Spotlight - Professor Joshua Fershee

 

Professor Joshua Fershee

 

Focus on Energy Law

 

As one of the few legal scholars in the country with a specific focus on energy issues, Professor Joshua Fershee, Assistant Professor of Law at the UND School of Law, knew North Dakota would be a good place for his research. He had no idea just how good it would be.

North Dakota has long been recognized as an energy-rich state, but with the wind energy boom, federal ethanol mandates, and new information about enormous potential oil reserves in the Bakken Formation, the state is at the forefront of virtually every sector of the energy industry. In addition, as home to the Sustainable Energy Research Initiative and Supporting Education, or SUNRISE, UND has proven an ideal place for his research.

Professor Fershee’s involvement with energy issues began, in Washington, D.C., when he joined the government regulatory practice at Hogan & Hartson, LLP, in the energy law group. There, he represented energy clients in matters before state and federal regulators, analyzed state and federal legislation, and advised clients on mergers and acquisitions, climate change issues, and renewable portfolio standards. Professor Fershee’s teaching areas align closely with his practice experience. He teaches the Business Associations courses (Agency & Partnership and Corporations), Energy Law and Policy, and Labor and Employment Law.

In addition to his teaching, Professor Fershee remains active in his research areas, which have a similar focus on energy and business law. Last year, Professor Fershee presented his paper, Levels of Green: State and Regional Efforts, in Wyoming and Beyond, to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, at the Wyoming Law Review Symposium, Wyoming Energy Development: A Community and Regulatory Assessment. Professor Fershee was an invited presenter and shared the program with, among others, U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, late U.S. Senator Craig Thomas, and Rob Hurless, energy policy advisor to Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal. More recently, Professor Fershee was invited to be the overview speaker and moderator for a panel at the Energy Bar Association’s Mid-Year Meeting in Washington, D.C. The panel The Pros and Cons of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard featured leaders in the electricity industry, including David Owens, Executive Vice President of the Edison Electric Institute; Greg Wetstone, Senior Director of Government and Public Affairs for the American Wind Energy Association; and Patricia Stanton, the Director of Renewable Energy Markets at Conservation Services Group (formerly Deputy Commissioner, Division of Energy Resources in Massachusetts).

Professor Fershee is in the process of updating and revising the North Dakota chapter of the American Bar Association book, State Antitrust Practice and Statutes. In addition, his abstract, Atomic Power, Fossil Fuels, and the Environment: Reconciling the Energy Policies of the Kennedy Years, was accepted for a panel presentation for John F. Kennedy: History, Memory, Legacy, an Interdisciplinary Conference at the University of North Dakota.

Additional research projects include a market manipulation project related to food and fuel markets and another considering the impact of current infrastructure on oil and gas policy. Finally, Professor Fershee is working on a business law project regarding governance issues related to nonprofit trade association boards of directors.

Recent articles of his have appeared in the Harvard Journal on Legislation, Misguided Energy: Why Recent Legislative, Regulatory, and Market Initiatives Are Insufficient to Improve the Failing U.S. Energy Infrastructure, and the Energy Law Journal, Changing Resources, Changing Market: The Impact of a National Renewable Portfolio Standard on the U.S. Energy Industry. Professor Fershee’s writing can also be found on the blog, Agricultural Law, The Official Blog of the AA LS Section on Agricultural Law, and a Member of the Jurisdynamics Network, which can be found at http://aglaw. blogspot.com/.