The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a negative EIS declaration issued by the City of St. Paul for a planned multipurpose arena project at the University of St. Thomas. The City issued the negative EIS declaration on remand from the court’s <a href="https://www.climatecasechart.com/document/in-re-city-of-st-pauls-decision-on-the-need-for-an-environmental-impact-statement-for-the-proposed-university-of-st-thomas-multipurpose-arena_0816">earlier decision</a> concluding that the City’s environmental review under the Minnesota Environmental Policy Act was deficient. The court found that the updated review adequately responded to the court’s earlier ruling, including the determination that the original negative EIS declaration overlooked greenhouse gas emissions from increased spectator traffic. The court found that the City’s updated declaration explained the rationale for its determination that the greenhouse gas emissions did not create significant environmental effects, including from additional phased actions that the University was taking, and that substantial evidence in the record reasonably supported its findings. The court also said it would not revisit its determination in the first case that substantial evidence supported the decision to omit cooling and refrigeration system emissions from the greenhouse gas analysis. The court also rejected new challenges raised for the first time.

Challenge to the City of St. Paul's environmental review for a planned multipurpose arena project at the University of St. Thomas.

In re City of St. Paul’s Decision on the Need for an Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed University of St. Thomas Phased Action

<p>This entry was provided by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Please see the terms of use for citation and licensing of third party data.</p>

Minnesota Appellate Court Upheld Updated Environmental Review for University Arena Project

Filed

United States of America

Minnesota

The Climate Litigation Database

Find climate change litigation data and indicators for {text}.

{text} litigation

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law provides Climate Litigation Database, a comprehensive database of US and Global climate change caselaw

Quickly and easily search through the complete text of thousands of climate change law and policy documents from every country.

Search the Climate Litigation Database

An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Zoning and spatial planning are both methods for guiding the distribution of people and activities in a space, and are regulatory restriction.

The release of heat-trapping gases, primarily from human activities such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture and industry.

Terrestrial means "of the earth" and relates to the risks to ecological system that includes all living organisms and their interactions within land-based environments, such as forests, grasslands, and deserts.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

Activities of industries that extract natural resources, such as mining, oil, and gas, for commercial use.

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

This sector involves activities that impart knowledge and skills to individuals, including formal schooling, vocational training and educational support.

This sector includes firms and individuals offering specialised expertise in fields such as law, accounting, consulting, science and engineering.

Any substance with chemical properties that can cause physical harm to people or damage the environment, including ammonia, carbon monoxide, phosphine, chlorine, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, pesticides, dioxins, microplastics, benzene, asbestos, aflatoxins, fluoride, methanol, and toxins from marine sources.

Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

Geohazards are adverse geological phenomenon's that are capable of causing widespread damage or loss to property, life and the environment, such as earthquakes, volcano eruptions and tsunamis. Climate change can increase the frequency and severity of some geohazards, such as landslides, and soil erosion.

Minnesota Appellate Court Upheld Updated Environmental Review for University Arena Project

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector