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The 2016 Olympic Games: Health, Security, Environmental, and Doping Issues

Description: This report discusses a variety of issues might pose risks to the health, safety, and general well-being of athletes and their families, team personnel, and spectators participating in or attending the 2016 Olympic Games. Chief among these are the Zika virus, public safety threats, security concerns, and environmental conditions. The report also discusses the possible implications of hosting the Olympics for Brazil and the issue of doping.
Date: August 8, 2016
Creator: Halchin, L. Elaine & Rollins, John W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Evolution of the Meaning of "Waters of the United States" in the Clean Water Act

Description: This report examines the changing definition of the phrase, "waters of the United States." The scope of waters that are properly the subject of federal water pollution legislation has been the subject of long-standing consideration by all three branches of the federal government, particularly in the aftermath of the 1972 amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, commonly referred to as the Clean Water Act.
Date: August 8, 2016
Creator: Mulligan, Stephen P.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Clean Power Plan: Legal Background and Pending Litigation in West Virginia v. EPA

Description: This report provides legal background on the Clean Power Plan rule (CPP or Rule) to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), its Clean Air Act (CAA) framework under Section 111, and climate-related lawsuits that have preceded the present litigation over the CPP. It then gives an overview of the participants in the current litigation, including two groups of Members of Congress, who have offered briefs in support of the petitioners and the respondents, respectively.
Date: August 8, 2016
Creator: Wyatt, Alexandra M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Pipeline Security: Domestic Threats

Description: This report discusses recent acts of sabotage against U.S. oil pipelines by environmental activists have raised concern about the security of the nation's energy pipelines and the federal program to protect them.
Date: November 3, 2016
Creator: Parfomak, Paul W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Climate Change: Frequently Asked Questions about the 2015 Paris Agreement

Description: This report discusses the frequently asked questions about the 2015 Paris Agreement (PA). The PA opened for signature by Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on April 22, 2016, at U.N. headquarters in New York City.
Date: September 1, 2016
Creator: Leggett, Jane A. & Lattanzio, Richard K.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Safe Drinking Water Act: Implementation and Issues

Description: This report discusses key drinking water issues in the 108th Congress involving water infrastructure funding and problems caused by specific contaminants, such as the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), perchlorate, and lead in drinking water. Congress last reauthorized the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in 1996, and although funding authority for most SDWA programs expired in FY2003, broad reauthorization efforts were not pursued as EPA, states, and water utilities continued … more
Date: December 8, 2004
Creator: Tiemann, Mary
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Clean Power Plan: Legal Background and Pending Litigation in West Virginia v. EPA

Description: This report provides legal background on the Clean Power Plan rule (CPP) to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), its Clean Air Act (CAA) framework under Section 111, and climate-related lawsuits that have preceded the present litigation over the CPP. It then gives an overview of the participants in the current litigation, including two groups of Members of Congress, who have offered briefs in support of the petitioners and the respondents, respectively. This report explains the major … more
Date: April 27, 2016
Creator: Wyatt, Alexandra M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Clean Water Act Issues in the 108th Congress

Description: This report discusses issues regarding the Clean Water Act. Prospects for legislative initiatives to comprehensively amend the Clean Water Act (CWA) have stalled for some time over whether and exactly how to change the law, and Congress has recently focused legislative attention on narrow bills to extend or modify selected CWA programs, rather than taking up comprehensive proposals. For example, the 108th Congress enacted one bill amending the CWA, legislation to reauthorize the National Estuar… more
Date: December 6, 2004
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Brownfields and Superfund Issues in the 108th Congress

Description: This report discusses the Superfund program for cleaning up the nation's worst hazardous waste sites, created by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, or CERCLA (P.L. 96-510, as amended). It includes recent development and background issues, superfund issues, revenue issues, comprehensive reauthorization, and legislation regarding superfund program.
Date: October 27, 2004
Creator: Reisch, Mark
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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EPA's Clean Power Plan for Existing Power Plants: Frequently Asked Questions

Description: This report summarizes the issues the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) encountered when developing regulations for "carbon pollution" from existing power plants as part of the Clean Power Plan, and describes how the EPA resolved these issues.
Date: June 15, 2016
Creator: McCarthy, James E.; Ramseur, Jonathan L.; Leggett, Jane A.; Wyatt, Alexandra M. & Dolan, Alissa M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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EPA's Clean Power Plan for Existing Power Plants: Frequently Asked Questions

Description: This report provides a series of frequently-asked questions with answers regarding the Clean Power Plan and related litigation. On August 3, 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated standards for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from existing fossil-fuel-fired power plants under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act (CAA); the rule, known as the Clean Power Plan (CPP), appeared in the Federal Register on October 23, 2015.
Date: May 19, 2016
Creator: McCarthy, James E.; Ramseur, Jonathan L.; Leggett, Jane A.; Wyatt, Alexandra M. & Dolan, Alissa M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization: Background and Issues for Congress

Description: This report provides background information and issues for Congress on the sustainment and modernization of the Coast Guard's polar icebreaker fleet. The Coast Guard's proposed FY2017 budget requests $150 million in acquisition funding for a new polar icebreaker that the Coast Guard wants to begin building in FY2020. The issue for Congress is whether to approve, reject, or modify the Administration's FY2017 acquisition funding request for a new polar icebreaker, and, more generally, whether to … more
Date: May 27, 2016
Creator: O'Rourke, Ronald
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Changes in the Arctic: Background and Issues for Congress

Description: This report provides an overview of Arctic-related issues for Congress, and refers readers to more in-depth CRS reports on specific Arctic-related issues. The diminishment of Arctic sea ice has led to increased human activities in the Arctic, and has heightened interest in, and concerns about, the region's future.
Date: May 31, 2016
Creator: O'Rourke, Ronald
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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EPA Policies Concerning Integrated Planning and Affordability of Water Infrastructure

Description: This report examines two recent initiatives by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in which the agency works with states to develop and implement new approaches for water quality goals that will be more cost-effective and address the most pressing water infrastructure problems first. The examples include an integrated planning policy and a framework policy for assessing a community's financial capability to meet objectives and requirements of the Clean Water Act (CWA).
Date: May 2, 2016
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR): Controversies for the 108th Congress

Description: This report discusses one major element of the energy debate in the 108th Congress, which has been whether to approve energy development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in northeastern Alaska, and if so, under what conditions, or whether to continue to prohibit development to protect the area's biological resources. The Refuge is an area rich in fauna, flora, and commercial oil potential. Current law forbids energy leasing in the Refuge.
Date: November 1, 2004
Creator: Corn, M. L.; Gelb, Bernard A. & Baldwin, Pamela
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Clean Air Act: A Summary of the Act and Its Major Requirements

Description: This report summarizes the Clean Air Act and its major regulatory requirements. It describes the Act's major provisions and provides tables listing all major amendments, with the year of enactment and Public Law number, and crossreferencing sections of the Act with the major U.S. Code sections of the codified statute.
Date: January 3, 2003
Creator: McCarthy, James E.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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EPA's Clean Power Plan for Existing Power Plants: Frequently Asked Questions

Description: This report summarizes the issues the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) encountered when developing regulations for "carbon pollution" from existing power plants as part of the Clean Power Plan. The report describes how the EPA resolved these issues.
Date: April 5, 2016
Creator: McCarthy, James E.; Ramseur, Jonathan L.; Wyatt, Alexandra M. & Dolan, Alissa M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Military Base Closures: Role and Costs of Environmental Cleanup

Description: This report explains cleanup requirements for the transfer and reuse of properties on closed bases, discusses property transfer status and cleanup costs on bases closed in prior rounds, and examines estimates of costs to clean up bases to be closed in the 2005 round to make these properties safe for civilian reuse.
Date: October 3, 2006
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Exemptions from Environmental Law for the Department of Defense: Background and Issues for Congress

Description: Over time, Congress has included exemptions in several environmental statutes to ensure that requirements of those statutes would not restrict military training needs to the extent that national security would be compromised. This report discusses these exemptions and congressional disagreement over the need for broader exemptions in the absence of data on the overall impact of environmental requirements on training and readiness.
Date: January 3, 2007
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Perchlorate Contamination of Drinking Water: Regulatory Issues and Legislative Actions

Description: This report reviews perchlorate water contamination issues and developments. Concern over the potential health risks of perchlorate exposure has increased, and some states and members of Congress have urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set a drinking water standard for perchlorate.
Date: February 3, 2006
Creator: Tiemann, Mary
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Brownfields Tax Incentive Extension

Description: This report discusses the brownfields tax incentive, which expires on December 31, 2007. Enacted in 1997, the provision allowed a taxpayer to fully deduct the costs of environmental cleanup in the year the costs were incurred, rather than spreading the costs over a period of years.
Date: January 19, 2007
Creator: Reisch, Mark
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Brief Summaries of Federal Animal Protection Statutes

Description: This report contains brief summaries of federal animal protection statutes, listed alphabetically. It includes statutes enacted to implement treaties, those that protect certain groups of animals (e.g., protection of "game" animals rather than predators), statutes to conserve fish, statutes that allow the disabled to use service animals, and statutes aimed at acts of animal rights advocates (the Animal Enterprise Protection Act of 1992, and the Recreational Hunting Safety and Preservation Act o… more
Date: October 16, 2006
Creator: Cohen, Henry
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the 109th Congress: Conflicting Values and Difficult Choices

Description: This report discusses various proposals to amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA; P.L. 93-205, 16 U.S.C. §§1531-1543). Major issues include changing the role of science in decision-making, modifying critical habitat (CH) procedures, reducing conflicts with Department of Defense activities, incorporating further protection and incentives for property owners, and increasing protection of listed species, among others.
Date: April 12, 2006
Creator: Buck, Eugene H.; Corn, M. Lynne; Sheikh, Pervaze A.; Baldwin, Pamela & Meltz, Robert
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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