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As our planet faces more frequent and severe environmental threats due to climate change (including threats to biodiversity), environmental justice will be essential to ensure that the costs and burdens of combating these threats are shared equally, borne by all people worldwide in a fair and equitable manner. If the past is any indicator, however, environmental problems—and their "solutions"—disproportionately affect poor communities and communities of color, including Indigenous communities. Despite these past injustices, Indigenous lands, which make up only 20 percent of the Earth's territory, contain 80 percent of the world's remaining biodiversity—evidence that Indigenous peoples are among the most effective stewards of the environment. A primary reason for this remarkable statistic is the use and practice of Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge; ecological wisdom which has been passed down for generations and has been shown to strengthen community resilience in response to the multiple stressors of global environmental change. While the United States government has been slow to acknowledge the value of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, it has recently begun to incorporate that knowledge into environmental policy in response to the worldwide climate crisis. Continuing the integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge into government environmental policy will ensure that such policies will be more effective at the federal, state, and local levels and more equitable in their application. Western scientists, government officials, and global leaders need to build trusting and co-equal relationships with Indigenous communities by actively listening to all cultures and respecting the many kinds of knowledge systems required to conserve the natural world and all living beings. This paper will address how incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge into U.S. policy would help safeguard the environment from further biodiversity loss and other ecological destruction, and advance environmental justice to ensure the fair treatment of all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proposals specifically aimed at environmental benefits or enhancements are often exempt from environmental assessment, despite evidence that they can be counter-productive. This is true of agri-environmental schemes where local farm-scale actions are expected to generate large-area cumulative effects on water quality, biodiversity or landscape. Evidence suggests benefits of schemes have often been assumed rather than planned for, necessitating ex-post assessment to justify continuance. This paper argues the need for the Irish Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS) to be assessed using SEA. REPS promoted a range of small-scale improvements in a bottom-up approach intended to reflect several high-level policy objectives primarily concerning environmental protection. The paper is based on analysis of "landscape protection" under the REPS from inception in 1994 until its phasing out period in 2015 when all participants will have completed their plans. The paper investigates how linking SEA to REPS had potential for harmonising with other policy objectives and therefore avoiding administrative duplication. Comparison with the Water Framework Directive suggests opportunities to connect different environmental procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States is moving closer to enacting a policy to reduce domestic emissions of greenhouse gases. A key element in any plan to reduce emissions will be to place a price on greenhouse gas emissions. This paper discusses the different approaches that can be taken to price emissions and assesses their strengths and weaknesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the topic of genetically modified organisms (hereafter GMOs) and focuses on national and international regulatory approaches to this field. The analysis herein addresses a multitude of interconnected issues on GMOs as the authors' intention is to explain how a policy problem that is environmental in nature can generate debates and consequences that go beyond the realm and scope of environmental policy. Each of the sections of the paper could be expanded into an autonomous paper. The discussion herein is framed using a comparative case study analysis. The US domestic policy on GMOs is contrasted against the EU policy. These two domestic policies are relevant as they represent the two main contemporary approaches to how GMOs are to be regulated. Furthermore, the clash between the two powers with regard to GMOs is described and explained. Its relevance stems from the profound consequences it generates within the international arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental justice, which seeks to achieve equity in the process and outcomes of environmental policy and decision-making, is a broadly recognized policy objective. As a foundational environmental regulation and opportunity for public engagement with federal decision-making, the United States' National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is frequently considered a promising venue for addressing environmental justice. While environmental justice has been a recognized consideration within the NEPA process since the 1990s, it is by no means a streamlined process. Understanding the barriers and opportunities to better incorporation of EJ principles in NEPA review processes is critical for understanding how to move from EJ as a concept to actual implementation. Drawing on interviews with federal agencies, project developers, nongovernmental organizations, and other organizations who contributed to NEPA reviews for projects across the US, this paper explores how environmental justice–specifically procedural, distributive, and recognition justice–is currently addressed in the preparation of Environmental Impact Statements and identifies barriers and opportunities for better inclusion. We find that many NEPA practitioners see NEPA as a valuable tool for achieving procedural and distributive justice. However, a number of institutional and organizational barriers exist, most prominently a structure that hinders opportunities for meaningful public engagement, ambiguity in how distributive justice is defined and implemented, and a lack of substantive requirements for potential distributional inequities to be addressed. • Procedural justice is considered a more primary goal of NEPA relative to distributive justice. • NEPA's design limits opportunities for meaningful public engagement. • Distributive justice is considered hard to define and subjective to implement. • NEPA's procedural focus limits requirements to mitigate identified EJ impacts. • Recognition justice is almost entirely absent from considerations around EJ in NEPA. [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."

US climate policy is unfolding under the Clean Air Act. Mobile source and construction permitting regulations are in place. Most important, EPA and the states will determine the form and stringency of the regulations for power plants. Various approaches would create an implicit price on emitting greenhouse gases and create valuable assets that would be distributed differently among electricity producers, consumers, and the government. We compare a tradable performance standard with several cap-and-trade policies. Distributing asset values to fossil-fueled producers and consumers has small effects on average electricity prices but imposes greater social cost than a revenue-raising policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand where particular institutions and policies are going, it is necessary to know where they have been. Research on the origin and progress of particular institutions can sometimes provide crucial insights into the current status and future outlook of these institutions. In this paper we summarize and interpret part of the history and some of the apparent evolutionary processes past soil conservation policy. The underlying social objectives of these policies will, in the process, be identified. These findings shall be compared to those social objectives that economics identifies as the legitimate pursuits of government. The end result is an improved understanding of the social purposes of soil conservation policy, both real and theoretical, and the identification of some significant trends which have important implications for future policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Publication of a White Paper on “Grand Challenges of the Future for Environmental Modeling” is announced. The White Paper has been prepared for the US National Science Foundation (NSF) in the setting of its several Environmental Observatory initiatives. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article reports on the involvement of the public in environmental policy development in the U.S. Federal legislation has required the public to get involved in the development of policy about programs affecting the environment. The National Environmental Policy Act of the Congress has directed federal agencies to develop procedures to insure public information and understanding. A publication by the Environmental Protection Agency states that participation is most effective when concerned individuals share their efforts in environmental actions.

Many scholars and policy makers celebrate cities as loci for addressing climate change. In addition to being significant sources of carbon pollution, cities prove to be dynamic sites of experimentation and ambition on climate policy. However, as U.S. cities set climate change goals far above those of their federal and state counterparts, they are butting up against the limits of their existing legal authority, most notably with regard to control over energy supplies. In response, many U.S. cities are exercising their legal rights to reclaim public ownership or control over private electric utilities as a method of achieving their climate change goals. Although there is widespread desire for cities to act within their legal authority to reduce carbon pollution, it is a different question entirely whether they should be encouraged to expand this authority by reclaiming ownership or control over tasks previously outsourced to private companies. On this question, energy law has much to learn from administrative law’s robust attention to outsourcing theory. This Article draws from the outsourcing literature to argue that climate change complicates traditional theories regarding whether cities should prefer publicly or privately owned electricity systems. By transposing these theories into energy law, it constructs a theoretical defense of why more public forms of energy ownership or control may be effective governance tools for the climate change era. In the last century, providing electricity was a task well suited to government oversight of private companies, as regulators primarily aimed to incentivize low prices and adequate supply. This century, however, climate change creates the need for more deliberative, experimental management of electricity to meet the additional aim of decarbonization while maintaining affordability and reliability. In this situation, outsourcing theory widely counsels against utilizing a private contractor model, and illustrates the difficulties inherent in using regulation to manage private companies. Instead, it is time for broader reconsideration of more public forms of energy control and ownership, of just the sort that leading U.S. cities are pioneering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of nature as capital is gaining visibility in policies and practices in both the public and private sectors. This change is due to an improved ability to assess and value ecosystem services, as well as to a growing recognition of the potential of an ecosystem services approach to make tradeoffs in decision making more transparent, inform efficient use of resources, enhance resilience and sustainability, and avoid unintended negative consequences of policy actions. Globally, governments, financial institutions, and corporations have begun to incorporate natural capital accounting in their policies and practices. In the United States, universities, nongovernmental organizations, and federal agencies are actively collaborating to develop and apply ecosystem services concepts to further national environmental and economic objectives. Numerous federal agencies have begun incorporating these concepts into land use planning, water resources management, and preparations for, and responses to, climate change. Going forward, well-defined policy direction will be necessary to institutionalize ecosystem services approaches in federal agencies, as well as to guide intersector and interdisciplinary collaborative research and development efforts. In addition, a new generation of decision support tools are needed to further the practical application of ecosystem services principles in policymaking and commercial activities. Improved performance metrics are needed, as are mechanisms to monitor the status of ecosystem services and assess the environmental and economic impacts of policies and programs. A greater national and international financial commitment to advancing ecosystem services and natural capital accounting would likely have broad, long-term economic and environmental benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Clean Air Act (CAA) and Clean Water Act (CWA) have been the lynchpins of the U.S. environmental policy for the last half century. Under both acts the federal government sets standards and the states implement, the outcomes of the CAA and CWA have not been the same however. While criteria air pollutants across the nation have been reduced or maintained under the management control strategies of the CAA, far less is known about the effects the CWA has had on water quality, even though, most agree water quality has improved since its implementation. These acts are built on similar frameworks, but the real difference lies on the embedded identification of assessment criteria. The CAA creates a rigid framework for the consistent identification and monitoring of air pollutants, while the CWA relies on a much more flexible system that varies over space and time. Thus, it is the embedded environmental assessment criteria within these acts that have led to different outcomes for similar policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although economists prefer a unique, economy-wide carbon price, climate policies are likely to continue to combine technology- and sector-specific regulations with, at best, some degree of carbon pricing. A hybrid energy-economy model that combines technological details with partial macro-economic feedbacks offers a means of estimating the likely effects of this kind of policy mix, especially under different scenarios of technological innovation. We applied such a model, called CIMS-US, in a model comparison project directed by the Energy Modeling Forum at Stanford University (EMF 24) and present here the interrelated effects of policies focused separately on electricity and transportation. We find that technological innovation encouraged by transportation regulation can inadvertently increase emissions from electricity generation and ethanol production to the extent that abatement from the regulation itself is effectively neutralized. When, however, regulation of electricity generation is combined with transportation policy or there is economy-wide carbon pricing, substantial abatement occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two decades have passed since the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 launched a grand experiment in market-based environmental policy: the SO2 cap-and-trade system. That system performed well but created four striking ironies: First, by creating this system to reduce SO2 emissions to curb acid rain, the government did the right thing for the wrong reason. Second, a substantial source of this system's cost-effectiveness was an unanticipated consequence of earlier railroad deregulation. Third, it is ironic that cap-and-trade has come to be demonized by conservative politicians in recent years, as this market-based, cost-effective policy innovation was initially championed and implemented by Republican administrations. Fourth, court decisions and subsequent regulatory responses have led to the collapse of the SO2 market, demonstrating that what the government gives, the government can take away. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An advantage of cap-and-trade programs over more prescriptive environmental regulation is that compliance flexibility and cost effectiveness can make more stringent emissions reductions politically feasible. However, when markets (versus regulators) determine where emissions occur, it becomes more difficult to assure that mandated emissions reductions are equitably achieved. We investigate these issues in the context of Southern California's RECLAIM program by matching facilities in RECLAIM with similar California facilities also in nonattainment areas. Our results indicate that average emissions fell 20 percent at RECLAIM facilities relative to our counterfactual. Furthermore, observed changes in emissions do not vary significantly with neighborhood demographic characteristics. (JEL H23, L51, Q53, Q58) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study builds on political mediation and movement infrastructure models to highlight contingent and synergistic ways in which social movements may impinge upon the U.S. national policy-making process. Analyses employ a variety of datasets to examine the role of environmental movement organizational capacity, protest and institutional activity in garnering Congressional attention to, and action on, salient issues from 1961 through 1990. We find all types of movement activity, but especially the development of national organizational infrastructures, to be positively associated with the convening of Congressional hearings on the environment. Only when there are high levels of both protest and institutional activity is there any evidence that the environmental movement directly influences the passage of environmental laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the study on how organizations that provide scientific information to policy makers maintain scientific credibility while establishing their political relevance. It offers theoretical approaches in science studies and organization theory to develop a framework that allows for a comparative analysis of multiple cases. It notes that the study compares the organizational strategies of the National Research Council, the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The study shows that organizational strategies do impact assessment effectiveness and that it is possible for organizations to simultaneously achieve scientific credibility and political relevance.

The article addresses the issue concerning the regulatory processes for nanotechnology in the U.S. The author argues that application of the precautionary principle on nanotechnology should be determined through democratic processes. He suggests that environmental policy should be re-politicized by providing for meaningful public participation in identifying and solving issues concerning substantial hazards involving conditions of scientific uncertainty.

The article presents an analysis on the importance of the working relationships among policy professionals specifically in the implementation of environmental policy in the U.S. It explores the importance for the policy professionals to interact with the federal and state personnel, and the regional Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials in the operation of the intergovernmental management (IGM) program. It provides an analysis on the role of the EPA-state working relationship in the Superfund program to be able to get a larger concept of the IGM.

The article examines the social, economic and political concerns of radon exposure due to the rise in uranium mining in American Southwest. It discusses the Radon risks in Colorado mines and Pennsylvania private homes and the action taken by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in response to the crisis. It states that EPA used epidemiological studies of uranium miners which include those who worked during the 1940's to 1960's, as well as set standards for residential environments. It also describes the boom of the uranium industry cultivated by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) on regulation for radiations, and talks on EPA's standards for indoor radon issues.

The journalistic norm of ‘balanced’ reporting (giving roughly equal coverage to both sides in any significant dispute) is recognised as both useful and problematic in communicating emerging scientific consensus on human attribution for global climate change. Analysis of the practice of this norm in United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) newspaper coverage of climate science between 2003 and 2006 shows a significant divergence from scientific consensus in the US in 2003–4, followed by a decline in 2005–6, but no major divergence in UK reporting. These findings inform ongoing considerations about the spatially-differentiated media terms and conditions through which current and future climate policy is negotiated and implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the criminal enforcement of environmental regulations in the U.S., including information on its legal and economic theories. Several concerns involved in the implementation of environmental regulations are discussed, such as the interests of the government, society, and corporate officers. Information about the benefit-cost analysis of the decision-making process of the programs is presented. Elevated means area standards and tailored enforcement are two recommendations to improve the enforcement scheme of environmental laws.

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]

This article proposes a method to accommodate asymmetric information on farmers' risk preferences in designing voluntary environmental policies. By incorporating stochastic efficiency rules in a mechanism design problem, the government can find incentive-compatible policies by knowing only the general class of risk preferences among farmers. The model also accounts for hidden information on technology types and input use. The method is applied empirically to simulate a pollution control program in New York. Results suggest that participation incentives would be inadequate for many risk-averse producers if the government does not account for the diversity in risk preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. This article begins the process of broadly evaluating the role of nongovernmental actors in regulatory markets by specifically examining environmental groups’ use of the sulfur dioxide (SO2) market established by Title IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. This research posits that the use of nonexclusionary markets in environmental quality regulation allows interest groups a nonpareil opportunity to seek to directly affect policy outcomes. Methods. This article uses two forms of analysis. The first part of the article provides a qualitative analysis of the motives of interest groups that use incentive-based policies in an attempt to achieve their desired policy outcomes. The last section of the article uses empirical data from the Environmental Protection Agency's Allowance Tracking System to evaluate interest groups’ use of market-based policies. Results. The use of market-based mechanisms in public policies offers interest groups a new form of participation in the policy process, yet it seems that only “new” groups are willing to enter the market. Further, I find that though the participating groups may not be able to affect the relative price of allowances (as they claim they will), they nonetheless are able to reduce the absolute number of allowances available. Finally, using market-based policies to achieve their preferred outcomes may be a “rational” decision for groups in that the “return” on their investment may indeed be quite high. Conclusions. One aspect of pollution markets is clear—they do create an interesting new mechanism of public activism for groups that wish to protect the environment but do not want to “lobby or litigate.” By purchasing pollution allowances groups attempt to directly affect environmental policy outputs without entering the policy cycle as it has been previously understood. As market-based policies are employed more broadly, opportunities accorded to environmental groups for active involvement in seeking to limit ambient pollutants, as well as the groups’ potential impact, may only expand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an update on environmental management in Latin America as of September 2001. Budget allocated by the United States government on its Everglades restoration project; Rise in imported hazardous waste into Canada between 1998 and 1999; Worth of Brazil's natural resources.

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.

The article features the report "Federal Statutory Preemption of State and Local Authority," by the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, which indicates that more than half of the significant preemption statues enacted by the Congress have been passed since 1969. It mentions the factors that have fostered the rise of preemption which include the popularity of health, safety, and environmental protection rules, the increased reliance by the Congress on regulations in a time of diminished fiscal capacity, and the increasing influence of interest groups in national policymaking. It recommends that the Congress should not preempt state and local authority without explicitly expressing its intent to do so.

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]

The administrative setting of federal water resources management reflects the pattern of politics in the larger arena of water policy. Traditionally, the fragmented structure of administrative agencies pursuing separate, individualized goals has been appropriate to the distributive policy arena existing in water. According to authors, their first aim in this article is to describe the long-standing administrative structure and policy arena of water resources. Second, they examine the forces for change in administrative arrangements, particularly the mandate of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Finally, this article assesses the current administrative setting and long-range opportunities for further modification of the policy arena in the future. Water resources policy has long been the subject of scholarly criticisms. Resource economists who believe that beneficiaries ought to repay the costs of water development have decried the transfer of the financial burden to the federal treasury. Hydrologists and engineers have criticized the overbuilding of river basins and the sites of projects according to political rather than physical feasibility.

Federal environmental laws have substantially preempted state powers over pollution control. Many of these laws contain a unique implementation scheme called "primacy," which offers a state the opportunity to become the primary enforcement agent for federal policies. Primacy relieves the federal government from enforcing laws within state boundaries even while it retains ultimate control over the policies involved and sets minimum standards. By and large, states have chosen to accept primacy. Characteristics of the units involved in the implementation process explain much of this success. Deviations from the expected patterns reveal how states can manipulate primacy to their own advantage. It is possible, however, that game playing by the states under primacy could undermine the ultimate goals of national environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]