News

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA — More  WVU Law students will benefit from scholarship funding thanks to the generosity of two Charleston, West Virginia, attorneys.

Lawyers David Hendrickson and Scott Long have pledged $25,000 to the College of Law Class of 1982 and 1983 Scholarship. Hendrickson is a 1982 graduate; Long earned his degree in 1983. They are partners in the law firm of Hendrickson and Long PLLC. Both made the gift in hopes of inspiring more giving to the WVU College of Law.

Hendrickson has provided support to the  WVU Alumni Association,  WVU Athletics and  WVU School of Nursing in recent years, but now is eager to make a contribution to benefit WVU law students.

“Our firm is pleased to be able to help insure the ability of future WVU students to complete their law degrees,” Hendrickson said. “We hope this matching grant will encourage the law school classes of 1982 and 1983 to contribute to the same cause.”

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA — Jenny Thoma, a 2016 graduate of the WVU College of Law, is a winner of the inaugural Public Interest Award from Equal Justice Works for her commitment to public service.

Thoma was selected out of more than 30 students from 26 laws schools in the Southeast. Equal Justice Works is a national organization based in Washington, D.C., that helps law students and lawyers provide effective representation to undeserved communities and causes.

A native of Moorefield, West Virginia, Thoma is the past president of WVU Law’s Public Interest Advocates (PIA). Among her accomplishments, she led PIA’s successful effort to raise $31,000 for fellowships for students to work in public interest law this year.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- While the federal Clean Power Plan, and its impact on reducing use of coal to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants presents a double whammy for West Virginia, a new report suggests the impact can be lessened if policymakers take advantage of the state's unique circumstances and leverage its strengths.

"West Virginia is fortunate in that it has tremendous energy resources in addition to coal, and these other resources —including natural gas, renewable energy (wind, solar, hydropower), and energy efficiency – are relatively untapped," says the report from the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development at the West Virginia University College of Law and Downstream Strategies LLC.

"Implementing the legislative and regulatory policy recommendations in this report would create a climate that promotes new investment in renewable and distributed generation technologies, energy efficiency, and natural gas-fired generation," the report said.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency EPA issued its Clean Power Plan last August. The rule identifies a series of pollution reduction measures to lower carbon dioxide emissions from the U.S. power sector by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.