Appalachian Public Interest and Environmental Law Conference (APIEL) 2024
Celebrating its 15th anniversary, APIEL has a rich history of addressing the unique challenges and opportunities in the Appalachian region. Founded and hosted at the University of Tennessee College of Law, APIEL strives to connect young lawyers and students with the vibrant and active Appalachian community advocates. From coal mining and mountaintop removal to water quality concerns, the conference has consistently delved into the unique legal and environmental complexities of the area.
Founded on the principles of public interest law and environmental justice, APIEL has evolved into a cornerstone event for legal professionals, environmentalists, and concerned citizens alike. Attendees come together to share experiences, exchange ideas, and strategize solutions that are grounded in the unique cultural, social, and environmental landscape of Appalachia. Whether it’s addressing the impacts of extractive industries, advocating for clean water access, or supporting sustainable economic development, APIEL fosters a sense of solidarity and empowerment among participants.
This year, APIEL boasts one of its largest lineups yet with eighteen different sessions participants can choose from. Whether participants are interested in pursuing advocacy tactics through workshops, substantive legal strategies in litigation, contemporary activism stories, or policy angles, there is something for everyone. Through diverse speakers and subject matter, APIEL is a true gathering place for everyone working towards environmental solutions. Join to connect with the environmental community and foster change for the future.
Blockchains, Cryptocurrencies, Artificial Intelligence, and the Environment
Blockchain technology involves the use of distributed databases to manage transfers. It is a way of introducing nonhuman intermediation into business and personal transactions. It can make transacting significantly more efficient and secure. However, certain blockchain operations, including cryptocurrency mining, use an extraordinary amount of energy. Similarly, generative artificial intelligence, increasingly present in our everyday lives, has the capacity to both solve environmental problems and intensify them. This panel identifies and explores legal and ethical aspects of the environmental effects of cryptocurrencies (and other blockchain applications) and artificial intelligence.
Credit: 1.5 Dual
Cost: $40, submit payment here
Video
Attestation
Media, Law, the Snail Darter, and Democracy
An analysis of one of the 3 most controversial environmental media stories of its decade, the story of Tellico, the TVA’s last dam, built on the Little Tennessee river mostlt for real estate development of a pretend city, and for recreation. For 19 years scores of citizens fought the dam — farmers fighting to stop their lands being condemned for re-sale, and flowing-water fishermen coming from upto a hundred miles away, fighting for the river’s trout fishing. But the state and national media carried a destructively different story. Those lessons are precisely relevant today.
Credit: 1 General
Cost: $25, submit payment here
Video
Attestation
Green Amendments: The People’s Fight for a Clean, Safe & Healthy Environment
This session will discuss an emerging and advancing area of constitutional law focused on recognition and protection of environmental rights. The session will discuss the legal need for constitutional protection of environmental rights and the legal elements of a Green Amendment that provide the best opportunity for effective fundamental rights protection by government officials and within the judicial system. The presentation will also discuss decided and emerging litigation grounded in constitutional Green Amendment language in the three states that currently have this protection (PA, MT, NY). The presenter is a licensed attorney whose Green Amendment presentations have often been the basis of CLE credits in other states. In addition to understanding the Green Amendment concept and language elements, the session will also discuss constitutional language that has been considered in the state of Tennessee in 2023 and 2024.
Credit: 1 General
Cost: $25, submit payment here
Video
Attestation
Recent Federal Actions to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions for the Transportation Sector
Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and regulatory actions, the Biden Administration has taken a variety of steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. This session will provide an overview of new planning requirements, funding opportunities, and regulatory actions to reduce transportation’s greenhouse gas emissions and improve the resilience of our infrastructure. The session will also discuss the comparative success of financial incentives rather than regulatory requirements in the current political and judicial environment.
Credit: 1 General
Cost: $25, submit payment here
Video
Attestation
Ohio Citizen Activists vs. the Oil and Gas Industry
This panel will discuss several areas in which citizen activists are fighting back against fracking and frack waste in Ohio: forced fracking of public lands, frack waste injection wells, a track record of accidents and contamination, and legal approaches.
Credit: 1.25 General
Cost: $40, submit payment here
Video
Attestation
Community Benefits Agreements
This panel would cover Community Benefits Agreements and how they can be used to create enforceable responsibilities on the part of companies to help the community. The discussion would go over what CBAs are, how they have been used in the past, and tips on drafting and negotiating.
Credit: 1 General
Cost: $25, submit payment here
Video
Attestation
Managing Expectations and Emotions in Tough Cases: A Primer on Communication Skills
The session covers some communication skills that have, up until this time, largely been used in the medical setting. However, they transfer easily to legal situations where people are often in some of the worst situations of their life. The skills help to build connection with the client, understand their wants and needs, and appropriately respond to them. As lawyers, we are taught how to problem solve and explain, which is often the least effective means of communicating with clients during a crisis. The skills presented help to circumvent that natural tendency and instead to react and respond empathetically to our clients.
Credit: 1 General
Cost: $25, submit payment here
Video
Attestation
The Legal and Ethical Challenges in Achieving Environmental Justice
Environmental justice is rooted in an understanding that people of color and low-income communities are more likely than the population at large to suffer adverse effects from major environmental permitting decisions. For decades, facilities like hazardous waste landfills, coal-fired power stations, and chemical manufacturing plants have been far more likely to be located in environmental justice communities than anywhere else. Zealously representing these communities may require a different understanding of the lawyer’s role than what is typically taught in law schools. This program explores the legal and ethical challenges of achieving environmental justice at the local, state, and federal levels.
Credit: 1 Dual
Cost: $25, submit payment here