Haynes and Boone is proud, once again, to be the coordinator and a sponsor of the 27th edition of the annual Texas Environmental Superconference, Texas’s award-winning environmental conference, to be held on Thursday and Friday -- August 6th and 7th, 2015 -- in Austin at the Four Seasons Hotel. Since 1998, the Firm has played an instrumental role in the planning, organization, and running of the conference. Jeff Civins, as he has been since its inception, is the conference chair and Mary Mendoza and Suzanne Murray are both planning committee members. Mary also is a moderator of the Wednesday evening ethics session. Suzanne is a conference speaker on the president’s Clean Power Plan panel, stepping in for the Acting Deputy Administrator of EPA, who had a last minute conflict, and Julie Domike is a conference speaker on the air quality panel.
This year’s conference theme is clichés and the conference is fittingly entitled “The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread”; each topic has an appropriate cliché assigned to it. Our Wednesday evening session, on August 5th—“Toe the Line”—is an entertaining 2-hour program on ethics for environmental professionals. Co-sponsored by the State Bar of Texas Environmental and Natural Resources Law Section, the Air & Waste Management Association – Southwest Section, the Water Environment Association of Texas, the Texas Association of Environmental Professionals, The Auditing Roundtable, and the American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources, this conference routinely draws in excess of 500 attendees from both the public and private sectors and this year’s conference is already sold out.
Speakers include, from the federal government, U.S. Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General John Cruden, EPA Acting Deputy Administrator Stan Meiburg, EPA Principal Deputy Administrator Larry Starfield, and EPA Region 6 Regional Administrator Ron Curry, and, from the state, Bureau of Economic Geology Director Scott Tinker, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Chairman Bryan Shaw and Commissioner Toby Baker, Texas Parks & Wildlife Executive Director Carter Smith, and the Governor’s Senior Legislative Advisor, Ashley Morgan, as well as other distinguished representatives from the public and private sectors, including Ross Ramsey from the Texas Tribune.
Topics for this year’s conference include: Case Law Update –“That’s It in a Nutshell; Legislative Update – There ought to be a law“; Ethical Issues Associated with Administrative Lobbying – “Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don’t”; Solid/Hazardous Waste Issues – “Waste Not, Want Not”; Energy Development – Where are We Headed – “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future”; Air Quality Panel – “It’s an Ill Wind that Blows No Good”; Methane in the Oilpatch – “Now You’re Cooking with Gas”; View from the DJ – Walk Softly and Carry a Big Stick”; Joint Talk on EPA/TCEQ Relations – “It Takes Two to Tango”; Preemption – “The Tail Wagging the Dog”; Planning for and Dealing with Catastrophic Releases – “Better Safe Than Sorry”; Coastal Issues – “The Tide’s Beginning to Turn”; Water Issues – “That’s Water Under the Bridge”; Clean Power – “The Sky’s the Limit”; EPA Enforcement – “An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure”; Development Hypo – “A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush”; and Ethics – “Straighten Up and Fly Right”. For more information, click here.
