Characterising the landscape of state environmental review policies and procedures in the United States: a national assessment

Following the intent of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, many states have adopted policies and procedures directing state agencies and local government units to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of development projects prior to their undertaking. In contrast to a rich literature on federal requirements, current understanding of state environmental review is narrowly focused and outdated. This paper seeks to provide information on the landscape of state environmental review policy frameworks. The paper identifies 37 states with formal environmental review requirements through a document review of state statutes, administrative rules and agency-prepared materials, and confirms this finding through a survey of state administrators. A two-tier classification is used to distinguish states based on the approach taken to address environmental review needs and the scope and depth of relevant policies and procedures implemented. This paper also provides a discussion of policy and programme attributes that may contribute to effective practice, and of the potential for adopting relevant legislation in states where environmental review is currently lacking.     

Evaluating the impacts of packaging policy in The Netherlands

Packaging materials are one of the largest contributors to municipal solid waste production. This paper evaluates the material impacts packaging policy in The Netherlands in the period 1986-2007. Five different voluntary agreements were implemented over this period to reduce the environmental impact of packaging. The analysis shows that among the investigated indicators, population statistically is the most robust indicator to estimate the packaging demand. A baseline is developed on the basis of population growth in The Netherlands, and is used as reference to evaluate policy impacts. The policy periods are evaluated on the basis of overall effectiveness compared to the baseline and target achievement. Dutch packaging policies have been effective to reduce the total packaging volume until 1999. After 2000, packaging consumption increased more rapidly than the baseline, suggesting that policy measures have not been effective. The largest increase in packaging recycling rates was achieved during the first policy period. More clear and consistent packaging policy measures and targets could improve the effectiveness of policies.     

USING STREAM BIOASSESSMENT PROTOCOLS TO MONITOR IMPACTS OF A CONFINED SWINE OPERATION1

ABSTRACT: The processing of waste from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) presents a major environmental challenge. Treatment of waste and subsequent land application is a common best management practice (BMP) for these operations in Kentucky, USA, but there are few data assessing the effect of runoff from such operations on aquatic communities. The authors sampled a stream bordering a CAFO with a land application program to determine if runoff from the fertilized fields was adversely affecting stream communities. Water chemistry, periphyton, and macroinvertebrate samples from riffle habitats downstream of the CAFO were compared to samples collected from an upstream site and a control stream in 1999 and 2000. Riffle communities downstream of the fertilized fields had higher chlorophyll a levels than other sites, but there were no significant differences in macroinvertebrate numbers or in biometrics such as taxa richness among the sites. The BMP in place at this site may be effective in reducing this CAFO's impact on the stream; however, similar assessments at other CAFO sites should be done to assess their impacts. Functional measures such as nutrient retention and litter decomposition of streams impacted by CAFOs should also be investigated to ensure that these operations are not adversely affecting stream communities.     

Social impact evaluation of the US Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

Debate over environmental policy often focuses on social impacts of those policies, but few empirical studies examine the impacts of environmental regulations once they are implemented. A quasi-experimental design based on survey data is used to assess the social impacts of the US Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) on the West Virginia chemical industry. Changes in employment, manufacturing process, product line, and manufacturing costs are evaluated. RCRA seems to have produced changes in manufacturing processes, but we find no statistically significant impacts on.jobs, product line, or manufacturing costs.     

Design for environment: A new framework for strategic decisions

For most of its history of environmental protection, U.S. policy has concentrated on a pollution control strategy based on single medium emissions: air, water, or land. Efforts to mitigate environmental impacts to one medium often resulted in greater impacts to others. While much environmental improvement has occurred via this system over the last quarter-century, it is generally recognized that alternative strategies which address environmental impacts across all media in an integrated manner will be necessary for continued improvement. Increasingly, regulatory strategies that result in only passive compliance will be insufficient to meet these demands. This article demonstrates why new strategies which encourage proactive behavior are necessary. A new framework for making strategic decisions—design for environment—concerning the relation between our actions and environment is necessary to ensure a sustainable future.     

Measuring the impact of prefabrication on construction waste reduction: An empirical study in China

Prefabrication has been widely regarded as a sustainable construction method in terms of its impact on environmental protection. One important aspect of this perspective is the influence of prefabrication on construction waste reduction and the subsequent waste handling activities, including waste sorting, reuse, recycle, and disposal. Nevertheless, it would appear that existing research with regard to this topic has failed to take into account its innate dynamic character of the process of construction waste minimization; integrating all essential waste handling activities has never been achieved thus far. This paper proposes a dynamic model for quantitatively evaluating the possible impacts arising from the application of prefabrication technology on construction waste reduction and the subsequent waste handling activities. The resulting model was validated based on an actual building project in Shenzhen, China.The simulation results of the design scenarios indicate that the policy on providing subsidy for each square meter of the prefabrication adopted in the construction would have more significant effect on promoting the use of prefabrication and improving the performance of construction waste reduction compared to the increase of income tax benefits. The results also show that (1) interaction exists among different management measures, and (2) the combined effect of multiple policies is larger than the simple sum of their individual impacts, indicating the need for comprehensive consideration on the combined effect of these potential polices. This paper demonstrates the potential benefits of using a system dynamics approach in understanding the behavior of real-world processes. The developed model not only serves as a practical tool for assessing the impact of off-site prefabrication on construction waste reduction and the corresponding waste handling activities, but also help provide a valuable reference to policy makers through the comparison of simulation results generated under various scenarios such that the best policy mix can be identified prior to production.     

Environmental management from left to right – on ideology,policy-specific beliefs and pro-environmental policy support

Due to growing environmental challenges, the demand for effective management through pro-environmental policy measures is increasing. The effectiveness is, however, largely determined by the degree to which the policy measures are supported by the actors affected by them. A consistent finding in the literature is that ideology (or subjective positioning on the left–right dimension) affects environmental policy support, with left-leaning individuals being more pro-environmental. A major caveat with previous research is that it seldom makes a distinction between different kinds of policies. Therefore, we are concerned with investigating how different ideological positions affect attitudes towards different forms of environmental protection. Using unique survey data, we show that ideology is related to conceptions about the fairness and effectiveness of different policy tools, which in turn steer preferences. In that sense, this paper makes the discussion on the effects of ideological position on pro-environmental policy support more nuanced.     

The regional economic impact of reducing greenhouse gas emissions: Western Australia

This study analyses the general-equilibrium impacts of an international climate change response policy on the economy of Western Australia (WA), one of the most mining-based and energy-intensive states of Australia. It finds that emissions would fall by up to 11% from the base level in WA. However, such environmental benefits emanate at some costs to the state economy; in terms of foregone gross state product, the costs are up to 3% of the base level. Indeed, the actual costs and benefits depend on the precise design of the climate change response policy as well as on the other policies within which it operates. For example, when emission quota permits are sold to industries and no tradeable carbon credits (i.e. credits for the carbon sequestrated in Kyoto forests) are granted, emissions decline by about 8% and GSP falls by about 3% of the base levels. If carbon credits are tradeable, however, the environmental benefits could be increased and the GSP cost could be reduced substantially. Also, the reduced economic activity caused by emission abatement results in a modest fall in net government revenue, despite the additional revenue from permit sales in some cases. Accordingly, government’s fiscal package surrounding the emission permits would influence the emission abatement impacts on the economy. With regard to the effects on the structure of the state economy, the oil and gas industry suffers only a slight contraction but the energy-supplying sector as a whole contracts substantially. It is therefore not surprising that the impacts on the WA economy of curbing emissions by energy and transport industries alone are quite significant when compared to those resulted from all industries’ compliance with the abatement scheme. It needs to be noted that the model projections analysed in the paper are based on simplifying assumptions and tentative scenarios, and hence should be viewed with caution and not be understood as unconditional forecasts.     

A comparison of sustainability theory with UK and European airports policy and practice.

There are three main theoretical difficulties involved in relating sustainability to aviation, and which a research agenda for sustainable aviation needs to address. The first is uncertainty regarding the critical thresholds of global environmental systems. The second is a lack of protocols for allocating permissible environmental consumption shares to, and hence targets for, individual enterprises or sectors. The third is differing value judgements of what natural features should be sustained. For the time being, these difficulties preclude determination of the degree of sustainability or unsustainability of any individual airport with respect to global environmental systems. Nevertheless, at this stage it can at least be said that since most economic activity has an adverse environmental impact, airports with higher throughputs of material and people will tend to be less sustainable than smaller-scale airports given similar technologies and regulatory compliance. This is theoretically supported and illustrated with waste arising as an indicator at reviewed airports. Despite governmental policies of sustainable mobility, there is a disjunction between EU and UK policy on airports and individual airport practice, and environmental sustainability theory. In the UK and EU, airport practice and governmental policy is to mitigate the impacts of aviation, but not at the expense of its aviation growth. This mitigation practice is summarised for the reviewed airports and presented in a framework that accounts for the suggested, interim approach to sustainability assessment.     

Changing governance structures and the environment: economy–environment relations at the local and regional scales

Two substantive bodies of research have developed in recent years, both of which have a focus upon local and regional scales. First, there has been the development of work on changing forms of local and regional governance. This has drawn on a range of theoretical perspectives, including notions of institutional capacity, urban regime theory and neo-regulationalist accounts. Second, a body of research has developed into environmental policy and sustainable development, but this has largely been normative and undertheorized. While these two bodies of literature have developed separately, we believe there is merit in bringing the insights from each together. A focus on local environmental policy helps to broaden our understanding of local governance and problems of after-Fordist regulation. Such a project also helps to illuminate problems in implementing policy on the environment and sustainability. The examination of changing local and regional forms of governance allows us to identify new state spaces, which may provide opportunities for the strategic insertion of environmental objectives into economic development policies. This paper seeks to theorize such environment–economy relations and emerging multi-scalar forms of environmental governance, drawing upon case study research work in six UK local authority areas. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ECONOMIC POLICIES FOR REGULATING AGRICULTURAL DRAINAGE WATER1

ABSTRACT: Agricultural drainage water is a major source of environmental pollution in many areas. This paper reviews the literature on the economics of nonpoint-source pollution and applies it to the regulation of agricultural drainage water. Four types of regulatory policies are considered. The empirical analysis is carried out for cotton production in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Variable inputs are the quantity of water applied and the type of irrigation system. All four policies can achieve economic efficiency under the conditions assumed here, but the policies differ in terms of the distributional impacts and administrative requirements.     

Greener local economic development: Reflections from the UK on current European approaches

This paper considers moves to integrate environmental and economic development policies at local level. It provides a brief review of the EU policy frameworks and funding programmes which give a lead to, and support, local authorities in these efforts. Ecologically based approaches to local economic management are particularly highlighted. Municipalities typically employ a mix of regulatory, financial and voluntary measures to improve the environmental performance of businesses, create jobs and work towards greater local self-reliance. With the help of recent examples, the paper explores the variable scope for action—very much dependent on the national context—and identifies some mechanisms which are being used to good effect elsewhere in Europe but which are currently not easily transferable to the UK. Through programmes encouraging networking and the exchange of experience, UK practitioners can gain access to a range of European practice which demonstrates that greener local economic development is a real possibility.     

环境政策评估：一个宏观经济分析框架的综述

环境动态随机一般均衡（E-DSGE）模型以其良好的扩展性和预测性逐渐被环境宏观经济学者接纳。环境因素的引入包括经济系统对环境系统的作用、环境系统的演化过程、环境系统对经济系统的反作用等方式。E-DSGE模型中的不确定性冲击包括经济不确定性冲击、政策不确定性冲击和环境不确定性冲击。E-DSGE模型中环境政策的讨论重点包括环境税、限额与交易、强度管制等。多重环境政策的组合效应、环境影响的国际传导以及环境政策与宏观经济政策的融合等是E-DSGE模型研究的重要前沿课题。加强新凯恩斯框架下E-DSGE模型的构建与应用,加强跨流域和跨界的环境问题、水的问题、碳的问题等研究是下一阶段E-DSGE建模的重点。     

Economic Evaluation of Carbon Dioxide Emission Abatement Measures in the Greek Energy Sector

This paper outlines a methodological framework for the economic evaluation of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emission abatement policies and measures, formulating a basis for the selection of those options of climate change mitigation interventions that minimize economic cost and maximize social welfare. To this purpose, a cost-benefit analysis has been implemented in order to evaluate a variety of CO 2 emission abatement measures in the Greek energy sector on the basis of their social (i.e. the sum of the private and external) costs and benefits, and it is compared with a cost-effectiveness analysis, which takes into account only the net financial costs of the examined interventions. The analysis clearly reveals that a significant decrease in CO 2 emissions is possible without great cost to the economy. Moreover, the monetization of environmental benefits (e.g. the restriction of impacts on human health, agriculture and biodiversity, etc.) associated with the above-mentioned interventions represents a powerful tool for highlighting priority actions in the context of a climate change mitigation policy and for quantifying their overall economic and environmental effectiveness.     

Policy context as a factor of bias in the valuation of environmental goods – a dual-process theories perspective

When ecosystem services value estimates are applied in the economic assessment of environmental policies, high accuracy of these estimates is required. One of the directions in the scientific discussion on biases in stated preference (SP) valuation surveys builds on dual-process theories of judgment. The paper contributes to this literature by presenting an experiment where two types of judgment were induced via separate versus joint valuation of environmental goods. The results demonstrated that policy relevance of environmental issues, e.g. the need for conservation measures increases emotional response, causing a larger bias in the separate design as it involves ‘valuation by feeling.’ This finding suggests that the context of a specific policy, which is often the reason for conducting SP surveys, influences the answers, thereby making the results less reliable for use in cost–benefit analysis.     

Decision framework for evaluating the macroeconomic risks and policy impacts of cyber attacks

Increased reliance on the Internet for critical infrastructure and the global nature of supply chains provides an opportunity for adversaries to leverage dependencies and gain access to vital infrastructure. Traditional approaches to assessing risk in the cyber domain, including estimation of impacts, fall short due to uncertainty in how interconnected systems react to cyber attack. This paper describes a method to represent the pathways of disruption propagation, evaluate the macroeconomic impact of cyber threats and aid in selecting among various cybersecurity policies. Based on state of the art agent-based modeling, multicriteria decision analysis, and macroeconomic modeling tools, this framework provides dynamic macroeconomic, demographic and fiscal insights regarding shocks caused by cyber attacks to the regional economy over time. The interlinkage of these models will provide a robust and adaptive system that allows policy makers to evaluate complex issues such as cybersecurity threats and their impacts on the geopolitical, social, environmental, and macroeconomic landscape.     

Compromise solutions to the acid deposition control problem: a theoretical model and some simulation results

Acid deposition is a muitifaceted environmental phenomenon whose control represents one of the most controversial environmental policy areas. Because of the longrange transport of air pollutants contributing to acid deposition, its control is the responsibility of more than one region. Given the interdependence between the economic and environmental impacts of acid deposition as well as the interregional conflicts over its control, the present article proposes an interregional integrated economic-environmental model for the study of the impacts of acid deposition control policies. This model is solved with the use of a compromise programming procedure which facilitates the explicit treatment of conflicting regional goals. After the theoretical and operational forms and the solution procedure of the proposed model are described, the use of the model is illustrated with a simulation example using the 1963 MRIO accounts and hypothetical environmental data. The compromise programming procedure can form the basis for interactive decision processes when policy makers are exposed to the solutions yielded by the model. The model's usefulness and future research directions are discussed.     

A multicriteria model for planning agricultural regions within a context of groundwater rational management

Current international research focuses on topics like sustainable development, regional planning, environmental decision making and implementation, biodiversity conservation plus a number of other relevant issues, especially at times of economic crisis as today. Economic growth and environmental protection can go hand in hand, provided that decision makers develop and use tools and insights targeting in the implementation of successful and robust long term policies. This paper was developed in the framework of a European research project and implements a Multicriteria Mathematical Programming model that optimises the sustainable management of agricultural regions taking in account the available resources (land, labour, capital) and environmental parameters (agrochemicals, water consumption). The model achieves the optimum farm plan in the area combining different criteria to a utility function under a set of constraints and the spatial integration of the vulnerability maps of the regions into the model enables the regional authorities to design policies for the optimal agricultural development and the groundwater protection from the agricultural land uses. Furthermore, the model is used to simulate different scenarios and policies by the local stakeholders, due to changes on different social, economic and environmental parameters. In this way the decision makers can achieve alternative farm plans and agricultural land uses as well as to estimate economic, social and environmental impacts of different policies. The model has been applied to an agricultural region in Northern Greece and proved to be a valuable tool in the implementation of environmental policies and actions, especially in agricultural regions in a delicate balance as the study area.     

Environmental policy in the Baltic States of Estonia and Latvia

Three major kinds of strategies are envisaged in Latvia and Estonia as ways of improving the environment; these are based on economical, legislative and technological measures. In this paper, environmental problems and policies in the Baltic States are examined, together with the results of a survey of the public's attitude to environmental management. The results indicate dissatisfaction with the state of the environment, and discontent with the way in which environmental issues are managed. The public felt that they were not well‐informed about policy questions and, of the available sources of information, the mass‐media was most important. The public also felt that very little reliable information on environmental issues was obtained from politicians and local authorities.