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This article examines the most comprehensive databases that measure US corporate environmental performance that have become available during the 1990s. These include the US Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and databases maintained by Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini, and Co., the Council on Economic Priorities and the Investor Responsibility Research Center. We describe these databases and identify the significant studies on environmental performance in the field of management that use these databases. We indicate three trends that should improve the quality and quantity of publicly available environmental performance data. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) are designed based on a win-win approach to environmental protection that reconciles environmental protection and economic performance. Despite the claims about VEPs, there has been an ongoing debate over their efficacy with regard to whether environmental goals are balanced by economic interests on both theoretical and empirical grounds. To resolve this controversy, this paper empirically investigates a public VEP by the US Environmental Protection Agency: Green Lights (GL). For this, the paper constructs a treatment effects regression model to account for the effects of non-random assignment for GL participants and non-participants. The proposed model can simultaneously estimate probit models that predict corporate participation in the GL program and linear models that test the extent to which this participation contributes to economic performance. The results indicate significant positive effects of corporate participation in the GL program on economic performance, providing support for the win-win perspective. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates a recent innovation in regulating risk called management-based regulation. Traditionally, risk regulation has either specified a particular means of achieving a risk-reduction goal or specified the goal and left the means of achieving that goal up to the regulated entity. In contrast, management-based regulation neither explicitly imposes the means, nor the ends. Rather, what is required is that each regulated entity review its production processes and develop a set of goals and procedures that will reduce risk. I evaluate the effectiveness of management-based regulation by taking advantage of policy variation that occurred when 14 states adopted such regulations for toxic chemical control in the 1990s. Using panel data for just over 31,000 manufacturing plants in the United States, I investigate whether facilities subject to management-based regulations had larger changes in total quantities of toxic chemical releases, engaged in more pollution prevention activities, or reported fewer toxic chemicals to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The results indicate that management-based regulation has had a measurable positive effect on the environmental performance of manufacturing plants. In particular, plants subject to management-based regulation experienced larger decreases in total pounds of toxic chemicals released and were more likely to engage in source reduction activities. © 2007 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voluntary environmental programs are codes of progressive environmental conduct that firms pledge to adopt. This paper investigates whether ISO 14001, a voluntary program with a weak sword—a weak monitoring and sanctioning mechanism—can mitigate shirking and improve participants' environmental performance. Sponsored by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), ISO 14001 is the most widely adopted voluntary environmental program in the world. Our analysis of over 3,000 facilities regulated as major sources under the U.S. Clean Air Act suggests that ISO 14001-certified facilities reduce their pollution emissions more than non-certified facilities. This result persists even after controlling for facilities' emission and regulatory compliance histories as well as addressing potential endogeneity issues between facilities' environmental performance and their decisions to join ISO 14001. © 2005 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an initial understanding and insight into solving the dilemma of implementing multiple strategies within the firm. Specifically, we suggest a conceptual framework for compensation systems for different types of firms that face varying levels of conflict between environmental and business performance. The design of a compensation system depends crucially on the availability or not of performance indicators. Our conceptual framework outlines compensation systems for firms with and without the possibility of measuring environmental performance. A ‘multiplier’ model is suggested for firms with good availability of performance indicators for both profits and the environment. Compensation systems for firms without environmental performance indicators (EPIs) become more case specific, depending on the degrees of conflict in the short and long run. Consequently, EPIs give firms much more flexibility in the design of efficient compensation systems. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facilities that self-police under the Environmental Protection Agency's Audit Policy are eligible for reduced penalties on disclosed violations. This paper investigates whether self-policing has additional consequences; in particular, whether self-policing reduces future enforcement activity. Using data on U.S. hazardous waste enforcement and disclosures, I find that facilities that self-police are rewarded with a lower probability of inspection in the future, although facilities with good compliance records receive a smaller benefit than facilities with poor records. Additionally, facilities that are inspected frequently are more likely to disclose than facilities that face a low probability of inspection. The results suggest that facilities may be able to strategically disclose in order to decrease future enforcement. © 2007 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the legitimacy and adoption of a scientific biological program in the U.S. Emphasis on the improvement of organizational sociology and environmental policy; Role of social institutions on the development of science of biological control; Enhancement of the pesticide development.

The green challenge will be one of the key strategic issues facing businesses in the coming decades. Some argue that it is important for mankind as a whole. In this article the opinions of Nordic and US managers on environmental matters are investigated and compared. A questionnaire was sent to senior managers mainly in four industries: forest and paper, electronics, telecommunications and the printing industry. The results show that US managers perceive government laws and actions to be more stringent than Nordic managers do and the time to adapt was felt to be too short. There were no differences between the two regions in the degree of pro-activeness and environmental innovation. However US managers reported a shortage of skilled labour. Managers both in the Nordic countries and the USA considered themselves to be ahead of their competitors in environmental actions. Nordic managers were much more positive toward the competitive effects and profitability of environmental measures than their US counterparts. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides updates within the Society for Conservation Biology in the U.S. It reports that the environment and natural resources has recently published the policy paper of the U.S. Agency for International Development. It offers information on the World Wildlife Fund conference entitled "Consequences of Global Warming for Biological Diversity" to be held on October 4-6, 1988 in Washington, D.C. Moreover, it announces the availability of the publication "Proceedings of a Conference: Increasing Our Wetland Resources."

The article discusses the issue of paying less attention towards the environmental enforcement of facilities in communities with higher minority and low income populations by the U.S. government. Environmental justice advocates have blamed the improper functioning of three U.S. pollution laws including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act over the past few years. Strong evidences have been found across each of the three environmental laws which are performed by the states in poor countries.

Examines whether demographic and economic trends have contributed to the increase in aggregate demand for environmental regulation in the United States. Increase in pollution abatement expenditure due to environmental regulation; Demographic correlates of environmental support; Pro-environmental stance of minorities and the better educated.

Are female directors greener than their male counterparts? We investigate this issue by examining the impact of female directors on firm sustainable investment. Using data of S&P 1500 indexed firms in the United States, covering the period 2004–2016, we find a positive relationship between female directors and sustainable investment. Consistent with critical mass theory, we also find that boards with two or more female directors have a pronounced impact on sustainable investment. Moreover, female independent directors have a stronger impact on sustainable investment than female executive directors. Our additional analysis shows higher value for firms with the presence of female directors and sustainable investment. Our findings are robust to alternative variable specification, estimation techniques, and different identification strategies including the two‐stage least squares, generalized method of moments, and propensity score matching. The study provides novel evidence on the role of female directors in promoting sustainable investment and adds a new dimension to the ongoing debate in sustainability literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, remote sensing data have improved in resolution and become more widely available, bringing new opportunities for its use in environmental science and conservation. One potential application is to identify and map instream infrastructure across the world, with important implications for fisheries, hydrology, flooding, and more. To date, databases of instream infrastructure focus on larger dams with reservoirs that are comparatively easy to detect with remotely sensed imagery. Despite their impact on freshwater ecosystems, smaller infrastructure is often overlooked. To overcome these challenges, we require more systematic approaches, such as the Global River Obstruction Database (GROD) presented here, to map instream infrastructure. We present a participatory approach to identify, map, and validate infrastructure and provide an initial data set for the contiguous United States (n = 4,197). We highlight the value of participatory methods that include the public and suggest ways they could be fused with machine learning for future applications. Plain Language Summary: In recent years, imagery retrieved from Earth‐observing satellites has improved in quality and become more widely available. We can use the improved satellite imagery to observe the Earth's surface in entirely new ways. One potential application is to identify and map dams and other river obstructions that represent disturbances to the Earth's freshwater systems. Keeping record of river obstructions is valuable for many purposes from fisheries management to understanding flood dynamics. Currently, global dam databases focus on larger structures, while smaller dams and infrastructure are often overlooked. Small river obstructions greatly outnumber their larger counterparts and collectively have a significant impact on freshwater ecosystems. To further knowledge on the location and type of global river obstructions, we created the Global River Obstruction Database (GROD). GROD uses a uniform approach that maps river obstructions across the globe regardless of size or reservoir presence. We present and validate our citizen science‐based approach to map obstructions and provide an initial data set of 4,197 obstructions for the contiguous United States. We also highlight the value of incorporating members of the public in data collection and suggest ways citizen science‐based methods could be fused with more technical applications like machine learning for future projects. Key Points: We identify and map instream infrastructure in the contiguous United States as part of the Global River Obstructions DatabaseWe validate our approach against highly accurate regional data sets and find that we correctly identify a large fraction of infrastructureWe discuss how our participatory approach can be used with machine learning to further the mapping of global instream infrastructure [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial points out that there is a trend of weakening influence of scientific information on public attitudes and decision making in the United States concerning the environment. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), a four-year-long assessment modeled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was bared noticed in the United States. The assessment focuses on the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being. While it is possible that most of the blame for the MA being a nonevent in the U.S. is with commercial media, a contributing factor is that many of the very organizations that historically have helped push scientific findings in the forefront of policy debates are now openly skeptical of the importance and utility of scientific information.

The 2009 American Cash for Clunkers program, which subsidized consumers who scrapped old vehicles and purchased new vehicles, was promoted by appealing to multiple constituencies. We evaluate the policy and alternatives according to its stated goals: emissions reductions, economic stimulus, and reducing inequality. We calibrate a dynamic partial equilibrium portfolio model to match consumer expenditure data from 1998 to 2011 focusing on heterogeneity across cars and trucks. We find the program generated $0.17 in environmental benefits, $0.28 in consumer surplus, and $0.31 in net discounted additional spending per subsidy dollar. Since subsidies largely went to middle‐income infra‐marginal consumers, the program exacerbated consumption inequality. We evaluate alternative policy designs and find no policy which simultaneously improves all outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the importance of data and scientific information integration in managing park and protected areas. Topics include the initiatives of the U.S. National Park Service in monitoring the issues and protection of national parks and reserves in the country through the launch of the Natural Resource Challenge which seeks to address the concerns in park management throughout the country.

The article discusses the Staff Paper formulated by scientists at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. The paper, which was a part of the periodic review required by the Clean Air Act (CAA), was addressed to EPA administrators and aimed at the bad and low-altitude atmospheric ozone. It suggested to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson that stricter national standards concerning ground-level ozone should be adopted to protect public health as well as crops and vegetation. EPA's proposal would set a level between 0.06 parts per million ozone and the 0.08 parts per million of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).

Sustainable development has received increasing attention in recent literature, driven by increased environmental concerns. We study the influence of green initiatives and green performance on financial performance for the top 500 publicly traded companies in the USA by industry sector. Green initiatives are measured using the concepts Green Pay Link, Sustainability Themed Committee and Audit. Green performance is measured using Energy Productivity, Carbon Productivity, Water Productivity, Waste Productivity and Green Reputation. The results show that green initiatives have a negative impact on Energy Productivity and Green Reputation, and that both green initiatives and green performance have a significant impact on financial performance. These results are mixed and vary by industry sector. The results suggest that companies take a reactive, not proactive, approach in the implementation of green initiatives. In addition, the results suggest that the impact of green performance on financial performance is not immediate, and may take more than a year for companies to observe. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on the efforts on the U.S. government to conserve grasslands in North Dakota and South Dakota, through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). It mentions that the grasslands are a major component of local ecosystems and the government pays the farmers to not use their land for crop production and keep it in permanent vegetation state. It investigates the success of the program in terms of direct payments and subsidies, affects land use changes.

The article provides information on the development of BioPreferred Program, developed by Isabelle Williams, which is approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and has been developed under the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 and the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008. It mentions that if the product is verified to have a minimum of 25.0 percent biobased content, it can be labeled as a USDA Certified Biobased Product.

The article presents a study presenting an experiment designed to measure farmer time preferences as they apply to money payments in the U.S. It has been suggested by this experiment that Government programs that aim to increase the flow of environmental services from agriculture, such as the Conservation Reserve Program, and the Wetland Reserve Program, are likely to increase enrollment or reduce costs by changing the timing of payments to better reflect farmer preferences.

Fat, oil, and grease (FOG) deposits are the reported cause of 50 to 75% of sanitary sewer overflows in the United States, resulting in 1.8 X 10[sup6] m[sup3] (500 mu, gal) of raw wastewater released into the environment annually. The objective of this research was to characterize the chemical. and physical properties of FOG deposits. Twenty-three cities from around the United States contributed FOG samples for the study. The FOG deposits showed a wide range in yield strength (4 to 34 kPa), porosity (10 to 24%), and moisture content (10 to 60%), suggesting uncontrolled formation processes. A majority of these deposits display hard, sandstonelike texture, with distinct layering effects, suggesting a discontinuous formation process. The results found that 84% of FOG deposits contained high concentrations of saturated fatty acids and calcium, suggesting preferential accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on home value diminution attributable to environmental degradation and its possible reversal typically ignores indirect effects upon neighborhood characteristics that can exacerbate the overall change in property values, resulting in underestimates of diminution and overestimates of recovery. Furthermore, to the extent that direct price effects and neighborhood transition effects respond differently to remediation efforts, the relatively new postremediation literature misses an important part of the recovery process. This study examines both direct and indirect effects and finds in the case of Houston Environmental Protection Agency Superfund sites that, while the direct value impacts of proximity to toxic waste sites was significantly reduced after remediation, the indirect effects associated with induced demographic changes were much slower to reverse, producing a housing market inertia that stifled full home value recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses global climate change, which many consider to be the most pressing challenge to humanity in this century and beyond. In order for the problem to be taken care of, the next president of the United States must take significant action within the first one hundred days of their presidency. The author examines the work of former United States President Franklin Roosevelt, who instituted many radical programs to protect the environment and turn the American economy around after the great depression.

The article evaluates the major characteristics of public agri-environmental payment programs in the U.S. It will also outline problems with these precedents, especially those arising as scientific advancement, and proposes program decision-making possibilities that would better approximate market-like equilibria for public good environmental services from agriculture. Land retirement programs such as the U.S. Conservation Reserve Program pay agricultural producers an annualized fee to obtain a stream of environmental benefits over a predetermined contractual period.

The article explores ecosystem services (ES) from agriculture in the U.S. By focusing on what ecosystems do for humans, the ES concept invites analysis of what humans do to ecosystems and why they do it. Farmers also help maintain the natural supporting ES that make agriculture productive, such as pollination, biological pest regulation and soil nutrient renewal. The article also explores the history of public awareness and reaction to ES linked to agriculture and some precedents for inducing farmers to supply a different product mix.

Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Many countries use wastewater for irrigation. The World Health Organization established, as reuse guidelines, a maximum value of 1 helminth ovum/L for irrigation. Various techniques for enumerating helminth ova in water have been published. To determine the most adequate method for Mexico, four techniques were compared: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), membrane-filter, Leeds I, and Faust. Two types of water were used: drinking water and municipal wastewater effluent. Sensitivity, discrimination coefficients, precision, recovery efficiency, and cost were determined. In addition, several unseeded wastewater samples were analyzed. For drinking water, U.S. EPA and the membrane-filter techniques demonstrated comparable results: however, when wastewater was used, the membrane technique showed some deficiencies. Because the U.S. EPA technique may be used for samples with both high and low solids content, allows for the recovery of helminth ova with different specific gravities, and has the lowest total cost, it was selected as the best technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During President Reagan's administration, environmental policy making was substantially shifted from the federal level to the state and local levels. We use techniques in Bai (1997a, 1997b) to determine change points in the trends of three important air pollution series. We find that the beneficial trends in the emission series began with federal legislation and were not due to the Reagan devolution. However, second-round change point tests indicate that the beneficial trends in the emissions series that began with federal legislation continued unabated following the Reagan devolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses environmentalism in the U.S. including the views expressed by leaders, experts and thinkers on the subject. The environmental movement came into reckoning, at a time when government was still considered a positive force in public life. It was the time when the media were more dispersed and more inclined to investigate. It was the time when the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the major statutes protecting air, water, species, and wilderness were created. That consensus has come undone in a quarter century of increasingly bitter cultural warfare. The author is of the view that an effective environmental movement in the future will, first, have to learn how to operate in the political arena at all levels. Many people underestimated the challenges involved in going "from conqueror of the land community to plain member and citizen of it." One has to develop policies to do those logical things to improve the energy efficiency and re- duce the environmental impacts for the future community.

Industry transformation related to environmental stewardship proceeds through multiple stages, and there is as of yet no clear understanding of the importance of certain drivers of transformation at different stages. We bring together previous environmental management research regarding individual- and institutional-level drivers of environmental stewardship to develop a model and series of questions regarding proactive environmental behavior in the US wine industry. A qualitative research method, including interviews and focus groups, is used to test the model. At the early stage of environmental transformation in the wine industry, we find that managerial attitudes and norms, existing regulations, employee welfare and competitive pressures are all strong drivers of proactive environmental behavior. However, our multi-level analysis suggests that drivers of environmentalism vary in relevance and relative importance and that future environmental management research needs to consider the relationship between drivers of environmentalism and the stage of an industry's environmental transformation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. In 1978 Congress weakened several key provisions of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which had been enacted only five years earlier. The objective is to compare alternative explanations for this policy reversal. Methods. Probit and multinomial logit models are used to explain empirically how senators voted in both 1973 and 1978, and to investigate why many senators switched their vote from supporting ESA to weakening it. Results. The findings here indicate that party affiliation and policy-maker preferences were not important to the 1973 vote, but they were key variables in the 1978 votes and the vote-switching decision. Proxies for unexpected economic impacts of ESA on individual states have little explanatory power. Conclusions. Ignorance, as measured here, does not appear to explain this policy reversal; rather, an influx of relatively conservative Democrats between 1973 and 1978 presents itself as the leading explanation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. We analyze the social and economic correlates of air pollution exposure in U.S. cities. Methods. We combine 1990 Census block group data for urbanized areas with 1998 data on toxicity-adjusted exposure to air pollution. Using a unique data set created as a byproduct of the EPA's Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators Model, we improve on previous studies of environmental inequality in three ways. First, where previous studies focus on the proximity to point sources and the total mass of pollutants released, our measure of toxic exposure reflects atmospheric dispersion and chemical toxicity. Second, we analyze the data at a fine level of geographic resolution. Third, we control for substantial regional variations in pollution, allowing us to identify exposure differences both within cities and between cities. Results. We find that African Americans tend to live both in more polluted cities in the United States and in more polluted neighborhoods within cities. Hispanics live in less polluted cities on average, but they live in more polluted areas within cities. We find an extremely consistent income-pollution gradient, with lower-income people significantly more exposed to pollution. Conclusions. Communities with higher concentrations of lower-income people and people of color experience disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards. Our findings highlight the importance of controlling for interregional variation in pollution levels in studies of the demographic correlates of pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently adjusted regulations governing confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), significantly increasing the number of regulated firms. A theoretical model is developed to analyze how changes to the number of regulated firms, monitoring effort, and compliance standards affect environmental quality. The model suggests increasing the number of regulated firms, ceteris paribus, has an ambiguous effect on environmental quality, and may actually reduce it. The impact of increasing compliance standards depends on how violations are prosecuted and sanctions are set. Greater monitoring effort increases environmental quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the study which uses a quasi-experimental design to compare the levels of consensus and cooperation in coastal watersheds with and without U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) National Estuary Programs (NEP), one of the most prominent national examples of collaborative institutions in the environmental policy domain. Panel survey data from more than 800 respondents shows that while the level of consensus is higher in NEP estuaries, there is no difference between NEP and non-NEP estuaries in the level of cooperation.

This article analyzes why the USDA's Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) experiences contract withdrawals. Among approved contracts, 17% withdrew one or more conservation practices. After presenting a model of producers' behavior, a logit model is used to examine the withdrawal phenomenon. Withdrawals are linked to producers having an incentive to include low cost-share payments and practices in the conservation plan that increase the probability of approval, but may not be profitable. These results are discussed in light of the changes to EQIP that have been introduced by the 2002 Farm Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. County-level socioeconomic and demographic data were used to construct an index of social vulnerability to environmental hazards, called the Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) for the United States based on 1990 data. Methods. Using a factor analytic approach, 42 variables were reduced to 11 independent factors that accounted for about 76 percent of the variance. These factors were placed in an additive model to compute a summary score—the Social Vulnerability Index. Results. There are some distinct spatial patterns in the SoVI, with the most vulnerable counties clustered in metropolitan counties in the east, south Texas, and the Mississippi Delta region. Conclusion. Those factors that contribute to the overall score often are different for each county, underscoring the interactive nature of social vulnerability—some components increase vulnerability; others moderate the effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. This study investigates the trends in the distribution of environmental aid from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), U.S. foundations, and a multilateral donor, the Global Environmental Fund (GEF), to determine whether aid is driven by donor interests or recipient need. Methods. Data from USAID, the Foundation Center, GEF, and other secondary sources are analyzed using logistic and OLS regressions. Results. Traditional donor interests (politics, economics, and security) and donors’ environmental interests (those favoring “global” environmental concerns over local ones) explain which nations receive environmental aid and which do not and how much nations receive. In general, the allocation of environmental aid differs from that of official development assistance. The United States does not demonstrate a middle–income bias; multilateral aid is not more “humanitarian” than bilateral aid. Foundations’ allocation patterns favor traditional donors interests. Conclusions. Environmental aid does not target the nations that are most in need of abating local pollution. Instead, environmental aid donors favor nations with whom they have had prior relations (economic and security), nations that are democratic, and nations with unexploited natural resources. In short, donor interests outweigh recipient need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the United States automakers' moral responsibility to reduce U.S.-based green-house-gas emissions. Environmental consequences of consumers' use of gasoline for personal transportation and their preference for larger vehicles; Automakers' corporate social responsibility to promote environmentally-friendly vehicles and transportation systems.

Presents a case study of New Mexico's underground storage tank (UST) program and its implications for environmental protection efforts in the region. Leaking UST as a pervasive national problem; Evolution of the New Mexico program; Investigations of revealed bureaucratic preferences of various government agencies.

There have been a number of criticisms of adoption theory and research in recent years. Particularly, the applicability of adoption research to environmentally beneficial innovations has been called into question. Through the use of a general model of adoption, the present study evaluates the variables which affect the adoption of pollution control innovations introduced by a government project in northern Indiana. the findings offer support for the use of this model to predict the adoption of environmentally related innovation. However, in order for the model to be applicable it must be modified to take into account the fact that farmers who adopt environmental innovations have a different orientation toward farming than do farmers who adopt commercial innovations. This modification allows the use of the same model for commerical and environmental innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study determined the additive and interactive effects of different aspects of alienation on attitudes toward pollution control for residents of an Illinois community which was concerned with a sewage treatment issue. A sample of 218 community residents of voting age was obtained and administered questionnaires during May, 1971. Powerlessness and anomie, while not additive, were found to act interactively to explain opposition to pollution control. Furthermore, this relationship was characterized by a ‘saturation’ or diminishing return effect. Alienation produced negativism toward the issue up to a certain point, with a subsequent increase serving to lessen the issue opposition. The interaction effect was found to exist controlling for respondent socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines urban warming trends as they relate to global warming. Asymmetric incentives exist to reduce the release of pollutants and toxins into the atmosphere. Developing nations are rapidly developing production technologies that entail the use of wood, coal, oil and other fuels that produce waste. The study provides some evidence of public choice and economic regulation determinants of the penalties assessed by the FPA for waste emissions that violate ambient air quality standards for ozone.

This article suggests the contingent-valuation method as a possible answer to the question of whether there are means for measuring the potential benefits of alternative environmental protection efforts. According to the author, economic valuations of collective goods such as those derived from social regulation are difficult to make. Once links have been established between undesirable conditions and humanly controllable actions like environmental pollution, an important and controversial question arises. That is, what is the value to be attached to either a given level of improvement in environmental quality or preserving the existing level without additional deterioration? Valuation, especially economic valuation, is important because society confronts difficult policy choices about environmental resources while fiscal resources are finite. This article provides insights into the feasibility of measuring directly such values. It not only provides substantive insights but also methodological ones.

Regulatory negotiation brings representatives of affected interests together to reach consensus on the content and sometimes the language of a proposed rule- making. This article examines regulatory negotiation as a policy process, stressing in particular its contrasts with conventional rulemaking, its relationship to environmental dispute settlement generally, and its comparisons with more analytically-based approaches to making environmental policy. The article considers four of the seven negotiations conducted to date by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as cases for the analysis. Negotiation appears to offer a number of advantages over the conventional rulemaking process, including the parties' access to practical information that can be considered as it is needed; the opportunity to educate potential opponents and persuade them that adopting a particular provision will not harm their interests; and the parties' capacity to rank and trade off positions to maximize their own interests. A theoretical analysis, however, suggests limitations to the applications of negotiation-its theory of representation and its potential subordination of decision premises to the instrumental needs of the parties and the process. Within its limits, however, and with procedural safe- guards, regulatory negotiation can offer a valuable complement to the conventional rulemaking process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]