June 09, 2010

Environmental law faculty contribute expertise to media coverage of Gulf oil spill

Media outlets are turning to Lewis & Clark law professors  for their expertise in environmental law concerning the BP oil spill in the Gulf.

As the Gulf oil spill worsens, media outlets are turning to Lewis & Clark law professors Dan Rohlf and Bill Funk for their expertise in environmental law.

Professor Rohlf is the clinical director of the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center, a nationally recognized, domestic environmental legal clinic at Lewis & Clark Law School. Originally trained as a geologist, Rohlf’s expertise lies in endangered species law and policy, wildlife law, and ecosystem management. Following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, Rohlf penned an op-ed for the blog of the Center for Progressive Reform, outlining the Minerals Management Service’s failures in oversight and suggesting that the environmental disaster unfolding in the Gulf, “underscore[s] the direct links between protecting the natural world and its imperiled species and looking out for humans’ best interests.”

Funk, the Robert E. Jones Professor of Advocacy and Ethics, has previously worked for the U.S. Government, serving as an assistant general counsel at the U.S. Department of Energy and as a staff attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice. Funk has written and taught extensively on the subjects of administrative and environmental law.

Both professors apply their legal expertise to analyzing the causes of and lessons from what has become the largest oil spill in American history in this series of recent media appearances: 

The New York Times, May 23: Despite Moratorium, Drilling Projects Move Ahead

IPS News, May 29: More Deepwater Disasters on the Horizon?

KBOO Community Radio, May 31: Lewis & Clark law school professor Dan Rohlf on the BP oil spill

Vancouver Cooperative Radio, June 6: Six-month drilling moratorium a chance to clean up oil industry

Rolling Stone, June 8: The Spill, The Scandal and the President