fracking

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.

A presentation by the Michigan Public Policy Survey Program Managers, Tom Ivacko and Debra Horner.

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.

Energy use, fracking, stem cell research, vaccination and prescription drug regulations, intellectual property issues and support for biotech research --these are some of the science related issues that policymakers face. The Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) Graduate Certificate program will help you develop and gain methods and tools for science and technology policy analysis.

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.

****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.