The Center focuses on promoting practices that will balance the continuing demand
for energy resources—and the associated economic benefits—alongside the need to
reduce the environmental impacts of developing the earth’s natural resources.
The Center’s activities will revolve around the following issues:
- Training the next generation of energy and environmental attorneys. An important feature of the Center is its location at the WVU College of Law, which enables law students to be integrally involved in virtually all of the activities of the Center as well as the inter-disciplinary research being conducted on energy issues across the WVU campus.
- Sustainable practices in development of energy resources. The development of energy resources, whether through extraction of coal through surface mining or the use of hydraulic fracturing to secure natural gas supplies, can result in adverse environmental impacts on air and water quality.
- Sustainable practices in land use policies. The policies and practices governing land use within communities are fundamental to sustainability and protection of ground and surface water quality and quantity.
- Development of clean energy resources. The Center will be involved in the development and implementation of Clean Technology policies and practices for the energy industry of the future. These policies include encouraging the development of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology for fossil fuel-fired generation; renewable energy sources (e.g., wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and hydro), distributed generation resources (e.g., high efficiency combined heat and power or cogeneration), and energy efficiency and conservation.
- The role of utilities in pursuing clean energy objectives. Energy utilities play an integral role in pursuing clean energy objectives, through their procurement policies with respect to renewable energy, clean energy resources (including coal or natural gas with CCS, as well as nuclear energy), distributed generation, and the implementation of effective energy efficiency and conservation programs.