Land Conservation and
Energy Infrastructure:
Threats and Opportunities
Bradford Gentry, Casey Pickett, and Livia DeMarchis
Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
yale school of forestry & environmental studies
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Table of Contents
Section I: Introduction
Box 1 Workshop Participants
1
2
Section II: Linking energy policy and land conservation in the U.S.
Summary of Major Themes and Next Steps
5
5
Section III: Key themes of the Obama Administration’s energy policy
as it relates to land use in the U.S.
Background
Questions for Consideration
Organizations and Individuals Doing Interesting Work
Useful Readings/Works Cited
Key Takeaways from the Discussion with Dan Reicher, Google
15
15
25
25
26
29
Section IV: Siting renewable energy facilities
Background
Questions for Consideration
Organizations and Individuals Doing Interesting Work
Useful Readings/Works Cited
Environmental Considerations for Wind Energy Facilities and Land
Conservation, Paul G. Risser, University of Oklahoma
Key Takeaways from the Discussion
31
31
44
45
46
50
Section V: Siting electrical transmission and distribution lines
Background
Questions for Consideration
Organizations and Individuals Doing Interesting Work
Useful Readings/Works Cited
Congressional Testimony of Chris Miller, Piedmont Environment Council
Key Takeaways from the Discussion
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65
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76
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Section VI: Expanding natural gas and oil exploration/production
Background
Questions for Consideration
Organizations and Individuals Doing Interesting Work
Useful Readings/Works Cited
Key Takeaways from the Discussion
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79
93
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Section VII: The future of coal/carbon dioxide capture and storage
Background
Questions for Consideration
Organizations and Individuals Doing Interesting Work
Useful Readings/Works Cited
Key Takeaways from the Discussion
99
99
114
114
115
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Section VIII: Whither biofuels?
Background
Questions for Consideration
Organizations and Individuals Doing Interesting Work
Useful Readings/Works Cited
Forest Biomass Reading List, prepared by Anton Chiono, Pacific Forest Trust
Key Takeaways from the Discussion
123
123
135
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Biosketches of authors
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Biosketches of Authors
Bradford S. Gentry is the Director of the Center for Business and the Environment,
as well as a Senior Lecturer and Research Scholar at the Yale School of Forestry and
Environmental Studies. Trained as a biologist and a lawyer, his work focuses on
strengthening the links between private investment and improved environmental
performance. He is also an advisor to GE, Baker & McKenzie, Suez Environnement
and the UN Climate Secretariat, as well as a member of Working Lands Investment
Partners and Board Chair for the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. Mr. Gentry
received his B.A. from Swarthmore College (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1977 and his J.D. from
Harvard Law School (Magna Cum Laude) in 1981.
Casey Pickett is a second-year joint master's degree student at the Yale School of
Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Yale School of Management, focused on
strategies for sustainable small town economic development. After studying
ecological design at Oberlin College, he founded an organization focusing on
progressive land use policy, downtown revitalization and energy efficiency in small
towns. In 2003-2004 he worked as a field organizer and regional director for the
presidential campaign of Howard Dean. From 2005-2008 he worked in the
Sustainable Construction Group at Turner Construction Company, whose mission is
to raise the level of green building expertise and improve the environmental
performance of the company. He designed and implemented a national construction
waste management program for Turner. At Yale, he has been looking into the
challenges of rural economic development in a future with carbon constraints. He is
interested in the roles that housing density and micro venture capital can play in
creating socially fulfilling, economically just low-carbon lifestyles in small towns. In
the summer of 2009 he interned for a green mixed-income housing developer that
works in small towns in northern New England.
Livia DeMarchis is a third-year law student at the Yale Law School, where she has most
recently been focusing on business transactions and tax law. She received her MEM
from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 2005 and her B.A.
from Yale College in 2004. While at Yale F&ES, she studied conservation ecology and
green architecture. Between getting her masters and beginning law school, she was a
paralegal in Burlington, Vermont. Next year, she will be clerking for Justice John
Dooley on the Vermont Supreme Court and then plans to work as an associate in the
tax department at Ropes & Gray in Boston.
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