National Petroleum Reserve Oil Drilling Project Case Study Wins 2025 CSE Prize Competition
UC Press’s Case Studies in the Environment is pleased to announce the winner of its 2025 prize competition, Shriya Pai and Caitlyn A. Hall’s “The Willow Project and Environmental Justice: Analyzing U.S. Energy Policy’s Impact on Sensitive Ecosystems and Local Communities.”
Each year, the Editor-in-Chief, along with members of the CSE editorial team, choose the top article, as well as up to two honorable mention articles, based on their insights into critical environmental issues. Notable contributions demonstrate how a case study can translate into broad, generalizable findings; feature strong perspectives and engaging narratives; are accessible to their intended audiences; address topics that are important or notable, either in their novelty, impact, or urgency; and generally aid the teaching of environmental concepts to students and/or practitioners.
As Editor-in-Chief Dr. Jennifer Bernstein notes, “This paper stood out to me when it landed on my desk. I appreciated both the timeliness of the topic and the way the authors demonstrate how energy policy, climate goals, and environmental justice concerns intersect in place-specific ways that complicate environmental problem-solving. The case is highly teachable, thoughtfully structured, and offers opportunities for comparison across other contexts and environmental challenges.”
The top prize comes with a $2,000 cash award, with $500 going to each of the honorable mention case studies.
Rounding out the 2025 awards are two honorable mention case studies:
Kathleen Hilimire, Michelle Larkins, Rebecca Clausen, and Jasmine Williams’s “Relational Teaching and Just Energy Transitions: A Case Study from a Native-Serving Institution,” stood out for the urgency of the issues it addresses and for its thoughtful approach to teaching about energy transitions and environmental justice. The authors present pedagogical strategies that are especially well matched to the contentious and complex questions raised by complex cases.
“Impact of Extreme Rainfall and Land Use Land Cover Change on Flood Hazards in Sylhet District of Bangladesh,” from Md. Anowarul Islam et al., is notable for its strong integration of technical analysis with qualitative research. The authors demonstrate how monitoring extreme rainfall and land use change can improve understanding of flood hazards to support more informed approaches to mitigating climate-related hazards.
Our congratulations go out to each of the prize-winning authors. As in previous years, Case Studies in the Environment has made each of these case studies free to read.
Case Studies in the Environment is a journal of peer-reviewed case study articles and case study pedagogy articles. The journal informs faculty, students, researchers, educators, professionals, and policymakers on case studies and best practices in the environmental sciences and studies.
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