scholarly journals Environmental Assessment and Sustainable Development in the United States

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1180
Author(s):  
Toshiyuki Sueyoshi ◽  
Youngbok Ryu
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Performance Measures ◽  
Environmental Assessment ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Performance Measure ◽  
Political Transitions ◽  
The U.S

This study aims to overview the U.S. sustainable development by measuring the environmental performance of 50 states over the period of 2009–2018. To attain the objective, we employ data envelopment analysis for environmental assessment where we prioritize the minimization of CO2 emissions first and the maximization of gross state product later under the concept of managerial disposability (i.e., an environment-based performance measure). Then, we examine how the state-level environmental performance measures are associated with their political and spatial contexts. For the purpose, we conduct the Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test across groups of states characterized by their political transitions in the presidential and gubernatorial elections and defined by the regions of the U.S. Economic Development Administration and Environmental Protection Agency. Based on our empirical results, we find that (a) overall environmental performance has gradually enhanced over time, (b) there are statistically significant differences in the environmental performance measures along with the political transitions, and (c) states on both coasts have outperformed those of the middle in the measurement.

Performance-based incentives for agricultural pollution control: identifying and assessing performance measures in the United States

Water Policy ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 677-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan R. Winsten ◽  
Claire Baffaut ◽  
Joseph Britt ◽  
Tatiana Borisova ◽  
Chad Ingels ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Performance Measures ◽  
Best Management Practices ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
The United States ◽  
Performance Measure ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Cost ◽  
A Performance

Current federal and state soil and water conservation programs consist primarily of cost-sharing or compensating farmers for implementing a set of pre-defined best management practices. This approach does not consider specific environmental outcomes or the cost-effectiveness of the program at the farm or watershed level. Performance-based incentives are payments that are attached to a specified environmental performance measure, for example a reduction in nutrient, sediment, pesticide, or bacteria loss from a field, or reduction in loading at the mouth of a watershed. Assessing environmental performance requires the definition of a performance measure, which is used to calculate resulting incentive payments. In this paper, we discuss issues related to the selection of a performance measure, such as the scale at which the performance is measured, modeling versus monitoring, and the ability of the measure to foster farmer learning and adaptive management. Numerous examples of performance measures adopted or considered by watershed stakeholders in several states are presented. Watershed managers, policy makers, and extension agents can consider this information to make informed choices among proposed approaches toward improving water quality in streams affected by agricultural nonpoint source pollution.

Wartime Prosperity? A Reassessment of the U.S. Economy in the 1940s

1992 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Higgs
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Performance Measures ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
Macroeconomic Performance ◽  
Command Economy ◽  
First Time ◽  
The U.S

Relying on standard measures of macroeconomic performance, historians and economists believe that “war prosperity” prevailed in the United States during World War II. This belief is ill-founded, because it does not recognize that the United States had a command economy during the war. From 1942 to 1946 some macroeconomic performance measures are statistically inaccurate; others are conceptually inappropriate. A better grounded interpretation is that during the war the economy was a huge arsenal in which the well-being of consumers deteriorated. After the war genuine prosperity returned for the first time since 1929.

Human Trafficking, Immigration Regulation, and Subfederal Criminalization

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. Chacón
Keyword(s):  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Trafficking In Persons ◽  
International Regulation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Comparative Treatment ◽  
Systemic Problems ◽  
Trafficking Victims ◽  
The U.S

In the fifteen years since the enactment of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act—the U.S. legislation implementing the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children—every state in the United States has enacted its own, state-level antitrafficking law. This paper presents a multistate survey of state-level antitrafficking laws and the criminal prosecutions that have been conducted pursuant to those over the past decade. The comparative treatment of noncitizens and citizens in antitrafficking prosecutions is of particular concern. This research reveals that while subfederal implementation of antitrafficking laws has the potential to complement stated federal and international antitrafficking objectives, it also has the power to subvert and undermine those goals. State-level enforcement both mirrors and amplifies some of the systemic problems that arise when the criminal law is used as a tool to combat trafficking, including the manipulation of antitrafficking tools and rhetoric to perpetuate racial subordination and migrant criminalization. Ultimately, this research offers broader theoretical insights into the promises and pitfalls of overlapping criminal jurisdiction both within federalist systems and within frameworks of international regulation.

Abstract 16822: Dust Storms in the United States are Associated With Increased Cardiovascular Mortality

Circulation ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 132 (suppl_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
James L Crooks ◽  
Wayne Cascio ◽  
Madelyn Percy ◽  
Jeanette Reyes ◽  
Lucas Neas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Cardiovascular Mortality ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
The United States ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Ambient Particulate Matter ◽  
Protection Agency ◽  
The U.S

Introduction: Extreme weather events such as dust storms are predicted to become more frequent as the global climate warms through the 21st century. Studies of Asian, Saharan, Arabian, and Australian dust storms have found associations with cardiovascular and total non-accidental mortality and hospitalizations for stroke. However, the only population-level epidemiological work on dust storms in the United States was focused on a single small metropolitan area (Spokane, WA), and it is uncertain whether its null results are representative of the country as a whole. Hypothesis: Dust storms in the United States are associated with daily cardiovascular mortality. Methods: Dust storm incidence data (N=141), including date and approximate location, as well as meteorological station observations, were taken from the U.S. National Weather Service. County-level mortality data for the years 1993-2005 were acquired from the National Center for Health Statistics. Ambient particulate matter monitor concentrations were obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Inference was performed used conditional logistic regression models under a case-crossover design while accounting for the nonlinear effect of temperature. Results: We found a 9.5% increase in cardiovascular mortality at a two-day lag (95% CI: [0.31%,19.5%], p = 0.042). The results were robust to adjusting for heat waves and ambient particulate matter concentrations. Analysis of storms occurring only on days with <0.1 inches of precipitation strengthened these results and in addition yielded a mean daily increase of 4.0% across lags 0-5 (95% CI: [0.07%,20.8%], p = 0.046). In Arizona, the U.S. state with the largest number of storms, we observed a 13.0% increase at a three-day lag (CI: [0.40%,27.1%], p = 0.043). Conclusions: Dust storms in the U.S. are associated with increases in lagged cardiovascular mortality. This has implications for the development of public health advisories and suggests that further public health interventions may be needed. Disclaimer: This work does not represent official U.S. Environmental Protection Agency policy.

Field Decontamination and Triage in Chemical Emergencies

1987 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-39
Author(s):  
Constance J. Doyle
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Emergency Department ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Hazardous Materials ◽  
The United States ◽  
Protection Agency ◽  
Environmental Cleanup ◽  
Materials Handling ◽  
Toxic Materials ◽  
The U.S

Triage and rescue of casualties from accidents involving hazardous materials is a challenge for many emergency medical services (EMS) personnel. With very toxic materials, the untrained and unprepared rescuer may become a victim. In addition, few hospitals in the United States have decontamination units attached to their emergency departments and emergency department personnel may become exposed if the casualty is not decontaminated. Many environmental cleanup teams, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) team, are well trained in materials handling but are not immediately available when a hazardous materials spill with personal injuries occurs.

scholarly journals “Back to the Future”: Time for a Renaissance of Public Health Engineering

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 387
Author(s):  
Richard J. Gelting ◽  
Steven C. Chapra ◽  
Paul E. Nevin ◽  
David E. Harvey ◽  
David M. Gute
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Native American ◽  
Alaska Native ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Positive Health ◽  
The U.S

Public health has always been, and remains, an interdisciplinary field, and engineering was closely aligned with public health for many years. Indeed, the branch of engineering that has been known at various times as sanitary engineering, public health engineering, or environmental engineering was integral to the emergence of public health as a distinct discipline. However, in the United States (U.S.) during the 20th century, the academic preparation and practice of this branch of engineering became largely separated from public health. Various factors contributed to this separation, including an evolution in leadership roles within public health; increasing specialization within public health; and the emerging environmental movement, which led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with its emphasis on the natural environment. In this paper, we consider these factors in turn. We also present a case study example of public health engineering in current practice in the U.S. that has had large-scale positive health impacts through improving water and sanitation services in Native American and Alaska Native communities. We also consider briefly how to educate engineers to work in public health in the modern world, and the benefits and challenges associated with that process. We close by discussing the global implications of public health engineering and the need to re-integrate engineering into public health practice and strengthen the connection between the two fields.

Who Writes Criminal Laws? Actors, Values, and Institutions in Criminal Law-Making / Wer schreibt das Strafrecht? Akteure, Werte und Institutionen der Strafrechts-gesetzbegung

2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Hammel
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Structural Difference ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Expert Control ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Penal Law ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Law Making

AbstractThe responses of the U.S. and Europe to increased crime from the 1960s to the 1990s differed starkly: the U.S. enacted a punitive agenda, while penal polity and incarceration rates in Western (and Eastern) Europe remained gener­ally stable. To explain this divergence, many commentators invoke cultural or historical factors such as America’s ‘frontier mentality” or Calvinist religious heritage. This article proposes another focus: differing cultures of criminal law-making. During the Enlightenment, a pattern of expert control over penal law emerged in most European nation-states. The pattern still holds - even today, major changes to penal polity are still entrusted to groups of elite professors, jurists and senior civil servants, who create coherent codes covering the entire national territory. In the United States, no tradition of expert control took hold. Criminal law is made at the state level, there is little emphasis on logical code-drafting and shifting local majorities can pass new criminal laws almost at will This structural difference in who writes criminal laws has far-reaching effects not only on the how crime is defined, but on other factors such as public expectations of the criminal justice system and the values penal legislation is thought to express.

ESA Section 7: Time for a Refresh in the Pre-Spill Planning Consultation Process

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-192
Author(s):  
Stacey L. Crecy ◽  
Melissa E. Perera ◽  
Elizabeth J. Petras ◽  
John A. Tarpley
Keyword(s):  
Endangered Species ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal Agencies ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
Service Agency ◽  
Consultation Process ◽  
Oil Spill Response ◽  
The U.S

ABSTRACT #2017-373 Federal agencies involved in oil spill response in the U.S. are required to comply with several environmental compliance laws. Where a Federal agency is operating in a way that may affect endangered species in the area, Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) requires the agency to “consult” with the two Federal agencies responsible for protecting those species and habitats – the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, nonprofit organizations filed several lawsuits against the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (the “Action Agencies”) for failure to comply with the ESA during oil spill contingency planning. In one case, a settlement required the Action Agencies to consult with the NMFS and USFWS (together, called the “Services”) on the plan to use oil spill dispersants in California waters. Perhaps responding to these developments, several Regional Response Teams across the country initiated or made plans to review the status of their ESA Section 7 consultations. These efforts have varied in cost, scope, composition of agency representatives involved, and success in completing a consultation for a variety of reasons. There have been numerous challenges for USCG and EPA in meeting the ESA Section 7 consultation requirements for oil spill planning. First, the most recent framework for cooperation between the Action Agencies and the Services regarding consulting on oil spill planning and response activities is contained in an Interagency Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed in 2001. Although the agreement is still valid, some parts have been identified as outdated or in need of clarification. Secondly, there are no direct funding mechanisms or dedicated personnel assigned to the Action Agencies to work on pre-spill ESA Section 7 consultations. Third, recommendations and consultation outcomes can vary between Service agencies as well as internally within each Service agency due to a high level of regional autonomy. In 2015, the National Response Team (NRT) formed a new, interagency subcommittee to improve the Federal Action Agencies’ ability to comply with environmental laws such as the ESA with respect to oil spill response and pre-spill planning. A workgroup of the NRT Subcommittee was formed to specifically address pre-spill ESA Section 7 consultation processes. The workgroup includes regional and national representatives from the Action Agencies and the Services. In addition to strengthening relationships and understanding among the participating agencies, the workgroup has identified gaps in the 2001 MOA and is in the process of developing tools and templates on how to conduct pre-spill ESA Section 7 consultations to help fill some of the existing gaps. The workgroup ultimately hopes to facilitate the development of updated, complete, efficient, and consistent ESA Section 7 consultations across the nation.

Battles over US waterways policies are ahead

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Private Land ◽  
Weak State ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Agriculture Industry ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
Clean Air ◽  
The Subject

Significance Later this year, the Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection (NWP) rule comes into force, the subject of the group's concern. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalised the rule in late January. The rule redefines which US waters are protected under the 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA), and replaces the 2015 Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. Legal challenges meant WOTUS was never implemented, but it still worried agriculture, industry and landowners as it potentially expanded federal anti-pollution oversight to previously unregulated waters and adjacent private land. The NWP is the latest effort in the Trump administration’s environmental deregulation drive affecting climate change, clean air, natural resources extraction, parklands and endangered species. Impacts The greatest beneficiaries of scrapping WOTUS are likely to be mining, construction and chemicals industries. Weak state-level enforcement could reduce wetlands protection by more than a return to pre-2015 levels that the NWP professes. More polluted US rivers could aggravate riparian disputes with Mexico.

In Different Tongues: Making Room for Cultural Differences in the Negotiated Rulemaking Process

2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-233
Author(s):  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Cultural Sensitivity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal Agencies ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Cultural Recognition ◽  
Negotiated Rulemaking ◽  
Indian Nations ◽  
The U.S

AbstractThis article explores the ethical impact of cultural recognition within the regulatory negotiation (reg-neg) process as it is currently being used by federal agencies in the United States. The authors use a blend of theory and practice to explore the ethical necessity, feasibility, and practicality of including cultural guidelines within the reg-neg process. Using the findings from extensive prior research on negotiated rulemaking at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a foundation, we illustrate the lessons learned from years of regulatory negotiations conducted by the pioneer of reg-neg. We then show how these lessons have been brought under an umbrella of ``cultural recognition'' within the consensus-based regulatory negotiation being used to improve relations between American Indian nations and the U.S. government. We discuss the ethical and practical implications of incorporating cultural sensitivity into the reg-neg process.

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