I am the Co-director and Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs at the Montana Environmental Information Center (“MEIC”). In this role, I direct MEIC’s program work, including our legislative, regulatory, policy, and legal activities. I have been working at MEIC since 1993. Previous to being Co-director and Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs, I was deputy director, program director, and issue specialist. My work has focused on pollution-related policy issues in Montana, with a primary emphasis on climate change, fossil fuels, clean air, clean water, and energy systems. MEIC has been called “perhaps the most influential and active environmental organization” in Montana. MEIC’s purpose is to protect and restore the land, air, water, and life-sustaining climate of Montana. We work with Montanans across the state in service of a clean and healthful environment for present and future generations.
I received a B.S. in environmental policy analysis and planning from the University of California at Davis in 1988 and a Masters of Environmental Law, magna cum laude, from Vermont Law School in 1993.
As the Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs, I actively work before all three branches of Montana’s government. With regards to the executive branch, I am very familiar with environmental reviews conducted by state agencies pursuant to the Montana Environmental Policy Act (“MEPA”). Over the course of my nearly 30 years working with MEIC, I have reviewed hundreds of Environmental Assessments and Environmental Impact Statements drafted by Montana agencies, including Defendants Montana Department of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) and Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (“DNRC”), and other state and federal agencies (under both MEPA and/or the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”)). I have also reviewed thousands of permit applications submitted by industry applicants, final permits issued by state agencies, compliance and enforcement documents, expert reports, and comments that other organizations and individuals have submitted during the MEPA and NEPA processes, and other regulatory materials. I have also reviewed hundreds of docket submissions to the Montana Public Service Commission in regard to MEIC’s work before that agency. On behalf of MEIC, I closely track most fossil fuel projects, including all proposed and existing coal-fired power plants, all coal mine proposals and expansions, and many oil and gas projects including power plants, drilling proposals, and large pipelines. I frequently draft or supervise the drafting of comments submitted on the proposed projects to the relevant Montana agency. I have been involved or overseen MEIC’s involvement in scores of state and federal agency rulemaking processes pursuant to the Montana and federal Administrative Procedures Acts. On behalf of MEIC, I have petitioned for rulemaking before the Board of Environmental Review, worked with agencies on the development of proposed environmental rule packages, testified and/or submitted comments on behalf of MEIC on agency rulemaking proposals, reviewed technical and legal experts analyses of proposed and final rules, reviewed comments that other organizations and individuals have submitted regarding proposed and final rules, and overseen MEIC’s litigation on the implementation and/or interpretation of agency rules.