Annual Report

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Environmental, Natural Resources and Energy Law Section
Annual Report
2021-2022

Section Membership
As of June 15, 2022 the Section has 293 members.

Financial Status
The Section had an account balance of $23,972.00 as of April 30, 2022.

CLEs & Events
The Section hosted 5 events in fiscal year 2021-22. 

Annual Meeting and Election Results
The Section’s Annual Meeting was held on May 3, 2022 on Zoom and 22 people attended.

The following council members were elected to serve on the Section’s Governing Council from 7/1/2022 to 6/30/2024:

• Paul Beck, Dorsey & Whitney LLP
• Rachel Kitze Collins, Lockridge Grindal Nauen P.L.L.P.
• Michael Cummings, Fredrikson & Byron
• Sam Ketchum, Kennedy & Graven
• Sarah Lovegreen, Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A.
• Allison Mitchell, Fond du Lac Band Lake Superior Chippewa
• Elizabeth Wefel, Flaherty & Hood
• Aaron White, Rinke Noonan

The following council members are continuing to serve existing term from 7/1/2021 to 6/30/2023:

• Thomas Braun, Stoel Rives LLP
• Kenneth Podpeskar, Environmental Law Group, Ltd.
• Lindsey Remakel, Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.
• Elizabeth Schmiesing, Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A.
• Jeffery Sepesi, Environmental Law and Science, PLLC
• Amelia Vohs, Minnesota Center for Environmental
• David Zoll, Lockridge Grindal Nauen P.L.L.P

The following officers were elected to serve on the Section’s Governing Council from 7/1/2022 to 6/30/2023:

• Chair: Elise Larson, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy
• Vice-Chair: Brian Bell, Dorsey & Whitney LLP
• Treasurer: Joseph Dammel, Fresh Energy
• Secretary: Laura Matson, Lockridge Grindal Nauen P.L.L.P.
• Immediate Past-Chair: Alison Martwitz, Ecolab Corp (ex-officio)

Thank you to the following outgoing council members:

• Elizabeth Henley, Ranger Power LLC
• Charles Salter, Hennepin County Attorney’s Office
• Kodi Verhalen, Taft

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
ENRE continued its dedication to diversity through having, as our goals, integrating diversity into recruitment, new member outreach, section leadership, CLE speakers and topics as well as collaboration with affinity bar associations. 

In striving to achieve this goal, we did the following:

• Collaborated with the Agriculture Section and Public Utilities Section
• Held a CLE focused on Protecting Tribal Resources and another that focused on German Environmental laws;
• Our CLE presenters were gender, racial, and geographically diverse; and
• The ENRE Board members are also diverse with respect to their race (African American, Asian American, and Caucasian) and gender.
• Additionally, we strive to gain perspectives from varying viewpoints in the environmental field ensuring we account for private practice, corporate, government, and non-governmental organizations perspectives when selecting our speakers and our topics.

Other Section Accomplishments
In addition to the above, ENRE collaborated with MN CLE to host the annual Environmental Law Institute which is a full-day CLE with 14 separate sessions including awarding the Eldon J. Kaul award to a distinguished member of our bar.  We also reviewed applications from various governmental and non-governmental entities for internships over the summer and selected two law school students, from numerous applications, to receive those internships.

Submitted By: Alison Marwitz
ENRE Section Chair
Date June 16, 2022