Federal Environmental Regulations Research Articles

Money and cooperative federalism: evidence from EPA civil litigation

Abstract The federalism structure of the US government requires active cooperation from state governments to successfully enforce federal environmental regulations. What explains the variation in state governments’ participation in lawsuits against firms that are accused of violating major environmental statutes? We argue that firms’ political connections with state politicians affect a state government’s decision to join the litigation process. By constructing a novel dataset on the EPA’s civil cases and settlements for the period 1998–2021, we show that state environmental agencies are less likely to join the EPA in court when the defendant firms contributed to Republican state legislators. We do not find the same pattern when firms have connections with Democratic legislators. We present various mechanisms of how state politicians influence behaviors of state bureaucrats. Our findings highlight how state politics can be an avenue for firms to exert influence on federal environmental regulations.

Pollution-induced regulation substitution

This paper estimates the previously unexamined effect of Clean Air Act (CAA) monitoring and enforcement (M&E) on Clean Water Act (CWA) M&E. According to the literature, air polluters located close to violating air monitors face more CAA scrutiny, as regulators reallocate resources to these areas. Given limited regulatory resources within states, we examine how this reallocation affects CWA M&E. We find that plants located close to violating particulate matter (PM) monitors are less likely to receive state-level CWA inspections and enforcement actions. These results provide evidence that state regulators substitute resources across federal environmental regulations, which may explain previously observed substitution of pollution across media from air to water as a response to heightened CAA scrutiny.

Who is to blame? Nostalgia, Partisanship, and the death of coal

ABSTRACT The U.S. energy sector has undergone significant changes in the last few decades with three converging trends – the implosion of the coal industry, the marked increase in domestically produced oil and gas, and the increasing viability of renewables. The implosion of coal has proven to be a contentious political issue, with conservative discourse placing the blame for the industry’s poor fortunes on the administration of former President Obama and federal environmental regulations. Coal occupies a unique space in the cultural imaginaries of the Rural U.S., with significant nostalgia for the industry despite its deleterious legacy. Our study is informed by the concept of community economic identity and recent research on right-wing populism. Using survey data from western Colorado collected in 2019, we evaluate how partisanship and nostalgia are associated with mischaracterizations of the causes of the coal industry’s decline. Republicans are more likely to state that former President Obama and federal environmental regulations are the primary cause of coal’s decline and less likely to state that alternative fuels are the cause. Nostalgia is also associated with naming President Obama and federal environmental regulations. Our results imply that the causes of coal’s collapse may not be well understood.

A Health Justice Agenda for Local Governments to Address Environmental Health Inequities.

This article explores how structural failures in major federal environmental regulations -which set a foundation for environmental protections nationwide- have helped create many of the environmental injustices that people of color and low-income communities experience. It continues by examining how local governments have reinforced and compounded the failures in the federal environmental regulatory framework, particularly through local land use decisions. Although states play an important role in environmental policymaking, we propose that local governments are uniquely positioned to utilize a health justice approach to address environmental health inequities. This approach centers partnerships between frontline communities and local governments to develop just solutions that fill gaps within the federal environmental regulatory system and anticipate and mitigate the compounding effects of environmental health inequities.

Assessment of naturally occurring radiation in lithofacies of oil field in Niger Delta region and its possible health implications

The accumulation and increase in radionuclide activities of NORMs beyond permissible levels, will lead to health hazards and environmental damages if proper measures are not taken to control their occurrence as well as protect the lives of drillers and the environment. Therefore, evaluations and risk assessments of subsurface lithofacies is inevitable in order to protect people and the environment. Lack of existing Federal environmental regulations to address the presence of NORMs in oil and gas exploration activities in Nigeria, gives credence to this study. However, before these regulations can be developed, adequate research knowledge is needed to better understand the occurrence and distribution of Norms in subsurface lithofacies, as well as quantify the hazards posed by these NORMs to the people in the environment. This study then investigates the occurrence of natural radiation in lithofacies of an oil field region in Niger-Delta area using Hyper Germanium (HPGe) detector. Six (6) samples of different subsurface layers of lithofacies were collected during drilling, and analyzed. The results showed that the measured activity concentration of 238U decreased as the depth increased; the activity concentration of 232Th ranged between 11.8 ± 9.29 Bq/kg and 23.1 ± 8.43 Bq/kg, while the activity concentration of 4 K ranged from 161.8 Bq/kg to 245.4 Bq/kg. The estimated radiological risks such as absorbed dose rates, annual effective dose rates, radium equivalent index, external hazard index and internal hazard index were determined. The mean values for the estimated radiological parameters were 12.32 nGyh−1, 15.1049 Svy−1, 44.7720 Bqkg−1, 0.1209 and 0.1318 respectively. The gamma index estimated for the samples used were within the standard values recommended by Unscear, 2000. Significantly, this study reveals a distinctive decrease in 232Th activity with depth within the area under consideration. Based on the compared results, the measured radioactive concentrations and estimated radiological risks were below international reference values.

Dealing With Climate Change Under the National Environmental Policy Act

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was an important environmental law for several decades before climate change became an issue of concern. Beginning in the 1990s efforts began to include in NEPA’s environmental assessments and environmental impact statements both the impact of federal government actions on climate change and the impact of climate change on proposed federal actions. These efforts were encouraged by the Council on Environmental Quality. However, implementation at the agency level has been uneven. Some Federal agencies have resisted making serious efforts to incorporate climate change impacts into their decision-making process. Moreover, the courts have not been consistent in their reviews of agency compliance with NEPA, and the judiciary often give substantial deference to an agency’s minimal NEPA compliance. Since 2017, determining NEPA’s requirements for climate change analysis has become more challenging because the Trump Administration is changing federal environmental policies and regulations in order to encourage fossil fuel energy development and use, which will increase the emissions of greenhouse gases.

The effect of gubernatorial political parties on monitoring and enforcement of federal environmental regulation: evidence from the Clean Water Act

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.

Evaluating Environmental Governance along Cross-Border Electricity Supply Chains with Policy-Informed Life Cycle Assessment: The California-Mexico Energy Exchange.

This paper presents a "policy-informed" life cycle assessment of a cross-border electricity supply chain that links the impact of each unit process to its governing policy framework. An assessment method is developed and applied to the California-Mexico energy exchange as a unique case study. CO2-equivalent emissions impacts, water withdrawals, and air quality impacts associated with California's imports of electricity from Mexican combined-cycle facilities fueled by natural gas from the U.S. Southwest are estimated, and U.S. and Mexican state and federal environmental regulations are examined to assess well-to-wire consistency of energy policies. Results indicate most of the water withdrawn per kWh exported to California occurs in Baja California, most of the air quality impacts accrue in the U.S. Southwest, and emissions of CO2-equivalents are more evenly divided between the two regions. California energy policy design addresses generation-phase CO2 emissions, but not upstream CO2-eq emissions of methane during the fuel cycle. Water and air quality impacts are not regulated consistently due to varying U.S. state policies and a lack of stringent federal regulation of unconventional gas development. Considering local impacts and the regulatory context where they occur provides essential qualitative information for functional-unit-based measures of life cycle impact and is necessary for a more complete environmental impact assessment.

Lessons from Environmental Regulation.

Much of the most substantive and in-depth experience with formal cost-benefit analysis in the public policy realm has occurred in the context of federal environmental regulation in the United States. This experience has many important lessons to teach in the realm of synthetic biology. Indeed, many of the dangers and pitfalls that arise when decision-makers use formal CBA to evaluate environmental regulation seem likely to arise in the synthetic biology context as well, sometimes in particularly troubling forms. Unfortunately, while in many instances these concerns may well point toward a rejection of formal CBA for synthetic biology, the experience from environmental regulation turns out to be far less helpful in identifying alternative decision-making tools. Because the decisions that arise in the synthetic biology context have a fundamentally different structure from decisions about environmental regulation, the most useful alternatives from that context do not map easily onto this new context. It may well be generally true that in the search for decision-making tools, we should not be looking for a single silver bullet that will work in all public policy realms. Perhaps, instead, different kinds of decision-making call for different tools. This may be true even within the realm of synthetic biology. I am not entirely sure what the "right" tool is for synthetic biology applications, or even whether a "right" tool exists. But at the end of this essay, I offer a few tentative thoughts about why scenario analysis-a strategic planning tool first developed in the context of military planning following World War II-might be one alternative worth considering.

Retrospective Analysis of U.S. Federal Environmental Regulation

Retrospective, or ex post, analysis of U.S. federal regulation aims to rigorously document regulatory outcomes using cost, benefit, and distributional metrics. This paper presents nine new case studies involving a total of 34 comparisons of ex ante and ex post estimates from a diverse group of environmentally oriented rules. Despite the potential for selection bias and other limitations of the case study approach, the results suggest a slight tendency to overestimate both costs and benefits (or effectiveness) of regulation. This paper considers various analytic issues relevant to developing credible baselines for comparison, and offers policy lessons regarding the design of emissions trading programs along with approaches for incorporating uncertainty into both preregulatory studies and policy designs. Recommendations to facilitate and support future retrospective analyses are also presented.

The Regulatory Noose: Logan City’s Adventures in Micro-Hydropower

Recent growth in the renewable energy industry has increased government support for alternative energy. In the United States, hydropower is the largest source of renewable energy and also one of the most efficient. Currently, there are 30,000 megawatts of potential energy capacity through small- and micro-hydro projects throughout the United States. Increased development of micro-hydro could double America’s hydropower energy generation, but micro-hydro is not being developed at the same rate as other renewable sources. Micro-hydro is regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and subject to the same regulation as large hydroelectric projects despite its minimal environmental impact. We studied two cases of micro-hydro projects in Logan, Utah, and Afton, Wyoming, which are both small rural communities. Both cases showed that the web of federal regulation is likely discouraging the development of micro-hydro in the United States by increasing the costs in time and funds for developers. Federal environmental regulation like the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and others are likely discouraging the development of clean renewable energy through micro-hydro technology.

The RFF Regulatory Performance Initiative: What Have We Learned?

Retrospective analysis of federal environmental regulation aims to rigorously document the extent to which key policy objectives have been attained and at what cost. This paper reports the results of nine new case studies involving a total of 34 cost or benefit/effectiveness comparisons from a highly diverse set of environmentally oriented rules. Despite limitations of the case study approach and the non-representative nature of the sample, the results suggest somewhat of a tendency to overestimate both costs and benefits/effectiveness of regulation. Recommendations for revisions to future policy and analysis include: estimation of cost savings and distributional impacts from emissions trading, approaches to new technology development, use of up-to-date baseline information, analysis of prescriptive congressional mandates, federally mandated programs implemented by states, heterogeneity of costs and benefits, and treatment of uncertainty in energy prices and other macro factors. Recommendations also consider enhancements to the federal role in future retrospective analyses.

Regulating Pollutants, Good Neighbor Agreements, and Negative Externalities: Who Bears the Burden of Protecting Communities?

Given the failure of federal, state, and common-law environmental regulation to deal with the external social costs of pollution on human health and the environment, local communities have turned to legal and nonlegal strategies to address their concerns. This Article seeks to address the increased need for the study of community environmental policing and monitoring of air quality. The case study presented of the Portland Good Neighbor Agreement considers whether the community benefits gained by a Good Neighbor Agreement are equitably balanced against the costs to the community of negotiation and implementation. While such agreements have the potential for a wide range of positive benefits for a community, there are significant transaction costs associated with negotiating, signing, implementing, and enforcing the terms and conditions. As such, reliance on Good Neighbor Agreements to remediate the negative human health impacts of pollution is misguided and detracts from the critical need for an environmental regulatory regime to take the responsibility off of communities and to adequately address the impacts of industrial pollution.

Unconventional Pollution Control Politics: The Reformation of the US Safe Drinking Water Act

During the 1980s and early 1990s, the US Environmental Protection Agency proposed to reform federal environmental regulation around “risk management” principles that stressed pollution prevention, better priorities, and cost control. In spite of the fact that risk management were strongly supported by three successive presidential administrations, only one major federal statute – the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) Amendments of 1996 – was developed around these principles. The purpose of this paper is to understand why Congress succeeded in reforming the SDWA around risk management principles at a time when legislative reform of other federal pollution control policies remained stalled. Through a historical analysis of federal drinking water politics between 1970 and 1996, it is concluded that the somewhat unique politics surrounding the drinking water issue enabled risk management principles to serve as a “persuasive discourse” that bound together key interests within the policy community.

Feds End Probe Of Tesoro Blast

No one will face criminal charges in connection with the April 2010 refinery explosion and fireball that engulfed and killed seven Tesoro workers in Anacortes, Wash., the U.S. Justice Department says. Shortly after the accident, prosecutors and criminal investigators launched an inquiry to determine whether federal environmental and worker safety statutes and regulations were violated. “This tragedy demanded careful and thorough investigation,” says U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. “I am satisfied that the investigators and the experienced environmental attorneys in my office evaluated all the evidence and determined it does not reach the exacting bar for criminal prosecution.” The four-year investigation included interviewing past and present employees, reviewing thousands of documents, and consulting with industry experts. Tesoro spokeswoman Tina Barbee tells C&EN that the petroleum refiner “appreciates the government’s diligent and thorough investigation of this incident. We are pleased with this decisio...

Federal environmental and occupational toxicology regulations and reporting requirements: a practical approach to what the medical toxicologist needs to know, part 2.

Toxicologists are often called upon to assist in environmental, industrial, occupational and public health assessments. Accordingly, medical toxicologists may find it prudent to be aware of applicable federal toxicological regulations and reporting requirements and of the roles of relevant federal agencies. These regulations are numerous, complex, and have evolved and expanded over time, making it difficult for toxicologists to sustain a current knowledge base. This article reviews the pertinent federal toxicological reporting requirements with regards to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Atomic Energy Act (AEA), the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA), the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Department of Transportation, and information about the National Response Center. We reference internet-based government resources and offer direct links to applicable websites in an attempt to offer rapid and current sources of practical information. The format of the article is a series of hypothetical scenarios followed by commentary. Discussions of the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act are beyond the scope of this paper. For those desiring a more in depth discussion of the relevant federal environmental laws and statutes, and applicable case law, the reader is directed to resources such as the Environmental Law Handbook, the websites of individual laws found at www.epa.gov and the decisions of individual courts of appeal. It is our hope that this article provides not only useful practical information for the practicing toxicologist, but also serves as a key reference for Medical Toxicology core content on environmental laws and regulations.

Federal Environmental and Occupational Toxicology Regulations and Reporting Requirements: A Practical Approach to What the Medical Toxicologist Needs to Know, Part 1

Toxicologists are often called upon to assist in environmental, industrial, occupational and public health assessments. Accordingly, medical toxicologists may find it prudent to be aware of applicable federal toxicological regulations and reporting requirements and of the roles of relevant federal agencies. These regulations are numerous, complex, and have evolved and expanded over time, making it difficult for toxicologists to sustain a current knowledge base. This article reviews the pertinent federal toxicological reporting requirements with regard to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Atomic Energy Act (AEA), the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA), the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Department of Transportation, and information about the National Response Center. We reference internet-based government resources and offer direct links to applicable websites in an attempt to offer rapid and current sources of practical information. The format of the article is a series of hypothetical scenarios followed by commentary. Discussions of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act are beyond the scope of this paper. For those desiring a more in-depth discussion of the relevant federal environmental laws and statutes and applicable case law, the reader is directed to resources such as the Environmental Law Handbook, the websites of individual laws found at www.epa.gov and the decisions of individual courts of appeal. It is our hope that this article provides not only useful practical information for the practicing toxicologist but also serves as a key reference for medical toxicology core content on environmental laws and regulations.

Judicial Federalism and the Future of Federal Environmental Regulation

This article assesses the current and likely impact of the Supreme Court's federalism cases on federal environmental regulation. As a result of this assessment, the article seeks to make four points: (1) Thus far, the Supreme Court's federalism cases have had a limited impact on federal regulation, as federal courts have not used these cases as a basis for limiting the reach of federal regulatory authority. (2) Notwithstanding this limited impact, the underlying logic of the Supreme Court's cases does pose a challenge for federal regulation, particularly in the Commerce Clause context. (3) The thrust of the federalism cases makes it likely that the Supreme Court will revisit the constitutional limitations on the Spending Clause, and this could have a substantial impact on federal environmental regulation, as some federal environmental provisions exceed even the highly deferential Spending Clause standard outlined in South Dakota v. Dole. (4) Judicially enforced limitations on federal regulatory authority do not necessarily translate into limitations on environmental protection. The federal government will retain substantial - although not unlimited - authority to advance environmental protection. Where federal authority is constrained, state and local governments and non-governmental entities will retrain their ability to address many environmental concerns.

A public-private partnership to enhance the voluntary approach to nutrient stewardship

D espite growing evidence acknowledging the benefits of voluntary, incentive-based approaches to encourage nutrient stewardship, some organizations and agencies continue to be skeptical. However, among the fertilizer industry, many conservation organizations, and other agricultural groups, there is general agreement that the voluntary approach provides a catalyst for nutrient stewardship on agricultural land and that strategic opportunities exist to increase its effectiveness. One of the ways to realize opportunities associated with voluntary measures is enhanced collaboration between agricultural retailers and conservation districts as they work with farmers to plan and implement nutrient management practices. To better understand the existing professional relationships between these groups, to evaluate the impact of their relationships on nutrient stewardship, and to identify strategies for improving their working relationships, agricultural retailer and conservation district employees were surveyed in 2013. BACKGROUND Among the many challenges facing agriculture is ensuring long-term, profitable production while also meeting society's additional economic and environmental priorities. The challenge for farmers (enhancing nutrient stewardship while producing food, fiber, and fuel) lies at the confluence of many powerful forces. These external forces include evolving commodity program policy; changing crop insurance rules; expanding federal, state, and local environmental regulations; uncertain commodity prices; rising production…

Green and Sustainable Remedial Strategy for Contaminated Site: Case Study

This study describes the development of a green and sustainable strategy for the remediation of a contaminated site located in Chicago (IL, USA) to comply with the applicable federal and state environmental regulations. According to the site investigation results, many of the contaminant concentrations have been found to exceed the applicable regulatory limits that are protective of public health and local ecology. Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, pesticides and heavy metals were found in the vadose zone soils throughout the site. Groundwater was found contaminated with lead or selenium in some locations. First, potential technologies to remediate the contaminated soils and groundwater at the site are identified. The most promising technologies are then systematically evaluated for sustainability based on qualitative and quantitative analyses. Sustainability considerations include greenhouse gases and other air pollutant emissions, water use, and personal injury, among others. Phytoremediation is selected to treat the majority of the site by utilizing existing and new plant species to reduce the concentrations of the contaminants. Solidification/stabilization is selected for “hot spot” treatment (high concentration area treatment) only at certain specific areas that have high concentrations of metals in the vadose zone. Monitored natural attenuation is selected for groundwater treatment.