Claire Arenson served as chief hearings examiner for the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission from 1991 to 1994, and was assistant chief for three years prior to heading the department. For four years prior, she was a hearings examiner and staff attorney for the Texas Water Commission, the TNRCC's predecessor agency.
An expert in all aspects of Texas's environmental protection rules and regulations, Arenson has extensive experience with permitting, licensing, enforcement and rulemaking. She has conducted or supervised hearings on virtually every matter over which the agency has jurisdiction, including wastewater discharges and disposal, air emissions, hazardous and municipal waste disposal, district creations, utility rates and certificates of convenience and necessity and wholesale water rates.
Arrenson is knowledgeable about all issues involving facility siting, including infrastructure implications and local/state reguations. She has had substantial interaction with the Texas Legislature, and her practice includes representing clients before the TNRCC and other state agencies. She was of counsel to Scott, Douglass, Luton and McConnico before establishing her own firm.
She has spoken at numerous seminars and institutes on topics regarding the TNRCC and environmental and administrative law issues.
Arenson holds a JD from St. Mary's School of Law and an undergraduate degree from the University of Mississippi, where she majored in French and minored in English.