Pre-registration is closed. To register,
contact Tram Nguyen at 612.278.6316 or tnguyen@mnbars.org
.
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Currently, all
bar association programming is REMOTE-ONLY participation. There will be NO
in-person attendance until further notice. Thank you.
Deadline to Register: October
19, 2020
This program is sponsored by the MSBA Public
Utilities Section.
The last decade has increased focus and
debate among academics, policymakers, and the broader public about how to
accelerate a “clean energy transition” in the United States. While significant
attention has focused on large investor-owned utilities, there has been far less
attention on the role of rural electric cooperatives, which serve 14% of the
U.S. population. This gap in coverage has important implications. Rural electric
cooperatives, first created by local communities in the United States in the
early part of the 20th century to electrify rural America, own and continue to
operate a significant percentage of the nation’s coal-fired power plants.
Retiring these plants and replacing them with clean energy would reduce the
nation’s contribution to global climate change and help ensure that rural
America is not left with billions of dollars of stranded coal-fired power plant
assets that can no longer compete against low-cost renewable energy.
In this presentation, based on a
forthcoming law review article, our speakers draw on the structure and
foundational principles underlying the cooperative form itself to create a
framework for clean energy transition in rural electric
cooperatives.
Presenters:
Alexandra B. Klass, Distinguished McKnight University
Professor, University of Minnesota Law School
Alexandra B. Klass is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the
University of Minnesota Law School. She teaches and writes in the areas of
energy law, natural resources law, environmental law, tort law, and property
law. Her recent scholarly work, published in many of the nation’s leading law
journals, addresses regulatory challenges to integrating more renewable energy
into the nation’s electric transmission grid, siting and eminent domain issues
surrounding interstate electric transmission lines and oil and gas pipelines,
and applications of the public trust doctrine to modern environmental law
challenges. She is a co-author of Energy Law and Policy (West Academic
Publishing, 2d ed. 2018) (with Davies, Osofsky, Tomain, and Wilson); The
Practice and Policy of Environmental Law (Foundation Press, 4th ed. 2017) (with
Ruhl, Salzman, and Nagle); Energy Law: Concepts and Insights (Foundation Press
2d ed. 2020) (with Hannah Wiseman); and Natural Resources Law: A Place-Based
Book of Problems and Cases (Aspen, 4th ed. 2018) (with Klein, Cheever, Birdsong,
and Biber).
Gabriel Chan, Assistant Professor at the University of
Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs
Gabriel Chan is an Assistant Professor at the University
of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs in the Science, Technology, and
Environmental Policy Area. In his research and engagement, Prof. Chan examines
public policy to inform how technological innovation can enable a more rapid and
equitable energy transition in domains such as community solar, consumer-owned
electric utilities, and national innovation policy. Prof. Chan is a Faculty
Associate of the UMN Institute on the Environment and Affiliate Faculty at the
UMN Law School. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard University and
undergraduate degrees from M.I.T. in Political Science and in Earth,
Atmospheric, and Planetary Science.
1.5 Standard CLE Credits Approved | Event Code: 328163
This webinar will be hosted on Zoom. Remote instructions
with join link will be emailed to you the week day prior to the
CLE.