2014-2015 Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review Conference

The Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR) is a special issue of the Environmental Law Reporter (ELR), published in collaboration with the Vanderbilt University Law School (VULS) and the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) in Washington, DC. Each year, Vanderbilt Law students work with an expert advisory committee and senior staff from ELI to identify the year’s best academic articles that present legal and policy solutions to pressing environmental problems. The result is a one issue, student-edited volume that includes condensed versions of the selected articles, along with commentaries from leading experts from the academy, law firms, business, government and non-governmental organizations.

In conjunction with the publication, ELI and Vanderbilt co-sponsor an annual conference at which the authors of the articles and comments present their ideas and views to an audience that includes business, government (federal, state, and local), think tank, and non-profit representatives.

Featured Articles:

The Shale Oil and Gas Revolution, Hydraulic Fracturing, and Water Contamination: A Regulatory Strategy 

• Thomas W. Merrill, Charles Evans Hughes Professor of Law, Columbia Law School

• David M. Schizer, Dean Emeritus and the Harvey R. Miller Professor of Law and Economics, Columbia Law School 
• Commenters:
  • Bradley M. Campbell, President, Bradley M. Campbell LLC
  • Susan Packard LeGros, President and Executive Director, Center for Sustainable Shale Development
  • Peter Robertson, Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs, The Pebble Partnership

A Market Approach to Regulating the Energy Revolution: Assurance Bonds, Insurance, and the Certain and the Uncertain Risks of Hydraulic Fracturing 

• David A. Dana, Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law
• Hannah J. Wiseman, Attorneys’ Title Professor, Florida State University College of Law
• Commenters:
  • Leslie Carothers, Visiting Scholar, Environmental Law Institute
  • W. Blaine Early III, Member, Stites & Harbison PLLC
  • Thomas J. FitzGerald, Founder & Director, Kentucky Resources Council

Private Control over Access to Public Law: The Perplexing Federal Regulatory Use of Private Standards

• Nina Mendelson, Joseph L. Sax Collegiate Professor of Law, The University of Michigan Law School
• Commenters:
  • Emily Bremer, Senior Attorney and Research Coordinator, Administrative Conference of the United States
  • Lois Schiffer, General Counsel, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • Jing Zheng, Member, SSPC 34 Standard Committee, American Society of Heating and Air-Conditioning Engineers

The Military-Environmental Complex

• Sarah E. Light, Assistant Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
• Commenters:
  • Sharon Burke, Senior Fellow, New America Foundation
  • John Dukes, Executive Director of Sales: Federal & Public Sector, Constellation Energy
  • Amanda Simpson, Executive Director, U.S. Army Office of Energy Initiatives