The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), the Connecticut General Assembly's Environment Committee and the University of Connecticut School of Law’s Center for Energy and Environmental Law (CEEL) announced Wednesday the establishment of a new legal internship program that will place law students at DEEP and with the Environment Committee.
The program is scheduled to begin in January 2012.
Created by the UConn School of Law in cooperation with DEEP and the Environment Committee, this program will place law school students in internships that focus on energy and environmental policy. In addition to working with DEEP or the legislative committee students will participate in a seminar taught by CEEL’s Executive Director and Professor-in-Residence, Joseph MacDougald. The seminar will be tailored to the issues being considered within each legislative session.
DEEP Commissioner Daniel C. Esty said, “Cooperation between the legislative and executive branches and the academic community in developing energy and environmental policy is a perfect fit for the direction of our department and the needs of our state. We look forward to having highly motivated UConn law students joining DEEP’s effort to make Connecticut a national success story for building a prosperous and sustainable economy on a foundation of cleaner and cheaper energy.”
“I’m very excited by this innovative idea of combining the work of UConn Law School’s Center for Energy and Environmental Law and the work of the General Assembly. This partnership will provide tangible benefits to students, legislators, and the citizens of our state,” said State Senator Ed Meyer, co-Chair of the Environment Committee.
“We are excited and grateful to be cooperating with the DEEP and the state legislature in the formulation of this new program,” said Jeremy Paul, Dean of the University of Connecticut School of Law. “We recognize that neither in academia nor in industry can we afford any longer to separate the study of energy law and policy from environmental research and learning about natural resources.”
The Center for Energy and Environmental Law was created recently as a way to prepare the next generation of lawyers and policymakers to shepherd technological innovations into actual practice and to build a vibrant and greener future. This new partnership will also help further UConn’s mission by providing students with hands-on opportunities to see how their coursework relates to the essential work done by the DEEP and the Environment Committee.
