By Krystle Gan
Last week, the University hosted an “Energy and the Environment: Empowering Consumers” conference. The two-day event, held last Thursday and Friday at the University’s School of Law, assembled speakers from across the country who specialized in a diverse array of fields, including attorneys, law professors, sociologists, philosophers, scientists, journalists and elected representatives.
Among attendees from these fields were Sharon Nelson, the ex-chair of the Board of Directors of the Consumers Union; Daniel Sangeap,
assistant attorney-general of the New York attorney-
general’s office, Investor Protection Bureau; and Richard Kessel, president of New York Power Authority.
Professor Katrina Kuh, whose specialities include environmental law and torts, was
largely responsible for the event. The goal of the conference, Kuh said, was to address how “consumers, individuals and the municipalities that serve them, [could] be empowered to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption.” The role of the consumer was touted at the conference as the “most important 21st century player in the energy-environment equation.”
Specific issues discussed in the panels included energy policy, carbon control,
consumer behavior, communication of science and
greenwashing. One particular panel, “Identifying the Consumer: Who Consumes How Much Energy and Why,” had an immediate effect on the William R. Ginsberg Memorial Alumni Dinner hosted later in the day regarding whether to order the chicken or beef, or perhaps neither.
The dinner hosted by the University’s School of Law Environmental Law Society, celebrated the life and work of former Environmental Law Professor William R. Ginsberg. Ginsberg had been at the front line of developing the field, starting one of the nation’s first environmental law courses in the ’70s.
Ginsberg’s reputation and passion for the environment attracted students to the practice, according to Carol A. Casazza Herman, former vice president of Environment, Health and Safety (EHS), and assistant general counsel of Pfizer, Inc., who is also a University alumna, class of 1984. Herman said she specifically chose to attend the University in order to study with Ginsberg.
President Stuart Rabinowitz described him as the “perfect example of an activist, professor, great scholar and teacher who is also at the cutting edge of his field in the real world, a combination that has made him unique. [He was] also just a genuinely nice man.”
The event announced the installment of the William R. Ginsberg Memorial Summer Fellowship in Environmental Law. The fellowship, established by the Estate of Marian O. Naumburg, will support law students pursuing environmental public interest work.
(Krystie Gan)
Speakers at the Environmental Law conference last weekend lectured on how energy and the environment are impacting and empowering consumers. (Krystie Gan)