Congressional Research Service Reports - 96 Matching Results

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Environment and the World Trade Organization (WTO) at Seattle: Issues and Concerns

Description: This meeting of the decision making body of the WTO was expected to make decisions that would lead to another round of negotiations on a wide variety of trade rules and related issues. Although the United States continues to assert the necessity of pursuing the twin goals of free trade and environmental protection and to argue that these need not be in conflict, controversy remains over how the multilateral trading system should address the specifics of environmental issues.
Date: December 21, 1999
Creator: Fletcher, Susan R.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Superfund Act Reauthorization: Liability Provisions of Leading Congressional Proposals

Description: Congress is currently seeking to reauthorize and amend the Superfund Act (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or "CERCLA"). This report targets the liability issues addressed in the two House committee-reported bills, H.R. 1300 and H.R. 2580, and the House Committee on Commerce's minority substitute offered by Representative Towns. Senate bills are not covered at this time because the Senate has decided to wait until the House acts.
Date: December 21, 1999
Creator: Meltz, Robert
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Defense Cleanup and Environmental Programs: Authorization and Appropriations for FY2000

Description: Although Congress authorizes most federal programs for multiple years, it annually authorizes programs for national defense as well as appropriating funding for them each fiscal year. Of the activities traditionally authorized and funded, the Department of Defense (DOD) administers the following six environmental programs: environmental restoration, compliance, cleanup at base closure sites, pollution prevention, environmental technology, and natural resource conservation.
Date: December 13, 1999
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Environmental Protection Agency: FY2000 Budget Issues

Description: State and local wastewater and drinking water capital needs were the most prominent budgetary issues. Senate and House authorizing and appropriating chairmen expressed concern over the requested 17% decrease in the State and Tribal Assistance Grants account from $3.41 billion in FY1999 to $2.84 billion in FY2000. The conference agreement on H.R. 2684 provides a total of $3.47 billion. For clean water state revolving funds, the conference committee approved the Senate's level of $1.35 billion, a… more
Date: October 22, 1999
Creator: Lee, Martin R.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Highway Fund Sanctions and Conformity Under the Clean Air Act

Description: This report discusses two Clean Air Act provisions that can result in denial of federal highway funding to local areas: sanctions and the lapse of what is called "conformity." Under the Clean Air Act, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency is required to impose highway fund or other sanctions on areas that have not submitted or not implemented adequate plans to attain air quality standards. In addition, federal agencies may not provide financial support to transportation impro… more
Date: October 15, 1999
Creator: McCarthy, James E.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Superfund Reauthorization: A Summary of H.R. 1300, as Reported

Description: The Superfund reauthorization bill, H.R. 1300, was ordered reported by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on August 5, 1999, and now goes to the Commerce Committee, which shares jurisdiction. Title I authorizes programs to assess and clean up brownfields, provides funding for state voluntary cleanup programs, and prohibits federal enforcement at sites cleaned up under state law. Community participation in decision-making is promoted by Title II, and the duties of the Agency f… more
Date: September 1, 1999
Creator: Reisch, Mark & Tiemann, Mary
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Preemption Language in Federal Environmental Statutes

Description: This report compiles the provisions in federal environmental statutes that explicitly state whether Congress intended to preempt state law.
Date: July 29, 1999
Creator: Meltz, Robert
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Global Climate Change Policy: Domestic Early Action Credits

Description: This report discusses the global climate change policy and proposals to allow credit for early actions to reduce emissions.
Date: July 23, 1999
Creator: Parker, Larry & Blodgett, John E.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Role of Designation of Critical Habitat under the Endangered Species Act

Description: On June 14th, 1999, the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) called for public comment on its current procedures for designating critical habitat. In addition, a proposal is before the Senate (S.1100) to move the time at which critical habitat must be designated for a species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) from being (basically) concurrent with the listing of the species to the time a recovery plan is finalized for that species. This report is written as background for considering the curren… more
Date: July 16, 1999
Creator: Baldwin, Pamela
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Global Climate Change: Coal Use in China and Other Asian Developing Countries

Description: Report discussing factors behind China's planned reliance on coal for future energy growth, including background information, factors in Asian coal use trends, Asian and world energy demands, the Asian coal and world markets, CO2 emissions trends, projected energy supply and emissions from other sources, and general conclusions regarding the issues.
Date: June 16, 1999
Creator: Humphries, Marc
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Air Quality: EPA's Ozone Transport Rule, OTAG, and Section 216 Petitions - A Hazy Situation?

Description: The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments provided the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the states with new tool to address the problem of interstate transport of air pollutants. This report discusses the actions undertaken as a direct result of this act, additional pollution reduction enforcement measures pursued by the EPA, and actions undertaken by states to reduce offending emissions not in compliance with these measures.
Date: June 15, 1999
Creator: Parker, Larry & Blodgett, John E.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Accident Prevention under the Clean Air Act Section 112(r): Risk Management Planning by Propane Users and Internet Access to Worst-Case Accident Scenarios

Description: This report briefly describes two issues associated with EPA implementation of risk management planning requirements in the Clean Air Act Section 112(r): whether dealers and distributors of propane and other flammable fuels should be covered by the law, and whether electronic access to off-site consequence analyses (OCA), and especially worst-case analyses, should be restricted to avoid misuse by terrorists or criminals. These issues are addressed by S. 880, as reported, and H.R. 1301 in the 10… more
Date: June 10, 1999
Creator: Schierow, Linda-Jo
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The D.C. Circuit Remands the Ozone and Particulate Matter Clean-Air Standards:

Description: On May 14, 1999, in American Trucking Ass'ns v. EPA, a U.S. court of Appeals ruled that deficiencies in EPA's promulgation of new primary and secondary air quality standards required that they be remanded to the agency for further consideration. The decision is controversial, in part because the two-judge majority opinion relied principally on a long-moribund legal doctrine known as the nondelegation doctrine. The decision, if it survives appeal, will thus have implications for all delegations … more
Date: June 10, 1999
Creator: Meltz, Robert & McCarthy, James E.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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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
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Animal Waste Management and the Environment: Background for Current Issues

Description: This report addresses the Background and the then current issues related to Animal Waste Management and the Environment.This background report describes the livestock production industry along with the public health and environmental concerns related to the industry.
Date: April 26, 1999
Creator: Copeland, Claudia & Zinn, Jeffrey
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Commerce Clause as a Limit on Congressional Power to Protect the Environment

Description: Several times during the 1990s the Supreme Court struck down federal enactments as exceeding Congress' power under the Commerce Clause or Tenth Amendment. This report briefly reviews three of these decisions -- United States v. Lopez, New York v. United States, and Printz v. United States. Its focus, however, is how these cases have played out in subsequent lower-court challenges to federal environmental laws. The report shows that Supreme Court rulings in favor of these states notwithstanding,… more
Date: March 12, 1999
Creator: Meltz, Robert
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Clean Air Act Issues in the 105th Congress

Description: This Issue Brief discusses clean air issues that arose in the 105th Congress. CRS Issue Brief IB10004 addresses the 106th Congress.
Date: March 3, 1999
Creator: McCarthy, James E.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Right to a Clean Environment Provisions in State Constitutions, and Arguments as to a Federal Counterpart

Description: The issue arises occasionally whether it might be desirable to amend the U.S. Constitution to add an environmental provision - such as one declaring an individual right to a clean environment. Some attention was given this issue during the 1970s, when over a dozen states adopted clean environment or other environmentally oriented provisions in their constitutions. Our focus here is solely personal right to a clean environment provisions and the questions they raise. Are they self-executing, or … more
Date: February 23, 1999
Creator: Meltz, Robert
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Leaking Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Issues

Description: Nationwide, more than 370,000 leaks from underground storage tanks (USTs) have been detected, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) projects that many more could be confirmed as older tanks are upgraded, replaced, or closed to meet regulations that went into effect on December 22, 1998.
Date: February 17, 1999
Creator: Tiemann, Mary
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996: Overview of P.L. 104-182

Description: The 104th Congress made extensive changes to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) with the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996 (P.L. 104-182), bringing to a close a multi-year effort to amend a statute that was widely criticized as having too little flexibility, too many unfunded mandates, and an arduous but unfocused regulatory schedule. Among the many changes to the SDWA, the 1996 amendments added provisions to provide funding to communities for drinking water madates, focus regulatory e… more
Date: February 8, 1999
Creator: Tiemann, Mary
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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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.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Environmental Risk and Cost-Benefit Analysis: A Review of Proposed Legislative Mandates, 1993-1998

Description: Between 1993 and 1998 Congress considered many proposals that aimed to increase or improve the use of risk analysis by federal agencies, especially in developing environmental rules. This report describes differences and similarities among selected provisions of key proposals: Senate-passed Johnston amendments to S. 171 and S. 2019 in the 103rd Congress; S. 343, as reported by the Committee on the Judiciary, in the 104th Congress; House-passed H.R. 9 in the 104th Congress; S. 981, as reported b… more
Date: January 22, 1999
Creator: Schierow, Linda-Jo
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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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.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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