UTTON CENTER & NATURAL RESOURC
UTTON CENTER & NATURAL RESOURCES NEWS China Trip Raises Awareness of Energy Challenges
The challenges of balancing the energy needs of an emergent world power with social and environmental issues were brought home to
Marilyn O’Leary, director of the Utton Transboundary Resources Center, during a visit to China last fall. O’Leary was invited to speak at the International Conference of Reservoir Operations Managers. Her topic, “Water Law, Environmental Law and Collaboration in the United States.”
As part of her visit, she took a boat ride up the Yangtze River to Three Gorges Dam, the most ambitious hydroelectric project in the world. At 1.2 miles across, with a series of five locks designed to increase ship traffic from the China Sea to Chongqing, the nation’s largest city, the project will gener- ate one-ninth of China’s electric power. Currently, the country relies on smog-producing fos- sil fuels, such as coal. The ambitious project will displace more than 1 million people and create a lake more than 350 miles long.
Marilyn O’Leary with a Chinese hydrology student.
“After the trip up the Yangtze, I went to Bei- jing where the air pollu- tion was astounding, and I rarely saw a clear sky,” O’Leary said. “It showed me that there is no easy answer for how to deal with the environ- mental effects of energy development.”
During the five-day conference at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, she enjoyed hearing people from countries such as Korea, Israel, Italy and Austria discuss reservoir management, including public input into the decision-making process. And she appreciated the opportunity to talk about the Utton Center’s message of preventive diplomacy to address differing interests in controversial water projects.
An elaborate network of locks at Three Gorges Dam
“My trip to China made me realize that conservation is the easiest way to prevent ill effects of energy development. And once we have done as much conservation as possible, we have to look at mitigating those ill effects, because energy development is critical for emergent countries to alleviate poverty and aid growth and advancement,” she said.
Students Contribute to Natural Resources Newsletter
Early last year, when Jennifer Pruett (`83) agreed to revive Vista, the newsletter of the State Bar’s Natural Resources, Energy and
Environmental Law Section, she knew where to look for contribu- tors: the UNM School of Law. She was, after all, offering money for articles and the opportunity to be published, two enticements sure to pique the interest of law students.
She has not been disappointed.
From an email seeking article ideas, Pruett has received more proposals than she can use. She chooses a few for each issue, paying up to $300 for each one.
Josh Mann, a 3L and editor of the Natural Resources Journal, has written two articles for the newsletter so far, one on the San Juan River water settlement last spring and “Blowing in the Wind: How Many Generations Must Pass Before Indians get their proper royalties on their Oil and Gas,” for the fall 2005 issue.
“I’d never written like that before,” he says. “I felt like a journalist, talking to people to find out the real story behind these issues. For the oil and gas article, I sat down with Alan Taradash, who spent three-and-one-half hours explaining the whole issue to me. It was like taking a class.”
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Jennifer Hower, a 2L, appreciated the chance to interact with people she hopes some day to be practicing alongside. Her article was titled, “At the Well in New Mexico – Current Court Interpretations of the Definition of `At the Well’ in Natural Gas Royalty Cases.”
“The experience was also very informative,” she says. “Jennifer Pruett offered many good suggestions, and I felt it gave me insight into my own writing style.”
Other students who contributed to the fall issue, which focused on oil and gas, were Mark Barron (3L), “Breaking Ground in New Mexico: The Role of the Accommodation Doctrine in Determining a Mineral Estate Owner’s Obligation to Compensate Land Owners for Damage to the Surface”; and Alex Beattie, “Negotiating Pipeline Dreams.” Gabriel Wade (`05) and Carlos Ruiz de la Torre (3L) contributed to the spring 2005 issue.
Kyle Harwood (`99), chair of the Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law Section, considers the students’ contribution to the newsletter a first step in an ongoing relationship with the law school.
“I’m going to make it a priority to reach out to students in the Environmental Law Society and at the Natural Resources Journal, because I see them as future section members,” he says.
WINTER 2006
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