Tribal leaders, government administrators, energy industry experts, and academic scholars gathered at The University of Tulsa last week for a conference to discuss sustainable energy security. The Rosa Energy Conference was a two-day event hosted by UTulsa and the Tribal Energy Consortium.
Buford Pollett, the Genave King Rogers Associate Professor of Energy Law and Commerce in UTulsa’s Collins College of Business, said the conference was powerful and empowering.
“Faculty and researchers are learning to speak the language of tribal energy, and the tribes are learning the language of academia and industry. This collaboration allows us to be more diligent in our efforts and amicable in our understanding,” Pollett noted. “As one speaker said, ‘If you want to move fast, you have to move slow.’”
Among the speakers were Margo Gray, executive director of United Indian Nations of Oklahoma; Todd Leahy, regional director for North America at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis; and Geoffrey Standing Bear, principal chief of the Osage Nation.
Standing Bear, who received his law degree from UTulsa, emphasized the importance of self-governance for tribes and understanding what you don’t know. “All those little nuances that communities have, you just have to give deference to that,” he said.
Even in the Osage Nation, it can get very complex, he said, when referring to mineral head rights.
“It’s more complex. Any tribe you go to, you think, ‘OK, I understand it,’” he said. “No, that’s not your tribe. That’s not your people. You have to defer to them, even though you think there is a clear path. Believe me, I’ve been chief for almost 12 years. I’ve seen what I thought were clear paths.”
The University of Tulsa is home to one of the nation’s highest ranked petroleum engineering programs and excels in energy business, energy law, and sustainable energy education. Pollett, who also serves as faculty adviser for the Energy Law Journal, said there are plans underway to host additional conferences in the future. “We’re greater than the sum of our parts,” he added.