off-ramp
n.— «Authors of the initiative recognized the flaw and, during the campaign to pass the measure, agreed to make improvements if it passed. After it passed, Xcel Energy and the initiative backers worked with state legislators to cap financial impacts from the standard to no more than 1 percent above what customers would pay if conventional resources were added to the system instead of renewables—an “off-ramp” as it is called.… Similarly, Minnesota’s renewable energy standard contains “off ramps” in the event that costs for renewable energy become too high, but we believe we can meet the aggressive, 30-percent standard in a financially prudent manner.» —“Wind energy quote out of context” by Steve Roalstad Park Rapids Enterprise (Minnesota) Feb. 6, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Books were rare treasures in the Middle Ages, painstakingly copied out by hand. So how to protect them from theft? Scribes sometimes added a curse to the first page of those books that was supposed to keep thieves away — and some were as vicious as...
Cher from Minneapolis, Minnesota, shares a funny story about her Alabama-born pastor, who was being welcomed to his new congregation with hot dish. The preacher had always understood the term hot dish as a slang term meaning “a sexy, scantily...