residents and light bulb sockets, average energy use, number and type of appliances, and any energy efficiency work done on the home. Follow-up visits will be conducted within the year to determine the effectiveness of the effort.

VLS's partners in the project include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Efficiency Vermont, COVER Home Repair, Dartmouth Energy Collaborative, local churches and others.

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802-831-1106 , cell: 540-798-7099 , jcramer@vermontlaw.edu

Vermont Law School Hires Dean for Clinical and Experiential Learning

Vermont Law School — 18 Feb 2011 05:00:00 EST

SOUTH ROYALTON, VT -- Margaret Martin Barry has been appointed as acting associate dean for Clinical and Experiential Programs and visiting professor of law for the 2011-2012 academic year at Vermont Law School. Barry, who is currently a professor at the Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law, will join VLS on July 1.

"Given the depth of her experience in clinical legal education, as well as her scholarship and service in experiential programs, we know she will bring vision and leadership to our programs as VLS," said Professor Gil Kujovich, vice dean for academic affairs.

VLS created the new dean's position to strengthen its clinical and experiential learning programs, which offer students practical, hands-on opportunities to deepen the knowledge and skills they acquire in class. Before they graduate, more than 70 percent of VLS students put theory into practice in a variety of different ways each year-from on campus clinical work to externships in law firms, corporations, nonprofits, courts and government offices in the United States and abroad.

A native of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Barry graduated magna cum laude from Luther College and received her JD degree in 1980 from the University of Minnesota. After working on Capitol Hill and doing pro bono representation for several years, she joined the faculty of CUA's Columbus Community Legal Services (CCLS) in 1987. She has taught in CCLS's Families and the Law Clinic since its inception in 1993. In addition to her academic activities, she has co-chaired the Washington, D.C., Bar's Family Law Section and has been active in developing pro bono and pro se services for D.C. residents who have limited or no access to legal representation.

Barry has been a national leader in legal education, having served as co-president of the Society of American Law Teachers, president of the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) and chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Clinical Legal Education. She currently serves as vice chair of the American Bar Association's Standards Review Committee.

For more information about VLS's Clinical and Experiential Programs, go to http://www.vermontlaw.edu/Academics/Clinics_and_Experiential_Programs.htm

CONTACT: John Cramer, Associate Director of Media Relations
Office: 802-831-1106, cell: 540-798-7099, jcramer@vermontlaw.edu