Work

Amy splits her time between climate and water work in Texas, focusing on policy and legal issues.

Climate work

Since joining Environmental Defense in 2006, Amy has worked to

• boost energy efficiency standards statewide and locally,
• increase the renewable portfolio standard, and
• fight coal plants proposed for Texas.

In 2006, she helped secure our TXU victory, stopping the construction of 8 new coal-fired power plants.

Water work

Amy, a hydrogeologist, also helps protect Texas's waterways. She:

• Is working on restoration of the Edwards Aquifer, trying to ensure that spring flow needs are adequately being considered in the scientific study and promoting effective critical period management approach;
• Analyzes the operational and maintenance costs of transporting water, and is co-developing a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the connection between water and energy in Texas,
• Reviews successful municipal water conservation plans and evaluates conservation alternatives;
• Researches potential carbon sequestration areas using geologic tools, including geomechanical and flow modeling as well as structural maps to identify possible pilot locations that would maximize sequestration and minimally affect water resources.
• Assists in the development of carbon sequestration regulations in Texas and nationwide;
• Educates the public and decision makers about the climate and local air quality benefits of clean air strategies;
• Educates public leaders, policymakers and the public about these issues.

Amy was recently featured online in the EDF blog Texas Energy Exchange.

Background

• B.A., Geology, Earlham College, 1994.
• M.S., Geology University of Texas at San Antonio, 2001.
• J.D., Texas Tech University, 2005.

Member of the state bar of Texas since 2005; Member of the Western District of Texas since 2006; Registered Professional Geologist in Texas.

Before coming to Environmental Defense Fund in 2006, Amy worked as an environmental consultant and completed a judicial clerkship with the Honorable William Wayne Justice in the Western District of Texas.

Publications

• "The Energy-Water Nexus in Texas" University of Texas and Environmental Defense Fund (2009).
• “State Practice in the Management and Allocation of Transboundary Ground Water Resources in North America” Yearbook of International Environmental Law (coauthored with Prof. Gabriel Eckstein) 2009.
• “Why We Do the Things We Do?: The  Role of Ethics in Water Resource Planning,” 6 Santa Clara Journal of International Law 129 (2008)
• “From Policy to Reality: Maximizing Urban Water Conservation in Texas” [PDF] Environmental Defense Fund Publication (2008).
• "The Facts about Texas Water" in Texas Law of Water Resources (State Bar Books) (coauthored with Prof. Gabriel Eckstein) (publication expected 2008).
• "Summaries from the Symposium: Precious, Worthless, or Immensurable: The Value and Ethic of Water,"  Proceedings of Precious, Worthless, or Immensurable: The Value and Ethic of Water, First Water Symposium, ICASALS Publication no. 2005-1 (edited with Prof. Gabriel Eckstein).
• "Whose Job it is Anyway?: Governmental Obligations Created by the Human Right to Water," 41 Texas International Law Journal 533 (2006).
• "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Water: Evaluating Water as a Human Right and the Duties and Obligations it Creates," 4 Northwestern University Journal of International Human Rights 331 (2005).
• "What Lies Beneath: Determining the Necessity of International Groundwater Policy Along the United States-Mexico Border and a Roadmap to an Agreement," 35 Texas Tech Law Review 1212 (2004).