Browsing by Subject "environmental law"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Introduction: Envisioning Legal and Policy Pathways for Energy Innovation
    (Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology, 2014-02-20) Osofky, Hari M.
    Introduction to special symposium edition (Issue 15.1) of the Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology, which emerged from the conference Legal and Policy Pathways for Energy Innovation organized by the Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences at the University of Minnesota on April 24–25, 2013. The conference brought together leading scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and business people to discuss how to make critical progress on energy law and policy. The issue contains contributions from several conference participants, who highlight the complexity of energy transition and possibilities for creative, practical solutions.
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    Mitigating the Impacts of the Renewable Energy Gold Rush
    (Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology, 2014-02-20) Morris, Amy Wilson; Owley, Jessica
    This Article questions where the push for utility-scale solar energy development in the California desert leaves endangered species preservation. We begin in Part I by providing some general context for the boom in renewable energy projects and outlining the main mechanisms for expediting endangered species permitting. Part II details offsite mitigation requirements for recently approved projects. Finally, in Part III, we draw some conclusions about the challenges posed by the current strategies for balancing renewable energy development and endangered species protection, and we make recommendations for strengthening mitigation outcomes. Our research highlights general concerns with perpetual off-site mitigation and the lack of oversight and information about mitigation projects. Through examining the development of two specific solar power facilities in the California desert (Ivanpah and Genesis), we demonstrate the mitigation choices, the time lag between project approval and developed mitigation plans, and the roles scientific uncertainty plays in making project decisions. Overall, the picture we paint is a disturbing one where decisions regarding desert development are made without full consideration or understanding of the mitigation measures. The urge to approve projects and get them operational quickly increases this problem. In such an uncertain realm, infusing concepts of reevaluation and adaptive management can provide routes to incorporate new information and alter mitigation or development plans as necessary. Current efforts at consolidated landscape-level planning may help ameliorate some of these concerns, but a better solution may be to slow down the pace of project approval to enable better understanding of the desert ecosystem and full evaluation of mitigation prior to plant construction.
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    Water Quality and Land Use Relationships in the St. Louis Bay Area of Concern: A Study of Three Urban Watersheds in Duluth, Minnesota.
    (Center for Community & Regional Research, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota, Duluth., 1996) Fredrickson, Brian L; Tobin, Graham A
    European settlement and industrialization has profoundly changed the water quality and aquatic ecosystems of the Great Lakes and its tributaries. Virtually untreated municipal and industrial wastes were dumped into the Lakes from the late 1800s to 1960. Fisheries were exploited and forests were felled to provide growing Great Lakes communities with agricultural land and wood products. In the 1970s, an era of environmental consciousness was ushered in with the passage of the Clean Water Act and the signing of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Significant water quality improvements were achieved under these authorities through regulatory and voluntary point source pollution control programs. In spite of these successes, however, water quality remains impaired in many parts of the Great Lakes and its tributaries. These impairments are due in part to the plethora of diffuse or non-point sources of pollution. This report explores linkages between water quality, land use, environmental law, and the geological characteristics of three small urban watersheds in Duluth, Minnesota. The three urban watersheds, Miller Creek, Knowleton Creek, and Kingsbury Creek, reported in this study were selected because they contain different land use patterns. Water quality data suggest that pollutants found in national storm water studies were also in evidence in the most developed watershed, Miller Creek, while trace metal concentrations were generally lower in all three watersheds. Suspended solids concentrations in the Miller Creek Watershed of 117 to 254 mg/I indicate a rapidly developing drainage basin. Significant gaps were also detected between the purpose and applicability of key environmental and water resource protection laws. Competing interests reflected in society are present in the intent and organization of these laws. Historical records suggest that Duluth streams are generally prone to flooding problems; flooding and the conveyance of storm water pollutants continue to be exacerbated by the area's rapid growth, steep slopes, bedrock channels, small drainage basins, and thin soil.