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Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) provides opportunities for scholars and students to respond directly to community needs; students also practice critical thinking, problem-solving, and conflict-resolution skills necessary for professional life and engaged citizenship. The challenges of involving undergraduate students in CBPR include the need for on-going training due to student turnover and mismatches among scholars' research agendas, campus calendars and community action timelines. We assess these challenges in the context of a yearlong CBPR project that examined the social and environmental impacts of warehousing in Inland Southern California. We found that matching new students with experienced team members and collaborative discussions of quarterly reports with our community partners helped to train and integrate students as they joined the project throughout the year. This practice also helped to reduce scheduling conflicts and ensure healthy and productive relationships with our community partners.

Environmental justice advocates often argue that environmental hazards and their health effects vary by neighborhood, income, and race. To assess these patterns and advance preventive policy, their colleagues in the research world often use complex and methodologically sophisticated statistical and geospatial techniques. One way to bridge the gap between the technical work and the expert knowledge of local residents is through community-based participatory research strategies. We document how an environmental justice screening method was coupled with "ground-truthing"--a project in which community members worked with researchers to collect data across six Los Angeles neighborhoods--which demonstrated the clustering of potentially hazardous facilities, high levels of air pollution, and elevated health risks. We discuss recommendations and implications for future research and collaborations between researchers and community-based organizations.

A pervasive problem in estimating the costs of pollution is that optimizing individuals may compensate for increases in pollution by reducing their exposure, resulting in estimates that understate the full welfare costs. To account for this issue, measurement error, and environmental confounding, we estimate the health effects of ozone using daily boat traffic at the port of Los Angeles as an instrumental variable for ozone. We estimate that ozone causes at least $44 million in annual costs in Los Angeles from respiratory related hospitalizations alone and that the cost of avoidance behavior is at least $11 million per year. (Contains 5 tables, 3 figures and 38 footnotes.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of a sustainability network at a large California public university, as an example of organizational change. Design/methodology/approach: The paper combines participant observation and case study techniques over a three-year period. From 2007 to 2010, the author helped found the university's Institute for Sustainability and sat on both the Institute's first Advisory Board and the university's first Core Green Team. The author also interviewed 19 key informants to the sustainability network, including upper administrators, physical plant management (PPM) staff, faculty, and students. Findings: This campus sustainability initiative evolved over three decades in three phases. Phase I evolved from the 1980s in facilities management and student recycling because of changing environmental demands, the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and strong leadership who believed in developing human resources. In Phase II, faculty and Academic Affairs established the Institute for Sustainability. Phase III examines the current state at May 2010. Forces driving change include leaders' core values, incentives, communication, and community outreach. Forces inhibiting change relate to funding, information, policies, shared values, time, and training. Key informants defined success in campus sustainability as actions which: increase efficiency (and reduce waste); educate and prepare graduates for a fundamentally different world; achieve broad-based support; and improve the university's sustainability image. Research limitations/implications: This study points to at least four avenues of future research. One, scholars interested in more completely revealing their organization's sustainability network can map it using social network analysis techniques. Two, scholars could seek to answer the extent to which a campus institute becomes a center of gravity or an excuse for others to step away. Three, scholars can directly measure the four parameters of success respondents in this study identified (increase efficiency/reduce waste, educate/prepare graduates, achieve broad-based support, improve image). And four, scholars can examine how an organization's commitment to recycling affects its image. Originality/value: This paper provides a longitudinal look at the evolution of a campus sustainability network. It highlights how sustainability efforts evolve in different parts of the university at different rates, and in the present case how PPM and facilities planning influenced Academic Affairs to embrace sustainability. (Contains 29 notes, 7 tables, and 1 figure.)

Jurisdictions are in the process of establishing regulatory systems to control greenhouse gas emissions. Short-term and sometimes long-term emissions reduction goals are established, as California does for 2020 and 2050, but little attention has yet been focused on annual emissions targets for the intervening years. We develop recommendations for how these annual targets--which we collectively term a "compliance pathway"--can be set, as well as what flexibility sources should have to adjust in light of cost uncertainties. Environmental effectiveness, efficiency, equity, adaptability, and encouraging global participation are appropriate criteria by which these intertemporal policy alternatives should be judged. Limited but useful knowledge about costs leads us to recommend a compliance pathway characterized by increasing incremental reductions along it. This can be approximated by discrete linear segments, which may fit better with global negotiations. Although the above conclusion applies to any long-term GHG regulatory program, many jurisdictions will rely heavily on a cap-and-trade system, and the same pathway recommendation applies to its time schedule of allowances. Furthermore, borrowing constraints in cap-and-trade systems can impose substantial unnecessary costs. To avoid most of these costs, we recommend that sources be allowed early use of limited percentages of allowances intended for future years. We also find that a three-year compliance period can have substantial benefit over a one-year period. (Contains 2 tables, 4 figures and 46 footnotes.)

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) increasingly is being used to study and address environmental justice. This article presents the results of a cross-site case study of four CBPR partnerships in the United States that researched environmental health problems and worked to educate legislators and promote relevant public policy. The authors focus on community and partnership capacity within and across sites, using as a theoretical framework Goodman and his colleagues' dimensions of community capacity, as these were tailored to environmental health by Freudenberg, and as further modified to include partnership capacity within a systems perspective. The four CBPR partnerships examined were situated in New York, California, Oklahoma, and North Carolina and were part of a larger national study. Case study contexts and characteristics, policy-related outcomes, and findings related to community and partnership capacity are presented, with implications drawn for other CBPR partnerships with a policy focus. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

The human response to an environmental hazard can either reduce or exacerbate its impact on health. This article reviews determinants of community-level responses to environmental health hazards. The aim is to identify factors that can enhance a community's capacity to protect itself and to suggest public health strategies that can increase such capacity. Four case histories of community environmental health action are presented to test a theoretical model for understanding the determinants of community capacity to promote environmental health. Specific actions public health professionals can take to strengthen community capacity include increasing access to accurate science, building strong relationships between communities and local health departments, and supporting political reforms that level the playing field for communities that seek to challenge corporate or government practices. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

Public policymaking and implementation in the United States are increasingly handled through local, consensus-seeking partnerships involving most affected stakeholders. This paper formalizes the concept of a stakeholder partnership, and proposes techniques for using interviews, surveys, and documents to measure each of six evaluation criteria. Then the criteria are applied to 44 watershed partnerships in California and Washington. The data suggest that each criterion makes a unique contribution to the overall evaluation, and together the criteria reflect a range of partnership goals--both short-term and long-term, substantive and instrumental. Success takes time--frequently about 48 months to achieve major milestones, such as formal agreements and implementation of restoration, education, or monitoring projects. Stakeholders perceive that their partnerships have been most effective at addressing local problems and at addressing serious problems--not just uncontroversial issues, as previously hypothesized. On the other hand, they perceive that partnerships have occasionally aggravated problems involving the economy, regulation, and threats to property rights. (Contains 4 tables, 7 figures and 14 footnotes.)

Cannabis legalization is spreading rapidly. In California, as the plant transitions from an illegal drug to agricultural product, regulations have been implemented to manage its production and associated environmental impacts. Yet, at the early stages of this process, many of the state's cannabis farmers continue to operate illicitly. This study examines why some cannabis farmers are engaging in the state's licensing initiative while others are not. Through an anonymous survey of cannabis farmers in California, we analyzed socio-normative and cost-related factors influencing farmers' decisions to participate in legal markets, or not. Approximately one third of the 362 cannabis farmers who completed the survey reported that they had never applied for a license. These non-compliant farmers were likely to be smaller cultivators who grew cannabis as part of a diversified livelihood strategy. Farmers' non-compliance was primarily attributed to an inability to overcome barriers to participation. These included not only financial barriers but also administrative and psychological ones, all of which disproportionately affect farmers with fewer resources. Socio-normative factors, including pressure from neighbors and perspectives on the benefits of environmental regulations, were not found to motivate non-compliance. As a result, policy efforts to mitigate the administrative burdens of compliance, such as streamlining permitting processes, extending agricultural support services, and supporting farmer collectives, warrant further attention to enhance compliance, public safety, environmental outcomes, and rural development in cannabis cultivating communities. Reforms to promote compliance, particularly among smaller farmers, may prevent the kinds of industrial consolidation seen in agricultural and in other governmental efforts to regulate informal resource use and trade. • California's cannabis policies hold farmers to high environmental standards. • Despite legalization many cannabis farmers engage in illicit, informal economies. • A survey of 362 cannabis farmers examined compliance motivations and barriers. • Compliance costs and administrative burdens were primary barriers to compliance. • These costs exclude smaller farms from legal markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional account of most U.S. environmental regulation goes something like this: cooperative federalism schemes accommodate state and federal interests while tapping into the respective strengths of centralized and decentralized regulation. In cooperative federalism arrangements, the federal government sets minimum environmental standards and invites the states to participate in achieving them, even by setting their own more stringent standards. In recent years, however, states and the federal government have displayed a distinct lack of cooperation on environmental matters. With increasing frequency, they turn to the courts to resolve environmental policy disagreements. Under the Obama Administration, Texas emerged as a leading litigant in opposition to federal environmental policies. Under the Trump Administration, California has assumed a similar role. Though these recent suits have attracted much attention, state-versus-federal lawsuits are not a new phenomenon. As this Article demonstrates, states and the federal government have clashed in the courts almost since the beginning of the modern era of environmental law. State-initiated environmental lawsuits against the federal government can be sorted into three categories: (1) challenges to the federal government's handling of public resources, (2) disputes over state prerogatives under cooperative federalism statutes and preemption provisions, and (3) litigation over national policy. Suits in the third category, which have exploded in recent years, have raised the greatest concerns about state standing and the appropriateness of such suits. Standing doctrine, however, generally does not bar such suits, and these suits may not be as problematic as might first appear. Even if states did not sue, private parties would likely challenge the same federal actions. Rather than causing political polarization, state suits are more likely a symptom of an already polarized society. Ultimately, state suits against the federal government might be viewed not as a problem, but as an important mechanism for articulating states' concerns, promoting accountability, and maintaining checks and balances against excessive federal power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on assessing a policy for reallocation of Colorado River water for major stakeholders in the state of California, to set a standard for sustainable long-term public and environmental use. We address the policy of allocating scarce water resources to competing stakeholders of different sectors in the Salton Sea region under over-committed water rights agreement. We determine the value of water applied to the agricultural, urban and tourist sectors to estimate the regional welfare under different allocation frameworks. We use two models for allocation: one involving a social planner approach that maximizes regional welfare, the second focusing on the bankruptcy rules of proportional deficit (cutback), and constrained equal award. We find the proportional cutback framework to be less conducive to regional welfare, although it presents a more politically feasible and robust option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food production including dairy has been associated with environmental impacts and resource use that has been steadily improving when adjusted per unit of product. The objective of this study was to conduct a cradle-to-farm gate environmental impact analysis and resource inventory of the California dairy production system to estimate the change in greenhouse gas emissions and water and land use over the 50-yr period between 1964 and 2014. Using a life cycle assessment according to international standards and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations guidelines, we analyzed contributions from dairy production in California to global environmental change. Production of 1 kg of energy- and protein-corrected milk (ECM) in California emitted 1.12 to 1.16 kg of CO 2 equivalents (CO 2 e) in 2014 compared with 2.11 kg of CO 2 e in 1964, a reduction of 45.0 to 46.9% over the last 50 yr, depending on the model used. Greater reductions in enteric methane intensity (i.e., methane production per kilogram of ECM) were observed (reduction of 54.1 to 55.7%) compared with manure GHG (reduction of 8.73 to 11.9%) in 2014 compared with 1964. This was mainly because manure management in the state relies on lagoons for storage, which has a greater methane conversion factor than solid manure storage. Water use intensity was reduced by 88.1 to 89.9%, with water reductions of 88.7 to 90.5% in crop production, 55.3 to 59.2% in housing and milking, and 52.4 to 54% in free water intake. Improved crop genetics and management have contributed to large efficiencies in water utilization. Land requirements for crop production were reduced by 89.4 to 89.7% in 2014 compared with 1964. This was mainly due to dramatic increases in crop yields in the last 50 yr. The increases in milk production per cow through genetic improvements and better nutrition and animal care have contributed to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and land and water usage when calculated per unit of production (intensity) basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes and explains why the state of California has long played a leadership role in adopting innovative and stringent environmental standards. It argues that critical roles have been played by the state's attractive natural environment, the extent of threats to its environmental quality, the material interest of citizens in protecting the natural environmental around where they lived, and the support of business interests who stood to benefit from protecting the state's many environmental amenities. These dynamics are illustrated by several historical examples, which have laid the basis for the state's current environmental policy initiatives. It concludes by generalizing from the experiences of California in order to explore the role of politics and public policies in promoting more sustainable business practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

California's low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) was designed to incentivize a diverse array of available strategies for reducing transportation greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It provides strong incentives for fuels with lower GHG emissions, while explicitly requiring a 10% reduction in California's transportation fuel GHG intensity by 2020. This paper investigates the potential for cost-effective GHG reductions from electrification and expanded use of biofuels. The analysis indicates that fuel providers could meet the standard using a portfolio approach that employs both biofuels and electricity, which would reduce the risks and uncertainties associated with the progress of cellulosic and battery technologies, feedstock prices, land availability, and the sustainability of the various compliance approaches. Our analysis is based on the details of California's development of as LCFS; however, this research approach could be generalizable to a national U.S. standard and to similar programs in Europe end Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the adoption of Low Carbon Fuel Standard by the California Air Resources Board in Sacramento, California. It mentions that the standard mandates a 10% reduction in the carbon content of transportation fuels sold in California by 2020. It adds that the adoption of the regulation is part of the state's effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020. It also states that the standard is the first in the world and is said to serve as an example for federal policy.