The War on the EPA

The War on the EPA PDF Author: William M. Alley
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 153813151X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) passes the half century mark, the public is largely apathetic towards the need for environmental protections. Today’s problems are largely invisible, and to many people’s eyes, the environment looks like it’s doing just fine. The crippling smog and burning rivers of yesteryear are just a memory. In addition, Americans are repeatedly told that the EPA is hurting the economy, destroying jobs, and intruding into people’s private lives. The truth is far more complicated. The War on the EPA: America’s Endangered Environmental Protections examines the daunting hurdles facing the EPA in its critical roles in drinking water, air and water pollution, climate change, and toxic chemicals. This book takes the reader on a journey into some of today’s most pressing environmental problems: toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, pervasive agricultural pollution, dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico, and widespread air and water pollution from use of fossil fuels. Delving into the science, politics, and human dimension of these and other problems, the book illustrates the challenges of regulation through the EPA's first fifty years, how today’s war on science is undermining the scientific foundation upon which the agency’s legitimacy rests, and why a strong U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is more important than ever before.

The War on the EPA

The War on the EPA PDF Author: William M. Alley
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 153813151X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 303

Get Book Here

Book Description
As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) passes the half century mark, the public is largely apathetic towards the need for environmental protections. Today’s problems are largely invisible, and to many people’s eyes, the environment looks like it’s doing just fine. The crippling smog and burning rivers of yesteryear are just a memory. In addition, Americans are repeatedly told that the EPA is hurting the economy, destroying jobs, and intruding into people’s private lives. The truth is far more complicated. The War on the EPA: America’s Endangered Environmental Protections examines the daunting hurdles facing the EPA in its critical roles in drinking water, air and water pollution, climate change, and toxic chemicals. This book takes the reader on a journey into some of today’s most pressing environmental problems: toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, pervasive agricultural pollution, dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico, and widespread air and water pollution from use of fossil fuels. Delving into the science, politics, and human dimension of these and other problems, the book illustrates the challenges of regulation through the EPA's first fifty years, how today’s war on science is undermining the scientific foundation upon which the agency’s legitimacy rests, and why a strong U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is more important than ever before.

Struggling for Air

Struggling for Air PDF Author: Richard L. Revesz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190233117
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
Since the beginning of the Obama Administration, conservative politicians have railed against the President's "War on Coal." As evidence of this supposed siege, they point to a series of rules issued by the Environmental Protection Agency that aim to slash air pollution from the nation's power sector . Because coal produces far more pollution than any other major energy source, these rules are expected to further reduce its already shrinking share of the electricity market in favor of cleaner options like natural gas and solar power. But the EPA's policies are hardly the "unprecedented regulatory assault " that opponents make them out to be. Instead, they are merely the latest chapter in a multi-decade struggle to overcome a tragic flaw in our nation's most important environmental law. In 1970, Congress passed the Clean Air Act, which had the remarkably ambitious goal of eliminating essentially all air pollution that posed a threat to public health or welfare. But there was a problem: for some of the most common pollutants, Congress empowered the EPA to set emission limits only for newly constructed industrial facilities, most notably power plants. Existing plants, by contrast, would be largely exempt from direct federal regulation-a regulatory practice known as "grandfathering." What lawmakers didn't anticipate was that imposing costly requirements on new plants while giving existing ones a pass would simply encourage those old plants to stay in business much longer than originally planned. Since 1970, the core problems of U.S. environmental policy have flowed inexorably from the smokestacks of these coal-fired clunkers, which continue to pollute at far higher rates than their younger peers. In Struggling for Air, Richard L. Revesz and Jack Lienke chronicle the political compromises that gave rise to grandfathering, its deadly consequences, and the repeated attempts-by presidential administrations of both parties-to make things right.

Sustainability and the U.S. EPA

Sustainability and the U.S. EPA PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309212553
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
Sustainability is based on a simple and long-recognized factual premise: Everything that humans require for their survival and well-being depends, directly or indirectly, on the natural environment. The environment provides the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. Recognizing the importance of sustainability to its work, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working to create programs and applications in a variety of areas to better incorporate sustainability into decision-making at the agency. To further strengthen the scientific basis for sustainability as it applies to human health and environmental protection, the EPA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to provide a framework for incorporating sustainability into the EPA's principles and decision-making. This framework, Sustainability and the U.S. EPA, provides recommendations for a sustainability approach that both incorporates and goes beyond an approach based on assessing and managing the risks posed by pollutants that has largely shaped environmental policy since the 1980s. Although risk-based methods have led to many successes and remain important tools, the report concludes that they are not adequate to address many of the complex problems that put current and future generations at risk, such as depletion of natural resources, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. Moreover, sophisticated tools are increasingly available to address cross-cutting, complex, and challenging issues that go beyond risk management. The report recommends that EPA formally adopt as its sustainability paradigm the widely used "three pillars" approach, which means considering the environmental, social, and economic impacts of an action or decision. Health should be expressly included in the "social" pillar. EPA should also articulate its vision for sustainability and develop a set of sustainability principles that would underlie all agency policies and programs.

Fifty Years at the US Environmental Protection Agency

Fifty Years at the US Environmental Protection Agency PDF Author: A. James Barnes
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538147130
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 671

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Book Description
In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, this book brings together leading scholars and EPA veterans to provide a comprehensive assessment of the agency’s key decisions and actions in the various areas of its responsibility. Themes across all chapters include the role of rulemaking, negotiation/compromise, partisan polarization, judicial impacts, relations with the White House and Congress, public opinion, interest group pressures, environmental enforcement, environmental justice, risk assessment, and interagency conflict. As no other book on the market currently discusses EPA with this focus or scope, the authors have set out to provide a comprehensive analysis of the agency’s rich 50-year history for academics, students, professional, and the environmental community.

EPA Activity Book: What Does the U.S. EPA Do to Protect the Environment?

EPA Activity Book: What Does the U.S. EPA Do to Protect the Environment? PDF Author: Environmental Protection Agency (U.S.)
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN: 9780160943997
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 8

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Book Description
The EPA Activity Book, directed primarily towards children, is a graphic depiction of how the EPA protects our entire environment, protects the land where we live, protects ecosystems,and provides crossword games and puzzles to engage children in educating themselves about good environmental practices. Concepts and lessons about air quality index, asthma environmental factors, ecosystem protection, waste reduction practices, environmental protection, and more. Early childhood and primary grade-school children may enjoy the fill-in coloring activities, world list searches, crossword puzzles, and fill-in-the blank activities as part of their learning process about these key science and environmental concepts. Find more products relating to this topic: NSI: Nature Science Investigator Mission Sunwise Activity Book Join the Lorax Sesame Street Fire Safety Program Family Guide Sesame Street Fire Safety Program (Multimedia CD- English and Spanish Languages)

Urban Stormwater Management in the United States

Urban Stormwater Management in the United States PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309125391
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 611

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Book Description
The rapid conversion of land to urban and suburban areas has profoundly altered how water flows during and following storm events, putting higher volumes of water and more pollutants into the nation's rivers, lakes, and estuaries. These changes have degraded water quality and habitat in virtually every urban stream system. The Clean Water Act regulatory framework for addressing sewage and industrial wastes is not well suited to the more difficult problem of stormwater discharges. This book calls for an entirely new permitting structure that would put authority and accountability for stormwater discharges at the municipal level. A number of additional actions, such as conserving natural areas, reducing hard surface cover (e.g., roads and parking lots), and retrofitting urban areas with features that hold and treat stormwater, are recommended.

Silent Spring

Silent Spring PDF Author: Rachel Carson
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618249060
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
The essential, cornerstone book of modern environmentalism is now offered in a handsome 40th anniversary edition which features a new Introduction by activist Terry Tempest Williams and a new Afterword by Carson biographer Linda Lear.

The Great War for New Zealand

The Great War for New Zealand PDF Author: Vincent O'Malley
Publisher: Bridget Williams Books
ISBN: 192727754X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 881

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Book Description
Spanning nearly two centuries from first contact through to settlement and apology, ​this major work focuses on the human impact of the war in the Waikato, its origins and aftermath.

The New Climate War

The New Climate War PDF Author: Michael E. Mann
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1541758226
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Shortlisted for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year award A renowned climate scientist shows how fossil fuel companies have waged a thirty-year campaign to deflect blame and responsibility and delay action on climate change, and offers a battle plan for how we can save the planet. Recycle. Fly less. Eat less meat. These are some of the ways that we've been told can slow climate change. But the inordinate emphasis on individual behavior is the result of a marketing campaign that has succeeded in placing the responsibility for fixing climate change squarely on the shoulders of individuals. Fossil fuel companies have followed the example of other industries deflecting blame (think "guns don't kill people, people kill people") or greenwashing (think of the beverage industry's "Crying Indian" commercials of the 1970s). Meanwhile, they've blocked efforts to regulate or price carbon emissions, run PR campaigns aimed at discrediting viable alternatives, and have abdicated their responsibility in fixing the problem they've created. The result has been disastrous for our planet. In The New Climate War, Mann argues that all is not lost. He draws the battle lines between the people and the polluters-fossil fuel companies, right-wing plutocrats, and petrostates. And he outlines a plan for forcing our governments and corporations to wake up and make real change, including: A common-sense, attainable approach to carbon pricing- and a revision of the well-intentioned but flawed currently proposed version of the Green New Deal; Allowing renewable energy to compete fairly against fossil fuels Debunking the false narratives and arguments that have worked their way into the climate debate and driven a wedge between even those who support climate change solutions Combatting climate doomism and despair-mongering With immensely powerful vested interests aligned in defense of the fossil fuel status quo, the societal tipping point won't happen without the active participation of citizens everywhere aiding in the collective push forward. This book will reach, inform, and enable citizens everywhere to join this battle for our planet.

Valuing Clean Air

Valuing Clean Air PDF Author: Charles Halvorson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019753886X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
The passage of the Clean Air Act and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970 marked a sweeping transformation in American politics. In a few short years, the environmental movement pushed Republican and Democratic elected officials to articulate a right to clean air as part of a bevy of new federal guarantees. Charged with delivering on those promises, the EPA represented a bold assertion that the federal government had a responsibility to protect the environment, the authority to command private business to reduce their pollution, and the capacity to dictate how they did so. In Valuing Clean Air, Charles Halvorson examines how the environmental concern that propelled the Clean Air Act and the EPA coincided with economic convulsions that shook the liberal state to its core. Business groups, public interest organizations, think tanks, and a host of other actors, including Ralph Nader, wasted little time after the EPA's creation in identifying and trying to pull the new levers of power. As powerful businesses pressed to roll back regulations, elected officials from both political parties questioned whether the nation could keep its environmental promises. In response, the EPA's staff and leadership practiced a politics of the possible, adopting a monetized approach to environmental value that shielded the agency's rulemaking but sat at odds with environmentalist notions of natural rights and contributed to the elevation of economics as the language and logic of policy. As Halvorson demonstrates, environmental protection came to serve as a central battleground in larger debates over markets, government, and public welfare. For anyone who has wondered where cap and trade came from and how environmental activists came to discuss wetlands protection, air pollution, and fracking in the language of cost-benefit analysis, Valuing Clean Air provides an insightful look at a half-century of the making of US environmental policy.