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Defense Cleanup and Environmental Programs: Authorization and Appropriations for FY2003

Description: The Department of Defense (DOD) administers five environmental programs in response to various requirements under federal environmental laws. These programs include environmental cleanup, environmental compliance, pollution prevention, environmental technology, and conservation. Additionally, the Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for managing defense nuclear waste and cleaning up contaminated nuclear weapons sites. The Administration requested a total of $11.17 billion for these program… more
Date: February 3, 2003
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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National Environmental Education Act of 1990: Overview, Implementation, and Reauthorization Issues

Description: This report presents an overview of the National Environmental Education Act of 1990, discusses appropriations, examines Environmental Protection Agency (EPA's) implementation of the act, and analyzes potential issues for reauthorization that may be considered in the 109th Congress.
Date: February 27, 2006
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Environmental Protection Agency: Highlights of the President's FY2007 Request

Description: Title II of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for FY2006 (P.L. 109-54, H.R. 2361) provides $7.73 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), subject to an across-the-board rescission of 0.476%. Section 439 of Title IV indicates that the rescission is to be applied proportionately among each account, program, project, and activity specified in the law, accompanying reports, and the President’s budget request. The total FY2006 EPA appropriation includes… more
Date: February 21, 2006
Creator: Bearden, David M. & Esworthy, Robert
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Environmental Streamlining Provisions in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century: Status of Implementation

Description: This report describes the environmental documents required for highway projects, discusses the average amount of time to complete this documentation, summarizes the environmental streamlining provisions under TEA-21, and examines administrative and legislative actions taken to implement these requirements.
Date: February 6, 2003
Creator: Bearden, David M. & Luther, Linda G.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Biotechnology in Animal Agriculture: Status and Current Issues

Description: This report describes several scientifically emerging animal biotechnologies that are raising a variety of questions concerning risks to humans, animals, and the environment, as well as ethical concerns. The report examines applications of the technologies and discusses major issues that may arise.
Date: February 11, 2009
Creator: Becker, Geoffrey S. & Cowan, Tadlock
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the 11th Congress: Conflicting Values and Difficult Choices

Description: This report discusses U.S. policy toward global climate change, which evolved from a "study only" to a more "study and action" orientation in 1992 with ratification of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Date: February 25, 2009
Creator: Buck, Eugene H.; Corn, M. L.; Sheikh, Pervaze A.; Meltz, Robert & Alexander, Kristina
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Air Quality Issues and Animal Agriculture: A Primer

Description: This report focuses on the environmental quality of water resources as affected by animal agriculture, specifically animal waste, which can harm water quality through surface runoff, direct discharges, spills, and leaching into soil and groundwater. This report also discusses the contribution of emissions from animal feeding operations (AFO), enterprises where animals are raised in confinement, to air pollution.
Date: February 2, 2006
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Air Quality Issues and Animal Agriculture: EPA's Air Compliance Agreement

Description: In an effort to collect scientifically credible data regarding the effect of animal agriculture on water resources (specifically animal waste and emissions from animal feeding operations (AFO), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in January 2005 announced the Air Compliance Agreement. The agreement is intended to produce air quality monitoring data on AFO emissions during a two-year study, while at the same time protecting participants through a “safe harbor” from liability under certain … more
Date: February 2, 2006
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Clean Water Act and Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) of Pollutants

Description: Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act requires states to identify waters that are impaired by pollution, even after application of pollution controls. For those waters, states must establish a total maximum daily load (TMDL) of pollutants to ensure that water quality standards can be attained. Implementation was dormant until recently, when states and EPA were prodded by numerous lawsuits.
Date: February 13, 2003
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
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: February 23, 2001
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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EPA's Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Program: Highlights of Proposed Changes and Impacts on Agriculture

Description: In August 1999 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed regulations to clarify and strengthen the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program under section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act. Section 303(d) requires states to identify surface waters for which wastewater discharge limits are not stringent enough to achieve water quality standards and to allocate further required pollutant reductions among sources in order to attain those standards. This report discusses the major changes in EPA… more
Date: February 3, 2000
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Water Quality Initiatives and Agriculture

Description: RL30437: Water Quality Initiatives and Agriculture Claudia Copeland Specialist in Resources and Environmental Policy Resources, Science, and Industry Division February 16, 2000 ABSTRACT Agriculture, which has been a relatively minor component of national water quality policies and programs, especially regulatory policies, is currently involved with several recent Administration water quality initiatives. This report provides background on three ongoing initiatives with potential to affect… more
Date: February 16, 2000
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Agriculture Biotechnology: Background and Recent Issues

Description: This report discusses issues regarding the impacts of GE crops on the environment and food safety, and whether GE foods should be specially labeled. Underlying these issues is the question of whether U.S. regulation and oversight of biotechnology—with responsibilities spread primarily among the U.S.
Date: February 13, 2009
Creator: Cowan, Tadlock & Becker, Geoffrey S.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Global Climate Change: The Kyoto Protocol

Description: Responding to concerns that human activities are increasing concentrations of “greenhouse gases” (such as carbon dioxide and methane) in the atmosphere, most nations of the world joined together in 1992 to sign the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The United States was one of the first nations to ratify this treaty. It included a legally non-binding, voluntary pledge that the major industrialized/developed nations would reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to 199… more
Date: February 16, 2005
Creator: Fletcher, Susan R.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Environmental Protection Issues in the 108th Congress

Description: The 108th Congress has acted on a variety of disparate environmental measures; some of these represent proposals or issues that had been under consideration in the 107th Congress and earlier. Environmental issues considered by Congress tend to fall into several major categories: (1) funding issues — whether funding levels are adequate and focused on appropriate priorities; (2) expanding, renewing, or refocusing specific environment programs; (3) environmental issues that are important “subsets”… more
Date: February 24, 2003
Creator: Fletcher, Susan R. & Isler, Margaret M.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS)

Description: This report discusses carbon capture and sequestration (CSS), but not other types of carbon sequestration activities whereby CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and stored in vegetation, soils, or oceans.
Date: February 7, 2008
Creator: Folger, Peter
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Mining on Federal Lands

Description: This report includes background, analysis, and legislative activity regarding mining on federal lands. The claim-patent system, fair market value, and reform proposals are among topics discussed in this report.
Date: February 28, 2005
Creator: Humphries, Marc
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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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: February 25, 2003
Creator: Justus, John R. & Fletcher, Susan R.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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