Bob Adler and co-authors David Driesen and Kirsten Engel published the second edition of Environmental Law: A Conceptual and Pragmatic Approach (2011). Adler published three law review articles in 2010: “Resilience, Restoration and Sustainability: Revisiting the Fundamental Principles of the Clean Water Act,”Washington University Journal of Law and Policy; “Priceline for Pollution: Auctions to Allocate Public Pollution Control Dollars,” William & Mary Journal of Environmental Law and Policy; and “Climate Change and the Hegemony of State Water Law,” Stanford Environmental Law Journal. “Balancing Compassion and Risk in Climate Adaptation: U.S. Water, Drought and Agricultural Policy,” was accepted for publication in the Florida Law Review (expected Fall 2011). He also published several non-law review publications: “The Chesapeake Bay and the Future of the Clean Water Act,” National Wetlands Newsletter; “The Clean Water Act,” in The Encyclopedia of Science and technology Communication; and “Drought, Sustainability and the Law,” in the online journal Sustainability. Two contributed book chapters are in preparation. One will address climate change adaptation for fresh water supplies for an American Bar Association compilation on climate change adaptation (Michael Gerrard and Katrina Kuh, eds.). The second addresses restoration in ecosystem management for a book on Ecosystem Management and the Law (Kalyani Robbins, ed.). Adler gave presentations at the University of Michigan and University of Colorado law schools, the Tanner Center for Nonviolent Human Rights Advocacy, the Moab River Rendezvous, and the Great Salt Lake Issues Forum. Forthcoming talks are scheduled at the University of New Mexico and the University of Maryland law schools. On a personal note, he and his wife Michele Straube completed the first three weeks of their multi-year plan to hike the length of the 1500-mile Via Alpina from Monaco to Trieste, and completed the Bear 100 trail run in late September.
Lincoln Davies’ work increasingly focuses on renewable energy and, more generally, the law’s interaction with technological innovation. His article, Power Forward: The Argument for a National RPS, was selected for publication as the centerpiece of the University of Connecticut Law Review’s July 2010 commentary issue. In the article, Davies analyzed 35 state laws to show why a federal renewable electricity mandate is needed. Other leading energy law scholars, including Jim Rossi, David Spence, and Joshua Fershee, then wrote their own articles commenting on Davies’ argument. More recently, Davies wrote and presented an article entitled State Renewable Portfolio Standards: Is There a “Race,” and Is It “To the Top”? at the University of San Diego law school’s third annual symposium on climate change and energy. The article uses empirical data to contend that state renewable energy mandates do not supplant the need for federal action. It will appear in the San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law this fall. In July 2011, Davies presented in Seoul at the Korea Legislation Research Institute’s conference, Architecting Better Regulation to Overcome Energy Crisis, on the topic “Incentivizing Renewable Energy Deployment: Renewable Portfolio Standards and Feed-in Tariffs.” Also in July, Professor Davies, with Stegner Center research fellows Kirsten Uchitel, John Ruple, and Heather Tanana, submitted a report to the U.S. Department of Energy on regulatory gaps for carbon capture and sequestration technology. Earlier this year, Davies was named as Chair of the ABA’s Energy Infrastructure and Siting Committee. He also was elected to the Board of Directors of Utah Interfaith Power & Light, organized the Stegner Center’s January conference on The Future of Energy Law, and received the Peter W. Billings Excellence in Teaching Award.
Leslie Francis has published “Reciprocity and Environmental Obligations,” 37 Hofstra L. Rev. 1007 (2009) and “Syndromic Surveillance and Patients as Victims and Vectors,” Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 6(2): 187-195 (2009), reprinted in Selgelid, et al., eds, Infectious Disease Ethics (Springer 2011). Francis has continued her work on surveillance and public health. As chair of the Privacy Subcommittee of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, she is working with them on an analysis of how communities can use all kinds of data–including not only health but also environmental data such as air quality–to improve community health, consistently with public trust that the data are not being misused. In August, Francis was elected a vice-president of the International Society for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, the leading international organization bringing together scholars working in legal and political theory.
Bob Keiter, in addition to editing his book manuscript on the national parks, has completed an article on “Lessons from Nine Mile Canyon: Achieving Consensus over Energy Development on the Public Lands” that will appear in the upcoming Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Annual Institute proceedings. Written with Kirstin Lindstrom, who recently graduated from the College of Law, the article examines how strongly opposing parties reached agreements that allowed a controversial natural gas project to proceed on sensitive lands with wilderness qualities and extensive cultural resources in eastern Utah. Bob and Kirstin also organized and moderated a panel discussion on this topic at the July RMMLF Annual Institute in Santa Fe. Bob’s other recent talks included a presentation on “Wildlife Management Challenges in a Fragmented Landscape” at the annual Stegner Center symposium and a graduation speech on “The National Park Idea in the 21st Century” to Park Service managers at the Grand Canyon’s Albright Training Center. Bob also published a book review of “Remedies for a New West: Healing Landscapes, Histories, and Cultures” (Patricia Limerick et al., editors) in the Pacific Historical Review.
Nancy A. McLaughlin, Robert W. Swenson Professor of Law, is serving her third and last year as Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development at the College of Law. She recently published two articles, Conservation Easements and The Doctrine of Merger, forthcoming in 74 Duke J. L. & Contemp. Probs __ (2011) and Internal Revenue Code Section 170(h): National Perpetuity Standards for Federally Subsidized Conservation Easements, Part 2: Comparison to State Law, 46 Real Prop. Tr. & Est. L.J. 1 (2011), both of which can be downloaded at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=95358. Professor McLaughlin continues to participate in the American Law Institute’s Principles of Nonprofit Governance project and the Uniform Law Commission’s Protection of Charitable Assets project. She also continues to serve on the Land TrustAlliance’s Conservation Defense Advisory Council, Vital Ground’s Advisory Board, and as an informal advisor to Utah Open Lands. In the recent past she has given numerous presentations on conservation easement-related topics to the Utah State Bar’s Nonprofit Section, to the members of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), and at the Land Trust Alliance’s national conference. Professor McLaughlin was recently appointed as Treasurer of the Nonprofit and Philanthropy Law Section of the American Association of Law Schools and as Secretary of ACTEC’s Legal Education Committee. She also continues to serve as a Professional Editor for the American Bar Association’s Real Property, Trust & Estate Law Journal.
Arnold W. Reitze, Jr. continued to participate in the work of the University of Utah’s Institute for Clean and Secure Energy on Department of Energy research. His book, Air Pollution Control and Climate Change Mitigation, was published by the Environmental Law Institute. The following articles were published: Federal Control of Geological Carbon Sequestration, 41 Envtl. L. Rep. (ELI) (Sept. 2011); Control of Geological Carbon Sequestration in the Western United States, with Marie Bradshaw Durrant,41 Envtl. L. Rep. (ELI) 10455(May 2011); State and Regional Control of Geological Carbon Sequestration (Part 1), with Marie Bradshaw Durrant,41 Envtl. L. Rep. (ELI) 10348 (Apr. 2011); Federal Control of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 40 Envtl Law 1261(2010); Electric Power in a Carbon Constrained World (2009), 34 William & Mary Envtl. L. & Pol’y Rev. 821 (2010).
Reitze spoke at the following conferences: September 24, 2010: Department of Geography Colloquia Series: “Federal Control of Geological Carbon Sequestration”; November 6, 2010: George Washington University Law School’s 40th anniversary of the environmental law program: “Environmental Law in the West”; November 10, 2010: American Institute of Chemical Engineers annual meeting: “ Recent Developments in the Regulation of Greenhouse Gases”: January 14, 2011: Arizona State University symposium Clearing the Air: Clean Air, Climate Change and Sustainability in Arizona “Intersection of Climate Change and CAA Programs”; January 21, 2011: S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah, symposium The Future of Energy Law “Controlling Greenhouse Gases from Highway Vehicles”; May 17, 2011: Institute for Clean and Secure Energy, Unconventional Fuels Conference “Climate Change Regulation via the Back Door.”