Getting the Boom Without the Bust: Guiding Southwestern Pennsylvania Through Shale Gas Development
Author
James McElfish (Environmental Law Institute), Diana Stares (Washington & Jefferson College Center for Energy Policy & Management)
Date Released
July 2014
Getting the Boom without the Bust: Guiding Southwestern Pennsylvania through Sha

Shale gas development has raised concerns that local governments might be entering a “boom and bust” cycle. This study examines the gas boom in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale, and explores best practices to forestall or mitigate a subsequent economic downturn or “bust.” A key focus of the study is the distribution and expenditure of state impact fees assessed on the gas industry.

Climate Change Event

On September 8, 2007, ELI Staff Attorney Adam Schempp addressed the Chinese-American Professional Association’s annual seminar near Washington, DC. The 2007 theme was “Global Climate Change: Impact and Mitigation.” Schempp gave a presentation on “Water Resource Management in the Face of Climate Change,” providing an overview of the effects of climate change on freshwater resources, the management problems this creates, and potential means of addressing these problems. Schempp also participated in two panel discussions, one on adaptation and another on solutions.

Linking Climate Change and Invasive Species Policies

Whether through habitat fragmentation, shifting temperature regimes, opening up new invasion pathways, or other mechanisms, climate change will deeply affect invasive species management. ELI studies the interactions between climate change and invasive species management and works to increase consideration of climate in aquatic invasive species management and to guide development of policies for movement of species internationally.

[collapsed]

Answer Constitutional Challenges to New Climate Change Initiatives

New legal initiatives to address climate change are gaining traction, but the history of environmental law in the United States teaches that every aspect of any new legal regime will be aggressively tested in the courts. The nascent efforts to control climate change are no exception and already face constitutional challenges in federal courts on multiple fronts. For example, industry argues both that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate greenhouse gases and that state regulations should be pre-empted by federal authority.

Energy at ELI: Greening Our National Energy Transformation

America’s energy economy is undergoing a set of profound shifts that are placing new demands on laws and policies. If current legal and institutional conditions are left alone, they will thwart the rapid adoption of cleaner energy and produce perverse environmental results from all forms of energy development, both old and new. ELI presses under-recognized, but key legal reforms that will green this energy transformation.

Subscribe to Climate & Energy