A collaboration between the Institute for Energy and the Environment and the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law & Graduate School and supported by funding from the National Agricultural Library at the United States Department of Agriculture, our projects examine legal and practical issues at the intersection of energy and agriculture with the goal of improving agricultural energy management nationwide.
Given the importance of both agriculture and energy production to the US economy and the critical need to improve the sustainability of both sectors, the Farm and Energy Initiative (FEI) seeks to lead research and create open source resources to promote the future sustainability of the agriculture industry. The initiative’s work on innovative law and policy projects will develop accessible legal tools to improve farm energy sustainability and translate those tools for broad use.
Genevieve joined the FEI in 2018. She graduated with her J.D. and a certificate in Natural Resource Law from Lewis and Clark College of Law in 2010. She completed clerkships at the Vermont Office of Legislative Council and American Farmland Trust. She then spent five years practicing public interest environmental law, representing citizen and nonprofit plaintiffs in suits related to nuclear and solar energy permitting and regulation. Her interests lie in energy law, agricultural conservation, land use and zoning, and public interest litigation.
Genevieve manages the Farm and Energy Initiative program, and leads research on the Farmland Solar Policy Project, as well as on Biogas and Organic Waste Management.
Hailing from Cuba, Marnie Avila Alvarez earned her law degree from the Havana University Faculty of Law in 2014. Since her graduation, she been focused on international commercial law, and foreign investment.
After getting exposed to some energy law projects at the Union Electrica, the Cuban Public Utility, Marnie decided to pursue the field full time and came to the US with her husband, Osvaldo, in the fall of 2021 to begin her LLM in Energy Law at Vermont Law School. She is working on several projects in the Farm and Energy Initiative and in the Energy Clinic.
Farm and Energy Initiative students are law and masters degree students pursuing their J.D., Accelerated J.D., LLM, and/or a Masters Degree in Energy Regulation and Law (MERL), Environmental Law and Policy (MELP), or Food and Agriculture Law and Policy (MFALP).
Current VLS students can participate in Farm and Energy Initiative projects through the Institute for Energy and the Environment’s Energy Clinic or Research Associate Program. Click here to learn more about some of our participants!