1198 • Taiwan Global ResourcesTaiwan: Resources at a Glance Official name: Taiwan Government: Multiparty democracy Capital city: Taipei Area: 13,893 mi2; 35,980 km2 Population 2009 est.:
Trang 1Second, oil prices crashed The commercial
feasi-bility of synthetic fuels rested on the assumption that
the price of oil would continue to increase Instead,
the global recession that was ignited by the rising cost
of OPEC oil resulted in a steep drop in the demand
for oil and a crash in oil’s price—to a low of
approxi-mately $7 a barrel in the mid-1980’s
Finally, while oil prices were falling, tax cutting and
enhanced military spending by the Reagan
adminis-tration were producing high budgetary deficits The
SFC’s multibillion-dollar budget became an inviting
target for budget cutters In 1984, Congress rescinded
$7.2 billion of the SFC’s initial $20 billion
authoriza-tion The following year Congress voted to close the
corporation altogether and rescinded its remaining funds On April 18, 1986, the SFC closed its doors for the last time
Joseph R Rudolph, Jr.
Web Site National Archives Executive Order 12346—Synthetic Fuels http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/
codification/executive-order/12346.html See also: Coal gasification and liquefaction; Energy economics; Energy politics; Oil embargo and energy crises of 1973 and 1979; Oil shale and tar sands
Trang 2Taiwan
Categories: Countries; government and resources
Few natural resources of significant economic value
re-main in Taiwan After many decades of mining,
al-most all metallic minerals, coal, and talc have been
de-pleted Most of the country’s oil, gas, and power needs
must be met through importing, although Taiwan is
developing renewable energy using wind and solar
power Taiwan’s export-oriented economy depends on
the world global economy for growth.
The Country
Taiwan is an island in East Asia located in the western
Pacific In 2007, Taiwan’s gross domestic product
ex-ceeded $383 billion, representing real growth of 5.7
percent and the world’s twenty-fourth largest
econ-omy among 181 countries that were ranked
The island of Taiwan is long and narrow, and a
central mountain range, the Chung-yang, travels its
length from north to south, covering about one-half
the total land area The most rugged land is found
in the eastern part of the island Because of the
moun-tainous terrain, there are few natural harbors In
the west, a broad plain with connected basins slopes
toward the Taiwan Strait Foothills, with sloping
table-lands terraced for rice cultivation, surround the
Chung-yang Range and account for nearly 50 percent
of Taiwan’s surface area
Taiwan has few natural resources and depends
heavily on foreign trade More than twenty types of
minerals are mined in Taiwan, mainly marble,
lime-stone, serpentine, and gravel Petroleum and natural
gas reserves are located in the northwest The eastern
area has marble deposits Taiwan’s riverbeds provide
sand, gravel, and rock for construction Because of
ex-ploitation, Taiwan’s mineral resources have been
es-sentially depleted
Marble
Taiwan’s marble resources are relatively abundant,
and the eastern side of Taiwan has marble deposits
near the town of Hua-lien This marble is used mainly
in building materials The term “marble” refers to
a variety of limestones and/or dolomites that have un-dergone metamorphism and are capable of taking on
a high polish Marble is used in sculpture, in building materials, and in many other applications Pure white marble is the result of metamorphism of very pure limestone The characteristic swirls and veins of many-colored marble varieties generally result from min-eral impurities such as clay, silt, sand, or iron oxides that were originally present as grains or layers in lime-stone Green, for example, signals the presence of ser-pentine, resulting from high-magnesium limestone with silica impurities
Years of collecting have taken their toll on Taiwan’s supply of natural stone, resulting in more than 95 per-cent of the marble processed in Hua-lien being im-ported Heightened environmental awareness has in-creased restrictions on marble harvesting In 1961, the government opened a factory that employed Chinese Civil War veterans to process the abundant marble The business was successful, and stone processing in the area expanded quickly, with companies focusing mainly on cutting huge chunks of marble into shapes and sizes suitable for construction materials The in-dustry reached its peak in 1994, when Taiwan was one
of the largest producers of processed marble in the world, second only to Italy Afterward, labor-cost com-petitors pushed the island’s industry into decline, re-ducing marble processing in Hua-lien by 50 percent
As limestone resources approached depletion after forty years of exploitation, the source of mineral raw material for the cement industry shifted to marble The area surrounding Hua-lien, on the east coast
of southern Taiwan, is situated on the line of conver-gence of the Philippine and Eurasian tectonic plates; therefore, stone of beautiful complexity can be found there Rhodonite is a type of highly valued pink mar-ble stone found mainly in Taiwan, although there is some in Russia and China The Taiwanese variety is es-pecially attractive because of its unique color and veining
Agriculture Taiwan’s most important natural resource is its land Approximately one-fourth of Taiwan’s land is suitable
Trang 31198 • Taiwan Global Resources
Taiwan: Resources at a Glance
Official name: Taiwan Government: Multiparty democracy Capital city: Taipei
Area: 13,893 mi2; 35,980 km2
Population (2009 est.): 22,974,347 Languages: Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese Monetary unit: New Taiwan dollar
Economic summary:
GDP composition by sector (2008 est.): agriculture, 1.7%; industry, 25.1%; services, 73.2%
Natural resources: small deposits of coal, natural gas, limestone, marble, sand and gravel, asbestos
Land use (2001): arable land, 24%; permanent crops, 1%; other, 75%
Industries: electronics, petroleum refining, armaments, chemicals, textiles, iron and steel, machinery, cement, food
processing, vehicles, consumer products, pharmaceuticals
Agricultural products: rice, corn, vegetables, fruit, tea, pigs, poultry, beef, milk, fish
Exports (2008 est.): $254.9 billion
Commodities exported (2008): electronics, flat panels, machinery, metals, textiles, plastics, chemicals, auto parts
Imports (2008 est.): $236.7 billion
Commodities imported (2008): electronics, machinery, petroleum, precision instruments, organic chemicals, metals Labor force (2008 est.): 10.85 million
Labor force by occupation (2008 est.): agriculture, 5.1%; industry, 36.8%; services, 58%
Energy resources:
Electricity production (2008 est.): 225.3 billion kWh
Electricity consumption (2008 est.): 233 billion kWh
Electricity exports (2008): 0 kWh
Electricity imports (2008 est.): 0 kWh
Natural gas production (2007): 416 million m3
Natural gas consumption (2007): 13.6 billion m3
Natural gas exports (2008 est.): 0 m3
Natural gas imports (2007): 10.9 billion m3
Natural gas proved reserves ( Jan 2008): 6.229 billion m3
Oil production (2007 est.): 1,306 bbl/day Oil imports (2007): 660,400 bbl/day Oil proved reserves ( Jan 2008 est.): 3 million bbl
Source: Data from The World Factbook 2009 Washington, D.C.: Central Intelligence Agency, 2009.
Notes: Data are the most recent tracked by the CIA Values are given in U.S dollars Abbreviations: bbl/day = barrels per day;
GDP = gross domestic product; km 2 = square kilometers; kWh = kilowatt-hours; m 3 = cubic meters; mi 2 = square miles.
Taipei
C h i n a
Philippines
J a
p a n
Taiwan
E a s t
C h i n a
S e a
S o u t h
C h i n a
S e a
P a c i f i c
O c e a n
Trang 4for cultivation of agricultural crops Taiwan’s main
ag-ricultural products include rice, corn, fruit,
vegeta-bles, tea, pigs, poultry, beef, milk, and fish The
princi-pal food crop is rice, which is grown along the western
plain and in the southern area of the country There is
an overabundance of rice, however, and farmers have
been encouraged to grow other, more profitable,
crops, such as mushrooms or some hydroponic crops
that require only a small amount of space and little
ini-tial investment Other food crops include sweet
pota-toes, bananas, peanuts, soybeans, and wheat
Agricul-ture in Taiwan is characterized by high yields, use of
irrigation, terracing, and multiple cropping to
maxi-mize yields Taiwanese farmers also use fertilizers
ex-tensively
Although still important for generating revenue
through export and as a domestic food source for
the Taiwanese population, agriculture has dropped
from its predominant role in the economy of Taiwan
Sugar, pineapples, citrus fruits, crude tea, and
aspara-gus are grown on plantations and are primary export
and cash crops of Taiwan Oolong tea, which is
fa-mous worldwide for reported health benefits, is
pro-duced in Taiwan Small amounts of cotton, tobacco,
jute, and sisal are also produced Other agricultural
exports include fish and other marine products
Wind Power
Taiwan has limited energy resources and meets 99
percent of its energy needs through imports
Conse-quently, the Taiwanese government has encouraged
use of renewable energy resources Taiwan’s goal is to
have 10 percent of its energy needs met through
re-newable resources by 2010
The potential for wind energy as a renewable
re-source in Taiwan is high, as Taiwan is rich in both
on-shore and offon-shore wind energy resources An island
off the coast of Taiwan, called P’eng-hu, has some of
the best available wind resources in the world
Al-though Taiwan has potential for both onshore and
offshore wind farming, the limited land area on the
is-land favors use of offshore wind resources Taiwan’s
per-capita carbon dioxide emissions are higher than
any other Asian country and rank third worldwide;
only the United States and Australia have greater
per-capita emissions Based on the current emission
fac-tors in Taiwan, wind energy has the potential to
re-duce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 90
million metric tons per year The use of wind energy
may help decrease the use of coal and natural gas,
which currently provide energy for about one-third of Taiwan’s power generators
Coal Taiwan has limited coal resources From the early years
of the country to the 1980’s, coal production played a significant role in Taiwan’s economy, with much ac-tive mining of coal in the northern area of Taiwan near the Tatu River During the initial stages of Tai-wan’s economic development, coal was the primary energy source The power that fueled early industrial development relied mostly on the coal produced do-mestically in Taiwan In 1986, coal production was as high as 4.5 million metric tons per year After this time, coal output decreased progressively each year because
of depletion of shallow coal resources, increase in the cost of mining, and difficulties related to the mining operation Some mines were closed for environmental reasons Production of domestic coal stopped in 2000 Coal is used in Taiwan for generating electric power and in the steel, cement, and petrochemical indus-tries Around 77 percent of the coal Taiwan consumes
is used for generating power Coal accounts for about
45 percent of Taiwan’s power production In 2004, Taiwan consumed more than 54 million metric tons
of coal, an amount that increased 27 percent after do-mestic coal production ceased Because coal is no lon-ger mined domestically, Taiwan meets its demands for coal consumption through imports, mainly from In-donesia, Australia, and China
Petroleum and Natural Gas Petroleum and natural gas reserves of Taiwan are lo-cated in the northwest near the small city of Hsin-chu and the town of Miaoli Petroleum and natural gas are produced mainly from land-based oil wells In 2009, there were eighty-four oil- and gas-producing wells in Taiwan, all of which were concentrated in the western part of Taiwan These wells, mostly gas-producing, were mainly located in Tiezhenshan, Chinshui, Chu-huangkeng, Yougheshan, and nearby areas Offshore oil production began in 1980, in the oil-gas field of Changkan off the coast of Hsin-chu
Most of Taiwan’s crude-oil imports come from the Persian Gulf West African countries are also impor-tant suppliers To ensure against a disruption in sup-ply, Taiwan’s oil refiner regulations require mainte-nance of stocks that represent no fewer than 60 days of consumption Refiner-held strategic petroleum stocks are common in Asia, and Taiwan’s policy is similar to
Trang 5those of other Asian countries, namely Japan and
South Korea Most of the exploring, producing,
im-porting, refining, and marketing of petroleum and
natural gas is conducted by the Chinese Petroleum
Corporation Since 1987, however, privately owned
and operated gas stations for marketing gasoline and
diesel oil have been allowed Offshore areas in the
Tai-wan Strait have been explored for developing
off-shore petroleum and gas operations
Sand and Gravel
Taiwan has many riverbeds that provide sand, gravel,
and rock for the construction industry Approximately
90 percent of Taiwan’s sand and gravel comes from
rivers Sand-gravel is the most important raw mineral
of Taiwan, and it ranks first in terms of output value of
mineral raw material Sand and gravel resources are
classified into four groups: fluvial sand-gravel,
terres-trial gravel, rock fragments, and marine
sand-gravel Sand-gravel is produced in all sixteen counties
of Taiwan Sand and gravel yields the highest output value in Taiwan’s mineral industry
Taiwan has a great demand for sand and gravel Ini-tially, exploitation was focused on the sand and gravel from rivers; this was expanded to sand and gravel and rock fragments from land and later sea resources Rivers are dredged to collect sand and gravel Tai-wan’s construction industry needs about 70 million cubic meters of sand and gravel per year In 2000, Tai-wan began to import sand and gravel from China to meet its needs; almost one-third of market needs were met by imports from China In 2006, export bans from China caused a shortage of sand and gravel in Taiwan, with an increase in costs up to 37 percent
Water Taiwan has many rivers, with origins in the mountain-ous central part of the island There are 129 rivers in
A Taiwanese university student stands adjacent to her solar-powered car that can generate up to 1,800 watts Taiwan has become a leader in the solar-power industry (AFP/Getty Images)
Trang 6Taiwan, all of which are short and steep, with small
drainage basins and rapid water flow Many of the
rivers are tapped for hydroelectric power The
Cho-shui River, more than 160 kilometers long and the
longest river in Taiwan, is the most heavily tapped
for hydroelectricity In one form or another, Taiwan
is inundated with fresh water over the course of a
year Rain falls steadily throughout winter, followed by
spring downpours and typhoons in summer
Approxi-mately 2,500 millimeters of rainfall are recorded
an-nually However, the geography of Taiwan, with its
spectacular mountain ranges over a relatively small
area of land, complicates water collection and
stor-age As severe climate change becomes a reality and
begins to disrupt traditional weather patterns, it may
affect water availability
Taiwan has water-intensive industries and farming
Of the 90 billion metric tons of water Taiwan receives
as rain each year, about 65.6 billion become surface
water, the majority of which quickly flows straight into
the sea About 14 billion metric tons of rainwater
re-main on the island long enough to be used More
than 90 percent of Taiwan’s energy must be imported
The only domestic source of energy is
hydroelectric-ity Among the major hydroelectric facilities are those
tapping the Choshui, Shihmen, and Taiwan rivers
Other Resources
The Chung-yang Range and the eastern coastal range
contain deposits of gold and copper The
Chinkua-shih gold mine in northern Taiwan was successful in
the 1940’s, but mining operations were halted in
1988 Fongtian jade is a semiprecious stone that was
once abundant in Taiwan and mined in the 1960’s
and 1970’s In early 1970’s, almost every Fongtian
household was involved in mining or processing of
Taiwan jade, making the area one of the richest places
in Taiwan Carelessness and indiscriminate blasting
in search of quicker profits damaged the jade mines
irreparably, and the industry went into decline in the
mid-1970’s
About one-half of Taiwan is forested, but timber
production is insufficient to meet domestic demand
The main timbers are oak, cedar, hemlock, bamboo,
and rattan
Onshore and deep-sea fishing yield about 80
per-cent of total catch; the remainder comes from along
the coast and from cultivated ponds Mackerel and
various types of tuna are the leading marine species
caught
Limestone is also an important resource in Taiwan More than 90 percent of limestone is used to make ce-ment; at one time, Taiwan ranked first in the world in cement production
C J Walsh
Further Reading
Copper, John F Taiwan: State or Province? Boulder,
Colo.: Westview Press, 2009
Edmonds, Richard Louis, and Steven M Goldstein
Taiwan in the Twentieth Century: A Retrospective View.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001
Harris, Paul G Confronting Environmental Change in East and Southeast Asia: Eco-Politics, Foreign Policy, and Sustainable Development London: Earthscan,
2005
Rubinstein, Murray A Taiwan: A New History
Ex-panded ed Armonk, N.Y.: M E Sharpe, 2007
Williams, Jack Taiwan’s Environmental Struggle: Green Silicon Island New York: Routledge, 2008.
See also: Agricultural products; Agriculture indus-try; China; Coal; Hydroenergy; Marble; Sand and gravel; Wind energy
Takings law and eminent domain
Categories: Government and resources; social, economic, and political issues
Takings law refers to government appropriation of pri-vate property for public purposes through eminent do-main condemnation and regulatory takings, known
as inverse condemnation In the twenty-first century, takings law and eminent domain have become increas-ingly complex, and courts must grapple with how far governments can go in taking private property to achieve public purposes, which include natural re-source conservation.
Background Governments are able to take full or partial title to, or permanently or temporarily occupy or control, pri-vate property for a public purpose by exercising the power of eminent domain, but this power is not un-limited As early as the Magna Carta, private property owners in democratic societies enjoyed a bundle of property interests that were protected from
Trang 7unreason-able governmental interference These protections
appeared in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S
Consti-tution and in many state constiConsti-tutions One
protec-tion requires the government to compensate
prop-erty owners financially for lost propprop-erty rights when
exercising the power of eminent domain
In addition to appropriating property outright
through condemnation and eminent domain taking,
the government can affect private property rights
through its police powers, such as zoning, subdivision
regulations, and wetlands laws The police powers
allow the government to enact and impose laws,
or-dinances, and regulations that limit the use of private
property without just compensation, so long as these
restrictions protect the public health, safety, and
wel-fare Historically, as the U.S Supreme Court explained
in the case of Village of Euclid v Ambler Realty Co.
(1926), police power restrictions may diminish the
value of private property and are not considered
“takings,” as long as they fall short of actual
expropria-tion and there is no physical invasion of the property
However, during the twentieth century governments
adopted and imposed more innovative regulations in
order to preserve communities, protect the
environ-ment, and limit growth Because some of these
regula-tions seriously infringed on private property owners’
ability to use and enjoy their property, courts began to
rule in inverse condemnation cases that the
govern-mental regulations amount to a taking of private
property rights for a public purpose without a formal
governmental condemnation and that just
compensa-tion should be paid
Provisions
One of the pivotal U.S Supreme Court cases
concern-ing takconcern-ings law is Pennsylvania Coal v Mahon (1922).
The Court ruled that a regulation could impose a
burden on a property owner that was onerous and
comparable to the burden the property owner would
face if eminent domain had been used However, the
court went on to state that a government regulation
may no longer be deemed a legitimate exercise of
the police power if it “goes too far.” The Mahon case
applied a “beneficial use” standard in making its
de-termination that the regulation in question destroyed
previously existing beneficial rights, such that it
be-came commercially impractical to continue mining
coal Although the Mahon decision determined that
the regulation was a taking in violation of the Fifth
Amendment, it did not require just compensation, as
would have been required under an actual eminent domain taking, but instead granted equitable relief that prohibited the government from continuing to impose the law as written
The question of when a regulatory taking has oc-curred—and whether it is onerous to the property owner—has been a gray area in takings law Several Supreme Court cases illustrate how determinations
have been made One of the earliest cases was Nectow
v City of Cambridge (1928) The Supreme Court, in
ap-plying the Fifth Amendment takings clause to the city
of Cambridge through the Fourteenth Amendment, ruled that when no practical use of property remains after imposition of a land-use regulation there is an unconstitutional infringement of property rights or
a taking The Court applied an economic value test
in Penn Central Transportation Co v City of New York
(1978) in which it decided that although a landmark regulation applied to the Penn Central building may have thwarted the developer’s maximum profit, the building still had economic value as offices and was
not a regulatory taking In Kaiser Aetna v United States
(1979), the Court stated that fundamental rights asso-ciated with property ownership could not be dis-missed and ruled that a requirement for property owners to provide public access to a private pond took away their property rights and constituted a taking
Nearly fifty years after the Mahon decision,
prop-erty owners began to seek monetary relief or just com-pensation in regulatory takings cases Although both federal and state courts had ruled in many of the ear-lier cases that there had been regulatory takings, none of the decisions required just compensation The Supreme Court entered the monetary relief de-bate, as to whether the appropriate remedy in regula-tory takings cases was just compensation or invalida-tion and rescission of the unconstituinvalida-tional regulainvalida-tion,
in the case of Agins v City of Tiburon (1980) Moreover, the Agins decision adopted a new standard to
deter-mine if imposition of a land-use regulation resulted in
a taking The Court ruled that there was a taking in
the Agins case because the regulation in question did
not “substantially advance legitimate state interests.” The Court ordered invalidation of the offending reg-ulation on the basis it did not want to “chill” govern-ment experigovern-mentation with innovative land-use regu-lations because of legal action threats In addition, the Court was reluctant to impose a monetary require-ment on a local governrequire-ment that might be lacking fis-cal resources to pay just compensation
Trang 8In the Supreme Court case of San Diego Gas
& Elec Co v City of San Diego (1981) four
dis-senters and one justice who concurred with
portions of the dissent set forth a basic rule
that would be applied in later regulatory
tak-ing cases, requirtak-ing governments to pay just
compensation for the takings The Court
dis-missed the San Diego Gas case for lack of
jurisdic-tion, but the five justices stated that, although
the government could rescind an
unconstitu-tional regulation, it should compensate the
private property owner for any damages
in-curred during the period that the regulation
was in effect, thus establishing the concept of a
compensable temporary taking Moreover, the
justices averred that if the regulation was not
rescinded, thus resulting in a permanent
regu-latory taking, the government should pay
com-pensation just as it would for an eminent
do-main taking
In Nollan v California Coastal Commission
(1987) the Supreme Court ruled that an
exaction—a requirement imposed on a
land-owner to provide a public access easement as a
condition of receiving a rebuilding permit—
was not related to a legitimate public purpose
The Court admonished the Commission for
its overreaching regulation and stated that if
it wanted to carry out its policy of making
beaches publicly accessible through easements,
it should exercise its eminent domain powers and pay
just compensation This was the first case in which the
Supreme Court stated explicitly that just
compensa-tion was an appropriate remedy in a regulatory takings
case that would result in a permanent restriction on
private-property rights
Two additional cases soon followed Nollan, and the
Court continued to express its changed view
regard-ing the appropriate remedy in a regulatory takregard-ings
case In 1988, the South Carolina legislature passed
the Beachfront Management Act to limit
construc-tion within critical coast-dune system areas that
in-cluded David H Lucas’s property Lucas sued the
commission and claimed that the restrictions denied
him any “economically viable use of his land,” and
thus made him deserving of compensation Although
Lucas won $1.2 million in compensation in a trial
court, the South Carolina Supreme Court, on appeal,
ruled that because the act was established to prevent
serious public harm, the restrictions were not a
regu-latory taking Lucas appealed to the U.S Supreme Court, which ruled that regulations restricting “all economically viable use” form a discrete category of takings that always require compensation
A case that had greater impact on regulations
af-fecting natural resources was Dolan v City of Tigard
(1994) The Dolans petitioned for a building permit
to increase the size of their business and parking The city granted the permit but imposed an exaction that part of the Dolans’ property be dedicated to flood control and a pedestrian walkway The Dolans sued, forcing the issue of whether government must dem-onstrate that the restrictions it was enforcing were di-rectly related to the problems they were supposed to address The Court, ruling in favor of the Dolans, in-dicated that government must show that the restric-tions actually correct the problems created by devel-opment This ruling created a criterion for regulatory takings that was much more stringent than had been applied in the previous thirty years
In this 1958 photograph, members of the Tuscarora American Indian tribe protest the proposed seizure of the tribe’s land by the government (AP/Wide
World Photos)
Trang 9As courts continued to struggle with making
regu-latory takings determinations, the Supreme Court in
Lingle v Chevron U.S.A (2005) modified the
“substan-tially advances” test it had applied in past cases
begin-ning with Agins The Hawaii Supreme Court had
ap-plied the Agins standard in the Lingle case and ruled
that a gas station rent-control law constituted an
un-constitutional taking The U.S Supreme Court stated
that the appropriate standard was no longer the
“sub-stantially advances” theory, but that takings should
be considered based on several tests, including an
ac-tual physical invasion, a Penn Central standard based
on investment-backed expectations, a total regulatory
taking as in Lucas, or exactions as required in Nollan
and Dolan.
Again in 2005, the Supreme Court added another
complication to takings and eminent domain law
when it issued a controversial decision in the case of
Kelo v City of New London and ruled that government
could use eminent domain powers to take private
property for sale to a private developer as part of an
urban renewal program Susette Kelo and other
pri-vate property owners refused to sell their property to
the city of New London for an urban renewal and
eco-nomic revitalization project When the city exercised
eminent domain and took the private owners’
proper-ties, the owners sued the city and claimed that the
takings clause was violated because the sale of private
property to a private developer did not constitute
“public use” under the Fifth Amendment The
Su-preme Court was split 5-4 in its decision, but the
ma-jority ruled that the city’s actions served a public
pur-pose, and that the city was not attempting to benefit
the private developers but, rather, the entire citizenry
through implementation of its economic development
plan, which would generate increased employment,
tax revenues, and enhanced aesthetics Although the
condemned property was not developed for public use
per se, the majority stated that the city’s plan for
eco-nomic rejuvenation deserved deference While the
four dissenting justices strongly disagreed that taking
private property for private economic development
comported with the meaning of the “public use”
com-ponent of the takings clause, a new term in the takings
lexicon was born—“economic development taking.”
Impact on Resource Use
The changes in takings law and eminent domain in
the United States have a global impact The decisions
in the Dolan and Lucas cases have direct ramifications
for natural resource conservation and management, because many land-use restrictions are intended to promote improved environmental quality At a time when environmental protection and conservation have become significant global issues, governing bod-ies in the United States face the dilemma of deciding whether to protect natural resources through strict regulations or forgo such restrictions to avoid costly litigation that does not necessarily have a predictable outcome
Moreover, takings law and eminent domain con-tinue to become more complex for those involved in making land-use planning decisions, as evidenced by
the Kelo decision The Kelo decision did not result in
the city’s planned urban revitalization, as the private developer was not financially able to go forward with
the development In response to the Kelo decision,
President George W Bush issued an executive order
in 2006 applicable to the federal government, and Congress proposed legislation applicable to states, us-ing federal funds that limited the use of eminent do-main by disallowing economic development takings that would transfer condemned property to private parties who might gain economically through such a
transfer In addition, in response to the Kelo decision,
several states have made constitutional amendments and passed laws that place limits on the power of emi-nent domain and prohibit its use for private eco-nomic development State courts have also decided economic development takings cases under state con-stitutional law in favor of the private property owners and against the private developers, including the Ohio
Supreme Court decision in City of Norwood v Horney
(2005)
To further complicate matters with respect to
takings law, the case of Stop the Beach Renourishment v Florida was argued before the U.S Supreme Court on
December 2, 2009 At issue was whether Florida’s plans to restore beaches along shorelines, which would result in changing the boundaries of private property, violated due process or amounted to a taking Based
on its Beach and Shore Preservation Act, the state of Florida planned to restore eroded beaches damaged
by hurricanes by adding new sand to create public beaches A Florida trial court held that the creation of the public beaches through restoration constituted
an unconstitutional taking that required just compen-sation, as it prevented the private property owners from maintaining their own private beachfronts and took their rights to accreted land—land that is
Trang 10ally deposited by natural forces onto the private
prop-erty The Florida Supreme Court reversed the trial
court and ruled that private property owners do not
have property rights in accreted land and that the
state could restore the beaches, thus modifying
pri-vate property lines The pripri-vate property owners in
the Stop the Beach Renourishment case requested the
U.S Supreme Court rule that the Florida Supreme
Court made an uncompensated judicial taking of
pri-vate property If the U.S Supreme Court rules in favor
of the private owners, thus deciding that the judicial
branch of government can make judicial takings,
courts may be more reluctant to uphold local and
state decisions that attempt to preserve and restore
natural resources
Carol A Rolf
Further Reading
American Planning Association Four Supreme Court
Land-Use Decisions of 2005 Chicago: American
Planning Association, 2005
Corace, Don Government Pirates: The Assault on Private
Property Rights and How We Can Fight It New York:
Harper, 2008
Epstein, Richard A Supreme Neglect: How to Revive
Con-stitutional Protection for Private Property New York:
Oxford University Press, 2008
Main, Carla Bulldozed: “Kelo” Eminent Domain and the
American Lust for Land New York: Encounter Books,
2007
Malloy, Robin Paul Private Property, Community
Devel-opment, and Eminent Domain Williston, Vt.: Ashgate,
2008
Merriam, Dwight H Eminent Domain Use and Abuse:
“Kelo” in Context Chicago: American Bar
Associa-tion SecAssocia-tion of State and Government Law, 2007
Paul, Ellen Frankel Property Rights and Eminent
Do-main Piscataway, N.J.: Transaction, 2008.
Porter, Douglas R Eminent Domain: An Important Tool
for Community Revitalization Washington, D.C.:
Ur-ban Land Institute, 2007
Ryskamp, John The Eminent Domain Revolt: Changing
Perceptions in a New Constitutional Epoch New York:
Algora, 2007
Schultz, David Evicted! Property Rights and Eminent
Do-main in America Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2009.
See also: Conservation; Conservation biology;
Eco-system services; Mineral resource ownership;
Wet-lands
Talc
Category: Mineral and other nonliving resources
Where Found Talc is a metamorphic rock that occurs in foliated masses as well as in a massive form called soapstone Major producers include China, South Korea, India, the United States (with Montana, Texas, Vermont, New York, and California the leading states), Finland, Brazil, and Japan
Primary Uses Talc is a widely used raw material The primary uses for talc are in ceramics, paper, paint, roofing, plas-tics, rubber, refractory applications, cosmeplas-tics, house-insulating materials, insecticides, and lubricants A similar mineral, pyrophyllite, is used in refratories, paint, and ceramics
Technical Definition Talc is a common, very soft, hydrous magnesium sili-cate mineral The mineral is typically pale green, white, or grayish, with a greasy feel and pearly luster The presence of iron turns it reddish or brown Its specific gravity is 2.82 The related mineral pyrophyl-lite is a hydrous aluminum silicate and occurs in compact masses or foliated form
Description, Distribution, and Forms Talc is a metamorphic rock that belongs to the layered silicate group of minerals in which continuous sheets
of silicon dioxide molecules are linked together by magnesium atoms to form well-defined electrically neutral layers The layers are held together by rela-tively weak forces, so the mineral is extremely soft mechanically In fact, talc is the standard for softness
at the bottom of the Mohs hardness scale; its hardness
is one on a scale from one to ten, and it is easily scratched by a fingernail The foliated appearance of talc is a direct consequence of the basic layered struc-ture of the mineral
The impure form of talc is known as steatite, or soapstone, the common name coming from the greasy
or soapy feeling imparted when it is rubbed between the fingers Soapstones are composed of talc, serpen-tine, and carbonates, representing original perido-tites that were altered at low temperatures by hydro-thermal solutions When water and silica or carbon