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Nepa—Substantive Effectiveness Under A Procedural Mandate: Assessment Of Oil And Gas Eiss In The Mountain West, John C. Ruple, Mark Capone Jan 2016

Nepa—Substantive Effectiveness Under A Procedural Mandate: Assessment Of Oil And Gas Eiss In The Mountain West, John C. Ruple, Mark Capone

Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources, and the Environment publications

This paper empirically evaluates whether Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) for oil and natural gas field development projects lead to a significant reduction in environmental impacts. Based on our statistical analysis of projects within a four-state region, we conclude that EIS preparation does appear to produce final decisions that are substantially less impactive on the environment when compared to initially proposed projects. Impact reductions occur primarily between the Draft EIS and Final EIS, with minor reductions occurring between the Final EIS and Record of Decision. While reductions may be partially attributable to other legal requirements (such as Clean Air Act, Clean …


Role-Play Simulations For Climate Change Adaptation Education And Engagement, Danya Rumore, Todd Schenk, Lawrence Susskind Jan 2016

Role-Play Simulations For Climate Change Adaptation Education And Engagement, Danya Rumore, Todd Schenk, Lawrence Susskind

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

In order to effectively adapt to climate change, public officials and other stakeholders need to rapidly enhance their understanding of local risks and ability to collaboratively and adaptively respond. We argue that science-based role-play simulation exercises, a type of ‘serious game’ involving face-to-face mock decision-making, have considerable potential as education and engagement tools for enhancing readiness to adapt. Prior research suggests role-play simulations and other serious games can foster public learning and encourage collective action in public policy-making contexts. However, the effectiveness of such exercises in the context of climate change adaptation education and engagement has heretofore been underexplored. We …