Has Michigan v. EPA Elevated the Importance of Cost?

12:00 – 1:00 p.m., Holland & Hart (222 Main St #2200, Salt Lake City, UT 84101)

1 hour of CLE (pending). $15 per person.

Registration has closed for this event

In June 2015, when the Supreme Court decided the case of Michigan v. EPA, it held that the EPA should have considered cost when deciding whether to regulate mercury emissions from power plants.  The Court explained that costs are a “centrally relevant factor” in regulatory decision-making and that failure to consider cost rendered the EPA’s decision arbitrary and capricious.  This CLE will examine how the case has influenced judicial review in the lower courts, including whether the Michigan v. EPA has elevated the importance of cost in regulatory decisions.

Sanne Knudsen, Stimson Bullitt Endowed Professor of Environmental Law, Associate Professor of Law, University of Washington School of Law
Professor Sanne H. Knudsen received a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Northwestern University, an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Michigan, and a J.D. from the University of Michigan, where she graduated Order of the Coif and was a member of theMichigan Law Review. After graduating from law school, she clerked for the Honorable Ronald M. Gould on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Professor Knudsen went on to practice law in the area of environmental litigation at Faegre & Benson in Minneapolis, and Sidley, Austin Brown & Wood in Chicago. While at Faegre, Professor Knudsen represented numerous environmental public interest organizations on a pro bono basis. Her clients included Defenders of Wildlife, the Humane Society of the United States, Sierra Club, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, and Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness.

After leaving law practice, Professor Knudsen became a Visiting Assistant Professor that the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law. While in Utah, she taught Natural Resources Law, Environmental Practice, and Wildlife Law. She also supervised clinical students in conjunction with the Western Resource Advocates Environmental Law Clinic.

Professor Knudsen joined the University of Washington School of Law in 2011. She teaches Natural Resources Law, Environmental Law, Administrative Law, and Civil Procedure. Her scholarship focuses on how environmental laws and tort liability frameworks can better reduce or redress long-term and multiple-stressor environmental harms. Her most recent work, entitled “Regulating Cumulative Risk,” is forthcoming in the Minnesota Law Review and argues that the public health implications of combined exposures to pesticides and chemicals requires greater regulatory emphasis on cumulative risk assessment.

For questions about this event contact Kris (801) 585-3440.

The Young Scholar Program is supported by a generous donation from the Cultural Vision Fund.