Land: Updated Regulatory Approaches to Energy Development on Public Lands

Renewable and nonrenewable energy development on terrestrial public lands is ubiquitous in the United States, from West Virginia coal to Washington wind. Its regulation, however, is not always encouraging, contemporary, efficient, or logical. This panel urges new ways of thinking about energy regulation on lands by highlighting two current areas of policy weakness—wind and federal coal—and one of policy strength—renewable energy development on Indian lands. Are the former sectors stifled by regulations out-of-step with current industry needs and preferences? Is the latter sector, ostensibly freed from federal agency oversight, on the verge of a significant and, perhaps, instructive boom? Moderator Michelle Bryan Mudd, Professor of Law, University of Montana School of Law, Missoula, M