Clean Air Act

The economic literature supports the case that an emissions excise tax is one of the most costeffective approaches to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun the process of regulating GHG emissions under section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act. Under this provision, EPA issues an emission guideline for states based on the agency's assessment of the best system of emission reduction (BSER) for a particular type of stationary air pollution source. States then develop compliance plans that include standards of performance for pollution sources that reflect the BSER and are consistent with the emission guideline. The states submit these compliance plans to EPA for approval. This paper walks through the legal framework to show that EPA can allow states to adopt a tax on carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) or other GHGs as a standard of performance. We also show that EPA can encourage this approach by providing the states with model tax levels and compliance schedules in its emission guideline. We conclude that a state-level carbon tax is a viable legal mechanism for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other stationary sources under the Clean Air Act.

This article explores Hawaiʻi’s environmental review framework as it applies to coastal highways threatened by climate change, sea level rise, and shoreline erosion. Focusing on the Kalepa v. Department of Transportation case over proposed seawall construction along the Honoapiʻilani Highway in West Maui, it analyzes how Hawaiʻi’s Constitution and Chapter 343 of the Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes govern state agencies’ obligations to fully assess environmental and cultural impacts. The discussion highlights key issues of improper project segmentation, supplemental review, and the limits of emergency proclamations. Federal law—particularly NEPA and Federal Highway Administration regulations—is not the focus but serves as a comparative reference to illustrate how federal doctrines on segmentation, tiering, and supplementation can clarify and strengthen Hawaiʻi’s own review requirements. Ultimately, the article argues that state-level environmental protections, informed by federal interpretive guidance, must evolve to support comprehensive, climate-adaptive planning for Hawaiʻi’s vulnerable coastal highways.

The project team reviewed relevant literature and conducted an internet scan of GIS applications that relate to climate change to identify potential case studies. The case studies presented are based on telephone discussions that the project team held with project contacts, as well as relevant supplemental materials that interviewees provided. Interview contacts reviewed draft case studies to suggest revisions and provide additional information as needed. The Volpe Center project team wishes to thank the staff members from the organizations across the country that provided their insights for and review of this report. The time they graciously provided was fundamental in preparing the case studies presented. Contributors are listed in Appendix A. Global climate change's potential impacts on infrastructure create some of the most significant and challenging issues facing transportation planners and asset managers today. Despite uncertainty regarding the scope and magnitude of futu...

This essay is written in Persian language and examines house arrest as an alternative to traditional imprisonment, with a focus on Iran. It reviews its legal and theoretical bases, practical benefits such as reduced costs and preservation of family ties, and drawbacks including privacy concerns and limited deterrence.
بررسی مبانی حقوقی و تئوری حبس خانگی به همراه مزایا و چالش های ان در حقوق ایران

We examine the effects of total suspended particulates (TSPs) air pollution on infant health using the air quality improvements induced by the 1970 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA). This legislation imposed strict regulations on industrial polluters in "nonattainment" counties with TSPs concentrations exceeding the federal ceiling. We use nonattainment status as an instrumental variable for TSPs changes to estimate their impact on infant mortality changes in the first year that the 1970 CAAA was in force. TSPs nonattainment status is associated with sharp reductions in both TSPs pollution and infant mortality from 1971 to 1972. The greater reductions in nonattainment counties near the federal ceiling relative to the "attainment" counties narrowly below the ceiling suggest that the regulations are the cause. We estimate that a one percent decline in TSPs results in a 0.5 percent decline in the infant mortality rate. Most of these effects are driven by a reduction in deaths occurring within one month of birth, suggesting that fetal exposure is a potential biological pathway. The results imply that roughly 1,300 fewer infants died in 1972 than would have in the absence of the Clean Air Act.

The National Environmental Standards and Regulations Agency (NESREA) was established by the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (Establishment) Act No. 25 of 31st of July 2007 as stated in the Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette No. 92.
It has as the mandate of NESREA the establishment of the national environmental standards and regulations enforcement agency, functions and powers of the Agency and Council, structure of the Agency, staff of the Agency, and powers to enter. These are discussed by this article which seeks to answer the question whether the NESREA Act is a lame statute? In effect the focus of the article is to examine the content of the Act with the conclusion whether the Act is ineffectual or otiose.

In the 1990's, the proposed use of methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (MMT) as an octane-enhancing gasoline fuel additive led to concerns for potential public health consequences from exposure to manganese (Mn) combustion products in automotive exhaust. After a series of regulatory / legal actions and negotiations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued under Clean Air Act (CAA) section 211(b) an Alternative Tier 2 Test Rule that required development of scientific information intended to help resolve uncertainties in exposure or health risk estimates associated with MMT use. Among the uncertainties identified were: the chemical forms of Mn emitted in automotive exhaust; the relative toxicity of different Mn species; the potential for exposure among sensitive subpopulations including females, the young and elderly; differences in sensitivity between test species and humans; differences between inhalation and oral exposures; and the influence of dose rate and exposure duration on tissue accumulation of Mn. It was anticipated that development of specific sets of pharmacokinetic (PK) information and models regarding Mn could help resolve many of the identified uncertainties and serve as the best foundation for available data integration. The results of the test program included development of several unique Mn datasets, and a series of increasingly sophisticated Mn physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models. These data and models have helped address each of the uncertainties originally identified in the Test Rule. The output from these PBPK models were used by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in 2012 to inform the selection of uncertainty factors for deriving the manganese Minimum Risk Level (MRL) for chronic exposure durations. The EPA used the MRL in the Agency's 2015 evaluation of potential residual risks of airborne manganese released from ferroalloys production plants.

Hazardous chemicals are identified in the ambient air of workplaces, schools, and communities and in drinking water and food supplies. Chemical exposures have been linked to many recognized public health problems, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and obesity. Workers in industrial and agricultural settings, and socially disadvantaged populations, face disproportionately greater chemical exposures. Moreover, sensitive subpopulations, such as children, pregnant women, and individuals with chronic medical conditions, face increased risks from exposures. Although knowledge about the impact of chemical exposure on public health has advanced dramatically in the last few decades, the primary federal law governing chemical safety, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), has not been amended significantly since its adoption in 1976. Lisa Jackson, the former Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), identified comprehensive reform of the TSCA ...

Data on GDP per capita and sulfur emissions for twelve European countries were analyzed to determine the relationship between emissions and income in these countries. As a whole, the relationship between sulfur emissions and per capita income is a fourth order polynomial and not a quadratic one as found in most studies. When countries were examined individually, seven out of the twelve countries depicted the same relationship. Looking closely at the regulations restricting sulfur emissions in the UK, the impact of all regulations supported the inverted U-shaped Kuznets curve. Individually, however, it is found that only two regulations have statistically significant impacts: Smoke Abatement Act in 1926 (reduced the amount of sulfur associated with a given level of GDP); and Clean Air Act in 1956 (increased the amount of sulfur emissions associated with a given level of GDP).

Reverse commuting has been traditionally characterized by attempts to provide transportation to inner-city residents to worlcsites in suburiJan or outlying areas. In most metropolitan areas, however, the mobility needs of reverse commuters are comparable to those of any of segment of commuters --there are many origins an4 many destinations. In order to address these, there is a need for an approach that is not reliant upon one particular mode, such as vans, buses, and so on, but rather several commute alternatives. This report details the evolution of such an approach

Reverse commuting has been traditionally characterized by attempts to provide transportation to inner-city residents to worlcsites in suburiJan or outlying areas. In most metropolitan areas, however, the mobility needs of reverse commuters are comparable to those of any of segment of commuters --there are many origins an4 many destinations. In order to address these, there is a need for an approach that is not reliant upon one particular mode, such as vans, buses, and so on, but rather several commute alternatives. This report details the evolution of such an approach

From the later 19 th Century to the early 1970s the U.S. was consistently at the frontier of publicly relevant technology and policy. Groundbreaking environmental laws of the early 1970s continued this tradition. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 (CAA) and subsequent environmental laws made rapid progress against environmental pollution; the U.S. became the world leader in environmental policy. However, the CAA transformed the existing system of short laws and independent federal technical agencies that maintained cooperative relationships with states and the private sector. The CAA and subsequent laws gave command & control authority to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over all national activity related to environmental pollution. Adversarial regulatory provisions including citizen suit in federal court especially affected manufacturing and industry, the prime sources of pollution. The new laws promoted litigiousness and aroused antagonism in the business community. The results contributed to economic decline and exodus of business from manufacturing and industry to economic sectors less affected by the new regulations. Reacting to the developments and the stagflation of the 1970s, zealous officials in the first Reagan administration rolled back regulatory enforcement and controls on leasing of federal lands. This led to Congressional backlash. Conflict over environmental policy widened to partisan political polarization. In the 1980s the Democratic Party became the party of environment and the Republican Party became the party of business and industry. The rift led to Congressional gridlock, which continues to cripple the federal governmentʻs ability to address major national problems, including global climate change. The collision in the title refers to the conflict of powerful new environmental laws in the 1970s with economic development. It is suggested that to resolve polarization in U.S. society it will be necessary for the U.S. to move from command & control regulation and toward more cooperative environmental policies adopted by European nations. These have allowed Europe to become the world leader in global climate change performance and policy.

We exploit the structure of the Clean Air Act to provide new evidence on the capitalization of total suspended particulates (TSPs) air pollution into housing values. This legislation imposes strict regulations on polluters in "nonattainment" counties, which are defined by TSPs concentrations that exceed a federally set ceiling. TSPs nonattainment status is associated with large reductions in TSPs pollution and increases in county-level housing prices. When nonattainment status is used as an instrumental variable for TSPs, we find that the elasticity of housing values with respect to particulates concentrations range from -0.20 to -0.35. These estimates of the average marginal willingness-to-pay for clean air are far less sensitive to model specification than cross-sectional and fixed effects estimates, which occasionally have the "perverse" sign. We also find modest evidence that the marginal benefit of pollution reductions is lower in communities with relatively high pollution levels, which is consistent with preference-based sorting. Overall, the improvements in air quality induced by the mid-1970s TSPs nonattainment designation are associated with a $45 billion aggregate increase in housing values in nonattainment counties between 1970 and 1980.

In the 1990's, the proposed use of methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (MMT) as an octane-enhancing gasoline fuel additive led to concerns for potential public health consequences from exposure to manganese (Mn) combustion products in automotive exhaust. After a series of regulatory / legal actions and negotiations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued under Clean Air Act (CAA) section 211(b) an Alternative Tier 2 Test Rule that required development of scientific information intended to help resolve uncertainties in exposure or health risk estimates associated with MMT use. Among the uncertainties identified were: the chemical forms of Mn emitted in automotive exhaust; the relative toxicity of different Mn species; the potential for exposure among sensitive subpopulations including females, the young and elderly; differences in sensitivity between test species and humans; differences between inhalation and oral exposures; and the influence of dose rate and exposure duration on tissue accumulation of Mn. It was anticipated that development of specific sets of pharmacokinetic (PK) information and models regarding Mn could help resolve many of the identified uncertainties and serve as the best foundation for available data integration. The results of the test program included development of several unique Mn datasets, and a series of increasingly sophisticated Mn physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models. These data and models have helped address each of the uncertainties originally identified in the Test Rule. The output from these PBPK models were used by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in 2012 to inform the selection of uncertainty factors for deriving the manganese Minimum Risk Level (MRL) for chronic exposure durations. The EPA used the MRL in the Agency's 2015 evaluation of potential residual risks of airborne manganese released from ferroalloys production plants.

Tax revenues are one of the most important elements in the country's economic system and play a significant role in economic growth and prosperity. Vice versa, tax crimes have a destructive effect on economic security, expansion of economic activities and domestic or foreign investment, and slows down the movement of the country's economic system. The tax recidivism is one of the phenomena that can not only increase its destructive economic effects but also intensify the tax pressure on taxpayers. Taxpayers must perform several legal tasks in separate time frames in each fiscal year; but they usually refrain from doing some of their legal duties during this period of time. This issue always exposes them to recidivism. Therefore, the criminal tax policy was formulated for recidivism, but they are based on diverse approaches and sometimes conflict with the idea of deterring the tax recidivism by taxpayers and non-taxpayers. In the tax laws, there are two approaches in tax recidivism by taxpayers, including specific approach in recidivism and incomplete compliance with the idea of deterrence, and three approaches in tax recidivism by non-taxpayers including criminalization of tax recidivism violations, incomplete compliance, and non-compliance with this idea. However, the limitation on implementation of recidivism conditions, the imbalance in recidivism punishment, the ambiguity in its effects and in the punishment of temporary dismissal of the sixth degree, not only the regulations of tax recidivism have faced a challenge; Rather, there is no balance between the criminal policy of tax recidivism by taxpayers and non-taxpayers.
Keywords:  Tax Recidivism by Taxpayers  Tax Recidivism by Non-Taxpayers  Compliance Approach  Non-Compliance Approach  Special Approach

The EPA has designed a new call auction institution for trading allowances to emit sulfur dioxide. This paper reports twelve laboratory markets that investigate trader behavior in this new institution and evaluate its performance relative to the more commonly observed uniform price call market. We find that the uniform price call market (1) is more efficient, (2) induces more truthful revelation of underlying values and costs, (3) provides more accurate price information, and (4) is more responsive to and recovers more quickly from changes in underlying market conditions. All of these differences result from the intense strategic manipulation incentives of the EPA auction. Under -the EPA auction rules both buyers and sellers misrepresent their true value of the emission permits, which biases market-clearing prices downwards. This suggests that the EPA auction will provide poor price signals to the evolving allowance market.

We synthesize and review retrospective analyses of federal air quality regulations to examine the contributions of the Clean Air Act to the vast air quality improvements seen since 1970. Geographic heterogeneity in stringency affects emissions, public health, compliance costs, and employment. Cap-and-trade has delivered greater emission reductions at lower cost than conventional mandates, yet has fallen short of textbook ideals. Market power also influenced the CAA's benefits and costs. New benefit categories have been identified ex post, but specific technology requirements have not yet been rigorously evaluated. Comparisons of aggregate benefits and costs of the CAA are beyond present capabilities.

In this study, we sought to assess what portion, if any, of the reductions in ambient concentrations of particulate matter (PM*) < or = 2.5 microm in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5) that occurred in the United States between the years 1999 and 2006 can be attributed to reductions in emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) resulting from implementation of Phase 2 of Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. To this end, a detailed statistical model linking sources and monitors over time and space was used to estimate associations between the observed emissions reductions and improvements in air quality. Overall, it turned out to be quite feasible to use relatively transparent statistical methods to assess these outcomes of the Phase 2 program, which was designed to reduce long-range transport of emissions. Associations between changes in emissions from individual power plants and monitor-specific estimates of changes in concentrations of PM2.5, our indicator ...

Recent federal policy proposals to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), nitrogen oxides (NO x ), and mercury from the US electricity sector promise important improvements in air quality and reductions in acid deposition. The cost of achieving these reductions depends on the form and stringency of the regulation. In this research, we analyze the economic benefits and costs of the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) as characterized in the supplemental rule proposed in June 2004, and the Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR) as proposed in February 2004. The assessment integrates a model of the electricity sector, two models of atmospheric transport of air pollutants, and a model of environmental and public health endpoints affected by pollution. We model explicitly the emissions of SO 2 , NO x , mercury and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and the effects of changes in emissions of SO 2 and NO x on environmental and public health. The manner in which mercury emissions are regulated will have important implications not only for the cost of the regulation, but also for emission levels for SO 2 and NO x and where those emissions are located. We find the economic benefits of CAIR and CAMR are far greater than the costs. Recent estimates of benefits of reductions in mercury and acidification indicate that our model captures the lion's share of quantifiable benefits. We also find that the EPA would have been justified on economic grounds in pursuing additional SO 2 emissions reductions beyond the requirements of CAIR.

In recent years, federal courts have increasingly assessed the legality of regulatory action by considering its antecedents, or lack thereof, in prior agency actions. In several Supreme Court decisions-including the Court's recent opinions in which it expressly applied the major questions doctrine-a majority of justices have expressed skepticism of agency authority when "an agency claims to discover in a long-extant statute an unheralded power to regulate a significant portion of the American economy." District and appellate courts have relied on this language to strike down numerous agency actions dating back to 2014, and judicial scrutiny of regulatory antecedents has grown since the Supreme Court formalized the major questions doctrine in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency in 2022. Yet federal agencies have insufficiently adapted to this increased judicial focus on regulatory antecedents. While significant agency rulemakings typically include extensive dockets with many different types of analysis, they have generally provided limited analysis of regulatory antecedents. When agencies do provide relevant analysis, as they have for several recent proposals that have met objections under the major questions doctrine, such analysis often fails to catalog key regulatory antecedents or is insufficiently targeted at legal objections from opponents of the policy. In some actions, the only explicit discussion of the Supreme Court’s emphasis on agency exercise of “unheralded power” comes from dissenting commissioners on a multi-member agency. This Article recommends that agencies more extensively catalog regulatory antecedents at all stages of the rulemaking process, from drafting to promulgation. By assessing antecedents in regulatory proposals, agencies can more fully lay the foundation for their authority and facilitate targeted comments that consider whether the antecedents offered by the agency support the proposed action. This will enable an even more complete analysis of regulatory antecedents in the final rulemaking, which will provide government litigators with a roadmap for responding to claims that the agency action lacks precedent and thereby reduce the vulnerability of agency action under the major questions doctrine.

Wastewater management at coal-fired power plants is becoming a more prominent issue as additional emissions reduction equipment is used and regulations become more stringent. Wastewater derived from the flue-gas desulfurization process (FGD WW) is typically high in halides and has few cost-effective options for treatment and disposal. New regulatory limitations on FGD WW discharge may require water treatment facilities at many electrical generating units. The need to investigate alternative approaches for disposal of FGD WW has therefore acquired new urgency. Solid-phase wastewater sequestration has been proposed as a potential breakthrough approach to FGD WW management. Sequestration is achieved by wastewater encapsulation within a cementitious, thixotropic paste consisting of concentrated wastewater, coal combustion by-products (fly ash), and binders that sets into a monolithic solid after emplacement within a landfill cell. To assist in analysis of ongoing encapsulation studies, ...

As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump promised to curtail federal environmental regulation and empower the states. Has the Trump Administration made good on these pledges to reinvigorate cooperative federalism and constrain environmental regulatory overreach by the federal government? Perhaps less than one would think. This Essay provides a critical assessment of the Trump Administration's approach to environmental federalism. Despite the Administration's embrace of "cooperative federalism" rhetoric, environmental policy reforms have not consistently embodied a principled approach to environmental federalism in which the state and federal governments are each encouraged to focus resources on areas of comparative advantage.

Under Executive Order 12898, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must perform environmental justice (EJ) reviews of its rules and regulations. EJ analyses address the hypothesis that environmental disamenities are experienced disproportionately by poor and/or minority subgroups. Such analyses typically use communities as the unit of analysis. While community-based approaches make sense when considering where polluting sources locate, they are less appropriate for national air quality rules affecting many sources and pollutants that can travel thousands of miles. We compare exposures and health risks of EJ-identified individuals rather than communities to analyze EPA's Heavy Duty Diesel (HDD) rule as an example national air quality rule. Air pollutant exposures are estimated within grid cells by air quality models; all individuals in the same grid cell are assigned the same exposure. Using an inequality index, we find that inequality within racial/ethnic subgroups far outweighs inequality between them. We find, moreover, that the HDD rule leaves between-subgroup inequality essentially unchanged. Changes in health risks depend also on subgroups' baseline incidence rates, which differ across subgroups. Thus, health risk reductions may not follow the same pattern as reductions in exposure. These results are likely representative of other national air quality rules as well.

Under Executive Order 12898, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must perform environmental justice (EJ) reviews of its rules and regulations. EJ analyses address the hypothesis that environmental disamenities are experienced disproportionately by poor and/or minority subgroups. Such analyses typically use communities as the unit of analysis. While community-based approaches make sense when considering where polluting sources locate, they are less appropriate for national air quality rules affecting many sources and pollutants that can travel thousands of miles. We compare exposures and health risks of EJ-identified individuals rather than communities to analyze EPA's Heavy Duty Diesel (HDD) rule as an example national air quality rule. Air pollutant exposures are estimated within grid cells by air quality models; all individuals in the same grid cell are assigned the same exposure. Using an inequality index, we find that inequality within racial/ethnic subgroups far outweighs inequality between them. We find, moreover, that the HDD rule leaves between-subgroup inequality essentially unchanged. Changes in health risks depend also on subgroups' baseline incidence rates, which differ across subgroups. Thus, health risk reductions may not follow the same pattern as reductions in exposure. These results are likely representative of other national air quality rules as well.

As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump promised to curtail federal environmental regulation and empower the states. Has the Trump Administration made good on these pledges to reinvigorate cooperative federalism and constrain environmental regulatory overreach by the federal government? Perhaps less than one would think. This Essay provides a critical assessment of the Trump Administration's approach to environmental federalism. Despite the Administration's embrace of "cooperative federalism" rhetoric, environmental policy reforms have not consistently embodied a principled approach to environmental federalism in which the state and federal governments are each encouraged to focus resources on areas of comparative advantage.

In American Electric Power v. Connecticut, 1 the Supreme Court confronted climate change litigation for the second time in five years. The Court's previous foray into this terrain yielded 2007's Massachusetts v. EPA, easily one of the most consequential decisions of the Roberts Court. In Massachusetts, a closely divided Court rebuked the Environmental Protection Agency for denying it had the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and propped open the courthouse doors to future climate litigation. 2 In the wake of Massachusetts, EPA regulation of greenhouse gases proliferated, 3 and warmingbased litigation blossomed. 4 The Court was cooler to global warming claims the second time around. In AEP, a unanimous Court hewed closely to well-settled precedent, turning down an ambitious effort to turn the federal

During his campaign for the White House, Barack Obama called for decisive action to address the threat of global climate change. Specifically, then-Senator Obama called for reducing, by 2050, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States by 80% through the imposition of a "cap-and-trade" regime. 1 He pledged that, as President, legislation to achieve this goal would be among his top priorities. Congressional leaders also endorsed decisive action on climate change. In 2009, the House of Representatives enacted a far-reaching climate bill that included a cap-and-trade system and endorsed the 80% reduction goaP The Senate refused to follow suit, however, and it appears unlikely that a cap-andtrade bill or other meaningful climate legislation will pass Congress in the next two years. But the death of cap-and-trade does not mean the death of greenhouse gas regulation. *Professor of Law and Director, Center for Business Law & Regulation, Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Thanks to Daniel Smith for his research assistance.

The Strome College of Business and Old Dominion University continue to provide support for the State of the Commonwealth Report. However, it would not appear without the vital backing of the private donors whose names appear below. They believe in the Commonwealth and the power of rational discussion to improve our circumstances, but are not responsible for the views expressed in the report.

Recent legislation and fiscal trends in Flodda and nationwide have created a unique combination of constraints and opportunities, providing an impetus for examining the way Florida cOnducts transponation planning. In response to these challenges, the Florida Legislature and the Governor's Office directed the Center for Ut•ban Transportation Research (CUTR) to undertake the State Transportation Policy Initiative (STPI). The purpose of this multi-phase study is to examine current tr~nsportation planni1)g... growth management. and transportation funding practices in Florida and to develop recommendations that can be the bases of future legislative initiatives, agency rules, and better planning practice.

A strong consensus is emerging that changes in technology, environmental conditions, demographics and associated travel choices, global trade and security, and transportation funding increase risks in long-range transportation planning. These factors are creating a need to develop a diverse set of alternative future scenarios that address these risks and their timing. This report summarizes the research that is presented in four previous technical memoranda that document the risks associated with these risk categories as a part of the update of the Florida Transportation Plan (FTP). In this report, we first define the terms associated with risk assessment, in particular, vulnerability, target/asset, threat, likelihood, consequences, and risk. We then summarize the risks associated with these uncertainties, vulnerabilities, assets affected, the level of vulnerability and the consequences associated with these five broad sources of transportation risk: population, demographics, and migration; economics and revenues; environment; technology; and global issues including security. We then explore the uncertainty leading to risk and the consequences for each of the five risks associated with the FTP: Return to Historic Growth, Rural Rediscovery, Global Trade Hub, Innovation Hub, and Risks on the Horizon. We develop a risk matrix for each of the five broad categories of risk that summarizes the likelihood, frequency, vulnerability, thresholds and consequences of risks. We end the document with examples of best practices from other U.S. states and recommendations for the FDOT to incorporate into the update of the FTP.

: Pursuant to provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). 42 U.S. Code 4321 et seq .. implementing Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Regulations. 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 1500-1508. Air Force Instruction (AFI) 32-706L entitled Environmental Impact Analysis Process. as amended by the interim change dated March 12. 2003. which adopted 32 CFR Part 989. the Air Force conducted an assessment of the potential environmental consequences of constructing a waterline approximately 7 miles long to service Space Launch Complex (SLC)-4. SLC-5. and SLC-6 on Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB). California. Vandenberg AFB is headquarters to the 30th Space Wing. the Air Force Space Command unit that operates Vandenberg AFB and the Western Range. Vandenberg AFB operates as a missile test base and aerospace center. supporting west coast space launch activities for the Air Force. Department of Defense. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. and commercial contractor...

: Pursuant to provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 42 United States Code 4321 et seq., implementing Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Regulations, 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 1500-1508, and 32 CFR Part 989, Environmental Impact Analysis Process, the United States Air Force (Air Force) conducted an assessment of the potential environmental consequences associated with the Western Range Instrumentation Modernization Program on Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB), and Pillar Point Air Force Station (AFS), California. The 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg AFB operates the Western Launch and Test Range (Western Range). The Western Range begins at the coastal boundaries of Vandenberg AFB and extends westward to the Marshall Islands, including sites in Hawaii. It provides for the safe and effective launch, testing and tracking of Department of Defense, civil, commercial, and international space lift vehicles, in addition to conducting ballistic missile, guided ...

This study quantifies the cost savings from the Acid Rain Program (ARP) compared with a command-and-control alternative and also examines the impact of trading under the ARP on health damages. To quantify cost savings, we compare compliance costs for non-NSPS (New Source Performance Standards) coal-fired Electricity Generating Units (EGUs) under the ARP with compliance costs under a uniform performance standard that achieves the same aggregate emissions. We do this for the year 2002, the third year of Phase II of the program. We find annual cost savings of approximately $250 million (1995$). To examine the health effects of trading, we compute the health damages associated with observed sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from all units regulated under the ARP in 2002—approximately 10.2 million tons—and compare them with damages from a No-Trade counterfactual in which each unit emits SO2 at a rate equal to its allocation of permits for the year 2002, plus any drawdown of its allowance ba...

1,3-Butadiene, classi"ed as hazardous in the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, is an important ambient air pollutant. Understanding its atmospheric transformation is useful for its own sake, and is also helpful for eliciting isoprene's fate in the atmosphere (isoprene dominates the biogenic emissions in US). In this paper, samples from both hydroxyl-and ozone-initiated photooxidation of 1,3-butadiene were analyzed by derivatization with O-(2,3,4,5,6-penta#uorobenzyl)hydroxylamine followed by separation and detection by gas chromatography/ion trap mass spectrometry to detect and identify carbonyl compounds. The following carbonyls were observed: formaldehyde, acrolein, glycolaldehyde, glycidaldehyde, 3-hydroxy-propanaldehyde, hydroxy acetone, and malonaldehyde, which can be classi"ed into three categories: epoxy carbonyls, hydroxyl carbonyls, and di-carbonyls. Three non-carbonyls, furan, 1,3-buatdiene monoxide, and 1,3-butadiene diepoxide, were also found. To con"rm their identities, both commercially available and synthesized standards were used. To investigate the mechanism of 1,3-butadiene, separate batch reactor experiments for acrolein and 1,3-butadiene monoxide were carried out. Time series samples for several products were also taken. When necessary, computational chemistry methods were also employed. Based on these results, various schemes for the reaction mechanism are proposed.

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Air & Waste Management Association, this review examines the history of air quality management (AQM) in the United States over the last century, with an emphasis on the ambient standards programs established by the landmark 1970 Clean Air Act (CAA) Amendments. The current CAA system is a hybrid of several distinct air pollution control philosophies, including the recursive or circular system driven by ambient standards. Although this evolving system has resulted in tremendous improvements in air quality, it has been far from perfect in terms of timeliness and effectiveness. The paper looks at several periods in the history of the U.S. program, including: (1) 1900-1970, spanning the early smoke abatement and smog control programs, the first federal involvement, and the development of a hybrid AQM approach in the 1970 CAA; (2) 1971-1976, when the first National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) were set and implemented; (3) 1977-1993, a period of the first revisions to the standards, new CAA Amendments, delays in implementation and decision-making, and key science/policy/legislative developments that would alter both the focus and scale of air pollution programs and how they are implemented; and (4) 1993-2006, the second and third wave of NAAQS revisions and their implementation in the context of the 1990 CAA. This discussion examines where NAAQS have helped drive implementation programs and how improvements in both effects and air quality/control sciences influenced policy and legislation to enhance the effectiveness of the system over time. The review concludes with a look toward the future of AQM, emphasizing challenges and ways to meet them. The most significant of these is the need to make more efficient progress toward air quality goals, while adjusting the system to address the growing intersections between air quality management and climate change.

Although the Clean Air Act is an imperfect tool for addressing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, it is the only available federal mechanism for directly addressing power plant carbon emissions. The Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan, published in final form in August 2015, tackles the challenge. This paper from the Center for Progressive Reform (CPR) compiles 13 separately authored essays from 11 CPR Member Scholars, each addressing a different topic related to the Clean Power Plan, and each representing the expertise and views of its individual author(s). Published in July 2015, just before the release of the final rule, the essays tee up key questions about the rule’s legality, implications for the energy sector, and a series of discrete implementation questions, including the role of cap-and-trade (and offsets), the nature and distribution of state targets, and implications for environmental justice.

The ability to participate in grassroots organizing derives implicitly from the Constitution’s declaration of “We the People” and explicitly from the First Amendment’s guarantee of the right to petition the Government for redress. At Virginia Organizing, we take this grant of power very seriously as is evident from our recent grassroots organizing for Medicaid expansion in Virginia. Our work focused predominately on more rural parts of the Commonwealth where our chapter members have experienced the consequences of a lack of access to health care. By mobilizing individuals passionate about Medicaid expansion and those who suffer from the lack of it and collaborating with the Healthcare for All Virginians Coalition, we were successfully able to take advantage of the changes in the House of Delegates and Senate that occurred in 2018. In part because of grassroots organizing by groups like Virginia Organizing and the Healthcare for All Virginians Coalition, in a special session in May 2...

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under authority granted by the federal Clean Air Act delegates the responsibility of regulating and enforcing ambient air quality standards to the states. States are required by EPA to submit state implementation plans (SIP) detailing how a state will implement and enforce regulatory actions to ensure that the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) are achieved. The NAAQS list federal ambient concentration limits for six criteria pollutants including particulate matter less than or equal to 10 micrometers (mm) aerodynamic equivalent diameter (PM10). The primary criteria pollutant emitted by a cotton gin is PM10. State air pollution regulatory agencies (SAPRA) regulate cotton gins by requiring minor source permits under the new source review (NSR) process. When granted the NSR minor source permit, the owner/operator has permission from the state to begin construction on either a new facility or modifications to an existing facility. States have granted cotton gin pre-construction permits based on permit by rule, standard permit, or individual facility permit. Recently, the state of New Mexico developed a new tool to use in permitting cotton gins. This new tool involves a property line setback distance. The property line setback distance is the distance from the emission point to the nearest property line. The results of field sampling and dispersion modeling taken from four days identified as worst case scenarios were used to determine the required setback distance for a New Mexico gin. The ratio of the modeled concentrations to the measured concentration (using FRM PM10 samplers) was determined for the four days and used to correct the concentration predictions from the model. The required setback distance for the gin was determined to be 41 meters corresponding to a 12 lb/hr PM10 emission rate. The method used to determine this setback distance did not account for the sampler errors that occur when using FRM PM10 samplers to measure concentrations of PM emitted from agricultural sources. The purpose of this manuscript is to evaluate the methods used by the NMED to determine the required property line setback distance and to provide guidance based on sound science and engineering for all parties involved in the permit application process for a "permit by rule" via a minimum property line setback distance regulation. The method described in this manuscript shows that a gin emitting 24 lbs/hr PM10 would have a required setback distance of 58 meters if only modeling errors were accounted for. The same gin would have a required setback distance of 13 meters if both modeling errors and sampler errors were accounted for. Accounting for modeling and sampling errors results in a more appropriate minimum setback distance for cotton gins.

Coglianese served as counsel of record and co author with Gary Marchant on an amicus curiae brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in Whitman v. American Trucking Ass 'ns on behalf of twen ty scientists and legal scholars. tt Professor and Executive Director, Center fo r the Study of Law, Science, and Technology, Arizona State University College of Law. When in private practice, Gary Marchant represented the American Trucking Associations in its initial proceedings in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, but he has had no association with any of the parties since assuming his current position in advance of the briefing of Whitman in the Su preme Court. We are grateful fo r helpful comments on earlier versions of this Article from John