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Full-Text Articles in Law

Playing The Long Game: Expediting Permitting Without Compromising Protections, Jamie Pleune Jan 2022

Playing The Long Game: Expediting Permitting Without Compromising Protections, Jamie Pleune

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

The Biden Administration’s efforts to expedite a transition to clean energy have prompted calls for permit reform. Clean energy relies heavily upon critical minerals and transitioning to a clean energy economy demands a global increase in mineral production. Some commentators suggest that environmental standards must be loosened in order to achieve efficiency. This premise offers short term gain in exchange for long-term pain. It also poses a false dilemma by failing to distinguish between productive and unproductive causes of delay in the permitting process. The permit process creates opportunities to eliminate, reduce, or mitigate risks. These opportunities may cause short-term …


Does Nepa Help Or Harm Esa Critical Habitat Designations? An Assessment Of Over 600 Critical Habitat Rules, John C. Ruple, Michael J. Tanana, Merrill M. Williams Jan 2020

Does Nepa Help Or Harm Esa Critical Habitat Designations? An Assessment Of Over 600 Critical Habitat Rules, John C. Ruple, Michael J. Tanana, Merrill M. Williams

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

This paper tests whether impact analysis pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act delays federal decision making, and whether the NEPA process results in significant changes to the substance of federal decisions. We reviewed 636 rules designating critical habitat for species that are protected by the Endangered Species Act. Because of a circuit court split, some of these rules were subject to NEPA analysis while others were not. In comparing these two groups we found that rules that underwent NEPA analysis were completed more than three months faster than rules that were exempted from NEPA review. We also found that …


Nepa, Flpma, And Impact Reduction: An Empirical Assessment Of Blm Resource Management Planning In The Mountain West, John C. Ruple, Mark Capone Jan 2017

Nepa, Flpma, And Impact Reduction: An Empirical Assessment Of Blm Resource Management Planning In The Mountain West, John C. Ruple, Mark Capone

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

This Article reviews Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) completed in conjunction with Resource Management Plan (RMP) revisions conducted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming between 2004 and 2014. Based on our review of sixteen EISs, we found that RMP revisions increased application of more protective surface use stipulations by statistically significant amounts without causing a statistically significant change in either the number of jobs created or the pace of oil and gas development. In fact, both the number of jobs created and wells drilled increased slightly despite strengthened environmental protections. We also found that …