On September 25-26, 2018, the Environmental and Energy Management Institute (EEMI) co-sponsored a natural resources symposium entitled “Blueprint for Change: New Approaches and Needed Changes to Managing Natural Resource Risks, Liabilities and Opportunities.” EMSE Professors Alex Beehler and Jonathan Deason participated in the two-day event, which was convened by the Industry Natural Resource Management Group, the GW Law School, Environmental Law Institute and the EEMI. It was conducted in the Jacob Burns Moot Court of the GW Law School.
The Symposium presented a multi-stakeholder examination of natural resource related policies and practices with a focus on innovative and cutting-edge approaches to the analysis of policies and practices related to natural resource management and related issues in the US, Europe and elsewhere. It featured leaders and decision-makers and discipline experts from the Congress, the judiciary, academia, national and state governments, private industry, and conservation organizations, with special emphasis on those actions needed to result in an effective national practice and associated implications for an effective global practice.
The event provided a forum for presentation, discussion and exchange, aimed at identifying what is needed now and moving forward, to ensure a reasonable, balanced, predictable and transparent practice arena for all stakeholders while also facilitating flexibility and innovation. Case studies and site reviews were conducted in cooperation with government, tribal and trade organizations including the US Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce/National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and Department of the Interior, American Chemistry Council, US Chamber of Commerce and others.
The Symposium focused on policies and practices under US laws to permit a specific set of recommendations to result from the Symposium to be focused on current and near term opportunities for change and innovation. By focusing on better policies for better outcomes, such actions can benefit a diverse set of private sector and public sector stakeholders by conserving, managing and restoring natural resources quickly and efficiently with fairness and transparency.
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Natural Resource Symposium leadership: EEMI Co-Director Jonathan Deason, Environmental and Energy Law Fellow Achinthi Vithanage, Environmental Law Institute Vice President Jay Pendergrass, Industry Natural Resource Management Group Executive Director Barbara Goldsmith, and GW Law School Dean Blake Morant |
The program examined the progression and diversity of natural resource cases via specific case/site reviews and corresponding lessons learned. Emergent case law was discussed with the goal of extracting those elements of successful legal, scientific and economic practice that can be further expanded into the present and future.
