Recently in Environment Category

Source: Michael A. Livermore, Elizabeth Piennar, and Jason A Schwartz, Institute for Policy Integrity, April 2012

From the abstract:
The current debate on jobs and environmental regulation too often relies on thinly-supported forecasts about jobs "killed" or "created" by public protections. In this debate, the larger costs and benefits of protections for clean air or water can get lost.

In Regulatory Red Herring, the Institute for Policy Integrity looks at how economics can be used to evaluate the effects of environmental regulation on layoffs and hiring.

It also looks at models that are used to make predictions about the jobs impact of regulation. These modeling tools have important limitations that are rarely communicated, leading to misunderstanding and counterproductive political debates.
See also:
Use Of Phrase 'Job Killing Regulations' Increases 17,550% In Newspapers Since 2007
Source: Michael A. Livermore, ThinkProgress, ClimareProgress April 24, 2012

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Women's Bureau, November 2011

From the abstract:
Ensuring women are prepared to succeed in a 21st century changing economy is critical to the financial stability of women, their families, and our country. Why Green Is Your Color: A Woman's Guide to a Sustainable Career is a comprehensive manual designed to assist women with job training and career development as they enter into innovative and nontraditional jobs. The guide also provides vulnerable women a pathway to higher paying jobs, and serves as a tool to help fight job segregation. It offers women resources and information they need to enter and succeed in jobs in the emerging green economy. The guide was created to help women at all stages of their careers -- whether they are newly entering the workforce, transitioning to new careers, or returning to the workforce -- identify and take advantage of opportunities in the clean energy economy. It will help training providers, educators, counselors, and other workforce development professionals promote the recruitment and retention of women in green career paths.

Source: Nandhini Rangarajan and Dianne Rahm, Review of Public Personnel Administration, Vol. 31 no. 3, September 2011
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From the abstract:
How have environmental initiatives and "going green" permeated the human resources realm? This article, through a nationwide survey, examines the extent to which cities have incorporated environmentally friendly human resource practices. Results reveal that income, education, environmental awareness and presence of preexisting successful environmental programs have an impact on technical and strategic human resource practices in U.S. cities. This article discusses the implications for public administration.

Source: Emily Gordon, Jeremy Hays, Ethan Pollack, Daniel Sanchez, and Jason Walsh, Green For All, 2011

This report estimates the economic and job creation impact of a major investment in water infrastructure in the United States. This number--$188.4 billion--is based on the level of investment necessary, as estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency, to manage stormwater and preserve water quality across the country. We find that an investment of $188.4 billion spread equally over the next five years would generate $265.6 billion in economic activity and create close to 1.9 million jobs.

We argue that maximizing the use of green infrastructure--infrastructure that mimics natural solutions--is essential to meet the stormwater management needs of our communities while also providing a number of additional co-benefits.

We provide job creation estimates for each of the 50 states and review the workforce opportunities that would result from such an investment, analyzing a representative set of occupations in industries related to water infrastructure. We find that new jobs generated by these investments could be good jobs that are broadly accessible to American workers.

Source: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), Press Release, September 8, 2011

Washington, DC -- On September 11, 2001, "First Responders" to the World Trade Center conflagration and nearby residents waded into dust so corrosive that it resulted in chemical burns to their respiratory system. These New York City police and firefighters were needlessly sacrificed due to woefully lax U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards which remain in effect but need correction, according to a rulemaking petition filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). ...WTC First Responders were subjected to dust so caustic as to cause respiratory disabilities and deaths. Yet, if a similar scenario occurred today, the same results would recur. That is because EPA misapplied the international corrosivity standard and then systematically failed to test and communicate the caustic properties of WTC dust. As a result, the EPA standard is ten times more lax than the presumed safe levels for alkaline corrosives set by the United Nations (UN).

Source: Union of Concerned Scientists, July 2011

From the summary:
The Benefits of a Clean Energy Economy for the Midwest by 2030

Job Creation:
85,700 net new jobs from deploying renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies

Economic Development:
$40.9 billion in new capital investment, $1 billion in new income for farmers and rural landowners, and $3.5 billion in new local tax revenues

Consumer Savings:
$42.8 billion in lower electricity and natural gas bills

Diversified Energy Mix:
63,000 megawatts of capacity for generating electricity from non-hydro renewable resources (up from 13,300 megawatts in 2010)

Climate Solutions:
Reductions in global warming pollution from power plants equal to the annual emissions from 30 typical new coal plants

Source: Charles J. Cicchetti,Senior Advisor to Navigant Consulting Inc., July 2011

From the press release:
Washington, DC - A study issued today finds that the benefits of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed Utility Toxics Rule (also known as the Utility MACT) are even greater than found in the conservative analysis done by the Agency. The report, "Why EPA's Mercury and Toxics Rule is Good for the Economy and America's Workforce," authored by Charles J. Cicchetti Ph.D, a senior advisor to Navigant Consulting, Inc., finds that the Utility Toxics Rule will produce net benefits of up to $139.5 billion and create 115,520 jobs. The report shows that while the EPA's benefit-cost analysis made reasonable calculations of the benefits of hazardous air pollutant (HAP) reductions, the Rule brings additional benefits that EPA did not monetize but should be considered.

Source: United States Government Accountability Office, GAO-11-381 June 17, 2011

From the summary:
The nation's drinking water is among the safest in the world, but contamination has occurred, causing illnesses and even deaths. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has authorized most states, territories, and tribes to take primary responsibility for ensuring that community water systems provide safe water. EPA needs complete and accurate data on systems' compliance with SDWA to conduct oversight. GAO was asked to assess the (1) quality of the state data EPA uses to measure compliance with health and monitoring requirements of the act and the status of enforcement efforts, (2) ways in which data quality could affect EPA's management of the drinking water program, and (3) actions EPA and the states have been taking to improve data quality. GAO analyzed EPA audits of state data done in 2007, 2008, and 2009, and surveyed EPA and state officials to obtain their views on factors that have affected data quality and steps that could improve it.

The data states reported to EPA for measuring compliance with health and monitoring requirements of SDWA did not reliably reflect the number of health-based and monitoring violations that community water systems have committed or the status of enforcement actions. Using data from the 14 states EPA audited in 2009, GAO estimates that those 14 states did not report or inaccurately reported 26 percent of the health-based violations that should have been reported and 84 percent of the monitoring violations that should have been reported. GAO's findings were consistent with the results of prior EPA audits.

Source: People For the American Way Foundation, 2011

When state legislators across the nation introduce similar or identical bills designed to boost corporate power and profits, reduce workers rights, limit corporate accountability for pollution, or restrict voting by minorities, odds are good that the legislation was not written by a state lawmaker but by corporate lobbyists working through the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC is a one-stop shop for corporations looking to identify friendly state legislators and work with them to get special-interest legislation introduced. It's win-win for corporations, their lobbyists, and right-wing legislators. But the big losers are citizens whose rights and interests are sold off to the highest bidder....

... ALEC's major funders include Exxon Mobil, the Scaife family (Allegheny Foundation and the Scaife Family Foundation), the Coors family (Castle Rock Foundation), Charles Koch (Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation), the Bradley family (The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation) and the Olin family (John M. Olin Foundation). These organizations consistently finance right-wing think tanks and political groups.

Members of ALEC's board represent major corporations such as Altria, AT&T, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Koch Industries, Kraft, PhRMA, Wal-Mart, Peabody Energy, and State Farm. Such corporations represent just a fraction of ALEC's approximately three hundred corporate partners. According to the American Association for Justice, over eighty percent of ALEC's finances come from corporate contributions....

...The Issues ALEC Lobbies For:
- Undercutting Health Care Reform: Pulling out all the stops to weaken the health care reform law.

- Corporate Power and Workers' Rights: Curbing protections for workers while eliminating checks and regulations on corporations.

- Voter ID and Election LawsBoosting corporate clout by making it harder for young and low-income Americans to exercise their right to vote.

- Tax Policy: Encouraging tax cuts for the rich that exacerbate state budget problems.

- Private School Vouchers: Taking aim at public education by bolstering risky, wasteful, and ineffective private school voucher programs.

- Obstructing Environmental Protection: Using energy industry dollars to fight climate change policies and regulations on polluters.

Source: Frances L. Edwards, Public Manager, Vol. 40 no. 1, Spring 2011
(subscription required)

Amidst a year of extreme weather, experienced federal, state and local leaders offer facts and lessons for public managers facing challenges of climate change: global warming, environmental degradation, and energy dependency.