OXFORD, Miss. – As climate change issues begin to pop up in courts around the country, judges, attorneys and others in the legal field, as well as the general population, seek answers to questions about this little-understood emerging topic.
In a related program Sept. 19 at the University of Mississippi, guest speaker Ronald J. Tenpas, assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, plans to discuss trends in climate change regulation and the courts.
OXFORD, Miss. – As climate change issues begin to pop up in courts around the country, judges, attorneys and others in the legal field, as well as the general population, seek answers to questions about this little-understood emerging topic.
In a related program Sept. 19 at the University of Mississippi, guest speaker Ronald J. Tenpas, assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, plans to discuss trends in climate change regulation and the courts.
Tenpas’ address begins at 2 p.m. in Overby Center Auditorium. The event, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by UM’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, School of Law, Office for Campus Sustainability and Trent Lott Leadership Institute. The program is among dozens of campus events planned around the first 2008 presidential debate, hosted Sept. 26 at UM.
“Climate change is an emerging and significant topic facing government regulators, industry and the nation in general,” Tenpas said. “There are many challenging questions facing the legal field, several of which the Justice Department has addressed in courts across America. I look forward to addressing the students, faculty and the larger university community about how the emerging topic of climate change is being raised in the courts.”
Having Tenpas on campus to speak about environmental regulation and policy trends provides a valuable opportunity, said Jim Morrison, UM campus sustainability coordinator. “It is important for us to be informed and educated on the entire spectrum of environmental concerns that our nation’s leaders are facing today,” he said.
At a time when the university is seeking to become “greener,” Tenpas’ talk is very timely, said Samuel Davis, UM law school dean. “We are fortunate to have someone of his stature visit our campus to share his perspectives on the environment and preservation of our natural resources,” he said.
Employed in the U.S. Department of Justice since 1997, Tenpas has served as associate deputy attorney general, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, assistant U.S. attorney and branch chief in the District of Maryland, and an assistant U.S. attorney in the Middle District of Florida in Tampa.
As assistant U.S. attorney, he has tried and investigated offenses involving narcotics transportation and distribution, violent crime, health care fraud, identity theft, government fraud, other white collar offenses and public corruption.
Before joining the justice department, Tenpas served as a law clerk to Louis H. Pollak, U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; as a law clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, U.S. Supreme Court; and as a law clerk to Howard Holtzmann, judge on the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. He was also an associate with the Carlton, Fields law firm in Tampa, Fla.
After earning a degree in international relations from the James Madison College of Michigan State University, Tenpas was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to attend Oxford University, where he studied philosophy, politics and economics. After Oxford, he received a Hardy Cross Dillard Scholarship to the University of Virginia Law School. There, he served as editor-in-chief of the Virginia Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif.
The presidential debate at UM is sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates in Washington, D.C. It is to be broadcast live from the Ford Center for the Performing Arts and covered by an estimated 3,000 journalists from throughout the world.
For more information about the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, visit http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/