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.
From Cambodia’s forests to its rivers, from its idyllic rice fields to the capital’s pulsing heart, forces of radical change are transforming the landscape of the country – and the dreams of its people. A River Changes Course intimately captures the stories of three families living in Cambodia as they strive to maintain their traditional ways of life amid rapid development and environmental degradation. Award winning filmmaker and director Kalyanee Mam will offer introductory remarks, and take questions from the audience following the film screening.
Please join us for the latest installment of the ELPP Lecture Series. Professor Michael Wara, Associate Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, will be the featured speaker.
A non-pizza lunch will be served. This event is free and open to the public.
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.
The often-unnoticed actor in environmental policy is the state regulator—the Lilliputian. Together, these Lilliputians comprise the foundation of environmental regulation...
Severin Borenstein will discuss the economic changes that are likely to occur in the utility business model as renewables expand: how wholesale electricity markets will be affected, the impact on retail electricity distribution, and the incentives created for generators, distributors and consumers of electricity. He will also examine the role of demand response, storage, and transmission in adapting to the new realities of the electricity business.
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. 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.
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.
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.
Open to the Public Dr. Henry Pollack, Professor Emeritus of Geophysics at the University of Michigan, and Tom Clynes, contributing editor at Popular Science, will deliver the keynote speech for the Fourth Annual U.S.-Canada Policy Conference, hosted by the Domestic Policy Corps and the International Policy Students Association. The 2013 conference, entitled "Planning for 2050: North American Policy for the Future of the Arctic," will focus on U.S. and Canadian Arctic policy, including issues related to the environment, national security, energy, and commerce.
Free and Open to the Public Panelists: Christopher Borick, Director, Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion Jacquelyn Pless, Energy Policy Associate, National Conference of State Legislatures Erich Schwartzel, Editor of Pipeline, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Moderator: Barry Rabe, Director, Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) See the presentations from the event:
by Christopher Borick
Free and Open to the Public Panelists: Eric Lupher, Director of Local Affairs, Citizens Research Council of Michigan Sanya Carley, Assistant Professor, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University Thomas P. Lyon, Professor, Ross School of Business and School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan Abstract Michigan and twenty-eight other states have enacted legislation that mandates increases in the amount of electricity that they use from renewable sources.
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Betty Ford Classroom
Free and open to the public. Panelists: Christopher Borick Professor and Director, Muhlenberg Institute of Public Opinion, Muhlenberg College Erick Lachapelle Départment de science politique, Université de Montréal Barry Rabe Professor of Public Policy, Gerald R.
Watch video. Abstract This panel discussion will present a number of different approaches to urban food retail in the city of Detroit, including: a program that touches on the conventional grocery industry; a program to develop grocery sector entrepreneurs; a new model for community grocery stores; and alternative formats/vehicles for urban residents to get fresh food. Mo
Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Lecture Series
A presentation and Q&A on the Iran deal featuring two White House officials, including one of the Administration's negotiators.From the speakers: This presentation will lay out the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action negotiated between six major world powers and Iran after nearly two years of highly technical and painstaking sessions. Presenters include Paul Irwin, one of the negotiators, who will detail what the deal does and how it addresses international concerns about Iran's nuclear program, and Matt Nosanchuk, Associate Director for Public Engagement and Liaison to the American Jewish Community and on International Issues, and a native Detroiter.
The Obama Administration’s EPA created a stir when it recently proposed widely varying state carbon-intensity targets to be achieved by 2020 and permanently by 2030. Dr. Engel will discuss a recent paper that examines the bases for federal allocation, among the various states, of the greenhouse gas emissions reductions needed to meet federal air pollution standards under the Clean Air Act.
Free and open to the public. Reception to follow in the Michigan League To register for this lecture, please visit the event website. Winona LaDuke, Internationally acclaimed American Indian author, orator, and activist The United States is the largest source of greenhouse gases in the world and influences international policy. It turns out that Native American communities have the potential to generate up to one half of present US electrical consumption through producing power from the wind.
Carl Simon, director of the University of Michigan Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, moderates this panel on transportation policy featuring Peter Sweatman, UM's Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI); Matthew Naud, City of Ann Arbor; and Shannon Bouton, McKinsey Center for Business & Development.
While much attention has been focused on the threats that hydraulic fracturing poses to water systems—whether by its consumptive use of freshwater or the risk of contaminating ground- and surface waters—the financial wealth that oil and gas development brings to state and local governments may provide opportunities to protect water resources. This diverse group of scholars will discuss their research at the intersection of fracking and water policy, and as a panel explore whether there are particular policies or practices that might be scaled-up or replicated outside their geographical area of study to create more sustainable energy-water systems.
CLOSUP Lecture Series,
Conversations Across Differences
Please join us in a Conversation Across Difference, as Professor Teodoro discusses alternative ownership and management models for water and sewer utilities, as well as the political dimensions of public, private, and public-private partnerships (P3s), and what they mean for cost and quality.
The most recent comprehensive state environmental index is over 25 years old. Hall & Kerr's 1991-1992 Green Index uses 256 indicators to gauge the environmental performance and policies of every state and it is still being used today in lieu of any suitable replacement. American University's Center for Environmental Policy is creating a new state environmental index to assess the ecological efficiency of each state. Come hear American University's Riordan Frost discuss the preliminary results of this index, and learn more about the challenges and hard decisions inherent in constructing an index.
This program features some of the best scholars of interest groups, policy advocacy, and social movements in the country. The papers presented span three disciplines (Political Science, Economics, Sociology) and include work that is experimental, formal, historical, comparative, qualitative, and quantitative. They deal with a number of topics, including corporate and nonprofit advocacy, health and environmental policy, and campaign finance.
Nuclear power is the primary carbon-free energy source technically capable of meeting the world's electricity needs. But current reactors use and generate special nuclear material that can be used for making nuclear weapons. Is it possible to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and simultaneously develop peaceful nuclear power technologies? At the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Panel Discussion, experts will describe and integrate technical and policy aspects of the nuclear power and nuclear nonproliferation problem.
****Watch the video**** Free and open to the public. Abstract The federal Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is the premier national example of a non-regulatory environmental policy, and it illustrates well both the potential and limitations of using information disclosure to achieve policy goals. The TRI was adopted in 1986 as an amendment to the federal Superfund law, and since 1988 we have had annual reports on the release of over 650 toxic chemicals by some 20,000 industrial facilities around the nation.
