Does environmental compliance pay?

This paper examines the relationship between environmental compliance and financial performance of large US companies. The environmental performance is measured in penalties assessed for violations of environmental regulations. The financial performance is represented by the profit margins. The regression models developed in this paper suggest that the degrees of environmental compliance have a positive influence on the profit margins. Conventional economic wisdom is that regulations impose costs and restrictions and therefore put companies at a competitive disadvantage. However, this paper is consistent with the proponents of environmental regulations who argue that tough regulations force companies to be innovative and as a result make them more productive.     

Does Decentralization Matter in Environmental Management?

/ Questionnaires from 39 state National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) agencies were analyzed using principal component analysis and multiple regression. Decentralized programs scored better in a fundamental indicator of efficiency (lower percentage of expired permits) and in the key effectiveness measure of unit-cost compliance achieved. In no case did centralized states score significantly better than decentralized ones. These results indicated support for the theory that superior local knowledge is the key mechanism. Case studies of five states suggested internal program adjustments may cause outcomes to converge towards efficiency and effectiveness, perhaps explaining the large number of variables showing no difference between centralized programs and decentralized ones.KEY WORDS: NPDES; Compliance; Decentralization; Outcome; Efficiency; Unit-cost analysis     

Does More Storage Give California More Water?

Increasing reservoir storage is commonly proposed to mitigate increasing water demand and provide drought reserves, especially in semiarid regions such as California. This paper examines the value of expanding surface reservoir capacity in California using hydroeconomic modeling for historical conditions, a future warm‐dry climate, and California's recently adopted policy to end groundwater overdraft. Results show expanding surface storage capacity rarely provides sizable economic value in most of California. On average, expanding facilities north of California's Delta provides some benefit in 92% of 82 years modeled under historical conditions and in 61% of years modeled in a warm‐dry climate. South of California's Delta, expanding storage capacity provides no benefits in 14% of years modeled under historical conditions and 99% of years modeled with a warm‐dry climate. Results vary across facilities between and within regions. The limited benefit of surface storage capacity expansion to statewide water supply should be considered in planning California's water infrastructure.     

Sustainable development control? Zoning and land use regulations for urban form,biodiversity conservation and green design in Australia

This paper examines how Australian land use plans incorporate provisions for sustainable urban form, design, biodiversity conservation, and climate change. Despite the long-standing sustainability objectives in state policy frameworks, a survey of 291 comprehensive plans finds implementation within local instruments is far from universal. Differences in patterns of policy adoption, as well as potential explanations for these differences, including geographical location, patterns of residential growth, the socio-economic composition of local communities, political forces, and policy evolution over time, are explored. Overall, areas experiencing more intensive growth tend to have newer plans, which in turn, contain more sustainability provisions, suggesting a responsive rather than repressive relationship between development pressures and regulatory development control.     

Are Life Patents Ethical? Conflict between Catholic Social Teaching and Agricultural Biotechnology's Patent Regime

Patents for genetic material in theindustrialized North have expandedsignificantly over the past twenty years,playing a crucial role in the currentconfiguration of the agricultural biotechnologyindustries, and raising significant ethicalissues. Patents have been claimed for genes,gene sequences, engineered crop species, andthe technical processes to engineer them. Mostcritics have addressed the human and ecosystemhealth implications of genetically engineeredcrops, but these broad patents raise economicissues as well. The Catholic social teachingtradition offers guidelines for critiquing theeconomic implications of this new patentregime. The Catholic principle of the universaldestination of goods implies that genes, genesequences, and engineered crop varieties areineligible for patent protection, although theprocesses to engineer these should be eligible.Religious leaders are likely to make a moresubstantive contribution to debates aboutagricultural biotechnology by addressing theselife patents than by speculating that geneticengineering is ``playing God.'     

Does municipal solid waste composting make economic sense?

Currently there is widespread interest on the part of local Governments in incorporating municipal solid waste (MSW) composting into their integrated solid waste management systems. However, there is little information on the costs of MSW composting and how those costs compare with the costs of alternative forms of waste disposal (especially traditional land disposal). This article begins to fill this information gap by reporting the results of a survey of 19 MSW composting facilities around the United States. Results indicate that MSW composting generally costs around $50 per ton, and that very few facilities receive any revenues from the sale of compost to offset operating costs. Additional economic analysis indicates that, at present, MSW composting cannot be justified on financial grounds in most parts of the US, but may be competitive with land disposal where the cost of landfilling is high (such as the north-east).1998 Academic Press     

Does control of soil erosion inhibit aquatic eutrophication?

Much of the phosphorus (P) from erosive soils is transported to water bodies together with eroded soil. Studies clarifying the impact of soil erosion on eutrophication have sought largely to quantify the reserves of P in soil particles that can be desorbed in different types of receiving waters. Aquatic microbiology has revealed that the cycling of P is coupled to the availability of common electron acceptors, Fe oxides and SO?, through anaerobic mineralization in sediments. Eroded soil is also rich in Fe oxides, and their effect on the coupled cycling of C, Fe, S, and P has been neglected in eutrophication research. Soil erosion, and its control, should therefore be studied by considering not only the processes occurring in the water phase but also those taking place after the soil particles have settled to the bottom. We propose that in SO?-rich systems, Fe oxides transported by eroded soil may promote Fe cycling, inhibit microbial SO? reduction and maintain the ability of sediment to retain P. We discuss the mechanisms through which eroded soil may affect benthic mineralization processes and the manner in which soil erosion may contribute to or counteract eutrophication.     

Juggling Land Retirement Objectives on an Agricultural Landscape: Coordination, Conflict, or Compromise?

Strategic land retirement in agricultural settings has been used as one way to achieve a combination of social objectives, which include ameliorating water quality problems and enhancing existing systems of wildlife habitat. This study uses a simulation model operating on a virtual landscape, along with the compromise programming method, to illustrate the implications of alternative weighting schemes for the long-term performance of the landscape toward various objectives. The analysis suggests that particular spatial patterns may be related to how various objectives are weighted. The analysis also illustrates the inevitable trade-offs among objectives, although it may be tempting to present retirement strategies as “win-win.”     

Effective Protection of Open Space: Does Planning Matter?

High quality plans are considered a crucial part of good land use planning and often used as a proxy measure for success in plan implementation and goal attainment. We explored the relationship of open space plan quality to the implementation of open space plans and attainment of open space protection goals in Research Triangle, North Carolina, USA. To measure plan quality, we used a standard plan evaluation matrix that we modified to focus on open space plans. We evaluated all open space plans in the region that contained a natural resource protection element. To measure plan implementation and open space protection, we developed an online survey and administered it to open space planners charged with implementing the plans. The survey elicited each planner’s perspective on aspects of open space protection in his or her organization. The empirical results (1) indicate that success in implementation and attaining goals are not related to plan quality, (2) highlight the importance of when and how stakeholders are involved in planning and implementation processes, and (3) raise questions about the relationship of planning to implementation. These results suggest that a technically excellent plan does not guarantee the long-term relationships among local landowners, political and appointed officials, and other organizations that are crucial to meeting land protection goals. A greater balance of attention to the entire decision process and building relationships might lead to more success in protecting open space.     

Does forest fragmentation affect the same way all growth-forms?

Fragmentation of natural habitats is one of the main causes of the loss of biodiversity. However, all plants do not respond to habitat fragmentation in the same way due to differences in species traits. We studied the effect of patch size and isolation on the biodiversity of vegetation in the mixed-oak forests in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. The aim was to evaluate whether all the growth-forms of vegetation are equally affected by forest fragmentation in order to improve the management strategies to restore this type of vegetation. This study has shown that the effect of the area and spatial isolation of the patches was not the same for the different growth-forms. Fragmentation had a mainly negative effect on the richness and diversity of forest specialist species, especially ferns and herbaceous growth-forms. Moreover, the presence and/or cover of woodland herbaceous species (such as Lamiastrum galeobdolon and Helleborus viridis) and of woodland ferns (namely Asplenium adiantum-nigrum, Asplenium trichomanes, Polystichum setiferum, Dryopteris affinis) were negatively affected by patch size, possibly due to the reduction of habitat quality. These species have been replaced by more generalist species (such as Cardamine pratensis, Cirsium sp., Pulmonaria longifolia or Rumex acetosella) in small patches. Patch isolation had a negative effect on the presence of forest specialist species (namely, L.?galeobdolon, Frangula alnus, Hypericum androsaemum, A.?adiantum-nigrum and Athyrium filix-femina) and favored colonization by more generalist species such as Cirsium sp., Calluna vulgaris, Erica arborea or Ulex sp. Thus, in this region special attention should be paid to the conservation of forest specialist species, especially ferns and herbs. In conservation policy focused on forest specialist species, the most valuable species in forest ecosystems, conservation of large forest areas should be promoted.     

Does collaboration affect the duration of environmental permitting processes?

While collaborative governance has many benefits for environmental planning and management, those benefits are not politically feasible if they impact on process efficiency. This study assesses collaboration's effect on the duration of water permitting processes, specifically the United States’ Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's hydropower relicensing process. Collaboration was measured using a survey of participants in 24 recent hydropower relicensing processes. A Cox proportional hazards model with mixed effects assessed the relationship between collaboration, regulatory framework, hydropower facility characteristics, and relicensing process duration. Collaboration was not associated with time to license. Instead, process duration depended on the regulatory framework (especially the switch to the Integrated Licensing Process and presence of endangered species) and facility characteristics (generating capacity and facility type). The results suggest that agencies should consider engaging collaboratively during planning and permitting, given that collaboration's benefits to decision quality do not incur a cost on overall process time.     

Does Fish Welfare Matter? On the Moral Relevance of Agency

To determine whether fish welfare matters morally, we need to know what characteristics or capacities beings need to have in order to be morally considerable, and whether fish have such characteristics. In this paper I discuss a group of theories, Kantian practical reasoning theories, in which agency (or practical rationality) is traditionally thought to be a necessary condition for moral considerability. An individual must have quite sophisticated capacities to be a (moral) agent in such theories: she must be able to act on rational principles. It seems unlikely that nonhuman animals such as fish have such capacities. I argue, however, that on the basis of certain Kantian arguments, moral agents have reason to accept duties to nonrational animals if they are agents in a much less demanding sense: if they are motivated to pursue the objects of their desires. If fish have this capacity, their welfare matters morally.     

Does calcite encrustation in Chara provide a phosphorus nutrient sink?

We studied the effect of calcite encrustation in stoneworts (Chara spp.) on P cycling in an aquatic ecosystem. Sequential fractionation was performed to quantify P fractions of the internodes of calcified (Ca-CF) and uncalcified (UCa-CF) Chara fibrosa Agardh ex Bruzelius. Our results showed that Ca-CF was able to store more P and about 14 to 23% of total P in Ca-CF was co-precipitated with encrusted calcite, while only 2 to 3% was found in UCa-CF. Furthermore, in Ca-CF, an increased amount of total P did not result in a higher release of bioavailable water-soluble and sodium hydroxide-extractable P. Extracellular calcification in Chara enhanced nutrient sink for P, provided a further bottom-up control of phytoplankton, and should be regarded as a positive feedback in stabilizing Chara dominance in lakes.     

Does Riparian Fencing Protect Stream Water Quality in Cattle-Grazed Lands?

Environmental Management - Cattle degrade streams by increasing sediment, nutrient, and fecal bacteria levels. Riparian fencing is one best management practice that may protect water quality within...     

Integrating a life-cycle assessment with NEPA: Does it make sense?

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 provides the basic national charter for protection of the environment in the United States. Today NEPA provides an environmental policy model, emulated by nations around the world. Recently, questions have been raised regarding the appropriateness and under what conditions it makes sense to combine the preparation of a NEPA analysis with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) ISO 14000 standards for Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA). This article advances a decision-making tool consisting of six discrete factors for use in determining when it is appropriate to perform an integrated NEPA/LCA analysis. Properly applied, this tool should reduce the risk that an LCA may be inappropriately prepared and integrated with a NEPA analysis.© 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.