scholarly journals Local Environmental Policy in a Federal System: An Overview

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Segerson

AbstractA number of issues arise when considering the positive and normative implications of local environmental policy making. This paper provides an overview of some of the issues and implications. These vary depending on whether local jurisdictions are charged with determining the stringency of policies or instead stringency is determined at a higher level of government and the local role focuses on implementation and the design of cost-effective measures for achieving the required goals. Key issues include both physical and economic spillovers across jurisdictions, and the extent to which stringency can be differentiated based on local conditions or preferences.

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Venner ◽  
J. Husband ◽  
J. Noonan ◽  
A. Nelson ◽  
D. Waltrip

In response to rapid population growth as well as to address the nutrient reduction goals for the Chesapeake Bay established by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ), the Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) initiated the York River Treatment Plant (YRTP) Expansion Phase 1 project. The existing YRTP is a conventional step-feed activated sludge plant and is rated for an average daily design flow of 57 million liters per day (MLD). This project proposes to expand the existing treatment capacity to 114 MLD and to reduce the nutrients discharged to the York River, a tributary for the Chesapeake Bay. In order to meet the effluent limits set by the VDEQ, a treatment upgrade to limit of technology (LOT) or enhanced nutrient removal (ENR) was required. Malcolm Pirnie worked with HRSD and the VDEQ to develop and evaluate ENR process alternatives to achieve the required effluent limits with the goal of determining the most reliable and cost effective alternative to achieve the aggressive nutrient reduction goals. This paper will highlight the key issues in determining the most desirable treatment process considering both economic and non-economic factors.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (10) ◽  
pp. 2940
Author(s):  
Antonella Curulli

Safety and quality are key issues for the food industry. Consequently, there is growing demand to preserve the food chain and products against substances toxic, harmful to human health, such as contaminants, allergens, toxins, or pathogens. For this reason, it is mandatory to develop highly sensitive, reliable, rapid, and cost-effective sensing systems/devices, such as electrochemical sensors/biosensors. Generally, conventional techniques are limited by long analyses, expensive and complex procedures, and skilled personnel. Therefore, developing performant electrochemical biosensors can significantly support the screening of food chains and products. Here, we report some of the recent developments in this area and analyze the contributions produced by electrochemical biosensors in food screening and their challenges.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Pauliina Patana

What explains variation in populist radical right (PRR) support within Western democracies? Specifically, why is contemporary PRR support often and increasingly stronger in areas seemingly detached from the effects of globalization, transnationalism, or immigration, the key issues these parties emphasize? This study articulates a theory of residential constraints to deepen understanding of these spatial patterns. I hypothesize that when citizens are residentially constrained—that is, when their means of reacting to local conditions and “voting with their feet” are limited—they are more likely to support PRR parties. To test this claim, I use a multimethod research design and exploit both quantitative and qualitative evidence from France, an important case of long-standing and geographically divided PRR support. I demonstrate that the PRR performs well in areas where locals’ access to services and opportunities is compromised and where opportunities and incentives to relocate are blocked by residential constraints. Residential constraints thus generate a set of relative economic grievances and render them highly salient in localities that may otherwise appear unaffected by more objective hardships and structural decay.


2001 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 11-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Princen

If social scientists are going to make a contribution to environmental policy-making that is commensurate with the severity of biophysical trends, they must develop analytic tools that go beyond marginal improvement and a production focus where key actors escape responsibility via distanced commerce and the black box of consumer sovereignty. One means is to construct an ecologically informed “consumption angle” on economic activity. The first approach is to retain the prevailing supply-demand dichotomy and address the externalities of consumption and the role of power in consuming. The second approach is to construe all economic activity as “consuming,” as “using up.” This approach construes material provisioning in the context of hunter/gathering, cultivation, and manufacture and then develops three interpretive layers of excess consumption: background consumption, overconsumption, and misconsumption. An example from timbering illustrates how, by going up and down the decision chain, the consumption angle generates questions about what is consumed and what is put at risk. Explicit assignment of responsibility for excess throughput becomes more likely.


Materials ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 409
Author(s):  
Xiaofei Tang ◽  
Rui Zhu ◽  
Tianjing Shi ◽  
Yu Wang ◽  
Xiaochen Niu ◽  
...  

High energy density materials (HEDM) are the subject of an extensive research effort in relation to the use of these compounds as components of rocket propellants, powders, and formulations of high-performance explosives. Hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane (HNIW, i.e., CL-20) has received much attention in these research fields for its specific impulse, burning rate, ballistics, and detonation velocity. In this paper, the development and performances of the explosives from the first to the fourth generation are briefly summarized, and the synthesis status of the fourth-generation explosive, HNIW, is reviewed. The key issues that restrict the development of industrial amplification synthesis of HNIW are analyzed, and the potential directions of development are proposed. It is pointed out that to synthesize new and efficient catalysts is the key to making the cost-effective manufacturing of CL-20 a reality.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 157-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Abramowicz-Gerigk ◽  
Zbigniew Burciu

Abstract Modernisation of the existing river fleet adapted for the local conditions of the Middle and Lower Vistula can be considered as a solution to slow down the progressive decrease of river transport in this area. The implementation of technical improvements, smart technologies and enhancement of transport performance may partially solve the problem of growing demand for multimodal transport of containers and oversized loads in a shorter perspective than the expected period of planned revitalisation of the river. The paper presents investigations on the modernisation of river convoys adapted to the current navigational conditions of the Lower Vistula. The different options have been discussed by the authors with river fleet operators and the best recognised solution was agreed to be the use of river convoys combining modernised motor barges and the pushed barges previously used in this area. Improvement of the transport profitability, reduction of fuel consumption, air pollution and noise can be achieved at minimum costs by modernisation of the main power-propulsion systems of outdated motor barges and the implementation of innovative steering systems on pushed barges. The demand for power-propulsion and manoeuvring performance of modernised convoys is discussed in the paper.


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