Congressional Research Service Reports - 44 Matching Results

Search Results

prev Results: 11 - 34 next
open access

Air Quality and the New Ozone NAAQS: The OTAG Process

Description: The Ozone Transport Assessment Group (OTAG) represented a cooperative effort between states, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and numerous stakeholders to address teh complex issue of ozone transport. However, opponents of the new ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) argue that the OTAG recommendations are far too vague and ambiguous to be cited by EPA as a basis for implementation. This report provides background on the effort, and summarizes OTAG's assessment and reco… more
Date: July 30, 1998
Creator: Parker, Larry & Blodgett, John E.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Global Climate Change

Description: This report discusses the effect of human activities on global climate change. Human activities, particularly burning of fossil fuels, have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and other trace gases, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), methane, and nitrous oxide.
Date: December 4, 1996
Creator: Justus, John R. & Morrissey, Wayne A.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

A Clean Air Option: Cash for Clunkers

Description: The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 encourage states to pursue market-based approaches to improve air quality. An Accelerated Vehicle Retirement (AVR) program, commonly referred to as "Cash for Clunkers," is designed to provide an economic incentive for the owners of highly polluting vehicles to retire their automobiles permanently from use and to provide greater flexibility for private industry to reduce emissions by sponsoring such a program. The implementation of AVR programs can be controv… more
Date: September 16, 1996
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Ethanol and Clean Air: The "Reg-Neg" Controversy and Subsequent Events

Description: The Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA), enacted in 1990, called for cleaner automotive fuels in order to upgrade air quality. This appeared to provide new market potential for ethanol, which is obtained from corn grown in the midwestern United States, and which is already in large-scale use in a blend of ten percent ethanol to ninety percent gasoline. The CAAA left specific details of the clean fuels program to be worked out by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in consultation with the in… more
Date: June 22, 1993
Creator: Segal, Migdon
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Clean Air Act Permitting: Status of Implementation

Description: The 1990 Clean Air Act amendments established an operating permit system that is affecting many new and existing sources of air emissions, as well as state and local air pollution control agencies. After delays and early missteps, the operating permit program is moving ahead. All state and local programs have received interim or full approval, and permits are being issued, although at a slower rate than anticipated. However, a number of issues exist. These include the effect of key federal regu… more
Date: May 14, 1999
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Global Climate Change: A Concise History of Negotiations and Chronology of Major Activities Preceding the 1992 U.N. Framework Convention

Description: This report discusses the ongoing international policy debate regarding Global Climate Change and U.S. involvement in the issue of global climate change.The report provides an historical context of the current debate, which is important in understanding the fundamental issues about global climate change.
Date: May 5, 1998
Creator: Morrissey, Wayne A.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Nitrogen Oxides and Electric Utilities: Revising the NSPS

Description: Under the Clean Air Act (CAA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from utility boilers, combustion turbines, and combined-cycle units. The current NOx NSPS, set in 1979, does not reflect subsequent advancements in Nox control technology. As a part of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments,
Date: July 25, 1997
Creator: Parker, Larry
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Global Climate Change Treaty: The Kyoto Protocol

Description: Negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) were completed December 11, 1997, committing the industrialized nations to specified, legally binding reductions in emissions of six "greenhouse gases." This report discusses the major provisions of the Kyoto Protocol.
Date: July 31, 1998
Creator: Fletcher, Susan R.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Global Climate Change: Reducing Greenhouse Gases - How Much from What Baseline?

Description: This report discusses the ways to reduce emissions of six greenhouses gases after the Kyoto meeting on Global Climate Change. Projecting the reductions that would be required if the U.S. were to ratify the treaty is difficult. While emissions of CO are fairly well established and account for 2 about 85% of total carbon equivalent emissions, emissions of the other gases, especially N O, are more uncertain.
Date: March 11, 1998
Creator: Parker, Larry & Blodgett, John E.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Global Climate Change: Selected Legal Questions About the Kyoto Protocol

Description: This report discusses the Kyoto Protocol and whether the United States is now legally bound by the Protocol, the legal implications of signing it, whether it could be implemented as an executive agreement without submission to the Senate, and whether the Protocol could be used as the legal basis for regulation of emissions even prior to ratification.
Date: April 10, 1998
Creator: Ackerman, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Agriculture and EPA’s New Air Quality Standards for Ozone and Particulates

Description: This report considers the effects of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) air quality regulations on agriculture. Moreover, the report summarizes these EPA regulations and what pollutants they target. Specifically, the report discusses the negative effects of these pollutants on agriculture and the benefits of these regulations.
Date: March 24, 1998
Creator: McCarthy, James E. & Zinn, Jeffrey A.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Global Climate Change: Congressional Concern About "Back Door" Implementation of the 1997 U.N. Kyoto Protocol

Description: This report discusses legislation and issues relating to global climate change, some legislation and some FY1999 appropriations bills were used as vehicles for explicit congressional direction to the executive branch about possible "back door" implementation of the Kyoto Protocol.
Date: February 3, 1999
Creator: Morrissey, Wayne A.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Air Quality and Vehicle Emission Standards: An Overview of the National Low Emission Vehicle Program and Related Issues

Description: This report provides background information on federal emission standards for motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act and stricter standards originally developed to address the severity of air quality problems in California, explains the low emission standards and flexible compliance mechanisms to which states and manufacturers have voluntarily agreed under the National Low Emission Vehicle (LEV) Program, discusses the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) estimates of the program's air qualit… more
Date: January 4, 1999
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Global Climate Change Treaty: Negotiations and Related Issues

Description: This report discusses the negotiations leading the Kyoto conference of the parties. The United States and other parties to the 1992 Climate Change Convention signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro will meet December 1-12 in Kyoto, Japan, to conclude year-long negotiations on a legally binding protocol or amendment to reduce or stabilize emissions of greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. proposal to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases to 1990 levels between 2008… more
Date: November 21, 1997
Creator: Fletcher, Susan R.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Global Climate Change: Carbon Emissions and End-Use Energy Demand

Description: This report presents an analysis of the potential impacts of the Kyoto Protocol on U.S. energy demand. The analysis focuses on 27 common end-uses — light duty vehicles, residential space heating, industrial direct process heat, etc. — that describe the way energy is used in the United States
Date: January 20, 1999
Creator: Rowberg, Richard E.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Air Quality and Motor Vehicles: An Analysis of Current and Proposed Emission Standards

Description: The extent to which emissions from motor vehicles and the amount of sulfur in commercial gasoline should be regulated has become a controversial issue. The EPA is proposing national limits on gasoline sulfur levels which would become effective in 2004. This report provides background information on the regulation of vehicle emissions in the United States, analyzes key elements of the National Low Emission Vehicle (LEV) program and the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Tier 2 proposal, sum… more
Date: September 2, 1999
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Implementing Acid Rain Legislation

Description: This report discusses the broad-ranging provisions in Title IV of The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (P.L. 101-549), which raise myriad implementation issues, particularly with respect to the system of tradable "allowances."
Date: April 5, 1995
Creator: Parker, Larry
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Stratospheric Ozone Depletion: Methyl Bromide Control Measures

Description: This report is intended to help the reader follow changes over time in regulations domestic and international - governing methyl bromide for its potential ozone-depleting effects. Methyl bromide, like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), has been implicated by scientists in contributing to stratospheric ozone depletion, which may pose health threats to living organisms due to increased exposure to harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Methyl bromide is currently used widely as a pesticide in international… more
Date: October 16, 1997
Creator: Morrissey, Wayne A.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Implementing Acid Rain Legislation

Description: This report discusses the broad-ranging provisions in Title IV of The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (P.L. 101-549), which raise myriad implementation issues, particularly with respect to the system of tradable "allowances."
Date: November 15, 1994
Creator: Parker, Larry
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
Back to Top of Screen