Read below about some of the latest scholarships and impacts made by V​LS community members.

• Tracy Bach's article (co-authored with student Cole Cramer), "Après Paris: Implementing the Paris Agreement in Uncertain Times​​," appears in the Vermont Law Top 10 Environmental Watch List, December 2017.
   
• Laurie Beyranevand​ was appointed to the Academy of Food Law and Policy’s Membership and Outreach Committee, December 2016​.
   
• Patrick Parenteau was featured as the Scholar of the Month​ by The Center for Climate, Energy, Environment and Economics at the University of North Carolina School of Law, December 5, 2016.
   
• ​Hillary Hoffmann's commentary "Dakota Access – Three Things to Watch in the Coming Weeks​" appears on the Environmental Law Prof Blog, December 5, 2016.
   
• Janet Milne​ hosted Carbon Pollution Taxes: A Conversation with International Experts, an event she organized under the umbrella of the Environmental Tax Policy Institute with funding from the Lintilhac Foundation.  The purpose of the event was to give key leaders in Vermont an opportunity to learn from international experts about how other countries have used carbon taxes to address climate change. The small, invitation-only event brought together key Vermont legislators, agency heads, energy sector leaders, NGOs, and funders interested in thinking about the potential role for carbon pricing in Vermont.  Half of the program was devoted to a roundtable, moderated by Janet, that allowed participants to actively engage with the experts. The event took place at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, VT on December 1, 2016.
   
• Yanmei Lin's​ article, “Digital Environment and Public Participation in China” (with Yin Hong), appears in Southeast Academy Research 2016, No.254 (04) 95-100.
   
• Yanmei Lin's​ article, “Environmental and Biodiversity Law Clinic at Southwest Forestry University: A New Environmental Law Clinic Model in China,” appears in 18 Vt. J. Envtl. L. 19, Winter 2016.
   
• Yanmei Lin's chapter, “International Perspectives: Citizen Suits in the U.S.,” appears in Environmental Public Interest Litigation Annual Observation Report in China, Li Dun, Legal Press, December 2016.
   
• Mark James is a contributing author to "Capturing the Sun: A Roadmap for Navigating Data-Access Challenges and Auto-Populating Solar Home Sales Listings," December 2016. James and his team from the VLS Institute for Energy and the Environment contributed a section on identifying and addressing data privacy concerns arising from sharing customer-level PV solar data.​
   
• Melissa Scanlan's book chapter "A Comparative Analysis of the Public Trust Doctrine for Managing Water in the United States and India" (appears as Chapter 2 in Routledge Handbook of Water Law and Policy, Eds., Alistair Rieu-Clarke, et al. (2016 Forthcoming)) was listed on several of the SSRN's Top 10 download lists in November and December 2016.
   
• Craig Pease's article "Built Infrastructure and Climate Change in the American Southwest​​" appears in the Science and the Law column, Environmental Law Forum, November - December 2016.​​
   
• Kevin Jones co-authored (with Mark James and Roxana-Andreea Mastor), "Securing Our Energy Future: Three International Perspectives on Microgrids and Distributed Renewables as a Path Toward Resilient Communities," Environmental Hazards, November, 28, 2016.
   
• Kinvin Wroth​ appeared before the Vermont Legislative Committee on Judicial Rules in Montpelier to present pending amendments to the Vermont Rules of Civil and Probate Procedure and Rules for Family Proceedings on November 28, 2016.
   
• Patrick Parenteau was a panelist on "Using Judicial Processes for Political Purposes​" at The Federalist Society Annual Convention in Washington, DC, November 19, 2016.
   
• Hillary Hoffmann​ testified before the House Committee on Natural Resources on H.R. 866 and H.R 1484 on November 15, 2016.  H.R. 866 would allow states to control oil and gas development on federal public lands and H.R. 1484 would transfer all federal public lands in the State of Nevada to the state. ​​Professor Hoffmann also published a blog post on her testimony entitled "Bad Public Land Bills in Congress - H.R. 866 and H.R. 1484" on the Environmental Law Prof Blog on November 17, 2016.​
   
• Melissa Scanlan's article "A Comparative Analysis of the Public Trust Doctrine for Managing Water in the United States and India​" was listed on SSRN's Top 10 download list on November 16, 2016 for:
  • Environmental Justice & Sustainability eJournal
  • Natural Resources Law & Policy eJournal
  • PSN: Water (Topic)
  • SRPN: Developing World (Topic)
  • SRPN: Other Water Sustainability (Topic)
  • Water Sustainability eJournal.
• Kinvin Wroth participated by video link in a Montreal meeting of the E4A Law and Governance group with members of the McGill Faculty of Law​ on November 15, 2016.
   
• John Echeverria filed a brief in the South Carolina Supreme Court in the case of Jowers v. South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control on behalf of Congaree Riverkeeper, Inc. on November 14, 2106.​
   
• Tracy Bach led the VLS COP22 delegation to Marrakech, Moracco in November 7-18, 2016.  In addition to the delegation's service learning work with Myanmar, it hosted a university delegation social gathering; had small group discussions with Chuck DiLeva of the World Bank and Deb Markowitz of Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources; and published more than 45 posts at the VLS COP22 blog.  Some of these were cross-posted to VJEL's EcoPerspectives Blog.
   
• Laurie Beyranevand delivered the keynote speech, “Blueprint for a National Food Strategy” with Emily Broad Leib, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, Founding Director of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, and Deputy Director of the Harvard Law School Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School at the Georgetown and Food and Drug Law Institute's Food and Drug Law Journal Annual Symposium on November 4, 2016 at Georgetown Law School. The presentation was based on a collaborative effort of the same name between the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC) and the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems​ (CAFS) at Vermont Law School funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Beyranevand and Leib's article, Making the Case for a National Food Strategy in the United States will be published in the Food and Drug Law Journal's Symposium Issue.
   
• Michael Dworkin was a panelist on "Energy Access 'TED Talks'" at the Duke University Energy Conference: The Technology and Innovation Driving Our Energy Future​, Durham, NC, November 2, 2016.
   
• On November, 2, 2016, the Act 154 Toxic Working Group voted in favor of Ken Rumelt’s proposals to address toxic chemicals in Vermont: (1) citizen enforcement of Vermont’s statutory prohibition on unpermitted releases of hazardous substances; (2) adopt legislation clarifying the right to recover in tort the cost of monitoring for latent diseases following exposure to hazardous substances; and (3) strictly, joint and several liability for harm cause​d to Vermonters by the release of hazardous substances.  The third proposal also authorizes those held liable to seek contribution from chemical manufacturers for failure to warn.  The Working Group will submit its report to the legislature in January.  
   
• Janet Milne's op-ed on "Washington State’s Referendum on a Carbon Tax​" appeared in The New York Times on November 1, 2016.
   
• ​Melissa Scanlan is the editor of Law and Policy for a New Economy: Sustainable, Just, Democratic, published by Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2016. T​his book includes her chapter, “Climate Change, System Change, and the Path Forward.”


• ​​​Laurie Ristino's law review article “Losing Ground: A Clarion Call for Farm Bill Reform to Ensure a Food Secure” was accepted for publication with the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law.
   
• Hillary Hoffmann​ presented "Indian Country and the Environment," at the Federal Bar Association, Washington, D.C., October 28, 2016.


• Laurie Ristino co-authored (with Jessica Jay '97) the book, A Changing Landscape: The Conservation Reader, published by the Environmental Law Institute, October 20, 2016.


• Janet Milne is co-editor of two books that were just published, Green Fiscal Reform for a Sustainable Future, N. Stoianoff et al., eds. (Edward Elgar 2016), and Market Instruments and the Protection of Natural Resources, N. Stoianoff et al., eds. (Edward Elgar 2016). The books are volumes XVII and XVIII, respectively, of the series, Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation.


• Yanmei Lin's​ article “Environmental and Biodiversity Law Clinic at Southwest Forestry University: A New Environmental Law Clinic Model in China” is forthcoming in the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, October 2016.


• Yanmei Lin was invited to be on the board of editors for the Annual Observation Report on Environmental Public Interest Litigation (EPIL) in China. This report, including Professor Lin's article on "International Perspectives: Citizen Suits in the U.S.," will be published by the Law Press, China’s most influential legal publishing house, in October 2016.


• Patrick Parenteau and Laura Murphy co-authored "What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been: The Saga of EPA’s Water Transfers Rule​," which appears in the ABA Natural Resources & Environment Fall 2016 issue.
   
• Craig Pease's article "The Plight of the Bugs, and the Failure of the Laws of Humans​" appears in the Science and the Law column, Environmental Law Forum, September - October ​2016.​


• Laurie Ristino​​ moderated the webinar, "Biting the Hands That Feed Us," Security & Sustainability Forum​, on September 27, 2016.


• Several VLS faculty participated in the 7th Annual Colloquium on Environmental Scholarship at Vermont Law School, September 23 - 24, 2016​:
  • Patrick Parenteau, moderator and conference organizer
  • Michael Dworkin, moderator
  • David Mears, moderator
  • Melissa Scanlan, panelist and moderator
  • Laurie Beyranevand, moderator
  • Kinvin Wroth, moderator
  • Craig Pease, moderator
  • Laurie Ristino, moderator
  • Kevin Jones, moderator
  • John Echeverria, moderator
  • Hillary Hoffmann, panelist


• The 17th Global Conference on Environmental Taxation was held on September 21-24, 2016, in Groningen, The Netherlands. VLS’s Environmental Tax Policy Institute​ was a supporting partner. The theme of this year’s conference was “smart instrument mixes in a greening economy,” and participants from 33 countries gathered to discuss environmental taxation and other market-based instruments. Janet Milne​ presented two papers. One paper focused on carbon tax proposals that have been introduced at the US state level (“Carbon Tax Choices: A Tale of Four States”). The second provided a comparative analysis of how the US dormant commerce clause and the EU’s state aid rules affect states’ ability to offer energy tax incentives (“Constitutional Competition Law and Energy Tax Incentives in the United States: A Comparison with the EU’s State Aid Rules”).


• Janet Milne​ spoke at a conference on State Aid, Taxation and the Energy Sector in Copenhagen, Denmark, on September 20, 2016. The event was organized by Aarhus University and the law firm Poul Schmidt, which serves as legal counsel to the Danish government. The half-day session with 75 participants focused on how the European Union’s state aid rules affect the design of carbon taxes and the ability to offer subsidies to the renewable energy sector. Professor Milne was invited to provide an overview of carbon tax theory and an international perspective on carbon taxation and tax subsidies.


• Laurie Beyranevand was an invited speaker on "National Gleaning Project" at the New Jersey Gleaning Summit​ at Fernbrook Farms, Chesterfield, NJ, September 20, 2016.
   
• Pat Parenteau's article, "Between a Pebble and a Hard Place: Using 404(c) to Protect a National Treasure," appears in 33 Environmental Forum 4, July/ August 2016.
   
• Craig Pease's article, "​Knot Good: How Climate Change Harms Rich, Industrial Economies​" appears in the Science and the Law column, Environmental Law Forum, July - August ​2016.​
   
• Steven Dycus's book, Counterterrorism Law, 3rd ed. (with William C. Banks, Peter Raven-Hansen & Stephen I. Vladeck), was published by Aspen Publishers, July 6, 2016.


• Tracy Bach's article "Human Rights in a Climate Changed World: The Impact of COP21, Nationally Determined Contributions, and National Courts​" will appear in the Vermont Law Review, forthcoming 2016.​


• Hillary Hoffmann's article "Fracking The Sacred: Resolving The Tension Between Unconventional Oil And Gas Development And Tribal Cultural Resources" will appear in the Denver Law Review​, forthcoming 2016/2017.


• Yanmei Lin​ gave a talk to the delegation from Union College for the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) in Beijing on June 28, 2016.


• Melissa Scanlan​ gave the plenary speaker presentation, "The Role of the Courts in Guarding Against Privatization of Important Public Environmental Resources," at the IUCNAEL Colloquium: The Environment In Court, in Oslo, Norway, June 20-26, 2016.


• Michael Dworkin​ presented “Success at Scale: Judicial and Administrative Reviews of Three Key Decisions,” a Breakout Session on Climate Change and Courts at the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law’s 14th Annual Colloquium, Oslo, Norway, June 23, 2016.


• John Echeverria filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Murr v. State of Wisconsin on behalf of a group of economists, June 16, 2016.


• Hillary Hoffmann's article "Fracking The Sacred: Resolving The Tension Between Unconventional Oil And Gas Development And Tribal Cultural Resources was listed on SSRN's Top 10 download list on June 9 for:
  • PSN: Energy (Comparative) (Topic)
  • Protected Lands Law & Policy eJournal
  • SRPN: Oil (Topic).


• Patrick Parenteau's​ commentary, “Sending a Message on WOTUS?” appears in the American College of Environmental Lawyers  Blog on June 6, 2016.
   
• Janet Milne's chapter, "Energy Tax Incentives: United States Perspectives," appears in Energy Taxation, Environmental Protection and State Aids: Trading the Path from Divergence to Convergence, (Pasquale Pistone and Marta Villar Ezcurra, eds.), (PBFD 2016).
   
• Jessica Scott's article, "From Environmental Rights to Environmental Rule of Law: A Proposal for Better Environmental Outcomes," appears in 6 Mich. J. Envtl. & Admin. L. 203 (2016).
   
• Craig Pease's article "​​Zika, Lead, Bad Water, And Why Sex is Just Not So Fun Nowadays" appears in the Science and the Law column, Environmental Law Forum, May-June ​2016.


• ​Melissa Scanlan was a co-host and moderator for a two-day workshop, "Law for the New Economy," at the University of California Santa Barbara's Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, May 23 - 24, 2016. This workshop was co-sponsored by the New Economy Law Center at VLS. Additional workshop panelists from VLS included Laurie Ristino, Jennifer Taub, and Kevin Jones.
   
• Steven Dycus's book, National Security Law, 6th edition, (with William C. Banks, Peter Raven-Hansen & Stephen I. Vladeck)  has been published by Aspen Publishers, May 25, 2016.


• Betsy Baker​ presented "Improving Stewardship as the Arctic Ocean Changes: Ecosystem-based Management as a Tool” at the Arctic Marine Governance workshop at the University of California-Irvine School of Law, April 22, 2016.


• Patrick Parenteau​ gave the keynote address “Just Say No: Reducing Nutrient Pollution to Chesapeake Bay” at a conference sponsored by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Annapolis, MD on April 22, 2016.
   
• David Mears's article, "Foreword: Restoring and Maintain the Ecological Integrity of Lake Champlain"  appears in 17 Vt. J. Envtl. L. 4, Spring 2016.


• Yanmei Lin's​ article, co-authored with lawyer HU Shaobo, "Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigation in China: Empowering Green NGOs to Fight against Pollution," was published as one of the featured articles in The China Environment Series 13, Spring 2016.


• John Echeverria​ filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the case of Mineral County v. Walker River Irrigation District on behalf of the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club, April 19, 2016.


• Stephen Dycus​ gave a book talk on his new book, Soldiers on the Home Front, at the Brennan Center at NYU Law School on April 19, 2016.
   
• Patrick Parenteau​ presented the webinar, "The Waters of the U.S. Rule" at the Environmental Law Symposium: Waters of the United States, Lewis and Clark Law School, Portland, OR on April 8, 2016.


• Kinvin Wroth, with McGill colleagues Peter Brown and Robert Godin, organized and participated in “Law and Governance for the Anthropocene,” a workshop held at Vermont Law School on April 7 and 8, 2016, as part of the Law School’s role in Economics for the Anthropocene (E4A), a joint program of McGill, UVM, and York University, Toronto. In addition to the three organizers, papers were presented by VLS colleagues Michael Dworkin, Hillary Hoffmann (delivered by CAFS staff member Rebecca Valentine), Reed Loder, Pat Parenteau, Jessica Scott, Gabriela Steier (LLM Fellow) and five faculty members and graduate students from McGill, other Canadian institutions, and UVM. Commenters on the papers were VLS colleague Betsy Baker​ and a panel of nine students from the participating schools, including Mark James, LLM 2016, and Sheng Sun, MELP 2016.
   
• Patrick Parenteau​'s article, "A Bright Line Mistake: How EPA Bungled the Clean Water Rule," appears in 46 Environmental Law 379​, Spring 2016.


• Kevin Jones presented on the VLS Energy Clinic’s Community Solar Model at the Community Distributed Generation Summit sponsored by the Adirondack North Country Association at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, NY on March 31, 2016.


• Patrick Parenteau​ presented “Ending the War on Wildlife: Reforming the Wildlife Services Agency within the US Department of Agriculture" at the Massachusetts School of Liberal Arts on March 31, 2016.


• Kevin Jones was an invited participant in an international workshop on the New Business and Regulatory Models for the Utility of the Future sponsored by King Abdullah’s Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC), in New York City on March 29, 2016.


• Patrick Parenteau​ filed an amicus curiae brief​ in West Virginia v EPA (clean power plan case). Brief was prepared by an ENRLC team consisting of student clinicians Brittany Wright and Kelsey Egger under the supervision of Ken Rumelt, on March 28, 2016.


• Patrick Parenteau​'s article, co-authored with Mingde Cao, "Carbon Trading in China​," appears in Environmental Law Review​, March 2016.
   
• Janet Milne submitted the manuscript for a two-volume reader Environmental Taxation and the Law. The volumes contain 44 previously published journal articles and four book chapters written by authors around the world and will be published by Edward Elgar (Fall 2016).


• Kevin Jones coauthored, along with JD and Masters students Taylor Curtis, Matthew Roche, Dan Sauer, and Marc de Konkly Thege, “The Distributed Utility: Conflicts and Opportunities,” in Future of Utilities – Utilities of the Future: How Technological Innovations in Distributed Generation will Reshape the Electrical Power Sector, Academic Press, forthcoming Spring 2016.
   
• Craig Pease's article Climate Changing: The Alchemy (and Science) of Ice, Heat, and Sun" appears in the Science and the Law column, Environmental Law Forum, March-April 2016.​​​


• Melissa Scanlan​'s chapter "A Comparative Analysis of the Public Trust Doctrine for Managing Water in the United States and India," will appear in Handbook on Water Law and Policy, Alistair Rieu-Clarke, et. al. (eds.), Routledge, (forthcoming 2016).


• Laurie Ristino​​ moderated a panel discussion; "Food: What's Law Got To Do With It? A lot.," Food and Agriculture Law Society and Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, Vermont Law School, South Royalton, VT, March 16, 2016.


• Betsy Baker​ was one of five policy experts asked to brief the media at the Arctic Science Summit Week, the most important global meetin​g of Arctic natural and social scientists held each year, on March 15, 2016.​


• David Mears​ authored an amicus brief filed by the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC) on behalf of Vermont Natural Resources Council and Preservation Trust of Vermont in the Vermont Supreme Court in the matter of the application of B&M Realty for an Act 250 permit, on March 11, 2016. B&M Realty obtained a permit from the Environmental Division of the Vermont Superior Court to build a large mixed use development at Exit 1 of Interstate 89. The permit has been appealed by the Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission and the Vermont Natural Resources Board. VNRC and PTV argued in support of the appellants that the development was strip development violating the regional plan and the goals and purposes of Act 250, Act 200 and many other state policies favoring smart growth over sprawl. Professor Mears authored the brief with the able assistance of Student Clinicians Kelsey Eggert and Matthew Carlisle and Paralegal Monica Litzelman.
• Tracy Bach's article "Human Rights in a Climate Changed World: The Impact of COP21, Nationally Determined Contributions, and National Courts​" was listed on SSRN's Top 10 download list on March 9 and March 11, 2016 for:
  • Environmental Justice & Sustainability eJournal
  • AARN: Social Justice & Human Rights (Sub-Topic)
  • SRPN: Human Rights Issues (Topic)
  • PSN: Human Rights Networks (Topic)
  • AARN: Topics of Concern in Applied Anthropology (Topic)


• Patrick Parenteau​ received the Kerry Rydberg Award at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, University of Oregon, March 5, 2016.


• Betsy Baker was an invited speaker for the third annual conference on Tribal Sovereignty and Economic Development in Alaska on March 4, 2016. Her topic was “Two views of Arctic Resource Development: The Law of the Sea and Indigenous Rights on the Continental Shelf.” Her co-panelist at the Anchorage conference was VLS grad Peter Van Tuyn.


• Stephen Dycus gave a book talk (along with co-author William C. Banks) on his new book, Soldiers on the Home Front: The Domestic Role of the American Military, at Georgetown Law School, March 2, 2016.


• Stephen Dycus was a panelist on "Federal and State Authority and the Role of the Military During Public Health Crises" at the symposium Strengthening National Security by Protecting Public Health at Georgetown University Law School, sponsored by the Journal of National Security Law & Policy, on March 1, 2016.


• Kevin Jones ​accompanied Energy Clinic and IEE Students Heather Huebner (JD/MERL), Gregg Freeman (JD/MELP) and Aaron Kelly (MERL) as they testified before the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee on their report “An Analysis of Renewable Energy Credits in Vermont," on February 26, 2016. The Energy Clinic’s report was produced at the request of the chair of the committee and was covered extensively by the media in Vermont and the national trade press.
• Patrick Parenteau​ gave the keynote address, "The Post Scalia Era of Environmental Law," at the 17th Annual Northeast Florida Environmental Summit, Florida Coastal Law School, February 25, 2016.


• Michael Dworkin​ submitted testimony to the Vermont Legislature’s Joint House and Senate Government Operations Committees on "The Financial Risks of Reliance on High-Fossil-Fuel Stocks: Five-year Stock Price Comparisons of High-Fossil Stock Holdings," Montpelier, VT, on February 19, 2016


• Michael Dworking presented "The Food – Energy – Water Nexus: “Connecting Education to Practice at the Nexus," at the 16th National Conference and Global Forum on Science, Policy & the Environment, Washington, D.C., January 19-21, 2016.


• ​Betsy Baker presented an “Arctic Council Update” to the Arctic Law Section of the Alaska Bar Association, in Anchorage​, Alaska on January 11, 2016.


• Laurie Ristino​ presented “Agricultural and Food Law, Environmental Law, and Natural Resources and Energy Law Joint Program” at the AALS Annual Meeting on January 8, 2016


• Stephen Dycus co-authored, with William C. Banks, Soldiers on the Home Front: The Domestic Role of the American Military (Harvard University Press), released January 4, 2016.


• Craig Pease's article "Fracking's Enhanced Oil and Gas Recovery Means More Earthquakes​​" appears in the Science and the Law column, Environmental Law Forum, January-February 2016.


• Sean Nolon's article "The Challenges and Opportunities Confronting Modern Public Policy Mediators" appears in Dispute Resolution Magazine, American Bar Association, Winter 2016.