Jake Byl, J.D./Ph.D.’15, and Neil Issar ’16 both won first place in student writing competitions sponsored by the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy and Resources (SEER).
Byl’s paper, “Easements with Ecosystems: A Conservation Tool for Endangered Species,” was recognized by SEER’s Endangered Species Committee. He argues that one of the challenges of the Endangered Species Act is that the statute approaches conservation on a species-by-species basis while many scientists and land managers would prefer to use ecosystem-based conservation.
Issar’s essay, “Going Toe-to-Toe with Hydro: Conflicts Between Hydropower and Other Sources of Renewable Power,” placed first in SEER’s 2015 Energy Law writing competition. Written for Professor Jim Rossi’s Energy Law class, Issar’s paper discusses how the dispatch of power supply resources by grid operators can pit low-carbon sources of energy against each other.