The final Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule (40 CFR 98) was published in the Federal Register on October 30, 2009. As the initial reporting due date approaches in the summer of 2011, potentially affected greenhouse gas (GHG) source facilities are in the process of determining applicability to the standard and implementing the required monitoring and record-keeping requirements. Environmental professionals around the United States are focused on researching the details of their specific GHG regulated source category and are attempting to confirm that the regulation is not applicable to their industry and/or operating facilities. These professionals are typically required to provide ongoing regulatory compliance support to their individual company or group of clients. Performing the GHG applicability determination is a critical step to documenting overall compliance with current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations. Based on the level of analysis and calculations required to determine applicability and the anticipated EPA updates to bring in additional source categories, this article is intended to provide environmental professionals with valuable regulatory information on one of the more significant environmental regulations promulgated in the last 10 years.

Environmental Practice 13:122–129 (2011)

In cities with a hub-and-spoke style transportation system, each individual's transit decision produces externalities contained within a particular transit spoke. When spokes vary in the typical number of drivers, in the capacity of the infrastructure, or in the average income of commuters, the efficient tax to charge drivers to minimize the externalities may vary across spokes. The size and importance of this variation are evaluated by comparing the potential welfare benefits of a congestion tax in Chicago, which is different rates for different highways to a tax that is a single rate. Using the 2000 United States Census Public Use Microdata to estimate wage distribution and data from the Illinois Department of Transportation on vehicle speed and road occupancy, this research provides estimates of optimal taxes for each neighborhood and for the city in aggregate. Results show that optimal tax rates vary substantially, from a low of $6.75 per vehicle per day to a high of $16.50, but that the overall welfare difference between charging a neighborhood-specific tax and charging a citywide tax is minor. This occurs because the number of drivers changes very slowly at high tax rates, meaning that a wide range of taxes can produce nearly optimal results in terms of welfare. An optimal congestion tax of $11.25 per day is estimated to result in 400,000 fewer downtown commutes per day, reducing pollution costs valued at $2.9 million per year.

Environmental Practice 13:1–10 (2011)

This article highlights the need to integrate environmental justice (EJ) education into environmental science programs offered in Ghanaian universities. The study was conducted at the University of Cape Coast, which is close to the oil-drilling region in western Ghana. Predominant instances of environmental injustice often accompany oil drilling and extraction of natural resources. Three issues are addressed: students' perceptions of EJ, their attitudes toward studying EJ, and perceived barriers to the practical application of EJ. The history and important concepts of the EJ movement are reviewed for the purpose of educating students. The World Values Survey for determining Ghanaians' perceptions and attitudes toward various environmental issues is also reviewed. Qualitative research design was used. A questionnaire was developed based on the themes of EJ from the review and administered to 75 students. Students showed a satisfactory level of EJ perception and assessed barriers to practicing EJ. Implications for EJ education are covered.

Environmental Practice 13:314–324 (2011)

In practice, building collaborative relationships between environmental groups and industry is not an easy task during environmental rulemaking. However, this article uses original interview data to document a different perspective from agency officials and stakeholders across two case studies within the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Transportation and Air Quality (OTAQ): the renewable fuels standard and the locomotive and marine engine rule. This article argues that OTAQ used a new approach, shuttle diplomacy, in these particular cases to negotiate stakeholder differences prior to publication of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The findings from these interviews suggest that the intent of this rule development approach is to provide an atmosphere where stakeholders begin to trust in the process because they are helping to create it.

Environmental Practice 13:1–8 (2011)

This article provides an estimate of the amount of land that is paved for roads and parking facilities in typical urban areas, examines the full economic, social and environmental costs of this impervious surface, and discusses the amount of road and parking land area that can be considered optimal. The analysis indicates that, in a typical urban area, about three times as much land is devoted to roads and parking as to residential structures, and that per-capita road and parking facility areas vary significantly, depending on planning practices, with much higher rates in areas that have automobile-oriented transport systems and sprawled land use. It identifies current policies and planning practices that unintentionally contribute to economically excessive road and parking requirements, and provides specific recommendations for reducing the amount of land paved for transport facilities.

Environmental Practice 13:38–46 (2011)

Racialized space has been used to explain the emergence of environmental racism and injustice. Central to this hypothesis is the history of uneven development in cities, coupled with persistent racial residential segregation. Beginning in the late 1930s, the federal Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) surveyed over 200 midsized American cities to create comprehensive records of mortgage risk, commonly referred to as redlining maps. Many scholars acknowledge their significance in shaping early home and urban development policy. However, there has been relatively little work done using these maps, primarily because of their limited access. This article presents a methodology for an efficient digitization of redlining maps and provides an overview of variables within the HOLC risk map survey, called Security Area Descriptions. Work is based on a pilot study of seven central New York cities: Binghamton, Albany, Rochester, Syracuse, Elmira, Rome, and Buffalo. Key steps include the overlay and georeferencing of high-resolution copies of the original HOLC maps by using contemporary street maps, and the construction of a comprehensive database by using information derived from the Security Area Descriptions. Here we present this methodology and our initial findings in the relationship between race, socioeconomic status, and marginalized space. This research contributes to the literature on historical geography and urban development.

Environmental Practice 13:325–339 (2011)

This article discusses redevelopment strategies to resolve complex issues at Brownfield sites and uses case studies to highlight successes at two complicated brownfields. Many less complicated brownfield properties have already been redeveloped and returned to productive uses. While this achievement is commendable, many more difficult brownfields remain vacant and underutilized. This article highlights creative redevelopment strategies for these brownfields and discusses methods that can be used to resolve issues associated with owning and redeveloping a contaminated site, including financing hurdles, cost-recovery actions, liability concerns, and maintaining a vision for the end use. Historical insurance assets, CERCLA cost recovery and RCRA citizen suits, grants and tax incentives, and state voluntary cleanup programs are among the tools discussed. This article also provides practical tips for ensuring that these funding sources are maximized and that costs incurred in remediating Brownfields can be recovered to the greatest extent possible. Two case studies are highlighted: the Evansville Greenway Site in Evansville, Indiana, and the Quanta Resources Site in Long Island City, New York. At the Evansville Greenway Site, the Evansville Greenway and Remediation Trust used creative sources of funding to transform a contaminated former scrap yard into a beautiful bike path and greenway, a key part of a planned 42-mile walking/biking trail encircling Evansville. The Evansville Greenway and Remediation Trust was able to marshal brownfield grants, over $3,500,000 in insurance assets, and $4,375,000 from other responsible parties through cost-recovery litigation. This case study demonstrates how a variety of funding options can be combined for the benefit of municipalities and their residents in restoring brownfield properties to public uses. The Quanta Resources matter involved entry of a notorious abandoned waste oil–processing facility (previously operated by a convicted environmental criminal) into New York State's Voluntary Cleanup Program. Strategic site investigation efforts combined with extensive analysis of historical documents led to the identification of responsible parties and a negotiated resolution that will restore the property and adjacent parcels for future commercial use.

Environmental Practice 13:1–13 (2011)

On December 31, 2009, President Barack Obama proclaimed the 40th anniversary of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), a landmark “conservation” law. During this 40-year period, NEPA has been hailed as a champion of American “environmental rights” and criticized as an obstacle to economic progress. In the view of some critics, NEPA uselessly exploits private and public time and resources. It is remarkable that NEPA, although battered and worn, has survived virtually intact for four decades. This article is not a “how to” dissertation containing new or revised prescriptions for preparing defendable environmental impact statements (EISs), environmental assessments (EAs), and other action-forcing documents prepared by federal agencies. It is not a recitation of main provisions in the NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act of 1969] with which most readers are familiar. Instead, it selects 10 of a plethora of problems blockading responsible NEPA process implementation: seven historic and persistent and three new or emerging. This selection is by no means an all-inclusive list. Finally, the article reviews NEPA's development and looks to some future steps that might be taken to implement NEPA as its founders intended.

Environmental Practice 13:235–249 (2011)

Although the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provided $8 billion in federal grants for passenger rail development, no national policy framework yet exists to guide this investment. Integrating new high-speed rail lines with existing railroad infrastructure and connecting them with air, road, and transit systems will be of utmost importance. As most of the world's cheap and accessible oil has already been consumed, transportation modes that depend exclusively on oil can be expected to decline, while energy-efficient, low-impact modes such as passenger trains will advance. A new model railroad that shifts more passenger travel to rail will develop through an incremental adaptation of current passenger services, a comprehensive transformation using high-speed train technology, or a combination of these two trajectories. North American designs for high-speed rail will need to incorporate the European innovation of providing multiple air, auto, and rail connections in the form of four station types: the city-center and airport stations seen in Europe, as well as suburban stations at business parks and at suburban commercial centers. To create an effective synergy between transportation and local land use, three broad categories of policy tools will need to be deployed.

Environmental Practice 13:47–57 (2011)

Although many environmental justice studies have examined disproportionate environmental burdens imposed on impoverished and minority neighborhoods, locational disparities of brownfields in terms of racial and socioeconomic factors have been underexplored. This study is assessed current racial and socioeconomic disparities at brownfield locations in the Detroit region, and we discuss why racial and socioeconomic disparities of brownfield locations exist. This study combines the locations of brownfields provided by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality with 2000 United States census data and the census block group as the unit of analysis. Results indicate that brownfields are disproportionately located in impoverished and minority neighborhoods. In addition, race is independently associated with brownfield locations. Connections among deindustrialization, concentration of poverty, and residential segregation can offer an explanation of why locational disparities of brownfields exist. Future studies should examine why racial and socioeconomic disparities exist at brownfield locations.

Environmental Practice 13:340–353 (2011)

The electric industry is experiencing notable changes with the implementation of communication and automation technology, many of which are part of the smart grid movement. Similar to other critical infrastructure industries such as banking, transportation, and the cross-sector critical information infrastructure industry, the electric industry must protect itself from intentional and unintentional security breaches and incidents to ensure uninterrupted operations of essential services. Of the critical infrastructure industries, the electric industry is the only private-sector industry subject to government-enforced mandatory cybersecurity standards. This article presents an overview of the eight mandatory cybersecurity standards by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. As an example of how standards are evolving, it discusses CIP-002 (Critical Cyber Asset Identification) in depth because it establishes whether the remaining seven standards apply. This article then compares the North American Electric Reliability Corporation regulatory framework against critical information infrastructure goals. The comparison finds that, at least on a basic level, the electric industry's mandatory cybersecurity standards meet the critical information infrastructure goals and work to secure information networks, resources, and systems from cyber and physical threats. The mandatory cybersecurity standards promote an increase in technological products, better security management, personnel and public education, and trust in the industry. Even though the electric industry's mandatory standards are imperfect, the fact it satisfies the goals of the cross-sector critical information infrastructure indicates that the framework is sound. The electric industry's experience with mandatory cybersecurity standards is a valuable source of information, and the regulatory framework itself can be a helpful model for other industries looking to develop their own security protection systems.

Environmental Practice 13:250–264 (2011)

Waste vegetable oil (WVO) collection from residents and its use in producing biofuel, which has many applications (e.g., as fuel for vehicles), have generated tremendous interest in Japan. Trials in this regard are mainly conducted in the so-called Biomass Town projects proposed by local governments. A Biomass Town project is the concept of establishing a sustainable, recycling-oriented society for recovering biomass, which is a recoverable energy source. In this study, nationwide studies were conducted to investigate the methods used by local governments to collect WVO in Japan; further, other investigations were carried out through circulating questionnaires to determine the best way in which to collect WVO from residents in Imizu City. These investigations found that each local government had exerted considerable effort to establish a system for collecting WVO from its residents, within their cultural and social limitations. Imizu City concluded that emulsion oil was a more profitable choice than biodiesel fuel for business, and that the generation of emulsion oil should be 600, 400, or 300 liters per day for two, three, or four workdays per week, respectively, for a monthly revenue of more than 40,000 yen, under the condition that the emulsion ratio is 80% kerosene and 20% WVO. The answers obtained from questionnaires revealed some basic information for the installation of an WVO ideal collection system, in the opinion of the residents.

Environmental Practice 13:1–12 (2011)

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA), one of the most highly visited national parks in the United States, is an important cultural symbol in the San Francisco Bay Area. Traditionally absent groups are expressing a desire to enjoy the benefits associated with outdoor recreation including public lands that may be lesser known to them. Understanding how national parks are used by ethnic minorities is of increasing importance to both the public and the National Park Service. In 2006, the GGNRA commissioned a focus-group study with nearly 100 people of color living in the Bay Area to provide indicators of constraints to park use. While identifying physical, mental, and spiritual benefits of access to nature in parks, many participants expressed frustration with limited physical access, subtle racism, and general exclusion from the culture of parks as reasons why they avoid these public spaces. The results of this study corroborate over four decades of research on park constraints. This article presents results of narratives provided by those who experience constraints and their desire to participate. For national parks to become representative of the people they serve, we suggest the need to mitigate silent exclusion and move toward proactive inclusion both inside and outside the parks. Key considerations include outreach through more intentional communication strategies, multilingual signage, responding to complaints of discrimination, and more representative hiring practices.

Environmental Practice 13:354–369 (2011)

Commercial air transportation has long since lost its luster as the sophisticated, intelligent way to move around the nation or across the globe, yet that reality has little to do with aviation's controversial impact on the environment. Flying has largely deteriorated into an affordable ordeal, made bearable only by the allure of the destination, or the family, friends, and business associates at the other end. Cheap air travel is a paradox that is seemingly becoming more politically incorrect by the day. Its detractors are not lacking for ammunition, and aviation's unique environmental issues only make matters worse.

Feed-in tariffs require by law that electric utility companies purchase renewable electric energy and capacity, and purchase these at specified prices. The pricing of feed-in tariffs has three essential characteristics. First, the utility is required to guarantee a renewable energy generator a higher price than what the utility pays for fossil fuels (Metcalf and Weisbach, 2009, pp. 554–556). Second, each source of renewable energy (e.g., solar, wind, biomass) is assigned a unique rate that is determined by the capital costs of investing in that specific renewable, traditionally a 10- to 20-year maturity term, and specific internal rates of return (Lythgoe, 2009, pp. 315–321). Third, the individual prices the utility must pay reduce over time so that, for example, a solar generator that locks into a feed-in rate in 2011 will receive a lower rate than a solar generator from 2010 (Rickerson, Bennhold, and Bradbury, 2009, p. 2). The structure of feed-in tariffs offers a reliable, stable monetary incentive for investment in renewable energy sources. Investors considering financing new renewable energy projects under feed-in regulations remain confident because the rate of return is guaranteed and therefore the financial risk is low and predictable.

Observed and projected events associated with climate change indicate the need for a paradigm shift from reactive, small-scale, and short-term water resources management to proactive, large-scale, and long-term ecosystem adaptation that enhances ecosystem resilience to climate variability. Adaptation is defined here as “adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities” (IPCC, 2007). Adaptation and resilience to climate change will require new approaches and thoughtful, preventive actions at a broad scale to reduce the vulnerability of watersheds in the Intermountain West United States (US) (US Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force, 2010). The need for a paradigm shift in watershed planning, linking local responses to climate changes across the Intermountain West, is supported by recent observed drought conditions and more intense rainfall and flood events. This article discusses challenges and opportunities associated with linking observed and projected climate changes with local watershed planning and management at one of the most highly visible recreational areas in the Western US—the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area in Colorado.

The perspective of policy makers and pundits too often seems to be one of unending growth of energy consumption that must be met through supply-side options. That ignores, however, the very important role of demand-side energy efficiency in the energy markets. Unlike traditional energy conservation (e.g., “Turn down the thermostat and put on a sweater”), energy efficiency is a technology-driven process that seeks to provide the same level of energy service—the work, comfort, and functionality we obtain from the use of energy—while using less energy supply (e.g., “Add insulation so the furnace doesn't need to run as often to maintain the same comfort level”). Reducing the quantity of energy demanded by customers over time [kilowatt-hours (kWh)] via energy efficiency is a fast-growing segment of the energy industry and has being embraced by utilities, builders, business and homeowners, politicians, and other stakeholders around the country.

Despite the plethora of studies about environmental organizations, few studies have examined the work experiences of employees. Consequently, this study analyzes the job mobility and earnings of 265 environmental professionals. The survey sample consisted of 153 White and 112 minority respondents, including 150 men and 115 women. The study examines three dependent variables: job tenure, starting salaries, and current salaries. It analyzes how the independent variables race, gender, educational attainment, disciplinary background, type of college attended, length of time working in current organization, length of time working in the environmental field, and type of environmental organization worked in are related to the outcome variables. The study found that the perception of wage inequity was stronger among minorities than Whites. However, binary logistic regression analysis found that neither race nor gender were significant in predicting job tenure, starting, or current salary in multivariate models.

Environmental Practice 13:370–385 (2011)

After the mistakes I discussed in Environmental Practice 12(2), and the gaps I discussed in Environmental Practice 12(3), it may be useful to look at myths that have grown around the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process. Myths can be defined, as the title suggests, as things we say and believe about NEPA and the NEPA process that are not necessarily true.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process includes the evaluation of several alternatives prior to the selection of a preferred alternative. This can pose a problem if the project is a county-wide project. Normally, a preliminary review of the anticipated issues is conducted for each alternative. The identification of hazardous waste and hazardous substance sites can be accomplished within a modest budget. However, once the data are collected, the evaluation can involve a considerable amount of time for the environmental professional to assess the potential impact of each site along the proposed alternatives.