Congressional Research Service Reports - 33 Matching Results
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- U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emission Trends and the Role of the Clean Power Plan
- This report examines recent trends in U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions -- particularly CO2 emissions from electricity generation -- and the factors that impact emission levels in that sector. In addition, this report examines the degree to which Clean Power Plan (CPP) implementation (or lack thereof) may impact CO2 emission levels from electric power plants.
- National Environmental Education Act of 1990: Overview, Implementation, and Reauthorization Issues
- This report presents an overview of the National Environmental Education Act of 1990, discusses appropriations, examines the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) implementation of the act, and analyzes reauthorization issues relevant to legislation introduced in recent Congresses.
- Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Background and Issues
- The report begins with background on the geography and history of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). It also discusses the most common legislative issues, such as energy development, and provides an extensive review of the resources of the 1002 area, including the current status, regulations, and potential effects of development of those resources.A glossary is included to define the key terms and acronyms.
- EPA Regulation of Greenhouse Gases: Congressional Responses and Options
- 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.
- Animal Waste and Water Quality: EPA Regulation of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)
- According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the release of waste from animal feedlots to surface water, groundwater, soil, and air is associated with a range of human health and ecological impacts and contributes to the degradation of the nation's surface waters. This report provides background on the revised environmental rules, the previous Clean Water Act rules and the Clinton Administration proposal, and perspectives of key interest groups on the proposal and final regulations. It also identifies several issues that could be of congressional interest as the implementation of the revised rules proceeds.
- EPA’s Regulation of Coal-Fired Power: Is a “Train Wreck” Coming?
- This report describes nine rules in seven categories that are at the core of recent critical analyses, with background on the rule and its requirements and, where possible, a discussion of the rule's potential costs and benefits.
- Clean Air and New Source Review: Defining Routine Maintenance
- This report discusses defining routine maintenance related to Clean air and new source review.
- Environmental Laws: Summaries of Major Statutes Administered by the Environmental Protection Agency
- This report presents a summary of the body of federal environmental statutes that together constitute the main authorities of EPA, but this report is not comprehensive in terms of discussing all federal statutes that may authorize certain activities of the agency.
- Animal Waste and Water Quality: EPA’s Response to the Waterkeeper Alliance Court Decision on Regulation of CAFOs
- On June 30th, 2006, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed regulations that would revise a 2003 Clean Water Act rule governing waste discharges from large confined animal feeding operations. This proposal was necessitated by a 2005 federal court decision, resulting from challenges brought by agriculture industry groups and environmental advocacy groups, that vacated parts of the 2003 rule and remanded other parts of analysis and clarification.
- Environmental Protection Agency: FY2007 Appropriations Highlights
- No Description Available.
- Environmental Protection Agency: FY2007 Appropriations Highlights
- No Description Available.
- National Environmental Education Act of 1990: Overview, Implementation, and Reauthorization Issues
- No Description Available.
- Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization: Background, Issues, and Options for Congress
- This report provides background information and issues for Congress on the modernization of the Coast Guard's polar icebreaker fleet, which performs a variety of missions supporting U.S. interests in polar regions.
- Drilling in the Great Lakes: Background and Issues
- This report provides background information on historical and current drilling practices in the Great Lakes, and statistics on oil and natural gas production, where data are available. It describes state laws regarding drilling in the Great Lakes and analyzes the environmental, socioeconomic, and legal aspects of drilling in or under the Great Lakes.
- Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization: Background and Issues for Congress
- This report provides background information and issues for Congress on the sustainment and modernization of the Coast Guard's polar icebreaker fleet, which performs a variety of missions supporting U.S. interests in polar regions. The report is written in response to the Coast Guard's budget request for a new polar ice breaker (none are currently in operation).
- Army Corps of Engineers Water Resource Projects: Authorization and Appropriations
- Report that 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.
- Oil Spill Legislation in the 112th Congress
- This report focuses primarily on oil spill policy matters that concern prevention, preparedness, response, liability and compensation, and Gulf restoration. For the most part, the underlying statutes for these provisions are found in either the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the Clean Water Act (CWA) and its amendments, or the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) and its amendments.
- Biotechnology in Animal Agriculture: Status and Current Issues
- 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.
- Oil Spills in U.S. Coastal Waters: Background and Governance
- This report provides background information regarding oil spills in U.S. coastal waters and identifies the legal authorities governing oil spill prevention, response, and cleanup. Based on data between 1973 and 2009, the annual number and volume of oil spills have shown declines- in some cases, dramatic declines.
- Administering Green Programs in Congress: Issues and Options
- This report discusses "green" programs and the higher profile they have gained since the 110th Congress. "Green" programs are those designed to create an environmentally friendly work environment and conserve energy. This report discusses initiatives and policy options that would improve the "greening" process on Capitol Hill.
- Exemptions from Environmental Law for the Department of Defense: An Overview of Congressional Action
- Several environmental statutes contain national security exemptions, which the Department of Defense (DOD) can obtain on a case-by-case basis. Since FY2003, DOD has sought broader exemptions that it argues are needed to preserve training capabilities and ensure military readiness. There has been disagreement in Congress over the need for broader exemptions in the absence of data on the overall impact of environmental requirements on training and readiness. There has also been disagreement over the potential impacts of broader exemptions on environmental quality. This report outlines this issue and relevant legislation in detail.
- Designation of Critical Habitat under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)
- The agencies that implement the Endangered Species Act (ESA) regard the designation of critical habitat (CH) as providing only very limited benefits beyond those achieved through the listing of species and the avoidance of jeopardy to them. Several courts have now held that the relevant regulation and interpretation that result in this conclusion are erroneous and do not carry out the intent of Congress.
- Military Base Closures: Role and Costs of Environmental Cleanup
- The upcoming 2005 round of military base closings has stimulated interest among potentially affected communities in how the bases to be selected for closure might be economically redeveloped to replace lost jobs. Environmental contamination can present a challenge to economic redevelopment if funding or technological constraints would limit the cleanup of the land to a degree that would be safe for its intended use. Most of the lands on bases closed under the previous four rounds have been cleaned up for their intended reuse, and have been transferred for redevelopment. However, some bases have yet to be cleaned up to an extent that would be adequate for the planned land use, presenting an obstacle to replacing lost jobs. Bases closed under the 2005 round could face similar delays in redevelopment, if a community’s preferred land use would necessitate a costly and time-consuming degree of cleanup. This report will be updated as events warrant.
- Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR): Controversies for the 109th Congress
- This report discusses the ongoing debate about whether or not to approve energy development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Current law forbids energy leasing in the Refuge. This report addresses several legislative options on the issue, as well as policymakers' arguments for and against development, especially in the wake of increasing terrorism since 2000-2001.
- Environmental Protection: New Approaches
- This report summarizes briefly a number of "new approaches," grouped under the following categories: Information: Approaches to improve the quantity and quality of information to enhance the knowledge base underlying environ- mental decisions (e.g., risk assessment, cost-benefit analysis).Public Sector Processes: Approaches to restructure governmental processes for making environmental decisions (e.g., devolution). Incentives: Approaches that emphasize incentives as opposed to regulatory or financial penalties for achieving environmental ends. Approaches that rely on markets and common law for environmental decisions to the extent possible. Approaches to inculcate environmental values in public or private managerial decisions (e.g., sustainability).
- The Role of Risk Analysis and Risk Management in Environmental Protection
- No Description Available.
- Environmental Protection Issues in the 108th Congress
- 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” of other major areas of concern, such as energy, defense, or transportation programs; and more recently, (4) terrorism and infrastructure protection in areas such as wastewater and chemical facilities.
- Environmental Protection Issues in the 106th Congress
- This report discuses issues such as Reforming Superfund, defense cleanup compliance, funding measures, beach assessment, air-related risk management plans, and research received congressional attention in the 106th Congress, first session. In the remaining days, there may be action related on water quality programs involving specific water bodies, and funding of environmental programs.
- International Forest Agreements: Current Status
- Over the past decade, there has been extensive public concern about loss of forests around the world. Attention to the rapid rate of tropical deforestation accelerated during the late 1980's as concern about global climate change emerged; at the time, the extensive burning of forests in Brazil (and the consequent release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere) was a major concern.
- DOE Environmental Technology Department - A Fact Sheet
- The Department of Energy (DOE) established the Office of Technology Development in 1989 to develop faster and less expensive technical solutions to the Department's widespread environmental problems, primarily the legacy of decades of nuclear weapons production. Without new environmental technologies, DOE contends, some types of contamination may prove impossible to clean up. The Office of Technology Development, which is part of DOE's Environmental Management Program (EM), manages all stages of the development of new environmental restoration and waste management technologies, from basic research and development through final testing, demonstration and evaluation.
- MTBE in Gasoline: Clean Air and Drinking Water Issues
- No Description Available.
- Clean Water Act and TMDLs
- 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 now facing states to implement a 25-year-old provision of the law. Congressional activity to reauthorize the Act, a possibility in the 2nd Session of the 105th Congress, could include TMDL issues, but the direction for any such action is unclear at this time.
- Global Climate Change: Reducing Greenhouse Gases - How Much from What Baseline?
- This report discusses the ways to reduce emissions of six greenhouses gases after the Kyoto meeting on Global Climate Change. Projecting the reductions that would be required if the U.S. were to ratify the treaty is difficult. While emissions of CO are fairly well established and account for 2 about 85% of total carbon equivalent emissions, emissions of the other gases, especially N O, are more uncertain.