Congressional Research Service Reports - 404 Matching Results

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Global Climate Change: Selected Legal Questions About the Kyoto Protocol

Description: This report addresses legal issues after the United States signed the Kyoto Protocol to the UnitedNations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The protocol is not yet in effect internationally and cannot be legally binding on the U.S. unless and until the Senate gives its advice and consent.
Date: January 10, 2001
Creator: Ackerman, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Global Climate Change: Selected Legal Questions About the Kyoto Protocol

Description: This report addresses legal issues after the United States signed the Kyoto Protocol to the UnitedNations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The protocol is not yet in effect internationally and cannot be legally binding on the U.S. unless and until the Senate gives its advice and consent.
Date: March 29, 2001
Creator: Ackerman, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Global Climate Change: Selected Legal Questions About the Kyoto Protocol

Description: This report addresses legal issues after the United States signed the Kyoto Protocol to the UnitedNations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The protocol is not yet in effect internationally and cannot be legally binding on the U.S. unless and until the Senate gives its advice and consent.
Date: October 1, 2002
Creator: Ackerman, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Global Climate Change: Selected Legal Questions About the Kyoto Protocol

Description: This report discusses the Kyoto Protocol and whether the United States is now legally bound by the Protocol, the legal implications of signing it, whether it could be implemented as an executive agreement without submission to the Senate, and whether the Protocol could be used as the legal basis for regulation of emissions even prior to ratification.
Date: April 10, 1998
Creator: Ackerman, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Acid Rain: Does it Contribute to Forest Decline?

Description: This minibrief describes the major hypothesis explaining why acid rain may be contributing to forest decline, along with the major arguments against this hypothesis. For additional information on acid rain and current legislation for pollutant emissions controls, see IB83016 -- Acid Rain: Current Issues, and IB83005 -- Clean Air Act: An Overview.
Date: January 24, 1985
Creator: Backiel, Adela
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Air Quality and Emissions Trading: A Primer

Description: This report briefly discusses the extent to which emissions trading has been used in the United States, explains how trading programs work, analyzes factors that can influence the effectiveness of trading, and examines some of the principal arguments related to the use of trading to control air pollution.
Date: April 16, 2001
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Air Quality and Motor Vehicles: An Analysis of Current and Proposed Emission Standards

Description: The extent to which emissions from motor vehicles and the amount of sulfur in commercial gasoline should be regulated has become a controversial issue. The EPA is proposing national limits on gasoline sulfur levels which would become effective in 2004. This report provides background information on the regulation of vehicle emissions in the United States, analyzes key elements of the National Low Emission Vehicle (LEV) program and the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Tier 2 proposal, sum… more
Date: September 2, 1999
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Air Quality and Transportation Enhancement Provisions in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991

Description: This report describes how the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program (CMAQ) and enhancement programs function, examines the policy issues surrounding them, and summarizes relevant provisions in major legislation to reauthorize ISTEA in the 105th Congress.
Date: June 10, 1998
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Air Quality and Transportation Enhancement Provisions in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991

Description: Federal funding to assist states in addressing the environmental impacts of surface transportation is a major issue for the second session of the 105th Congress. The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991 (P.L. 102-240) authorized a total of $155 billion for transportation projects from FY1992 to FY1997. This report describes how the Congrestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program (CMAQ) and enhancement programs function, examines the policy issues surrounding them, and… more
Date: June 10, 1998
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Air Quality and Vehicle Emission Standards: An Overview of the National Low Emission Vehicle Program and Related Issues

Description: This report provides background information on federal emission standards for motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act and stricter standards originally developed to address the severity of air quality problems in California, explains the low emission standards and flexible compliance mechanisms to which states and manufacturers have voluntarily agreed under the National Low Emission Vehicle (LEV) Program, discusses the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) estimates of the program's air qualit… more
Date: January 4, 1999
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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A Clean Air Option: Cash for Clunkers

Description: The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 encourage states to pursue market-based approaches to improve air quality. An Accelerated Vehicle Retirement (AVR) program, commonly referred to as "Cash for Clunkers," is designed to provide an economic incentive for the owners of highly polluting vehicles to retire their automobiles permanently from use and to provide greater flexibility for private industry to reduce emissions by sponsoring such a program. The implementation of AVR programs can be controv… more
Date: September 16, 1996
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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EPA's Tier 2 Proposal for Stricter Vehicle Emission Standards: A Fact Sheet

Description: The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 established "Tier 1" standards to limit tailpipe emissions from new motor vehicles, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required to determine if more stringent requirements are needed to attain or maintain National Ambient Air Quality Standards. EPA also must assess the availability and cost-effectiveness of technologies necessary to control emissions. In a report submitted to Congress in August 1998, EPA concluded that tougher standards are nec… more
Date: June 24, 1999
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Exemptions from Environmental Law for the Department of Defense

Description: Whether broader expansions from federal environmental laws are needed to preserve military readiness has been an issue. Questions have been raised as to whether environmental requirements have limited military training activities to the point that readiness would be compromised. The potential impacts of broader exemptions on environmental quality have raised additional questions. Although certain exemptions the Department of Defense (DOD) first requested in FY2003 have been enacted into law, Co… more
Date: May 1, 2008
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Highway Funding, the States, and New Air Quality Standards

Description: The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA), PL. 102-240, set aside $6 billion from FY1992 to FY1997 for the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program (CMAQ) to assist states in complying with federal air quality standards by funding transportation projects that lower emissions.
Date: June 10, 1998
Creator: Bearden, David M.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Clean Coal Technology Program: Current Prospects

Description: The Clean Coal Technology (CCT) program, started in the 1980's and funded generously in the early 1990's, has completed most of its surviving projects and has not funded any new ones since 1994. However, President Bush’s FY2002 budget outline proposed spending $2 billion over 10 years on a restructured CCT program. It is not clear what kind of projects would be included in the new program.
Date: April 6, 2001
Creator: Behrens, Carl E.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Air Quality: Multi-Pollutant Legislation in the 110th Congress

Description: This report discusses air pollutants (petroleum, natural gas, and coal), which account for about two-thirds of U.S. electricity generation. These gases include several pollutants that directly pose risks to human health and welfare. The report also discusses the utilities that are subject to an array of environmental regulations.
Date: October 2, 2007
Creator: Blodgett, John E. & Blodgett, John E.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Global Climate Change: U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions - Status, Trends, and Projections

Description: This report reviews U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases in the contexts both of domestic policy and of international obligations and proposals. On October 15, 1992, the United States ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which entered into force on March 21, 1994. This committed the United States to “national policies” to limit “its anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases,” with a voluntary goal of returning “emissions of carbon dioxide [CO2] and other … more
Date: August 15, 2003
Creator: Blodgett, John E. & Parker, Larry
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Air Quality Standards: The Decisionmaking Process

Description: This report discusses how the decisions made by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in July 1997 impacted the process by which decisions are made by the agency. The new standards were subject to litigation, oversight hearings, and a Supreme Court ruling. Moreover, issues concerning implementation of the proposed air quality standards were raised.
Date: April 9, 2002
Creator: Blodgett, John E. & Parker, Larry B.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Air Quality: EPA's Proposed New Ozone and Particulate Matter Standards

Description: This report discusses the contentious issue of enforcing stringent national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone and particulate matter (PM), the opponents of which decry as harmful to the economy. The report discusses actions undertaken by the EPA, President Clinton's support of the NAAQSs, and the criticisms of opponents.
Date: June 27, 1997
Creator: Blodgett, John E.; Parker, Larry & McCarthy, James E.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Air Quality Standards: The Decisionmaking Process

Description: The decisions by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1997 to revise the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone and particulate matter refocused attention on the criteria and the process by which these decisions are made Tracing the steps of the decision pieces, this report identifies the statutory criteria established by the Congress and summarizes the administrative procedures the Agency follows in setting these standards and in reviewing them ev… more
Date: June 24, 1998
Creator: Blodgett, John E.; Parker, Larry & McCarthy, James E.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Is Biopower Carbon Neutral?

Description: This report discusses some factors taken into account when considering whether biopower is carbon neutral. It does not discuss carbon accounting for other bioenergy pathways.
Date: February 19, 2015
Creator: Bracmort, Kelsi
Item Type: Refine your search to only Report
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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