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• Decades old data used in stormwater modeling may not represent current conditions. • Investigated temporal and step trends in four decades of stormwater quality data. • Significant, decreasing monotonic trends observed for nutrients, sediments, metals. • Step trend declines aligned with environmental regulations unrelated to stormwater. • Reductions were most substantial in metals followed by sediments then nutrients. Identifying sources of pollutants in watersheds is critical to accurately predicting stormwater quality. Many existing software used to model stormwater quality rely on decades-old data sets which may not represent current runoff quality in the United States. Because of environmental regulations promulgated at the federal level over previous decades, there is a need to understand long-term trends (and potential shifts) in runoff quality to better parameterize models. Pollutant event mean concentrations (EMCs) from the National Stormwater Quality Database (NSQD) were combined with those from recent sources to understand if untreated stormwater quality has changed over the past 40 years. A significant decreasing monotonic trend (i.e., continually decreasing in a nonuniform fashion) was observed for total suspended solids (TSS), total phosphorus (TP), total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), total copper (Cu), total lead (Pb), and total zinc (Zn) in the resultant database, suggesting that runoff quality has become less polluted with time. Median EMCs decreased from 99.2 to 42 mg/L, 0.34 to 0.26 mg/L, 1.27 to 1.03 mg/L, 40 to 6.8 µg/L, 110 to 3.7 µg/L, and 375 to 53.3 µg/L for TSS, TP, TN, Cu, Pb, and Zn, respectively, from the 1980s to the 2010s. These significant reductions often aligned temporally with advancements in clean manufacturing, amendments of the Clean Air Act, and other source control efforts which impact pollutant bioavailability and atmospheric deposition. Results suggest environmental regulations not specifically targeting stormwater management have had a positive impact on stormwater quality and that temporal fluctuations should be considered in modeling. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the significance of the California's Vessel Fuel Rules (VFR) and Dormant Commerce Clause under the judgment of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the Pacific Merchant II case, whose ruling affects the relationship between the environmental law and commercial policy. It informs that the collaboration of the competing interests between business law and environmental law is much needed to maintain the balance among business groups and environmental regulations.

Abstract: The global decline in trade barriers means that environmental regulations now potentially play an increasingly important role in shaping a country''s comparative advantage. This raises the possibility that pollution intensive industries will relocate from high regulation countries to developing regions where environmental regulations may be less stringent. We assess the evidence for this possibility by examining the USA''s revealed comparative advantage (RCA) and other measures of specialization. We demonstrate that US specialization in pollution intensive sectors is neither lower, nor falling more rapidly (or rising more slowly) than in any other manufacturing sector. We offer an explanation for this finding. Our analysis suggests that pollution intensive industries have certain characteristics – specifically they are intensive in the use of physical and human capital – that makes developing countries less attractive as a target for relocation. We demonstrate econometrically the economic and statistical significance of these factors and illustrate how they appear to oppose the effects of environmental regulations as determinants of US specialization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Companies in many countries complain of the unfairness of having to compete against foreign rivals facing more lenient environmental regulations. In this article I examine the competitive conditions for firms in such a position. I outline the development of a new pollution-reduction paradigm centered on lowering costs by reducing pollution and, using twelve scenarios of international differences in environmental regulatory regimes faced by first movers and imitators, make propositions on which factors are important to the maintainability of these advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past twenty years, the environmental regulation of landfills has become increasingly restrictive both at the federal and state levels. Using a panel dataset of Ohio landfills, we developed a theoretical framework to explain the landfill operators’ responses to regulatory actions, and then estimate an empirical model of changes in industry structure. Because not all Ohio counties have landfill operations, we hypothesize that there is self-selection in the location of landfills, which is accounted for with an appropriate econometric model. The study finds that environmental regulations had significant impact both on the location of landfill operations and concentration of the industry during the time period studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the health tradeoffs associated with the historical expansion in coal-fired electricity generation in the United States. We combine newly digitized data on all major coal-fired power plants for the period 1938–1962 with two complementary difference-in-differences strategies. Coal-fired plants imposed large negative health externalities that were partially offset by the benefits of local electricity generation. The health impacts varied widely according to initial electricity access and evolved as the stock of generating capacity expanded over the sample period. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for both current and future payoffs when designing environmental regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manure generated by livestock operations can cause negative impacts on the environment if there is no control of its storage, transport or application. Manure emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and micro and macro nutrients accumulate in soil and bodies of surface water. Today, in the USA specific legislation exists for management and deposition of animal excreta that impact bodies of water, the soil and the atmosphere, which is supervised and certified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In Canada the regulations for management and deposition of animal manure are no less rigorous. In Argentina, Chile, Colombia and México regulation and government vigilance of the use and management of animal mature is scarce and confusing, specifying only certain norms for discharges of pollutants into water, while giving less importance to emissions into the atmosphere and soil, and there are no clear specifications related to animal manure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

California's struggles with air pollution are well known, particularly in the South Coast Air Basin. Since the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles-- both located in the Basin--handle 40 percent of the nation's imports, the shipping industiy contributes heavily to the pollution in the South Coast Air Basin. Specifically, the shipping industry is the heaviest emitter of sulfur dioxide and fifth-largest emitter of nitrogen dioxide in the area. To combat the shipping industry's contribution to the area's air pollution problems, in 2008 the California Air Resources Board enacted Vessel Fuel Rules requiring ships to use low-sulfur fuels while within twenty-four miles of California's coast and when stopping at California ports. The Vessel Fuel Rules were challenged as preempted by the Submerged Lands Act in Pacific Merchant Shipping Association v. Goldstene (Pacific Merchant 11/ The Ninth Circuit upheld the Vessel Fuel Rules against the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association's motion for summary judgment by, in part, applying a presumption against preemption. The Ninth Circuit held that application of a presumption against preemption was appropriate because the Vessel Fuel Rules fell under an area of traditional state control by targeting the prevention of air pollution. Although applied in Pacific Merchant II, the presumption against preemption doctrine is unclear and the application of the presumption appears inconsistent at best. This Note uses the circumstances in Pacific Merchant II to illustrate that, in determining whether a presumption against preemption applies, courts should examine the strength of the state's interests, whether subsequent legislation has further explained the relative weight of federal interests in the area, whether federal regulations are insufficiently protective and only serve as a regulatory floor, and whether the level of decision making enforces political accountability. In the environmental law context, these factors will show that applying a strong presumption against preemption is favorable and will serve to protect state implementation of environmental protections that are necessary to protect the health and safety of the state's residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing environmental externalities is traditionally seen as hinging on effective state regulation. It is argued in this article that it is not just the material facts of regulations, such as their stringency and timing, that explain the extent to which firms internalise environmental externalities. The extent to which they do this is better explained by institutional aspects of regulations: how rules are made. This is because the institutional basis on which rules are made is a key factor in their effectiveness. This proposition is examined with reference to the car industry and the regulation of passenger motor vehicle carbon dioxide emissions in the industry's three hubs of the European Union, United States and Japan. The conclusion reached is that although different regulations in each territory have affected firms' behaviour, it is not the material facts of these regulations alone that explain differences in the industry's compliance with, or response to, them, but the institutional contexts in which the regulations were developed. Furthermore, as car firms are multinational corporations these different institutional contexts have implications beyond their home territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, 'fenceline communities' next to petrochemical facilities have been conducting and advocating for air monitoring since the 1990s, highlighting gaps in U.S. environmental regulators' monitoring programs. Citizen science is imagined to be valuable as a source of data for filling such gaps. But fenceline communities' air monitoring activities also underscore regulators' hermeneutic ignorance, namely their lack of appropriate concepts, categories, and metrics for understanding the temporality of air pollution as experienced by marginalized communities. Citizen science could play a valuable role in addressing hermeneutic ignorance, by providing more adequate epistemic resources for understanding the environmental harms. In the case of community monitoring programs, these have included epistemic resources for understanding the immediacy of air pollution and the chronic nature of unpredictable spikes in pollution. However, regulators confronted with community-led monitoring have acknowledged neither citizen scientists' contributions to epistemic resources nor their own hermeneutic ignorance, limiting the potential for citizen science to address institutionalized ignorance. Recognizing hermeneutic ignorance shows the important role that epistemic resources play in institutionalizing ignorance, and points to reforms necessary if citizen science is to make robust contributions to environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have suggested that environmental regulations may deter the entry of firms into industries, and their assertions imply that an advantage is thereby conferred on incumbent firms. Empirical analysis showed that environmental regulations inhibited new firm entry in a variety of manufacturing industries. Implications for affected firms and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes a number of incentive-based programs (e.g., tax credits) designed to motivate firms to develop new clean technologies for fighting climate change. However, the IRA also includes a fee firms incur for excessive methane emissions. This represents the first time the United States government has ever levied a fee on greenhouse gas emissions, and it raises an interesting research question—how should a budget-constrained regulator balance the use of both incentive and penalty-based levers for stimulating investment in clean technology development? In this paper, we examine a regulator's optimal penalty and subsidy decisions for motivating firms to invest in clean technology development. We illustrate how the level of competitive intensity in the market can influence a budget-constrained regulator with multiple competing objectives—the environment, firm profits, and consumer welfare. We find that a subsidy is always beneficial, irrespective of the regulator's objective. While imposing a firm penalty always benefits the environment, it always negatively impacts the sum of firm profits and consumer welfare. However, depending on the level of competition in the market, instances can occur where imposing a high penalty actually benefits total firm profits or consumer welfare (separately). Interestingly, a regulator that cares about all three dimensions of its objective equally, should always set the penalty to either its minimum or maximum value, depending on whether the environmental cost of the harmful product is high or low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, a growing number of firms utilize corporate lobbying to advocate for more environmentally friendly policies and regulations, deviating from the traditional lobbying mainly used to minimize regulatory burdens. In this study, we investigate what motivates firms to engage in such an unusual type of lobbying—environmental lobbying. Focusing on the product strategy of firms, we suggest that firms with greater green product intensity are more likely to engage in environmental lobbying. When environmental lobbying raises environmental hurdles in the market, firms with an intensive focus on green products can bear adjustment costs with little effort, leaving other "less green" firms relatively disadvantaged under the newly regulated market conditions. Moreover, those firms can address demand-side issues more easily by lobbying the government to provide greater incentives for purchasing green products or to request subsidies that can be used to improve their cost structure. Our analyses based on the US light vehicle market indicate that, indeed, the more electric vehicles automakers sell relative to their total sale volumes, the more they will engage in environmental lobbying. We also find that this relationship becomes more salient when a firm has greater market share or originally comes from a foreign country with more stringent environmental regulations than the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses four examples of risk regulations in the United States, namely vehicle emissions, appliance efficiency, chemical safety, and the labeling of genetically modified food. In each example, consumer or environmental regulations were initiated at the state level despite business opposition. But when faced with a multiplicity of state product regulations, the affected firms decided to support the expansion of federal regulations. They were willing to accept stronger federal standards in order to preempt individual states from enacting more stringent standards than the federal government. This, in turn, led to a conflict between firms who wanted federal preemption of state restrictions and states who wanted to be able to enact regulations more stringent than those of the federal government. The outcomes of each of these conflicts over the scope of federal preemption had important impacts on each multilevel governance regulatory regime. The ability of both levels of the American government to enact more innovative risk regulations – often referred to as dynamic federalism – has made it more likely that they will be strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several noteworthy stability failures occurred at landfills in the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s, a timeframe coinciding with the promulgation of modern US environmental regulations. These failures were extensively studied, and lessons were learned. A state-of-practice developed to enable the design of waste fills to be stable throughout their construction, operation, and closure periods. However, a survey of landfill performance in the United States in the 2010–2019 timeframe shows that waste fill stability failures continue to occur. This paper, an expansion of the 2018 Terzaghi Lecture given by the first author, presents a brief review of several waste fill failures from the 1980s and 1990s and the lessons learned during that period. Several more recent waste fill failures are then reviewed, from which it is concluded that 20–30 years after the earlier failures, facility operators and design engineers are relearning the earlier lessons, as well as new lessons related to evolving waste streams and operating practices. The paper concludes with a discussion of the current standard-of-care for the design of US waste fills and suggests that this standard can be improved through application of the lessons described herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the editorials concerning environmental regulations in the U.S., such as one on job versus regulations and another on the reasons for creation of environmental regulations. The author says that cost-benefit analysis has provided benefits in the development of the regulations. He adds that sustainability should be considered as another factor to be added in the creation of environmental regulations.

Several noteworthy stability failures occurred at landfills in the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s, a timeframe coinciding with the promulgation of modern US environmental regulations. These failures were extensively studied, and lessons were learned. A state-of-practice developed to enable the design of waste fills to be stable throughout their construction, operation, and closure periods. However, a survey of landfill performance in the United States in the 2010–2019 timeframe shows that waste fill stability failures continue to occur. This paper, an expansion of the 2018 Terzaghi Lecture given by the first author, presents a brief review of several waste fill failures from the 1980s and 1990s and the lessons learned during that period. Several more recent waste fill failures are then reviewed, from which it is concluded that 20–30 years after the earlier failures, facility operators and design engineers are relearning the earlier lessons, as well as new lessons related to evolving waste streams and operating practices. The paper concludes with a discussion of the current standard-of-care for the design of US waste fills and suggests that this standard can be improved through application of the lessons described herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simulation model of the U.S. electricity market to examine the impact of natural gas prices and future electricity demand growth on the electricity industry suggests that recent downward adjustments in natural gas prices and electricity demand projections have a substantially larger impact on electricity prices and generation mix than do the new EPA regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the effect of social value of job loss due to environmental regulation in the U.S. Topics discussed include response of local labor markets to job changes, social value of job losses and gains in labor markets, impact of job growth shock on unemployment and labor participation and summary on use of local labor market model for simulating present value of job changes.

US environmental controls for industry include numerous regulations that rely on the regulated community to self-identify, monitor, report, or complete other requirements on their own recognizance. These include state- and federal-issued general permits for stormwater discharges associated with industrial activities, effective in 1992, with known incomplete compliance by 2004. Results demonstrate highly incomplete compliance with variation in effectiveness among studied states and urbanized regions. Texas and Oklahoma, administered by US EPA during the research period, have attained higher compliance rates than California, administered by a state agency, or Florida, also administered by US EPA. Specific program designs and implementation strategies employed by states are evaluated for impacts on states' compliance effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occasionally during his presidency, Donald Trump has suggested that he cares deeply about clean air and water, even as he expresses deep skepticism about climate change. But the specifics of Trump's deregulatory approach tell a dijferent story. The Trump administration has undertaken a series of regulatory moves to weaken the analytical foundation for clean air and water regulations. These moves seek to eliminate or undercut precisely those regulations that bring the biggest health benefits. The clean air regulations under the Clean Air Act, which account for the overwhelming majority of all quantifed and monetized benefits of allfederal regulation, are under significant threat. Four specific analytical moves are particularly troubling: first. shifting focus to costs and ignoring benefits oj regulation; second, erasing public health science; third, reviving discredited scientific models; and jourth, eliminating indirect benejits from regulatory impact analysis. Individually, each Of these four strategies, ifjully implemented, would significantly harm the health and welfare of Americans. Together, they threaten afundamental reshaping of environmental and public health protection in the United States. These four moves-manifested in rules currently proposed or already promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies-represent a concerted attack on rational economic analysis Of regulation that has received little comprehensive academic discussion. When put together, these disparate deregulatory measures paint a picture of a truly monumental assault on rational policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential economic effects of environmental regulations are often a concern when discussing policy initiatives. This study employs a regression discontinuity (RD) design to test effects of ozone nonattainment status and the accompanying regulations on economic conditions in US counties from 2004 through 2011. Comparing ozone nonattainment counties to similarly polluted attainment counties, the results estimate roughly 24% lower employment in polluting industries in nonattainment areas and a negative though statistically insignificant effect on the number of polluting-industry establishments in nonattainment areas. When using total county employment as the dependent variable, the analysis finds no statistically significant evidence of nonattainment status effects. Overall, the estimated effects in this analysis imply that any economic impacts of nonattainment status are predominantly felt in those industries most directly affected by ozone regulation. This could lead to changes in local industrial composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

United States environmental regulations often vary by operation size, with larger facilities facing more regulatory stringency. However, such legislative structure may have unintended consequences if operations downsize, slow their growth, or enter at a smaller scale in order to avoid regulation. In this study we use a regression-discontinuity framework and exploit the size threshold of federal and state rules targeting large-scale livestock operations to examine whether facilities adjust size to avoid regulation. We find statistical evidence of avoidance, primarily by operations entering at sizes just below the threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A variety of economic and social factors have created attractive opportunities for U.S.-based businesses to compete in foreign markets. Although foreign environmental regulations are increasingly complex and demanding, there are many resources available to help ensure compliance. Beyond compliance, progressive environmental regulations in foreign countries will create opportunities for American businesses to compete effectively with advanced technology, management competence, and experience in operating in the highly regulated climate in the U.S. Packaging and packaging waste regulation in the European Community exemplifies both the regulatory complexity as well as the competitive opportunities of competing in foreign markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reservoir sedimentation management has become an important topic for large dams in the United States due to their historical design, current age, and increased environmental regulation. Less attention has been paid to small dams (hydraulic size < 0.01) in remote mountains with urgent sedimentation problems. In drier climates, such reservoirs may be frequently drained and trans-catchment flows routed over their sediment deposits heading from one mountain tunnel to another. This study asked an unexplored scientific question focusing on this special setting: how do different amounts of water transfers interact with different reservoir stages to affect sediment erosion and its redistribution in the backwater zone? Mindful timing and magnitude adjustment of water transfer, involving water diverted across watersheds by tunnels, through a reservoir were hypothesized to strategically redistribute sediment erosion for sites with water transfer/diversion facilities in the main channel. For a study site in the north-central Sierra Mountains of California, 2D hydrodynamic modeling revealed that sediment erosion within the backwater zone increased by > 100% when water transfer was maximized, involving a flow 12 times higher than mean annual discharge. With reservoir stage drawdown, the increment of sediment erosion was further increased by > 50% compared with water-transfer-only scenarios. The natural upstream inflow with daily flow occurrence of 5–25% was the optimal water transfer to avoid disturbing sediment. These results indicated that water transfer and stage drawdown optimization is a promising strategy to promote or abate redistribution of deposited sediment through a smaller reservoir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relative stringency of risk regulation across countries may have significant implications for public health and environmental outcomes, as well as for economic and trade impacts. In this study, we build on prior literature—which has often employed qualitative case studies, and has often focused on comparing the United States and Europe—by using a quantitative evidential reasoning approach to compare the relative stringency of federal/central level written rules for 45 randomly selected environmental risks in the United States and China. We find that, on average, in this sample of 45 environmental risks, the written rules for environmental risk regulation were more stringent in the United States than in China. Within this sample, we find that relative stringency was selective, leaning in both directions, as the United States and China each regulated some risks more stringently than the other; for example, the US written rules were more stringent for risks of toxic chemicals and most air pollutants, whereas China's written rules were more stringent for risks in agriculture. We also observe nuanced differences in relative regulatory stringency within sectors and risks; even where one country regulated one risk more stringently, the other country may regulate certain aspects of that risk more stringently. We comment on possible explanations for the patterns we observe. Our methods and findings may contribute to better understanding of comparative risk regulation across the United States and China, and worldwide. We also recognize that in addition to the written rules studied here, countries may also vary in their implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, states should inspect each of their major water polluters at least once a year. However, studies have shown that the frequency and stringency of inspections depend on factors such as state budgets, state employee costs, and Congressional voting patterns and committee memberships. This paper adds to this literature by examining the effect of gubernatorial political party affiliation on Clean Water Act monitoring and enforcement. Using a regression discontinuity design approach, we find evidence that states with Democratic governors inspect a smaller percentage of their major water polluters, and that they inspect less stringently, compared to states with Republican governors; enforcement actions, however, are similar across states. We find no evidence that these differences in inspections lead to differences in compliance, suggesting that Democratic and Republican governors use different methods to generate compliance with the Clean Water Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We analyze the effects of the New Source Review (NSR) environmental regulations on coal-fired electric power plants. Regulations that grew out of the Clean Air Act of 1970 required new electric generating plants to install costly pollution control equipment but exempted existing plants. Plants lost their exemptions if they made “major modifications.” We examine whether this caused firms to invest less in grandfathered plants, possibly leading to lower efficiency and higher emissions. We find evidence that heightened NSR enforcement reduced capital investment at vulnerable plants. However, we find no discernible effect on other inputs or emissions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the automobile production policies of U.S. and German car makers under the influence of environmental regulations in the period 1960-1980. The auto sales problems of General Motors' European subsidiaries are traced to a Continental trend away from Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) popular in the U.S. toward "green" cars smaller in size, more fuel efficient, and powered by hybrid or electrical engines. Also discussed are the impact of oil prices and environmental consciousness of CO2 emissions on consumer car purchasing behavior.

Oil frequently plays a crucial role in modern industrial economies. It is a very costly natural resource for those countries that do not have it, but very profitable for those that do. Yet, developing oil resources and transporting them to market has its own costs, not only in terms of production but also in terms of impacts on other valuable natural resources such as clean water. Not surprisingly, governments can have strict environmental regulations concerning oil transport. However, such regulations can be complicated, especially in countries like the United States where many different government agencies claim jurisdiction, especially at differing spatial scales. Consequently, conflict can result from competing interests, pitting those developing oil resources against those already using resources such as clean water. This paper explores the complicated geographies of environmental regulations and how competing entities pursue and protect their interests through environmental ligation. In doing so, this study uses the example of the Dakota Access Pipeline (the DAPL) because the conflict surrounding it garnered considerable national and international attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1974, the major economic variables — the consumer price index, the unemployment rate and the real GNP — were all heading in the wrong direction. With such severe economic problems, both top Administration officials and leading business executives questioned whether the federal government's environmental regulations so burdened the economy that they should be relaxed. In light of the numerous books and articles published in the past decade by environmental economists, to say nothing of all the reports churned out by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in its five years of existence, one might ask why such a debate over the economic impact of environmental regulations even exists. Actually, so much of the work of economists was designed to justify the use of effluent charges or to develop models of the interactions among the environment energy and the economy, that little had been done on the actual expenditures and their past and anticipated effects. To help resolve the debate, the Joint Economic Committee of Congress conducted three: days of hearings on the problem in November 1974, inviting testimony from leading government officials concerned with the environment and from executives of three major industries which have been heavily impacted by environmental regulations.

The article presents an analysis of the role of environmental regulations in the U.S. economy. Studies have revealed that the environmental regulations had an adverse economic effect on the market economy as there was slow productivity rate, inflation and widespread unemployment. The role of the environmental regulations has also been explained with the help of charts, diagrams and equations. It is stated that such regulations not only affect the current functioning of the firm but also influence its future business prospects.

Efforts to communicate risk reduction policies must consider how target audiences will respond to the source of the message. This study investigates how modifying the message source enhances or diminishes psychological reactance against a policy designed to curb a wildlife disease. In an experimental study, we attributed a press release announcing this policy to different sources. We found that the source had an indirect effect on reactance, which subsequently affected attitudes toward the policy and behavioral intentions. Specifically, the more similar and trustworthy participants perceived the source, the less likely the source was to induce freedom threat or reactance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a widely held view that in the period since the early 1990s the European Union (EU) has overtaken the United States (US) as the leader with the most advanced or demanding environmental regulations. However, it is striking that there are very few robust comparative evaluations of the outcomes of environmental regulations or of levels of industrial environmental performance in the EU and US. This paper seeks to address this by comparing the standards and levels of performance achieved based on a case study of the regulation of a classic air pollutant (benzene) from a widespread industrial sector that has been heavily regulated in both settings for many years (oil refineries). Contrary to expectations, we find that on average normalised levels of emissions from EU refineries are three times higher than those from US refineries, and whilst outcomes in the US show marked convergence towards the best standards, there continue to be wide variations in the outcomes achieved in different EU Member States, despite the rhetoric of harmonisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental regulations often have the objective of eliminating the lower tail of an index of environmental quality. That part of the distribution of environmental quality moves somewhere above a threshold and where in the original distribution it moves is a function of the control strategy chosen. This paper provides an approach for estimating the economic benefits of different distributional changes as the worst environmental conditions are removed. The proposed approach is illustrated by examining shifts in visibility at Class I visibility areas (National Parks and wilderness areas) that would occur with implementation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Regional Haze Program. In this application we show that people value shifts in the distribution of visibility and place a higher value on the removal of a low visibility day than on the addition of a high visibility day. We found that respondents would pay about $120 per year in the Southeast U.S. and about $80 per year in the Southwest U.S. for improvement programs that remove the 20% worst visibility days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many environmental regulatory jurisdictions worldwide specify the maximum soil contamination mass burdens that may occur without prompting a regulatory response. For residential surface soils, these regulatory guidance values (RGVs) are generally based on human (often child) health risks from inhalation, ingestion, and dermal exposure to contamination. RGVs have been promulgated for more than 1,200 soil contaminants. Of these, naphthalene is the most frequently regulated contaminant. The 234 known naphthalene RGVs range from a minimum of 0.0289 mg/kg to a maximum of 16,000 mg/kg and span 5.7 orders of magnitude. Analysis illustrates that, although there are small non-random clusters of values, and there may be statistically significant differences between the values used in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world, the overall distribution of numbers strongly resembles (r = 0.9953) that of a log-normal random variable. Results of Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis applied to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency risk model are presented to approximate the range of the naphthalene RGV span that can be attributed to uncertainty in cancer or non-cancer risk formulations. Uncertainty in the cancer risk formulation could account for approximately 41% of the RGVs. Uncertainty in the non-cancer risk formulation could account for a different 22% of the RGVs, but the cancer risk model generally yields the binding (lowest) value. The implications of these widely variable RGVs for health risk and remediation costs are discussed and methods of reducing variability are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study discusses important aspects of policy modeling based on a leader-follower game of policymakers. We specifically investigate non-cooperation between policymakers and the jurisdictional scope of regulation via bi-level programming. Performance-based environmental policy under the Clean Power Plan in the United States is chosen for our analysis. We argue that the cooperation of policymakers is welfare enhancing. Somewhat counterintuitively, full coordination among policymakers renders performance-based environmental policy redundant. We also find that distinct state-by-state regulation yields higher social welfare than broader regional regulation. This is because power producers can participate in a single power market even under state-by-state environmental regulation and arbitrage away the CO2 price differences by adjusting their generation across states. Numerical examples implemented for a stylized test network illustrate the theoretical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disparities in drinking water quality pose harm to public health across the United States. Yet, few studies have systematically analyzed disproportionate exposure to impaired drinking water. This study sheds light on disparities in health‐based drinking water violations and the shortcomings of regulatory assessment that only considers equity in terms of variation in compliance across system size. We examine the relationship between health‐based violations, utility size, and socioeconomic factors, using probit regression and a balanced panel dataset of 1693 community water systems in California from 2000 to 2018. Demographics of water systems are developed using areal weighting. We find evidence of water equity concerns. Violation rates are several times higher at systems serving low‐income areas and communities of color. These disparities are present even in models stratified by size of service population. Our findings highlight that equity in environmental regulation could be improved by considering factors beyond system scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The focus of this paper is to analyse the determinants of wind energy development in the United States and how procedural and regulatory frameworks influence the deployment of wind power facilities. The empirical analysis uses statistical regression models integrating geospatial, macroeconomic and socio-environmental control variables. Using wind penetration as well as wind capacity additions as dependent variable permits a more differentiated analysis of both absolute and relative growth factors. This enables a precise assessment of state-to-state variations in permitting, zoning and siting procedures that wind developers have to clear before being authorised to start construction. Quantifying the number of state-level financial support measures and various permitting and regulatory process stages allowed for a more comprehensive assessment of administrative barriers to wind energy development than prior research studies. The results indicate a partial reversal of previous findings that showed that a high quantity of state-level regulations negatively affects wind capacity additions. Exogenous factors such as the ratio of in-state federal lands, population density, and especially wind energy potential, as well as federal statutes and incentives remain the main drivers of wind capacity additions and overall wind energy penetration. Contrasting prior literature, the influence of localised financial incentives or regulatory approval procedures appears to be minor; therefore streamlining national policies and incentives at the federal level might prove more effective than promoting wind development at the state level. We point out that future research should also examine the role of quality of state-level regulations in addition to quantity. Highlights • Most up-to-date United States state-level study using recent data sets from 2010 to 2016. • Number of financial incentives & regulatory measures are weak growth indicators. • Overall wind potential is the strongest driver of wind development. • Novel dependent variable for wind penetration enables relative growth analysis. • Quantity of environmental regulations did not influence energy growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Cluster Rule on the product-mix decisions of plants in the pulp, paper, and paperboard industries. The Cluster Rule combines regulatory requirements from the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act that are based on plants altering their production processes away from chlorine-based bleaching agents. In addition to, or instead of, altering production processes, plants may plausibly comply with the regulation by reducing output of bleached products or dropping some of these products entirely. Using a difference-in-difference-in-differences approach, we find evidence that plants facing both air and water Cluster Rule regulation (treatment group) are more likely to drop bleached products relative to unbleached products compared to plants facing only air Cluster Rule regulation (control group). Furthermore, we find evidence that plants in the control group alter their product mixes toward bleached products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Environmental Policy Act and the pollution control powers of environmental protection agencies present a potentially significant new influence on the location of economic activity within the United States. This study examines whether traditional factors such as markets, labor, and materials remain predominant in manufacturing-location decision making, despite the recently added dimension of environmental regulations. Personal interviews and mailed questionnaires were used to identify the factors that were most important in the location of 162 new branch plants of large U.S. corporations. For most of the locational decisions investigated, environmental regulations did not rank among the most important factors considered" when such regulations were of some significance, uncertainties about when the necessary permits would be obtained were more important than spatial variations in direct costs. The results indicate that environmental regulations have had no consistent effect on the size of the search area, the number of sites considered, the sizes of facilities built, or the decision to expand existing plants versus building new plants. Environmental regulations will not lead to major shifts in the location of industry' within the U.S. for the traditional location factors remain predominant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Clean Air Act's National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and New Source Review (NSR) permitting work in conjunction to improve ambient air quality in the United States. However, all previous studies of the NAAQS ignore this joint nature and focus solely on the effects of NAAQS non-attainment designation on various economic outcomes. Additionally, previous studies ignore the potentiality of regulatory spillover, i.e., abatement for one pollutant decreasing emissions of other, non-regulated pollutants, from the NAAQS. In this paper, we first examine the actions of plant managers who face varying degrees of regulatory oversight. We then estimate the differential effects of the NAAQS and NSR on emissions at coal-fired power plants, while also examining spillover effects. Collectively, this study adds to the literature on environmental regulation in two key ways. First, we use comprehensive data on facility-level NSR permit receipt to examine the differential effects of the NAAQS on plants regulated jointly by NSR and NAAQS non-attainment and those plants regulated only by NAAQS non-attainment. We investigate how the monitoring of areas with non-attainment designation leads to the avoidance of regulatory scrutiny by local plants and find that regulated facilities not subjected to the technological requirements of NSR decreased NO x emissions by 20%. We also examine the mechanisms through which this abatement occurs, e.g., technology, use of cleaner inputs. Second, we identify the spillover effects of the NAAQS for certain pollutants by examining the effects of disparate non-attainment designations from the emissions in question. We find a significant decrease in NO x and CO 2 emissions as a result of carbon monoxide and SO 2 -affected non-attainment designation, respectively. We provide evidence that regulatory spillover in this case is the result of different emission control strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines participation in EPA's 33/50 program to assess the potential for voluntary environmental regulation to achieve improvements in environmental performance. The program's goal is to reduce the releases and transfers of 17 toxic chemicals by 50 percent between 1988 and 1995. The results indicate that the program has strong potential because large firms with the greatest toxic releases are most likely to participate. The results also identify a demand-based participation incentive, since participation rates are higher in industries with greater consumer contact. This suggests that public recognition is key to improving the success of voluntary environmental regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Examine the effectiveness of environmental enforcement in the Marcellus Shale. • Employ a three-level Hierarchical Linear Model to analyze gas wells' environmental non-compliance behaviors. • Previous inspection and punishment significantly affect current compliance of shale gas wells. • Inspection frequency and punishment severity could be increased. Abstract The rapid development of shale gas in the United States raises potential concerns about environmental impacts. This paper examines how environmental regulations are enforced in shale gas development in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale development and the resulting compliance behaviors, employing the economic literature of crime and punishment as the analytical framework. A three-level hierarchical linear model (HLM) is used to analyze the enforcement and compliance performance of regulators and shale gas operators, respectively, employing data spanning from 2011 to 2017. Significant variation in the environmental non-compliance exists between both wells and operators. The empirical results suggest progressive directions for adjusting environmental enforcement strategies in Pennsylvania and provide implications and references for other regions with similar shale gas ambitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compare the welfare effects in equilibrium of two environmental regulations that aim at increasing the new cars fleet's average fuel efficiency: the fuel economy standards and the feebate policies. Maintaining the same environmental benefit and tax revenue, we simulate each policy in France and the US. Standard‐type policies have larger negative welfare effects, up to 1.7 times those from the feebate. Effects on manufacturers are heterogeneous: some are better off under the feebate. A market to trade levels of fuel efficiency dominates the simple standard regulation and the feebate. We also consider the attribute‐based standard and technological improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mid 1800's, the California gold rush ushered in a new era of industry to the farming communities of the Sacramento Valley. This influx of people, capital, and technological innovation also brought with it significant pollution that nearly destroyed the agricultural value of the region. After decades of being inundated with debris cast off by the gold mining encampments operating upstream, local landowner Edward Woodruff brought suit seeking to enjoin the mining companies from discarding their debris into the area's waterways. The decision that followed brought gold mining in the region to a halt and set the stage for the federal government to enter the field of environmental regulation. Though Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Co. has largely been ignored, it marks a significant step toward the regime of environmental regulation that we know today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Edwards Aquifer Authority v. Bragg, the Court of Appeals of Texas, San Antonio held that the Edwards Aquifer Authority's water well permitting plan amounted to a compensable taking of a pecan farmer's private property. The court determined that the water regulation was so onerous that it was analogous to physical seizure of property by eminent domain. In its analysis, however, the court fatally misapplied the multi-part Penn Central test. The court implicitly framed the four Penn Central factors as elements instead of utilizing a more appropriate holistic balancing test. Framing the test in such a way improperly stacks the deck in favor of the private interest. If other courts adopt the Bragg version of the Penn Central test, "regulatory takings" will expand beyond their reasonable bounds as a cause of action and disastrously undermine states' ability to implement environmental regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]