March 2019

Sustainable Energy Initiative Update

See below for:

Join us for Which Way to Electrification of the U.S. Transportation System?

Please join GW Law on April 3 and 4, when GW Law’s Sustainable Energy Initiative and its Energy Law Advisory Council will host an extraordinary group of speakers who will lead the audience on an exploration of the initiatives in electric transportation in the U.S. The conference will emphasize the role of government, while looking at the big picture and the minutia. Topics will include investment, the challenges of regulating rapidly evolving technology and business models, supply chain-issues, and fleets, especially in the medium and heavy-duty vehicle sector. A continuing theme throughout the conference will be the appropriate roles of federal, state, and local governmental and regulatory bodies, both with respect to what they should do and where industry should lead instead. The conference will close with a discussion of how the two‐day immersion influenced the attendees’ understanding and views. The organizers intend to collate subsequent white paper recommendations emerging from the conference and undertake further research to lay the foundation for an annual event. 

For full conference agenda, click here.

Thank you to our sponsors!

SuperChargers

Fast-Chargers

Pepco Holdings, Inc.

Level 2 Chargers

Sparks

Audi

Host Sponsor

White & Case

The conference will be held at the offices of White & Case, 701 13 ^th St., NW, Washington D.C. To register, click here. The registration fee is $100.

If you are interested in being a program sponsor for the event, please contact Donna Attanasio at [email protected]. Sponsorship opportunities start at $1000. 

GW Law Team Wins “Best Brief”; Students Appreciate Bracewell Support

Thank you to Bracewell and GW Law’s Moot Court Board for sending energy law students to court! Moot court, that is.

GW Law students Daniel Vinnik and Boris Shkuta (pictured from left to right) won the Best Brief Award and Blake Grow and James Bartholomew achieved a semi-final finish in the National Energy and Sustainability Moot Court competition, held March 7-9, 2019. West Virginia University College of Law, which hosts the competition, attracted its largest field ever in this 9-year old event, with 28 teams from 19 schools competing.

Bracewell gave a huge hand up to GW’s students with its gift last December of a grant that enabled GW Law to send two teams to the moot court, in addition to the one the GW Law Moot Court Board sponsored. The students briefed and argued both a Clean Water Act issue related to seepage from a coal ash pond and a FERC rate recovery issue.

Each of the three two-person teams independently prepared and submitted their briefs, before coming together to prepare for orals. The three teams trained for their orals together under the direction of their coach, Adjunct Professor John L. Shepherd, Jr. This is the fourth year in which Professor Shepherd has trained students for this competition and this year, with three teams to drill, he was assisted by several of his past students.

“We’ve built a pipeline of students who are interested in participating in this competition. You can see that in the community of past competitors who helped this year’s students prepare.” said Donna Attanasio, Senior Advisor for Energy Law Programs. “But to maintain that momentum and build that network, we need continuity. The GW Law Moot Court Board does an amazing job of supporting students in competitions across the country and the world, in a variety of practice areas. But we need a dedicated source of support if we are to send students to this specific energy-focused competition, year after year. Bracewell stepped in this year to do that for us.”

The six students representing GW Law this year included 2Ls Steven Boughton and Angelo Bartales, in addition to 3Ls Messrs. Shkuta, Vinnik, Grow, and Bartholomew. Mr. Boughton has already expressed interest in returning for a second year, as two of his predecessors did, so that he can continue to hone his advocacy skills. This is one of the few competitions that builds advocacy skills around substantive questions of energy and sustainability law.

Bracewell has already reaped some of the benefits of this competition. Two of its recent hires, Joshua Robichaud and Kathryn Penry, both JD ’18, were on the 2017 “Best Brief” in this competition, and Mr. Robichaud was the 2018 Best Oralist runner-up. 3L Mr. Shkuta, one of the co- winners of the 2019 Best Brief, spent last summer with Bracewell and plans to return to Bracewell as a first-year associate in fall 2019.

NERC and GW Law: A Portrait of a Successful Relationship

A young John F. Kennedy once said, "I think the success of any school can be measured by the contribution the alumni make to our national life." In our last edition of the SEI Newsletter ( available here), we provided you with some tips on staying true to your school. In this edition, we decided to celebrate a few young GW Energy Law alumni and students whose work makes a national impact, the organization that stands behind them, the relationship that organization has fostered with GW Law to support the education of students who will continue to have an impact, and the GW Law alumnus who made this relationship happen. 

Meet NERC, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. It is the nation's electric reliability watchdog. This nonprofit regulatory authority is responsible for assuring the reliability and security of the nation’s electricity grid, spanning even beyond national borders to Canada and Mexico. Its everyday work keeps the economy functioning and enables the health and well-being of everyone that relies, directly or indirectly, on the electric system. NERC’s vibrant internship program trains GW Law students to understand and engage in the energy sector and has become the career home to several GW energy law alumni. 

Meet Jill Goatcher, JD '18, Alex Kaplen, JD '16, Alain Richaud, JD '18, and Emily Burgis, LLM Class of 2020 . Holding Associate Counsel positions at NERC, these three GW Energy Law alumni and one soon-to-be alumna have joined forces to organize the GW Energy Connectors Alumni Club. Noting the strong alumni presence in Washington, DC, and with a considerable number of them practicing in the energy law field, the four co-workers perceived “a huge untapped potential” to create a common interest group of alumni. At the same time, they saw a need for a robust alumni network that supports current and future GW Law students and graduates. “It is critical that alumni continue to engage with current students to encourage students to consider the opportunities that energy law provides, and to work with one another to provide significant learning experiences [about our ever-changing field.]” They hope the Energy Connectors’ club will help alumni and students “by creating a sustainable and robust alumni network that will support their interests and career goals in the practice of energy law.”

Meet Drew Weitzel, a GW Law student-intern working side-by-side with NERC attorneys, for class credit. NERC sets requirements that every participant in the U.S. electric market that touches the bulk power system, public or private, is responsible for complying with. Whether these students assume permanent positions with NERC or not, they will have acquired an understanding of how the electric system delivers reliable service, including its interrelationship to other critical infrastructure. "Being at NERC has been extremely rewarding, and not just because of the great staff and wealth of networking opportunities," says Mr. Weitzel. "The regulatory research and enforcement matters I have worked on have given me new insights into the energy industry, and its regulation, and how regulators and bulk power system participants interact with each other. I get to see the full spectrum of how standards are created, implemented, and enforced. As a result, I really appreciate the unique challenge of setting standards and requirements that protect the system, are practical, and that recognize the challenges participants may face in complying with those standards."

Meet Charles Berardesco, JD '83. Charlie, as he is known in the industry, is the Senior Vice President and General Counsel at NERC, and is also Chairman of GW’s Energy Law Advisory Council. He built the strong relationship between GW Law and NERC which unites his unwavering commitment to being an engaged energy alumnus with his responsibilities to cultivate a highly-qualified workforce that can help carry out NERC’s mission, within or outside of NERC. 

“I have always believed that we as GW law alums owe something back to the school regarding helping law students gain experience in the legal profession.” Both with his former employer, Constellation Energy, and at NERC, Mr. Berardesco has sought opportunities to provide internships to GW Law students. Upon his joining NERC, NERC established a year-round internship program that provides opportunities to nine students a year, primarily for GW law students, to gain direct legal experience with experienced lawyers. Mr. Berardesco’s assessment: “It’s been a very successful program, in that many of our interns have gone on to amazing jobs, including working [at NERC]!” 

Mr. Berardesco is among those who has made a difference. He made Partner at Whiteford, Taylor & Preston, a private law practice in Maryland, just seven years after graduating from GW Law. From there he held a number of in-house and counsel positions before landing at Constellation Energy. As Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Constellation, Mr. Berardesco negotiated an agreement which was a first-of-a-kind transaction at the time for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission - a joint venture with a foreign company, holding 49.99 percent interest in the operator of nuclear units - creating new legal precedent in the national nuclear energy arena. 

Mr. Berardesco’s national contribution only increased when he joined NERC. His work supports all of NERC’s activities, including its reliability assessments, which provide unbiased, technical analyses of key reliability challenges facing the electric grid, and which are widely utilized by energy policy makers. Mr. Berardesco recalls a pivotal moment, when he was interim CEO at NERC, when he testified before a Senate Energy and Commerce committee hearing on cold weather preparedness by generators: “It was a fascinating opportunity, and I think it helped Congress understand what the industry was about in terms of being prepared for the effects of significant weather events.” 

Since 2013, he has worked with GW Law to identify GW Law alumni and others in the energy industry to serve on an advisory council that would help to expand the school’s offerings and engagement in energy law. As a result, GW’s Energy Law Advisory Council was founded in 2014, providing unique insight into energy production, policy, business markets, and law for the school’s Environmental and Energy Law Program. 

Additionally, Mr. Berardesco was instrumental in getting NERC involved in GW Law’s Graduate Assistance Program (GAP). The program offered a way to help new grads who had not yet found jobs enter the workforce, whilst providing non-profit employer participants a valuable source of (wo)man legal power in a cost-share setting. Mr. Berardesco explains: “When the law school began the program, we were at a point where we needed some more lawyers, but were restricted budget wise. As a non-profit, NERC was perfectly positioned to take advantage of the GAP program – providing significant legal experience for two graduates. One of them moved on to another position, and the second one stayed with us and has become a very valued lawyer for us. We were thrilled to be able to participate.”

When prompted on what was the most rewarding aspect of being an engaged energy law alumnus, Mr. Berardesco’s response was unequivocal! “The students – I really enjoy meeting the students and getting to know what they are about, and how they see their careers. Helping them focus their thinking, and helping them find positions, has been very rewarding.” 

The Next Generation

Mr. Berardesco’s engagement sets a model and tone for the employees who work with him. He and NERC fully support the work of the four young alumni who are the driving force behind GW Law’s new Energy Connector’s club. As these engaged alumni seek to follow his leadership example and expand their own alumni base, they recalled the role that past GW Law energy alumni played in shaping their own career paths: “...the alumni that spoke at the law school while we were students, and who taught courses and offered internships, are the reason that all of us are energy law practitioners today.” At the same time, the four alumni leaders are cognizant of NERC’s support for their alumni activities and appreciates their employer’s role in encouraging their continued engagement with the energy law community. 

Looking into the future, the young leaders of the Energy Connectors hope for “a strong and sustainable network within D.C.” and envision the development of Regional chapters of Energy Connectors across the US. 

It is certainly clear that alumni engagement is a generational exercise. Just as these recent graduates and to-be graduate are drawing a path to future GW energy law alumni engagement, an energy alumnus from a prior generation sits in the wings providing much needed encouragement and opportunity.

If you are inspired by these stories, please join the Energy Connectors mailing list by emailing Emily Ancinec, [email protected] for more opportunities to be engaged energy law alumni. 

In the meantime, take a moment to proudly display your GW Law alumni status on your career easel, sketch yourself a plan to connect with other energy law alumni, and paint a unique role for yourself as an engaged alumni.

Your canvas awaits!

GW Law Energy Connectors Alumni Club Event

The next meeting of the GW Law Energy Connectors Alumni Club will mark the inauguration of its planned speaker series. The first talk is scheduled for Thursday, March 28, 2019. The club will be hosting Dr. Karl Hausker, Senior Fellow with the World Resource Institute's (WRI) Climate Program and Candice Castaneda, Counsel with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).

Dr. Hausker will provide a briefing on pathways to meeting the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 1.5°C goal, and WRI's work in documenting how important this is for the environment, economic stability, and the livelihoods of billions of people. His talk will explore how assumptions regarding the availability, performance, and integration of various technologies drive the perceived feasibility of various pathways to a 100% clean energy economy. Implications for energy policy, research and development portfolios, and political coalition-building will also be explored.

Ms. Castaneda will address the measures that NERC is taking, and the challenges is it facing, in meeting its mission of maintaining a reliable grid in the face of changing infrastructure.

The two presentations will take place between 9:30 and 10:30 am in the Jacob Burns Moot Court Room, Lerner Hall, 2000 H Street, NW, Washington, DC. Afterwards, participants are invited to linger to meet and mingle over a light breakfast, which will be available outside the moot court room from 10:30 to 11 am. Please RSVP here. There is no registration fee.

The March 28 event will be the third for the newly-formed Energy Connectors. To join the mailing list, please send an email to Emily Ancinec at [email protected]. 

GW Law’s Microgrid Work Continues

On February 14, GW Law and the National Regulatory Research Institute (NRRI) co-sponsored a microgrid roundtable. The discussion was led by Donna Attanasio for GW Law, Tom Stanton for NRRI, and Jared Leader of Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA). Each of the three co-leader are working on microgrid regulation. The microgrid roundtable, which was offered by invitation only due to the small-size format, brought together nearly 30 thought-leaders. 

The attendees included engineers, economists, lawyers, regulators, academics, consumer advocates, private developers, electric utility representatives, and many others. The diversity of views led to a lively 2.5 hour discussion. Highlights included the difficulty of cost-effective deployment beyond the single-user, single location configuration that is presently most common, and issues of cost-allocation and energy justice. Adoption and application of the most current technical standards was recognized as a critical milestone; but although some jurisdictions have incorporated the latest Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers standards to guide intentional islanding, and the 2030 standards for microgrid operation, one participant noted that the UL testing standards are still in development. Jurisdictions also must grapple with the issue of whether to structure regulations to encompass specific business models, as Puerto Rico did in its adopted regulatory code (personal, cooperative, or third-party), or allow flexibility for more varied ownership and operation including structures blending utility and private investment. One participant suggested that in addition to regulatory and technical development, more study is needed to on means and methods for valuation of microgrid products and services, which received a favorable response from the group. 

The animated conversation helped uncover and bring attention to the difficulties in structuring regulations that will allow for cost-effective microgrids to flourish without imposing undue burdens. GW Law, NRRI, and SEPA are continuing their work, in collaboration and individually, to develop ideas and frameworks that can make that happen. 

Reimagining Environmental and Natural Resources Law

Nearly fifty years ago, the Ford Foundation provided GW Law with funding to launch a program to train lawyers in the intricacies of environmental law. The $250,000 grant, the largest of the six grants that the Foundation awarded for environmental law programs at that time, was made at approximately the same time as groundbreaking federal environmental legislation (e.g., National Environmental Policy Act and Clean Air Act) ushered in a new era of environmental protection. The grant enabled GW Law to build a program to educate the generation of lawyers who would implement the new environmental agenda. 

Since that time, GW Law’s program has expanded and adapted to meet changing needs, including its incorporation of energy law into the environmental studies program. The program has had a wide-spread influence. As of January 2019, more than 4,700 students have taken the Environmental Law survey course at GW Law and GW will have awarded more than 900 LLM degrees in environmental law with about one-third of those degrees going to students from the services branches. It launched the Journal of Energy and Environmental Law in 2010 and hosts an annual symposium that attracts environmental law faculty and others from across the county. The faculty members and staff have authored or edited 15 books and 90 book chapters or articles since 2010. 

GW Law’s first forty years of achievement were recognized when it received the American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy in 2010.

However, the field has changed significantly over the past half century. Climate change is now a headline issue, as are the efforts to respond to climate change through the expansion of renewable energy and energy conservation. Environmental problems are more nuanced (e.g., fewer smokestacks but many more diffuse sources of pollution that still create serious problems) and responsibility is more widespread. While large industries are still often the focus of attention, many of the issues involve small businesses and even personal lifestyle decisions. And, there is much more emphasis on the importance of finding sustainable solutions that allow our planet to provide shelter and food for more than seven billion people. Advances in science and technology offer new insights and opportunities to improve our approaches to understanding, monitoring, measuring, controlling, mitigating, and regulating emissions that affect our environment. Corporations and citizens are taking on new roles, often as voluntary leaders who go above and beyond legal compliance requirements. The roles of local, state, federal, and international agencies have evolved. And as we decide how to change, there is a clearer understanding of the need to ensure underserved communities have a larger voice in how their communities are engaged and a more direct role in implementing change in the next generation of environmental and natural resources law.

GW Law is working with the Environmental Law Institute on a new initiative entitled “Reimagining Environmental and Natural Resources Law: 2020 and Beyond” to look closely at the laws, stakeholders, and institutions that are essential to maintaining the environmental health of the planet and identify how we can better meet the challenges of the next 50 years. GW Law’s long history, its leading contributions to this field, and its seat in the nation’s capital, make it ideally suited to play an important role in “reimagining” the structure of environmental law going forward. 

As a first step, GW Law and the Environmental Law Institute are bringing together 25 leading thinkers from the academic and the practitioner communities to begin the process of charting a new course in environmental and natural resources law. The group will convene at the Johnson Foundation Wingspread Conference Center in Racine, Wisconsin and is expected to include representatives from the Environmental Law Institute; companies; former senior officials from the Department of Justice, Environmental Protection Agency and the Council on Environmental Quality; and senior faculty from Columbia University Law School, UCLA School of Law, Vanderbilt University Law School, and several others. These scholars and industry participants will participate in a three-day session on re-imagining environmental and natural resource law, facilitated by the Meridian Institute. This session will be the first in a multi-year exploration of this topic.

On March 25, Professors Rob Glicksman, Achinthi Vithanage, Jay Pendergrass of ELI, and Associate Dean Lee Paddock will provide a debriefing of the Wingspread retreat for the GW community at the law school. The program will wrap up with the presentation of the 2019 Jamie Grodsky Prize for Environmental Scholarship presented to the best paper written for a GW Law class during the 2018 calendar year. The Wingspread Debrief and Grodsky Prize Presentation are open to the public. Consider joining the discussion and becoming part of the solution.

We invite you to join us for this Wingspread Debrief and Grodsky Prize Presentation on March 25.

When:

Debrief: 10-11:30 am

Grodsky Prize Presentation: 11:30 am

Where:

Faculty Conference Center, 5th Floor of the Jacob Burns Law Library, which is most easily accessible using the entrance at 716 20th Street NW and then taking the elevator (located to the left just before the library glass doors) to the 5th floor.

For further details, please visit our Reimagining site. If you are interested in attending the March 25 event, then please RSVP by March 21 by clicking here.

Grodsky Prize Winner Announced

GW Law is pleased to announce that this year’s Grodsky Prize will be awarded to Christopher DelGiorno, LLM ’18. His winning paper is entitled “Closing the Loop: The Folly of Burn Pits and Achieving Sustainable Military Contingency Operations Through Life-Cycle Cost Analysis.” He is presently stationed in Honolulu where he serves as an Environmental Counsel and Liaison Officer in the Air Force’s Legal Operations Agency. Mr. DelGiorno received an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and a JD from University of Pennsylvania Law School.

The Jamie Grodsky Prize for Environmental Law Scholarship, funded by a generous gift from her father, Dr. Gerold Grodsky, and memorial gifts from her friends, commemorates the life of Professor Jamie A. Grodsky who passed away in May 2010. The prize recognizes an original paper by a GW Law student in the environmental field as judged by a panel. 

Attanasio Appointed NRRI Fellow



In November 2018, Donna Attanasio, GW Law’s Senior Advisor for Energy Law Programs, was appointed a National Regulatory Research Institute (NRRI) Fellow. NRRI is the research arm of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. The NRRI fellowship program is expected to assist NRRI and the organizations to which the fellows belong with greater access to resources. To date, GW Law and NRRI are collaborating on work around microgrids, and will look for other opportunities for collaboration and joint programming in the future. 

Upcoming Events 

March 26, 2019: Wingspread Debrief & Grodsky Prize Presentation

Professor Rob Glicksman and Dean LeRoy Paddock will provide a debriefing on the discussions at the Wingspread Retreat (see above). The event will begin at 10 am in the GW Law Faculty Conference Center on the 5th floor of the Burns Building, 716 20th Street NW. The Grodsky Prize award ceremony will take place at 11:30 am. Please RSVP here.

March 28, 2019: Energy Connectors Speaker Series

The next meeting of the GW Law Energy Connectors club will be its first speaker event. The event will feature Dr. Karl Hausker, Senior Fellow with the World Resource Institute's (WRI) Climate Program and Candice Castaneda, Counsel with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. (See article above). The talk will be held in the Jacob Burns Moot Court Room, 2000 H Street, NW, Washington, DC at 9:30 am. Doors open at 9 am and a small breakfast reception will follow at 10:30 am.  Please RSVP here. 

April 3-4, 2019: Which Way to Electrification of the U.S. Transportation System?

GW Law’s Sustainable Energy Initiative is hosting the first of a series of annual summits on electrification of the transportation sector. Detailed information, including registration, can be found here. The registration fee is $100. 

May 6, 2019: The Charitable Foundation of the Energy Bar Association will hold its annual gala. This year's theme is Empowering Education in Haiti. The event will be held at the Renaissance Hotel, 999 9th St., NW, Washington, DC, from 5:30 to 9 pm. More information can be found here.

May 6-7, 2019: The Energy Bar Association’s 2019 Annual Meeting & Conference

The conference will feature two days of discussions focused on all aspects of energy law, policy, and trends. The event will be held in Washington, DC. For more information, including registration, click here.

Recommended Reading 

For additional news on what’s happening at GW, including faculty and staff updates, see our most recent Perspectives newsletter.

Unusual Facts

An electricity pylon is hardly the vista that we desire to see across our natural and built landscapes. Yet, they are indispensable to our highly electrified way of life. Perhaps a little creativity is in order and some places around the States and the globe have seen such potential in these infrastructural monoliths.

  

Top Left: Shaped like a clown/jester, these electricity pylons were installed by MAVIR, the Hungarian electricity transmission system operator, and are visible when driving along the M5 motorway in Újhartyán, Hungary.

Bottom Left: The Mickey Pylon, a well-known landmark in Celebration, Florida, located just outside of Walt Disney World Resort, is used to feed nearby Osceola Substation with two 230 kV circuits.

Right: A trio of art students in Germany transformed an electrical tower into a translucent, stained glass installation. Titled Leuchtturm (Lighthouse) the urban artwork uses cut triangles of Acrylglas to mimic the function of traditional stained glass pieces.

For some pylon enthusiasts, there is sheer beauty and wonder in their present form. Take a gander at “Pylon of the Month”, a blog site with a monthly dedication to particularly eye-catching or interesting pylons. Be prepared for some epic photo browsing as the photo collection spans over 9 years.

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