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Paris Agreement: U.S. Climate Finance Commitments

Description: This report discusses the commitment of the United States and other industrialized countries to provide financial assistance for global environmental initiatives, including climate change, through a variety of multilateral agreements.
Date: June 19, 2017
Creator: Lattanzio, Richard K.
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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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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Water Infrastructure Financing: History of EPA Appropriations

Description: This report summarizes, in chronological order, congressional activity to fund items in the State and Tribal Assistance Grants (STAG) account since 1987. In appropriations legislation, funding for EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) wastewater assistance is contained in the measure providing funds for the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies.
Date: January 19, 2006
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
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 such as: Arctic sovereignty claims; commercial shipping through the Arctic; Arctic oil, gas, and mineral exploration; endangered Arctic species; and increased military operations in the Arctic that could cause the region in coming years to become an arena of international cooperation or competition.
Date: January 19, 2016
Creator: O'Rourke, Ronald
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Analysis of Recent Proposals to Amend the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to Create a Coal Combustion Residuals Permit Program

Description: This report identifies key elements of the Environmental Protection Agency's approach to the implementation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and regulations of coal combustion residuals. Under this approach, the EPA would have no formal role in creating state program to regulate coal combustion residuals and instead allows states that opt in to implement a coal combustion residuals permit program.
Date: March 19, 2013
Creator: Luther, Linda
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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EPA Regulation of Greenhouse Gases: Congressional Responses and Options

Description: This report discusses elements of this controversy, providing background on stationary sources of GHG pollution and identifying options Congress has at its disposal to address the issues.
Date: February 19, 2013
Creator: McCarthy, James E.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Overview of NEPA Requirements

Description: This report provides an overview of The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements. NEPA establishes national environmental policies that apply to the federal government and also prescribes certain procedural requirements for federal agency actions.
Date: April 19, 2005
Creator: Baldwin, Pamela
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Cooling Water Intake Structures: Summary of EPA’s Proposed Rule

Description: This report provides a summary of EPA’s Proposed Rule which is Cooling Water Intake Structures.water withdrawals by power producers and manufacturers represent more than one half of water withdrawn daily for various use in The United States.
Date: July 19, 2011
Creator: Claudia, Copleland
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Air Quality Standards and Sound Science: What Role for CASAC?

Description: This report discusses the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), which are standards that define what EPA considers to be clean air. Their importance stems from the long and complicated implementation process that is set in motion by their establishment.
Date: January 19, 2007
Creator: McCarthy, James E.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Army Corps of Engineers Water Resources Activities: Authorization and Appropriations

Description: This report provides an overview of the Corps civil works program. It covers the congressional authorization and appropriation process, the standard project development process, and other Corps activities and authorities.
Date: December 19, 2006
Creator: Carter, Nicole T. & Hughes, H. S.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The 2010 Oil Spill: MMS/BOEMRE and NEPA

Description: This report reviews the environmental procedures required following the explosion of an oil well on a tract leased by BP from the federal government.
Date: August 19, 2010
Creator: Alexander, Kristina
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

EPA Regulations: Too Much, Too Little, or On Track?

Description: This report provides background information on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory activity during the Obama Administration to help address these issues. It examines major or controversial regulatory actions taken by or under development at EPA since January 2009, providing details on the regulatory action itself, presenting an estimated timeline for completion of the rule (including identification of related court or statutory deadlines), and, in general, providing EPA's estimates… more
Date: March 19, 2014
Creator: McCarthy, James E. & Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Pesticide Use and Water Quality: Are the Laws Complementary or in Conflict?

Description: This report provides background on the conflict over interpretation and implementation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA). A brief discussion of the two laws is followed by a review of the major litigation of interest.
Date: March 19, 2014
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Army Corps of Engineers Water Resource Projects: Authorization and Appropriations

Description: This report provides an overview of the Army Corps of Engineers civil works program. It covers the congressional authorization and appropriation process, the standard project development process, and other Corps activities and authorities. It also includes an Appendix on the evolution of Corps civil works missions and authorities and a description of the limits on the Corps' role in levee accreditation and improvements for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
Date: January 19, 2011
Creator: Carter, Nicole T. & Stern, Charles V.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Army Corps of Engineers Water Resource Projects: Authorization and Appropriations

Description: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers attracts congressional attention because its projects can have significant local and regional economic benefits and environmental effects, in addition to their water resource development purposes. This report provides an overview of the Corps civil works program. It covers the congressional authorization and appropriation process, the standard project development process, and other Corps activities and authorities. It also includes an Appendix on the evolution o… more
Date: August 19, 2011
Creator: Carter, Nicole T. & Stern, Charles V.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Litigation Seeking to Establish Climate Change Impacts as a Common Law Nuisance

Description: This report discusses recent legislative initiatives seeking to establish climate change impacts as a common law nuisance. The report explains what private and public nuisances are, the issues faced by policymakers when litigating a climate-change/nuisance suit, and also discusses five climate-chance/nuisance suits that are now or formerly active, as a basis of comparison. The report also explores arguments of those both for and against addressing the complex issue of climate change through com… more
Date: November 19, 2010
Creator: Meltz, Robert
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS)

Description: Carbon capture and sequestration (or storage) - known as CCS - has attracted interest as a measure for mitigating global climate change because large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from fossil fuel use in the United States are potentially available to be captured and stored underground or prevented from reaching the atmosphere. Congressional interest has grown in CCS as part of legislative strategies to address climate change. The large and rapid influx of funding for industrial-scale … more
Date: June 19, 2009
Creator: Folger, Peter
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Climate Change: The Role of the U.S. Agriculture Sector and Congressional Action

Description: The debate in Congress over whether and how to address possible future climate change is intensifying. Often, the role of the U.S. agriculture sector is invoked in this debate. Agriculture is a source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which many scientists agree are contributing to observed climate change. Congress is considering a range of climate change policy options, including GHG emission reduction programs that would either mandate or authorize a cap-and-trade program to reduce GHG emiss… more
Date: June 19, 2009
Creator: Johnson, Renée
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Water Infrastructure Financing: History of EPA Appropriations

Description: The principal federal program to aid municipal wastewater treatment plant construction is authorized in the Clean Water Act (CWA). In appropriations legislation, funding for EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) wastewater assistance is contained in the measure providing funds for the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. This report summarizes, in chronological order, congressional activity to fund items in the State and Tribal Assistance Grants (STAG) account since 19… more
Date: August 19, 2008
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Estimates of Carbon Mitigation Potential from Agricultural and Forestry Activities

Description: Numerous theoretical and empirical studies estimate the greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation potential of farm and forestry activities, and suggest that the potential for carbon uptake in agricultural soils and forest lands is much greater than current rates. Following a discussion of the estimated current emissions and carbon sequestration by the agricultural and forestry sectors, this report presents a brief overview of the available estimates from USDA and EPA carbon mitigation studies, and then … more
Date: June 19, 2009
Creator: Johnson, Renée; Gorte, Ross W.; Yacobucci, Brent D. & Schnepf, Randy
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Clean Water Act: Legislation Concerning Discharges from Recreational Boats

Description: The Environmental Protection Agency is attempting to develop a regulatory response to a 2006 federal court ruling that vacated a long-standing rule that exempts discharges associated with the normal operation of vessels from permit requirements of the Clean Water Act. Concern that this ruling could require millions of recreational boaters to obtain permits has led to the introduction of legislation to exempt these and other types of vessels from water quality regulation. This report discusses b… more
Date: June 19, 2008
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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