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Wetsel to co-author wind law treatise |
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Written by Staff Reports
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Saturday, 05 December 2009 |
Matthew-Bender & Company, Inc., a nationwide law book publisher, has announced the upcoming publication of Texas Wind Law, which will be co-authored by Professor Ernest E. Smith of the University of Texas School of Law, Dallas attorney Steven K. DeWolf, and Sweetwater attorney Roderick E. Wetsel.
The work will consist of a one-volume treatise which will provide comprehensive coverage of the law of wind energy in the United States, with emphasis on Texas, combining the text of relevant laws, regulations and rulings, with commentary. Topics will include an introduction to wind farms; major elements of wind energy leases; conveyances; severances of wind rights; government incentives; litigation; permitting and legislative efforts; transmission issues; energy purchase agreements; offshore leasing; and compliance with ERCOT protocols, Texas Public Utility Commission regulations and other relevant laws and regulations.
The treatise will be approximately 500 pages in length and is due to be completed and published in the Spring of 2011. It will be the first work of its kind in the area of wind energy law. The authors are each well-known in this area of law.
Professor Ernest E. Smith holds the Rex G. Baker Centennial Chair in Natural Resources Law at the University of Texas School of Law. He received his undergraduate degree at Southern Methodist University in 1958, and his LL.B Magna Cum Laude at Harvard Law School in 1962, where he was editor of The Harvard Law Review. He has been a professor at the University of Texas Law School since 1963. He has been the author of numerous works in energy law, including the highly renowned three-volume Texas Law of Oil and Gas, which he published along with Professor Jacqueline Lang Weaver in 1998.
Steven K. DeWolf is a trial lawyer with the firm of Bellinger & DeWolf in Dallas, Texas, and is also the owner of Wind Tex Energy, Inc., which has developed four wind farms now in operation in West Texas, which include approximately 10% of the installed MW in the state. DeWolf attended the United States Naval Academy and received his Bachelor of Arts degree, Phi Beta Kappa with highest honors, from the University of Texas at Austin in 1975. He received his Juris Doctor with honors from the University of Texas in 1978. DeWolf continued his education and earned L.L.M degree with honors from the University of Cambridge, England in 1983.
Roderick E. Wetsel graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1975, with special honors in history and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Texas School of Law in l977, and is board certified in Oil, Gas and Mineral Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Wetsel is a frequent author and speaker on topics in wind energy law throughout the United States. He is also the author (with Alan Carmichael) of Current Issues in Wind Energy Law 2009 published by the State Bar of Texas, as well as Jousting at Windmills: When Wind Power Development Collides with Oil, Gas and Mineral Development (with Professor K. K. Duvivier of the University of Denver College of Law), published by the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation in 2009. During the mid-1970's DeWolf and Wetsel were students of Professor Smith, who was at that time Dean of the University of Texas Law School.
Wetsel is a partner in the firm of Wetsel & Carmichael, L.L.P. in Sweetwater, where he has practiced since 1978. He and his wife, Merry Laine, have four sons, Rod Wetsel, II of Fairfax, Virginia, and Zach, Quentin and Kurt Wetsel of Sweetwater.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 07 December 2009 )
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