While generating clean energy from renewable sources such as wind farms and solar arrays may sound like the kind of energy solutions everyone agrees with, there’s a hitch: getting the power to the people.
Wind farms and the huge arrays of solar panels that can generate significant amounts of energy tend to be far from city centers where consumers need the power. And that’s where problems arise as power companies try to design transmission lines that cross potentially sensitive wild lands and private property, not to mention state, local and regional jurisdictions.
The DU Sturm College of Law Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute will host former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter and Robin Kundis Craig, professor of law and associate dean for environmental programs at the Florida State University College of Law. The two will discuss the sticky legal issues surrounding green energy as part of the 2011 Carver Colloquium, which begins at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Sturm College of Law Room 165.
This year’s event is titled, “The Governance of Renewable Energy Transmission.” The session will allow for discussion and debate between Ritter, now director for the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University, and Craig, author of several books and an expert on the Clean Water Act, water law and the public trust doctrine, water resources and climate change and the intersection of water issues and land issues.
The Carver Colloquium is an annual event hosted by the institute and Professor Jan Laitos, the John A. Carver Jr. Chair at the DU Sturm College of Law. Held each fall, the colloquium features two leading legal or planning scholars from the land use, environmental and natural resources law fields. The colloquium presents divergent or alternative viewpoints fields in a point-counterpoint format.
The event is free and open to the public.