Welcome!

Environmental Policy AnalysisEM 650

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Dr. Carolyn M. Macola

Administrative Issues• Appears to be a misprint in Unit 3’s

reading for this week (pages 2-15)

• DB threads – need to enter your classmates’ threads too!

• Writing assignment’s & writer’s block

• Other issues? CAP

Assembling Evidence for Your Environmental Policy Analysis

• Map present policies/programs

• Political environment

• Criteria used to evaluate “success”

• Time, energy, money & goodwill

• Data Collection

• Follow Format..

• Let’s walk through an example…

Start with what you know!Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA)

& Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act

(EPCRA)

One person’s approach to policy analysis & research design

Start Collecting Data!• Locate relevant sources: newspapers, magazines, internet,

interviews, people, etc.• Gain/maintain access to sources

– Privacy Act; Confidentiality; Secret; etc.– Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests

• Accumulate background information to weed out what is important/not important

• Protect your credibility– Listen to others, but be your own judge!– Be courteous/respectful when interviewing people!!!

• Visuals: graphs, photos, pictures, – Breaks-up the monotony of reading

Historical/Political Background

• CAAA Background • CAAA Highlights • EPCRA Background• EPCRA Highlights • My Research • A Successful Environmental Law• Summary

CAAA Background (Documents leading to Documents)

• Why passed in the first place? (CAA in 1963; CAAA in 1990)– Technology advances– Better levels of detection– Goal (for some) of “zero-based” tolerance– Perceived EPA inaction for 20 years

• Some readings imply basic Congressional mistrust of EPA

• Most successful CAA control of chemical air pollutant has been eliminating lead in fuel (unleaded fuel)

• Costs associated with implementation of CAAA range from $23 billion (EPA) to $91 billion (Industry)

Chemical Emissions? (Reiterate to further narrow your definitions)

CAAA Highlights (Key Points) • Prevention of Significant Deterioration

– Obtain a Preconstruction Permit– Undergo a New Source Review– Use Best Available Control Technology– Analyze Air Quality for Criteria Pollutants

• 4 Other Technology Examples Required– Lowest Achievable Emission Rate (most stringent level of

pollution control available)

– Reasonably Available Control Technology– Employee Commute Option– Maximum Achievable Control Technology (source-

specific and dependent on technology available)

CAAA Implementation “Issues”: Key Policy Points

• Considered a paperwork nightmare• No citizen involvement required• Mandates implementation at the state and local

levels• No lead time incorporated to plan strategy• ? – Who is responsible for implementing this law

in your state? CAP

EPCRA Background (History)

• Passed in 1986 – part of SARA (Superfund

Amendments and Reauthorization Act)

– Outcome of the Bhopal, India chemical release

• Broken into 3 sections– Toxic Release Inventory – Community Right to Know (Material Safety

Data Sheets)– Community Emergency Planning

EPCRA Highlights: (Key Policy Points)

• Publicizes presence and emissions of certain chemicals in communities

• Difference is “the presence” vs “the release” of chemicals (storage vs spills)

• Expanded under 1990 Pollution Prevention Act to include waste and pollution prevention activities – Threshold reporting is 25,000 pounds for listed chemicals and

10,000 for non-listed chemicals– Around 570 listed toxic chemicals

• Doesn’t mean “public exposure” - just releases/transfers

My Research Method

• Premise - needed a dissertation topic

• Research - wanted quantitative analysis

• Policy Implications – something I had some familiarity with

• Follow-on Questions (Unintended Consequences; Adding to the “Body of Knowledge”, Follow-up Concerns, etc)

My Research (Cont’d)

• Did not want to do interviews– Human Subjects Research

• Wanted a “numbers” document because (1) comfortable with them, (2) not a lot of research with quantification, (3) hard to dispute when defending dissertation

• Could work at my own pace! (Working full-time, supervising 13 people, getting ready to rotate)

• My thesis advisor gave me the best advice….

What is a Successful Law? (Primary focus for policy analysis)

• TRI considered most effective environmental program due in part to the right-to-know provisions: citizens, media, environmental advocates, researchers, business community, and others could influence and evaluate industry’s efforts to reduce toxic emissions (Source: EPA,

1994 TRI: Public Data Release, 1996, Appendix B)

• CAAA not considered as such…• What are the reasons why/why not for the TRI

statement above versus the CAAA observation?

Was the “Successful Law” really Good or just a Window Dressing?

Premise (What are you trying to accomplish with your analysis?)

• Premise - What constitutes a successful environmental law?

• X → ∆ → Y, where– X = the law– ∆ = the catalyst– Y = the outcome

X = Successful Law

• Possible drivers for a successful law – Public Organizations (i.e. Sierra Club)– Information Anxiety (i.e. Love Canal)– Public Administration (i.e. EPA)– Leadership – Books (i.e. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring)

∆ = Catalyst

• Possible catalysts are– Public Notifications– Environmental Considerations

Y = Symbol Defining Outcomes

• Possible indicators of Y– Measuring emissions reductions– Tracking cost savings– Quantifying preventative health measures (i.e.

reducing exposure to carcinogenic material)

Research Design

Research Design

• Demonstrate the feasibility of “public visibility” using motivation theory and expected outcomes of “public notification” as a method to reduce chemical emissions.– This reduction guarantees the intent of the environmental law is

met by pollution reduction

• Hypotheses based on premise that big industries are motivated by public notification of chemical emissions and the expectation of being on the Top 50 TRI Listing would be bad for public relations– Therefore, efforts to get and stay off of this annual public list

would be beneficial to their reputation

Research Question

• If environmental regulations incorporated annual reporting of the use and disposal of hazardous and toxic material, by company, to the public would environmental protection occur faster?– “Protection of the environment” simply means

emissions reduction of hazardous and toxic material

Research – Quantitative Analysis

• http://www.epa.gov/tri• Took 4 years worth of available TRI data • Used 1988 TRI data and took the top 50 “worse”

polluters and used those as a starting point • Performed longitudinal study

– Time series analysis measured the units• Established a baseline, described changes over time, kept

track of progress and forecasted future trends

• TRI tracks over 300 chemicals; CAAA only 6

TRI On-site and Off-site Reported Releases (in pounds), for facilities in All Industries, for All Chemicals, zip code 45433 in Ohio, 2001

Facility TRIF ID Fugitive Air

Stack Air Total Air Emissions

Total On-site

Releases

Total Off-site

Releases

Total On- and Off-

site Releases

U.S. AIR FORCE WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, DEPT. OF THE AIR FORCE WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, DAYTON

45433SDDSFDEPAR

5 92,000 92,005 92,255 0 92,255

   ETHYLENE GLYCOL   0 0 0 250 0 250

   HYDROCHLORIC ACID (1995 AND AFTER "ACID AEROSOLS" ONLY)

  5 92,000 92,005 92,005 0 92,005

Sample of TRI Information from Website

Comparison of CAAA & TRI

• CAAA (42 CFR 101-459)– 433 pages

• Air pollution prevention and control; emissions standards for moving sources; general; noise pollution; acid deposition control; stratospheric ozone protection; and new provisions

– Two sections for non-compliance• Section 111 is 9 pages long (federal enforcement)• Section 120 is 6 pages long (non-compliance penalties)

• TRI (40 CFR 372)– 39 pages

• 21 pages are chemical listings leaving 18 pages of regulatory guidance

– One section for non-compliance• Four lines outlining what will happen if the rule is not met

Research Findings

• 35 out of 50 companies showed emission reductions for a success rate of 70%

• 15 of the 50 companies showed an increase for a non-success rate of 30%

• 72% probability that if a company makes the top 50 TRI Listing, it will work toward emission reduction

• Takes a company of an average of 8 years to get “off” of the Top 50 TRI Listing

• 50% reduction in air emissions over an 8 year period

Victory!

Follow-On Policy Questions

• Historical case studies of other successful governmental programs to determine commonalities

• Public Visibility

• Environmental economics

• Motivational theory as applied to organizations– What do you think motivates your company to

be a good steward of the environment? CAP?

A Successful Environmental Law

• Numerically validated that TRI (subpart of EPCRA) is a successful environmental law

• Why?– Public Notification?– Annual Reporting?– Easy to understand?– Involved local communities?– Others? Combination of above?

Unit 3 Summary

• An introduction to one way to approach assembling evidence for your environmental policy analysis. (This week’s reading from A Practical Guide to Policy Analysis is excellent for thesis/capstone preparation.)

• A documentary that explores where policy is changed because is Modern Marvels’ Engineering Disasters DVD series: http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Marvels-Engineering-Disasters-History/dp/B0012XIGYG.

• Any comments/questions before we wrap-up Unit 3’s seminar? As always, have a wonderful week!