Energy Law Prof Discusses Low Income Household Issues

On September 26, 2024, Lewis & Clark Law School hosted the 36th Annual Environmental Distinguished Visitor Event and Lecture, featuring Professor Uma Outka of the University of Kansas School of Law as this year’s Distinguished Visitor. The event, sponsored by the Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law Program, also recognized four Distinguished Environmental Graduates and the 2024 Williamson Award recipient.

Professor Outka works at the intersection of energy law and environmental law. Her scholarship explores the legal context for energy transition, with particular interests in energy and environmental justice, renewable energy, electricity regulation, and decarbonization of the electric grid.

On Thursday evening, Professor Outka presented her lecture entitled Centering Low-Income Households in Energy Law to an engaged audience of over 70 attendees. “In her informative talk, Professor Outka reminded us how important it is to consider frontline communities in conversations about energy costs and energy transitions,” noted Janice Weis, Associate Dean and Director of the Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law program at Lewis & Clark.

In addition to the Distinguished Visitor Lecture, the law school also recognized Coby Dolan ’99 (Legislative Director for Access to Justice), Sarah Jensen ’03 (Program Manager and Senior Policy Advisor for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Sustainable Environmental Stewardship), Jane Steadman ’09 (Attorney at Kanji & Katzen), and David Cummings, LLM ’95 (Senior Staff Attorney with the Nez Perce Tribe’s Office of Legal Counsel) as Distinguished Environmental Law Graduates, and Jamie Johnson ’24 (Staff Attorney at the Green Energy Institute) as this year’s Williamson Award Recipient.