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Environmental Policy Commons™

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Environmental Studies

Selected Works

Articles 1 - 17 of 17

Full-Text Articles in Environmental Policy

I’M Afraid Of That Water: A Collaborative Ethnography Of A West Virginia Water Crisis, Luke E. Lassiter, Brian A. Hoey, Elizabeth Campbell Mar 2020

I’M Afraid Of That Water: A Collaborative Ethnography Of A West Virginia Water Crisis, Luke E. Lassiter, Brian A. Hoey, Elizabeth Campbell

Brian A. Hoey, Ph.D.

On January 9, 2014, residents across Charleston, West Virginia, awoke to an unusual licorice smell in the air and a similar taste in the public drinking water. That evening residents were informed the tap water in tens of thousands of homes, hundreds of businesses, and dozens of schools and hospitals—the water made available to as many as 300,000 citizens in a nine-county region—had been contaminated with a chemical used for cleaning crushed coal. This book tells a particular set of stories about that chemical spill and its aftermath, an unfolding water crisis that would lead to months, even years, of …

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Foundation For Measuring Community Sustainability, Pamela A. Mischen, George C. Homsy, Carl P. Lipo, Robert Holahan, Valerie Imbruce, Andreas Pape, Joe Graney, Ziang Zhang, Louisa M. Holmes, Manuel Reina Apr 2019

Foundation For Measuring Community Sustainability, Pamela A. Mischen, George C. Homsy, Carl P. Lipo, Robert Holahan, Valerie Imbruce, Andreas Pape, Joe Graney, Ziang Zhang, Louisa M. Holmes, Manuel Reina

Carl Lipo

In order to understand the impact of individual communities on global sustainability, we need a community sustainability assessment system (CSAS). While many sustainability assessment systems exist, they prove inadequate to the task. This article presents the results of a systematic review of the literature on existing sustainability assessment systems; offers a definition of a sustainable community; provides a multi-scale, systems approach to thinking about community; and makes recommendations from the field of performance measurement for the construction of a CSAS.

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Trading Sustainably: Critical Considerations For Local Groundwater Markets Under The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, Nell Green Nylen, Michael Kiparsky, Kelly Archer, Kurt Schneir, Holly Doremus Sep 2018

Trading Sustainably: Critical Considerations For Local Groundwater Markets Under The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, Nell Green Nylen, Michael Kiparsky, Kelly Archer, Kurt Schneir, Holly Doremus

Nell Green Nylen

The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), passed in 2014, is changing the way California manages its groundwater resources. SGMA calls for the creation of local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) and tasks them with developing and implementing Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) to achieve sustainable groundwater management. SGMA offers GSAs a broad palette of tools to choose from and significant flexibility to tailor their management activities to local conditions and needs. Because it allows GSAs to assign groundwater extraction allocations to pumpers and to authorize transfers of these allocations under certain circumstances, SGMA potentially opens the door for the development of local …

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Rappaport, Roy (1926-97), Brian A. Hoey Jul 2018

Rappaport, Roy (1926-97), Brian A. Hoey

Brian A. Hoey, Ph.D.

A brief personal and intellectual biography of the late anthropologist, Roy Rappaport.

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Trading Sustainably: Critical Considerations For Local Groundwater Markets Under The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, Nell Green Nylen, Michael Kiparsky, Kelly Archer, Kurt Schneir, Holly Doremus Oct 2017

Trading Sustainably: Critical Considerations For Local Groundwater Markets Under The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, Nell Green Nylen, Michael Kiparsky, Kelly Archer, Kurt Schneir, Holly Doremus

Holly Doremus

The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), passed in 2014, is changing the way California manages its groundwater resources. SGMA calls for the creation of local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) and tasks them with developing and implementing Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) to achieve sustainable groundwater management. SGMA offers GSAs a broad palette of tools to choose from and significant flexibility to tailor their management activities to local conditions and needs. Because it allows GSAs to assign groundwater extraction allocations to pumpers and to authorize transfers of these allocations under certain circumstances, SGMA potentially opens the door for the development of local …

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Environmental Advocacy: Insights From East Asia, Mary Alice Haddad Jul 2017

Environmental Advocacy: Insights From East Asia, Mary Alice Haddad

Mary Alice Haddad


Environmental advocacy in East Asia takes place in a context where there are few well-funded professional advocacy organisations, no viable green parties, and governments that are highly pro-business. In this advocacy-hostile environment, what strategies are environmental organizations using to promote better environmental outcomes?  Using an original database of environmental organizations and interviews with activists and officials throughout the region, this paper investigates which strategies are most common and compares them to the advocacy strategies found in the United States.  It finds, perhaps surprisingly, that (a) environmental organizations across East Asia employ similar advocacy strategies even though they are operating in …

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The Evolution Of A Volunteer Lake Protection Program, Maggie Shannon, Alexa A.E. Junker, Philip J. Nyhus, Cathy R. Bevier, Russell Cole Dec 2016

The Evolution Of A Volunteer Lake Protection Program, Maggie Shannon, Alexa A.E. Junker, Philip J. Nyhus, Cathy R. Bevier, Russell Cole

Philip J. Nyhus

No abstract provided.

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Assessing Lakesmart, A Community-Based Lake Protection Program Dec 2016

Assessing Lakesmart, A Community-Based Lake Protection Program

Philip J. Nyhus

Anthropogenic impacts, particularly shoreline development and related nutrient runoff, threaten Maine lakes. The LakeSmart program was created in response to these threats to promote the use of lake-friendly landscaping practices. We used 237 surveys and 8 stakeholder interviews to investigate motivations that drive conservation behavior among lakeshore residents, to explore the effectiveness of criteria used for LakeSmart evaluations and to identify potential areas for improvement of its structural design and marketing strategies. LakeSmart participants were more likely than non-participants to recognize the threat of declining water quality, to adopt or enhance existing lake-friendly landscaping best management practices, and to help …

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Global Climate Policy Will Have Net Benefits Larger Than Anyone Thinks (And Welfare Gains, Strangely, Are Likely To Be Much Larger Yet), Philip E. Graves Oct 2016

Global Climate Policy Will Have Net Benefits Larger Than Anyone Thinks (And Welfare Gains, Strangely, Are Likely To Be Much Larger Yet), Philip E. Graves

PHILIP E GRAVES

As with other public goods lacking strong special interest support, global climate policy suffers from two serious theoretical flaws. The first is failure to endogenize the labor-leisure decision when conducting benefit-cost analysis. Recognition that income generated will not remain the same pre-and-post policy results in downward bias in benefit estimation. Much more importantly, there will generally be free riding in input markets in addition to the well-known output demand revelation problem. Since even households with very high marginal values cannot individually increment public goods, too little income will be generated and too much of the income that is generated will …

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Human–Wildlife Conflict And Coexistence, Philip J. Nyhus Dec 2015

Human–Wildlife Conflict And Coexistence, Philip J. Nyhus

Philip J. Nyhus

Human interactions with wildlife are a defining experience of human existence. These interactions can be positive or negative. People compete with wildlife for food and resources, and have eradicated dangerous species; co-opted and domesticated valuable species; and applied a wide range of social, behavioral, and technical approaches to reduce negative interactions with wildlife. This conflict has led to the extinction and reduction of numerous species and uncountable human deaths and economic losses. Recent advances in our understanding of conflict have led to a growing number of positive conservation and coexistence outcomes. I summarize and synthesize factors that contribute to conflict, …

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Making Sense Of The Front Lines: Environmental Inspectors In Ohio And Wisconsin, Michelle Pautz, Sara Rinfret Apr 2015

Making Sense Of The Front Lines: Environmental Inspectors In Ohio And Wisconsin, Michelle Pautz, Sara Rinfret

Michelle Pautz

Although about 90% of environmental policy is delegated to the states for implementation, the individuals responsible for implementing a majority of that policy are largely understudied. Existing acknowledgment of these regulators typically extends only to the regulatory enforcement strategy their agency employs. Missing in these conversations is a focused study on the regulators themselves and their perceptions of the regulated community that they interact with daily. Understanding these perceptions will provide insights into how regulators approach their interactions and how they ensure regulatory compliance. This paper uses an exploratory case study approach to focus on front-line regulators with the Ohio …

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Increasing Environmental Performance In A Context Of Low Governmental Enforcement: Evidence From China, Mary Alice Haddad Jan 2015

Increasing Environmental Performance In A Context Of Low Governmental Enforcement: Evidence From China, Mary Alice Haddad

Mary Alice Haddad

How can activists and policy makers encourage better environmental behavior in a context of poor governmental enforcement? This article examines the case of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, a Chinese nonprofit organization, to show how a transparency-based platform can encourage brand-sensitive multinational corporations, their suppliers, their investors, local governments, and consumers to behave in more environmentally responsible ways, even in a context of low governmental enforcement. Using Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs as its model, this article argues that a transparency-based platform can serve an important coordinating function across multiple sectors, creating a mechanism through which market …

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Valuing Ecosystem Services In Coastal Management Policy: Looking Beyond The Here And Now, Chad J. Mcguire Dec 2014

Valuing Ecosystem Services In Coastal Management Policy: Looking Beyond The Here And Now, Chad J. Mcguire

Chad J McGuire

This article explores how the identification and account- ing of ecosystem services can aid coastal management policies, particularly as management looks to a future that includes the impacts of climate change. At the core of making better deci- sions is an understanding of the value of ecosystem services. The economic context of ecosystem services is explored in order to outline what may be considered a complete account- ing of costs. Once contextualized, ecosystem services will then be applied to current coastal management issues associ- ated with sea level rise. In particular, policy-relevant questions about mitigating and adapting to sea level …

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Economics-Based Environmentalism In The Fourth Generation Of Environmental Law, Donald J. Kochan Dec 2014

Economics-Based Environmentalism In The Fourth Generation Of Environmental Law, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Environmental protection and economic concerns are not mutually exclusive. This article explores some of the issues of economic analysis that might arise as we approach the fourth generation of environmental law. It explains ways that economic analysis can be employed to generate the best environmental rules, including measures under what this article terms as "economics-based environmentalism." Economics-based environmentalism contends that the advantages of using economic principles within a “polycentric toolbox” of environmental law come from the benefits available in private ordering, markets, property rights, liability regimes and incentives structures that will better protect the environment than alternatives like state-based interventionist, …

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A Framework For Understanding Property Regulation And Land Use Control From A Dynamic Perspective, Donald J. Kochan Dec 2014

A Framework For Understanding Property Regulation And Land Use Control From A Dynamic Perspective, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Our land use control system operates across a variety of multidimensional and dynamic categories. Learning to navigate within and between these categories requires an appreciation for their interconnected, dynamic, and textured components and an awareness of alternative mechanisms for achieving one’s land use control preferences and one’s desired ends. Whether seeking to minimize controls as a property owner or attempting to place controls on the land uses of another, one should take time to understand the full ecology of the system. This Article looks at four broad categories of control: (1) no controls, or the state of nature; (2) judicial …

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Corporate Ventriloquism: Corporate Advocacy, The Coal Industry, And The Appropriation Of Voice, Peter K. Bsumek, Jen Schneider, Steve Schwarze, Jennifer Peeples Jan 2014

Corporate Ventriloquism: Corporate Advocacy, The Coal Industry, And The Appropriation Of Voice, Peter K. Bsumek, Jen Schneider, Steve Schwarze, Jennifer Peeples

Jen Schneider

In the second decade of the 21st century, the U.S. coal industry is facing unprecedented challenges. While for many years coal provided nearly half of the U.S. electricity, in the spring of 2012 that share dropped to below 40% and is expected to continue falling (Energy Information Administration, 2012).1 Coal production is increasing not in Appalachia, the primary U.S. source for coal historically, but in Wyoming's Powder River Basin (Goodell, 2006). Market competition from the natural gas industry combined with well organized climate and anti-nountaintop removal (MTR) campagins have significantly curtailed the production of new coal-fired power plants in …

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We Have Never Been Liberal: The Environmentalist Turn To Liberalism And The Possibilities For Social Criticism Apr 2011

We Have Never Been Liberal: The Environmentalist Turn To Liberalism And The Possibilities For Social Criticism

John Meyer

The shifting relationship between environmental political theorists and liberalism is examined, moving from a total critique to an increasingly nuanced engagement. The argument here is neither for nor against the possibility of ‘greening' liberalism per se. Instead, it is argued that the preoccupation with ‘liberalism' in this context is a category mistake based upon the reification of liberalism as not just a political philosophy, but a characterisation of citizen values and practices in contemporary liberal democratic societies. A different way of thinking about the role and task of environmental political theory and social criticism is proposed. The key is to …

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