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Full-Text Articles in Law
Rural Wind Windfalls, K.K. Duvivier
Rural Wind Windfalls, K.K. Duvivier
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
Wind power can provide rural communities with unexpected gains or “windfalls.” As one North Dakota farmer put it, “Who could have guessed that the air above our land might be worth money someday?” According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the amount of installed wind electricity capacity in the United States increased by a factor of 25 between 2000 and 2012. The United States is second, behind only China, for the most wind electricity capacity in the world. In 2012, Kansas more than doubled its installed wind capacity by adding 1,441 MW to the 1,272 MW installed before that …
Sins Of The Father, K.K. Duvivier
Sins Of The Father, K.K. Duvivier
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
Are the sins of previous generations of energy development, such as with oil and gas, being visited on the newest forms of energy? That is the question this article attempts to address. Specifically, this article will focus on the problems created by the severance of the mineral estate from the surface and the related dominant mineral–servient surface estate doctrine. Hydrofracturing or “fracking” for oil and natural gas has placed the problems of split estates in the spotlight more than they been in generations. People have been shocked to find drill rigs in their backyards, school playgrounds, and parks. They have …
Solar Skyspace B, K.K. Duvivier
Solar Skyspace B, K.K. Duvivier
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
The cleanest source of electricity is that generated from photovoltaic solar panels (PV). Unlike fossil fuels, PV does not require extraction and does not burn, so it emits no carbon. Unlike hydropower, it does not require the damming of natural rivers and the destruction of upstream areas through flooding. Unlike industrial-scale concentrating solar thermo-electric power, it does not consume water to generate electricity. Finally, when placed on existing rooftops in developed areas, distributed solar PV does not require long-term dedication of public lands to an industrial use, does not disrupt native habitat (a potential problem with all of other energy …
As The World Welcomes Its Seven Billionth Human: Reflections And Population, Law, And The Environment, Robert M. Hardaway
As The World Welcomes Its Seven Billionth Human: Reflections And Population, Law, And The Environment, Robert M. Hardaway
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Banning Lawns, Sarah Schindler
Banning Lawns, Sarah Schindler
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
Recognizing their role in sustainability efforts, many local governments are enacting climate change plans, mandatory green building ordinances, and sustainable procurement policies. But thus far, local governments have largely ignored one of the most pervasive threats to sustainability — lawns. This Article examines the trend toward sustainability mandates by considering the implications of a ban on lawns, the single largest irrigated crop in the United States. Green yards are deeply seated in the American ethos of the sanctity of the single-family home. However, this psychological attachment to lawns results in significant environmental harms: conventional turfgrass is a non-native monocrop that …