CLOSUP Lecture Series

Student panels will discuss the implications of their independent research projects on state and local environmental policy on issues ranging from recycling and food policy to water and energy.

Development of the Bakken formation represents a multitude of trade-offs. The region is one of the great granaries of the world, but it is also the site of a recent oil and gas boom made possible by hydraulic fracturing. Overlapping with these natural resources is also a grasslands biome - one of the largest areas of grasslands in Canada and the US, which contains breeding grounds for millions of birds. How local residents understand the landscape is crucial to making fair and adequate policy to protect the ecosystem and the economy. This talk examines how landowners grapple with economic, environmental, and social trade-offs when making decisions about land-use.

The 2016 general election will have enormous implications for energy and climate policy in the United States. While much attention will be paid to the positions of presidential candidates, congressional and state elections will also have major implications for how federal and state governments address a variety of crucial issues such as implementing greenhouse gas reduction policies, regulating fracking, crafting subsidies for renewable energy, and much more. Experts with a variety of perspectives will discuss which elections they’re most closely watching, and what different results might mean for energy and climate policy in Michigan, Washington, and beyond.    

Carol O'Cleireacain became Deputy Mayor for Economic Policy, Planning & Strategy in October 2014. She is a nationally recognized expert on fiscally troubled states and local governments.

This talk explores a surprising new strategy for climate change policy that has emerged in the last 10 years: “reclaiming the atmospheric commons.”  The strategy combines the idea of making polluters pay for their greenhouse gas emissions with the additional idea of using those revenues to generate tangible, broadly distributed public benefits. 

Free and open to the public.  This lunch lecture features Susan J. Demas, Editor and Publisher of Inside Michigan Politics.

CRC & CLOSUP Ask if Michigan's System of Funding Local Government is Broken Join us for a webinar on Sep 13, 2016 at 1:00 PM EDT. Register now! https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3376805094469781763

Students of PUBPOL 456/756 invite the public to join them for a debate featuring city council candidates from the following wards

Mariam Noland has been widely recognized as the "hero of the Grand Bargain," the landmark effort to save Detroit from bankruptcy. She was a central figure in organizing a collaborative of foundations to donate $816 million to bail out Detroit's pension system and protect the Detroit Art Institute's art from being sold, and will help oversee the Foundation for Detroit's Future, which was established to oversee Grand Bargain funds, for the next 20 years. Ms. Noland will engage in conversation with Megan Tompkins-Stange, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, about her experience as a foundation professional, her views about the role of philanthropy in providing for public needs, and how community foundations act as agents of social change. 

Please join us for the next installment of the Environmental Law & Policy Program's Lecture Series. Patricia Beneke, North America Regional Director for the United Nations Environment Programme, will be the featured speaker. Prior to her May 2014 appointment to the U.N., Ms. Beneke served as Senior Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources for nearly 20 years, specializing in legislation and oversight matters relating to energy policy, water resources, and environmental issues. She also served as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science for five years. A reception will immediately follow.  This event is free and open to the public.

David Houle, post-doctorate fellow at the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), will present a brief introduction to Canadian politics and an overview of the current 2015 federal election set to unfold on October 19, 2015. The presentation will be followed by an informal discussion.  

This webinar was presented on October 1, 2015.  It can be viewed online and the Powerpoint presentation can also be downloaded as a PDF file.Citizens Research Council of Micigan (CRC) and the University of Michigan Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) invite you to join us for a webinar on trends in Michigan local government fiscal health.Michigan local governments were hit hard by the Great Recession, and their recovery since has been uneven. What is the state of local fiscal health today, who is improving, who declining, and where are trends pointing for the future? Please join the Citizens Research Council of Michigan (CRC) and the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) in the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy for a free webinar to explore these and related issues.After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Mayor George Heartwell will talk about challenges and successes of implementing sustainable practices within the City of Grand Rapids.Free and open to the public.

CLOSUP welcomes guest speaker Ian Rowlands to discuss policies and politics of renewable electricity in Ontario, Canada. This lecture will examine the ways in which electricity generated by renewable resources (like solar and wind) have been encouraged in the province of Ontario (Canada) during the past 20 years.  

Michael Pagano, Dean of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will discuss comparative research aimed to help better inform city leaders, public policy makers, and government officials in making fiscal policy decisions. 

Dr. Shelley Metzenbaum talks about the excitement of working in government and how one person can make a difference using the tools of outcomes-focused goals and measurement to illuminate, motivate, and communicate.

Oil and gas development has increased substantially in the United States over the past decade, largely associated with shale resources. This increase has important implications for local government’s financial capacity to provide quality services to citizens. This talk will provide an overview of the major revenues and service demands (i.e., costs) associated with new oil and gas development for local governments, along with the net fiscal impact to date for county and municipal governments across ten oil and gas plays in eight states: Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming.

This event is being hosted by the Wilson Center in Washington, DC.

The event is free and open to the public. Scroll to the bottom of this page for the event video. About the event The students of Ford School's Public Policy 456/756 class, along with their instructor and current Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje, have organized a Town Hall gathering of the four Ann Arbor 2014 Mayoral candidates to take place on Wednesday April 16 from 1:10pm-2:30pm in Annenberg Auditorium of the Gerald R.

Join CLOSUP and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy for a Policy Talks @ the Ford School lecture featuring Kevyn Orr, one year after the start of his appointment as Emergency Manager of the City of Detroit.

Free and open to the public. Reception to follow. Discussants: Ian Beniston, Deputy Director, Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation Hunter Morrison, Director, Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium Initiative John Russo, Visiting Research Fellow, Virginia Tech University's Metropolitan Institute (Arlington) Moderators: Margaret Dewar, Professor, Urban and Regional Planning, University of Michigan June Manning Thomas, Centennial Professor, Urban and Regional Planning

Free and open to the public. Read the working paper See the presentation slides Speaker: George Fulton, Director, Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics, Department of Economics, Research Professor, Institute for Research on Labor, Employment, and the Economy, University of Michigan About the Speaker: George A. Fulton received his Ph.D.

Free and open to the public. Lunch provided. Speaker: Susan Christopherson, Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University See the presentation from the event: A Distinctive US Approach to Shale Gas Development? Abstract: Vertical drilling for natural gas, using at times another form of hydraulic fracturing, is permitted and has occurred for many years in the Marcellus Shale states.

Speaker: Kenneth E. Warner Avedis Donabedian Distinguished University Professor of Public Health and Professor of Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan School of Public Health About the lecture: The anti-smoking campaign has been arguably the most effective public health initiative in the U.S. in the past half century. Still, smoking remains the nation's leading cause of preventable disease and premature death.

Free and open to the public (pizza provided). Bob Inglis, Executive Director of the Energy and Enterprise Initiative based at George Mason University, Fairfax, Va. About the presenter: Inglis founded and launched the national, grassroots organization Energy and Enterprise Initiative (E&EI) in July 2012.

The University of Michigan's Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), the Detroit School Series, and the Department of Urban Planning are sponsoring a private screening of the recent documentary about the challenges facing Detroit fire fighters. About the documentary At a time when the number of abandoned homes continues to increase along with the number of fires within the city, the number of fire fighters in Detroit continues to shrink.

Speaker: Peter Annin, Managing Director, Environmental Change Initiative at University of Notre Dame About the lecture: This presentation delves into the long history of political maneuvers and water diversion schemes that have proposed sending Great Lakes water everywhere from Akron to Arizona. Through the prism of the past, this talk analyzes the future of Great Lakes water diversion schemes, which now rests on the Great Lakes Compact released by the eight Great Lakes governors in December 2005.

Presenting Rip Rapson, President & CEO of the Kresge Foundation Free and open to the public. A reception will immediately follow in the hallway outside of room 250. About the speaker: Rip Rapson is president and CEO of The Kresge Foundation, a $3.1 billion private foundation based in metropolitan Detroit and founded by S.S. Kresge in 1924.