Congressional Research Service Reports - 96 Matching Results

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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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate: Marine Mammal Issues

Description: After global warming became a concern in the mid-1950s, researchers proposed measuring deep ocean temperatures to reveal any significant trends in core ocean warming. Acoustic thermometry can detect changes in ocean temperature by receiving low-frequency sounds transmitted across an ocean basin because the speed of sound is proportional to water temperature. Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate, or ATOC, is an international program involving 11 institutions in seven nations. It is designed as … more
Date: May 12, 1995
Creator: Buck, Eugene H.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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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
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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.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Air Quality: EPA’s Proposed Ozone Transport Rule, OTAG, and Section 126 Petitions — A Hazy Situation?

Description: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently engaged in a series of regulatory actions to address the transport of ozone pollution in the eastern United States. This report reviews this situation with respect to an EPA-proposed Ozone Transport Rule and other activities.
Date: May 14, 1998
Creator: Parker, Larry & Blodgett, John E.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Air Quality: EPA's Proposed Ozone Transport Rule, OTAG, and Section 216 Petitions - A Hazy Situation?

Description: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently engaged in a series of regulatory actions to address the transport of ozone pollution in the eastern United States. This report reviews this situation with respect to an EPA-proposed Ozone Transport Rule and other activities.
Date: May 14, 1998
Creator: Parker, Larry & Blodgett, John E.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Air Quality: Impacts of Trip Reduction Programs on States and Affected Employers

Description: This report discusses employer trip reduction (ETR) programs, which would require large employers to implement certain transportation control measures as part of a national effort to combat air pollution, largely as a direct result of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.
Date: August 18, 1993
Creator: Flechtner, Maura K. & Mayer, Susan L.
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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Brownfields Program: Cleaning Up Urban Industrial Sites

Description: The Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is a pilot project to return idle or underused industrial and commercial facilities back to productive use, in situations where redevelopment is complicated by potential environmental contamination. The program is flexible, allowing cities to use a variety of approaches in utilizing grants of up to $200,000 to develop abandoned and underused sites, neighborhoods, and small regional areas. States and Indian tribes are eligible as well as local go… more
Date: April 3, 1995
Creator: Reisch, Mark
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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California Air Quality FIP - A Fact Sheet

Description: On April 10, 1995, President Clinton signed P.L. 104-6, which contained a provision that rescinds the Federal air quality implementation plan (FIP) for the South Coast, Ventura, and Sacramento areas of California.(1) As a result, the FIP issued by EPA has no further force and effect, and California will continue pursuing approval of its own State implementation plan (SIP) in lieu of the FIP. Promulgation of the FIP was perceived by some within the State as having a detrimental effect on Califor… more
Date: April 13, 1995
Creator: Mayer, Susan L.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Clean Air Act Issues

Description: The 104th Congress enacted four bills modifying provisions of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and held numerous oversight hearings, as EPA and the states continued to implement requirements of the Act's 1990 Amendments. The Amendments set deadlines for issuance of new regulations and attainment of air quality standards.
Date: December 2, 1996
Creator: McCarthy, James E.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
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
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Clean Water Act and TMDLs

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 of this provision has been dormant until recently, when states and EPA were prodded by numerous lawsuits. The TMDL issue has become controversial, in part because of requirements and costs … more
Date: September 11, 1997
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
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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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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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 Issues in the 104th Congress

Description: For the 104th Congress, reauthorization of the Clean Water Act would seem likely to be a priority, since the Act was last amended in 1987 and authorizations expired on September 30, 1990. But legislative prospects in the 104th Congress are uncertain. Clean water also was a priority for the 103rd Congress, but, in 1994, Congress ran out of time and did not act on comprehensive amendments. Many of the issues proved to be too complex and controversial to be resolved easily, while Congress also was… more
Date: December 1, 1994
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Clean Water Issues in the 105th Congress

Description: For the 105th Congress, reauthorization of the Clean Water Act may be a priority in the second session. The Act was last amended in 1987 and authorizations expired on Sept. 30, 1990. Clean water was a priority for the last two Congresses, but no legislation was enacted. In the 104th Congress, the House passed a comprehensive reauthorization bill, but during House debate and subsequently, controversies arose over whether and how the Act should be made more flexible and less burdensome on regulat… more
Date: August 21, 1997
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
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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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.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
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.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Deforestation: An Overview of Global Programs and Agreements

Description: In recent years, global environmental concerns have figured prominently on the American political agenda. In particular, tropical deforestation and its implications for global climate change and biological diversity loss have prompted public outcry. Concerns have since grown to include other forest types as well. The Congress has considered a variety of legislation to stem the tide of increasing deforestation and the United States has supported a number of bilateral and multilateral initiatives… more
Date: October 21, 1992
Creator: Lyke, Julie & Fletcher, Susan R.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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