Congressional Research Service Reports - 951 Matching Results

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Stormwater Permits: Status of EPA's Regulatory Program

Description: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and states are implementing a federally mandated program for controlling stormwater discharges from industrial plants and municipalities. Because of the large number of affected sources and deadline changes and extensions that have led to confusion, numerous questions have arisen about this program. Impacts of the program;s requirements, especially on cities, are a continuing concern. EPA has recently proposed permit rules to cover smaller cities and so… more
Date: June 10, 1998
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Regional Haze: EPA's Proposal to Improve Visibility in National Parks and Wilderness Areas

Description: On July 31, 1997, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a new regulatory program to reduce "regional haze." The proposed program would require the states to develop and implement long-term strategies to attain a congressionally the mandated goal of remedying the impairment of visibility in national parks and wilderness areas resulting from man-made air pollution.
Date: July 9, 1998
Creator: McCarthy, James E.; Blodgett, John E.; Parker, Larry & Meltz, Robert
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Environmental Risk Analysis: A Review of Public Policy Issues

Description: This report describes and analyzes key issues and legislative options related to risk analysis and risk management at EPA and considers the potential impact of proposed legislative approaches on EPA's rule-making process and final regulations. The report describes the history of EPA's use of risk analysis and then summarizes and analyzes issues and legislative proposals for increasing such use. Legislative activities in the 105th Congress are described. A list of selected references and an appe… more
Date: July 15, 1998
Creator: Schierow, Linda-Jo
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Environmental Protection: Defense-Related Programs

Description: The Department of Defense (DOD) operates six environmental programs that address cleanup of past contamination at military facilities, compliance with environmental laws and regulations that apply to current activities, cleanup at military bases being closed, pollution prevention, natural resource conservation, and environmental technology. In addition, the Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for managing defense nuclear waste generated from the past production of atomic materials used to… more
Date: July 28, 1998
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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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
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National Environmental Education Act of 1990: Overview, Implementation, and Reauthorization Issues

Description: The National Environmental Education Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-619) established a program within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to increase public understanding of the environment. The program awards grants for developing environmental curricula and training teachers, supports internships and fellowships to encourage the pursuit of environmental professions, selects individuals for environmental awards, and sponsors workshops and conferences.
Date: September 14, 1998
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Clean Water Act Section 401: Background and Issues

Description: Section 401 of the Clean Water Act requires that an applicant for a federal license or permit provide a certification that any discharges from the facility will comply with the Act, including water quality standard requirements. Disputes have arisen over the states' exercise of authority under Section 401. Until recently, much of the debate over the Section 401 certification issue has been between states and hydropower interests. A 1994 Supreme Court decision which upheld the states' authority … more
Date: October 4, 1998
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Clean Water Act Reauthorization in the 105th Congress

Description: In the 105th Congress, legislation to reauthorize the Clean Water Act was not been introduced, and no major House or Senate committee activity occurred. EPA and states' water quality inventories have identified wet weather flows (including agricultural runoff, urban storm water, and sewer overflows) as the largest remaining threat to water quality. EPA's clean water programs are now focusing to a large extent on solving wet weather pollution problems. These issues may be addressed legislatively… more
Date: October 29, 1998
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Environmental Protection Legislation in the 105th Congress

Description: The 105th Congress enacted tax provisions relating to Superfund brownfields sites, transportation- and defense-related environmental provisions, a border smog bill, EPA funding as well as reinstating the tax that supports the Leaking Underground Storage Trust Fund. There were various actions on regulatory reform, the budget resolution, appropriations, highway- and defense-related environmental provisions, Superfund reform bills and underground storage tanks. It is too early to tell if these wil… more
Date: November 9, 1998
Creator: Lee, Martin R.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Clean Water Act Issues in the 106th Congress

Description: In the 106th Congress, no comprehensive activity on reauthorizing the Clean Water Act occurred, although a number of individual clean water bills were enacted. Other issues have been debated recently, such as reforming the law to provide regulatory relief for industry, states and cities, and individual landowners. The debate over many of these issues highlights differing views of the Act and its implementation by some who seek to strengthen existing requirements and others who believe that cost… more
Date: November 24, 1998
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Environmental Protection Agency: An Analysis of Key FY1999 Budget Issues

Description: On February 2, 1998, the President requested $7.8 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in FY1999. The Senate Appropriations Committee reported S. 2168 (S.Rept. 105-216) on June 12; the full Senate passed the bill on July 17. The House Committee reported H.R. 4194 (H.Rept. 105-610) on July 8, 1998; the full House passed it on July 29; and the Senate passed it on July 30 after incorporating S. 2168's provisions. During the week of October 6, the House and Senate approved the conf… more
Date: December 4, 1998
Creator: Lee, Martin R.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Future of the Citizen Suit After Steel Co. and Laidlaw

Description: Two recent court decisions have called into question the viability of environmental citizen suits. In Steel Co., the Supreme Court denied plaintiff standing in a citizen suit where the defendant came into compliance after plaintiff sent its notice of intent to sue, but before it filed the complaint. Subsequently, the Fourth Circuit in Laidlaw invoked mootness doctrine to extend Steel Co.
Date: January 5, 1999
Creator: Meltz, Robert
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Environmental Reauthorizations and Regulatory Reform: From the 104th Congress to the 106th

Description: The 104th Congress pursued efforts to reform environmental regulations on several fronts: (1) revising regulatory decision making processes; (2) attaching specific reforms to funding bills; (3) establishing a House corrections day calendar of bills addressing specific regulatory problems; and (4) incorporating regulatory reforms into individual program reauthorization bills. The 105th Congress has pursued regulatory reform in four primary directions: (1) proposals to establish a comprehensive c… more
Date: January 8, 1999
Creator: Blodgett, John E.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
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.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
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.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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