Colin Dunn West Virginia University $4000 Cabot Scholarship + $1000 General Fund Scholarship

I am a 2L at WVU College of Law. As an undergrad, I studied environmental and natural resource economics, taking the HAZWOPER training course, along with soil and water sampling, soil science, and geology. These courses sparked my interest in environmental regulation and prompted me to attend law school and study environmental law.

I’m currently working as a research assistant for Patrick McGinley on the failures of coal mine bonding under SMCRA.

Last summer I worked for the MASBio Consortium as a legal/policy researcher investigating credits and incentives for the biomass energy industry and changes to the law from the Inflation Reduction Act and the WV v. EPA case. I also worked on how to manage abandoned mine sites and remediate them by growing bioenergy crops on marginal land.

After graduation, I hope to work in energy law and regulation and want to make an impact by helping to establish alternative energy sources in West Virginia through the Energy Communities tax credit created by the Inflation Reduction Act and siting these projects on some of the abandoned mine sites to put them to productive economic use.

These projects would hopefully bring jobs to the region and keep the economy growing as coal is phased out over the next 20-30 years. Thus ensuring that future generations will have access to clean water and forests as the projects and taxes would generate the necessary funds to help reclamate the sites as well.