“Making a Sustainable Lifestyle Accessible to All” is the working title of the 28th annual Red Clay Conference to be held Feb. 26 in the School of Law’s Larry Walker Room in Dean Rusk Hall.
The daylong program will include discussions on solar power in the Southeast and Georgia’s new “Household Solar Panel” bill, flood insurance and the tensions between risk and affordability, and farm-to-school food initiatives and child nutrition reauthorization.
Avi S. Garbow, general counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will provide a special address, while Robert R.M. Verchick, a legal expert in environmental regulation, climate change and the developing field of disaster law, will deliver the keynote address.
Garbow, who became the EPA’s general counsel in August 2013, has worked closely on President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, Clean Water Rule and other initiatives to protect public health, improve public access to environmental information and advance environmental justice. Previously, his work at the EPA focused on the agency’s air and water programs and serving in the area of enforcement and compliance assurance. He also served as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environmental Crimes Section.
Verchick, who is the Gauthier-St. Martin Eminent Scholar and Chair in Environmental Law at Loyola University New Orleans, served in the Obama administration as deputy associate administrator for policy at the EPA in 2009 and 2010. He is the author of three books, including Facing Catastrophe: Environmental Action for a Post-Katrina World, which was selected as a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title by the American Library Association. Verchick is also a Senior Fellow at Tulane University’s Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy and president of the Center for Progressive Reform, a national policy institute focused on public health, public welfare and environmental protection.
The conference, which runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and includes lunch for registered attendees, is open to the public and is free for members of the UGA community. The cost for non-UGA members is $10. For attorneys seeking continuing legal education credits of six hours, including one ethics hour, the cost is $60.
