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
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.
Vivian Thomson will offer an insider’s account of how power is wielded in environmental policy making at the state level. Drawing on her experience as a former member of Virginia’s State Air Pollution Control Board, she narrates cases in Alexandria, Wise, and Roda that involved coal and air pollution. She identifies a “climate of capitulation” —a deeply rooted favoritism toward coal and electric utilities in state air pollution policies. Thomson links Virginia’s climate of capitulation with campaign finance patterns, a state legislature that depends on outsiders for information and bill drafting, and a political culture that tends toward inertia. She extends her analysis to fifteen other coal states and recommends reforms aimed at mitigating ingrained biases toward coal and electric utility interests.
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.
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.
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.
In recognition of Earth Day, please join us for a very special lecture about what it takes to pass historic air quality legislation. Margo Oge served at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for 32 years, the last 18 of which she directed the Office of Transportation Air Quality. Ms. Oge led the Obama Administration’s landmark 2012 Clean Air Act deal with automakers, the nation’s first action targeting greenhouse gases. This regulation will double the fuel efficiency of automakers’ fleets to 54.5 mpg and cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2025.
University of Michigan Detroit Center
Ann Arbor Room
Panelists: John Gallagher, Director, Author, Writer, Detroit Free Press "Land Abandonment" Avis C. Vidal, Professor of Urban Planning, Department of Urban Studies & Planning, Wayne State University "Land Development" Moderator: Reynolds "Ren" Farley, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts University of Michigan Institute for Social Research
The U.S. was founded as a maritime nation and was a world leader for most of the 19th and 20th centuries. We have lost much of that leadership. We have the largest Exclusive Economic Zone of all nations, and in 2010 got our first ever National Ocean Policy, but we are still stuck in the muck. We have failed to ratify the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea; application of Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning is sputtering; ecosystem-based management remains elusive; and the ocean is rarely mentioned as a source of jobs and new economic activity in the current debate.
Anthrax scares, nuisance lawsuits and political attacks and are all in a day's work for some climate scientists. In his July 2012 feature story in Popular Science, journalist Tom Clynes investigated the people and organizations behind the harassment—and their influence on scientific research, public opinion and policy.
This event will be held at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC
The Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) invites our Washington DC colleagues to attend a discussion hosted by the Wilson Center/Canada Institute featuring CLOSUP Director, Barry Rabe, and our collaborating National Surveys on Energy and Environment (NSEE) partners, Christopher Borick, Director, Muhlenberg Institute of Public Opinion, and Erick Lachapelle, Assistant Professor, University of Montreal. The discussion will feature findings from the FALL 2015 round of ongoing survey work in both Canada and the US. Key themes will include public views on whether climate change is occurring, response to a range of possible policy options across levels of government, and reaction to Pope Francis' recent engagement on the issue. The U.S. portion of the survey will also include an early look at how Americans want their states to respond to the new Clean Power Plan. The session is free but requires registration. Please call 202-691-4000 or email [email protected] to reserve your seat.
This talk will explore policies such as taxation, disclosure and regulation of drilling processes in a comparative manner across the states and municipalities on the Marcellus shale play.
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.
The Ford+SPPG Conference is an annual student-led policy conference among students at the School of Public Policy and Governance (SPPG) at the University of Toronto and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. It’s a great opportunity to further your understanding of multi-stakeholder and cross-border policy collaboration and implementation – and have fun in the process! At the conclusion of the weekend, a panel of faculty judges will select the best proposal.
****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.
