Richard Roos-Collins

The Section is pleased to announce Richard Roos-Collins and Stephen D. Ramsey as the recipients of the 2007 American Bar Association Award for Excellence in Environmental and Resources Stewardship. This award recognizes achievement or leadership in areas of sustainable development or environmental or resources stewardship.

Richard Roos-Collins, director of Legal Services at the Natural Heritage Institute in San Francisco, is a former attorney in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of General Counsel and a former deputy attorney general in the California Department of Justice. During the past 20 years, he has represented a plethora of environmental groups devoted to the river conservation movement in high profile natural resource litigation throughout the country.

Mr. Roos-Collins is a nationally recognized leader in water, fish and wildlife, and energy circles. He has had a number of prominent litigation successes, including the Mono lake cases which resulted in the restoration of water flows to the lake and its tributaries and further resulted in a change in the California state fish and game code to ensure that water rights are granted in such a way that fish are kept “in good condition.”

In addition to this and many other litigation successes, Mr. Roos-Collins has made important contributions to reforming the hydroelectric power licensing process administered by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He is also a member of the board of directors of various environmental organizations devoted to restoring and protecting our nations’ rivers and streams, and is active on a number of public interest committees, including one that has been instrumental in establishing the San Francisco Bay–Delta Conservation Plan.

Stephen D. Ramsey

 

Stephen D. Ramsey, vice president for Corporate Environmental Programs at General Electric Co. (GE) in Fairfield, Connecticut, is widely accredited with transforming GE into a company that is a national leader in both adopting and implementing corporate environmental strategy. Through his position with GE, Mr. Ramsey has encouraged the company to use its influence to ensure that both its own factories as well as those of its major suppliers exceed international standards in environmental health and safety.

Mr. Ramsey also has been a leader of the company’s launch of a growing line of goods and services designed as environmentally sustainable while contributing to and improving the company’s “bottom line.” This initiative is known as “Ecomagination,” and it ranges from the manufacture of high-efficiency jet engines and locomotives, to clean coal technology and wind and solar power.

Prior to his 17-year tenure at GE, Mr. Ramsey was a partner at Sidley & Austin. He joined that firm after being chief of the Environmental Enforcement Section of the Land and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The award presentation was made on September 28, 2007 at the 15th Section Fall Meeting in Pittsburgh.