Environmental Policy Commons^™

Balancing Wildlife And Bioenergy Values On Private Forestlands In The Eastern Upper Peninsula Of Michigan, Karl Makinen

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

There is interest in developing a reliable, sustainable, domestic U.S. biofuels industry. A domestic biofuels industry has the potential to provide economic, environmental, and national security benefits on a local, regional, national, and global level. The Mascoma Corporation plans to develop a cellulosic ethanol facility in Michigan’s eastern Upper Peninsula. The primary feedstock of the plant site would be trees sourced within a 150 mile supply radius. In the eastern Upper Peninsula, this radius encompasses Alger, Chippewa, Delta, Luce, Mackinac, and Schoolcraft counties. In these six counties there are 1,320,500 acres of NIPF (non-industrial private forestlands). These acres account for …

Epa's Council For Regulatory Environmental Modeling : A Case Study Of Science Policy Implementation , Genevieve M. Borg

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

As environmental problems became more complex, policy and regulatory decisions become far more difficult to make. The use of science has become an important practice in the decision making process of many federal agencies. Many different types of scientific information are used to make decisions within the EPA, with computer models becoming especially important. Environmental models are used throughout the EPA in a variety of contexts and their predictive capacity has become highly valued in decision making.

The main focus of this research is to examine the EPA’s Council for Regulatory Modeling (CREM) as a case study in addressing science …

Federal And State Policy Influence On Woody Biomass Utilization, Susan Balint

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

A considerable portion of public lands in the United States is at risk of uncharacteristically severe wildfires due to a history of fire suppression. Wildfires already have detrimental impacts on the landscape and on communities in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) due to unnatural and overstocked forests. Strategies to mitigate wildfire risk include mechanical thinning and prescribed burning in areas with high wildfire risk. The material removed is often of little or no economic value. Woody biomass utilization (WBU) could offset the costs of hazardous fuel treatments if removed material could be used for wood products, heat, or electricity production. However, …

Iso 14001 In India: More Than A Certificate On The Wall?, Samir Aslam Qadir

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The growth of ISO 14001 certificates worldwide has led to much research on the role of voluntary standards in improving the environmental impacts of industry. Most of this research, however, has focused on industrialized countries, with very little research examining the effects of ISO 14001 and other voluntary initiatives in the developing world. This is especially unfortunate because it is in these very countries that proponents of ISO 14001 claim the largest benefits of the standard will occur, by helping polluting industries improve performance and by assisting environmental regulators in enforcing laws more effectively.

Indian industries have begun adopting ISO …