Comparison of US and Canadian Transmission Pipeline Consensus Standards

Author(s):  
Keith J. Meyer ◽  
Robert W. Smith ◽  
Alan Murray

A coordinated effort between the pipeline regulatory entities in the United States and Canada is paramount for reducing energy congestion across the border. The interconnected nature of the pipeline infrastructure in North America and the growing demand for energy in the US are clear drivers for cross border coordination and collaboration. Regulatory agency cooperation by the Canadian National Energy Board (NEB) and the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) recognizes this dependency and the continued safe operation and expansion of the pipeline infrastructure. To achieve these goals, much is dependent on the adequacy and effectiveness of safety and specification consensus standards covering a wide range of pipeline transportation activities. Pipeline regulations in the US and Canada rely largely on the partial or complete incorporation of industry standards by reference. The US and Canadian national pipeline regulations are compared in this paper in design and construction areas, noting the important differences.

Amicus Curiae ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-215
Author(s):  
Richard K Wagner

The volume of disputes heard by United States (US) courts containing a China element continues to be robust even against a backdrop of political rhetoric concerning an economic ‘de-coupling’ of the US and China. These cross-border disputes often involve Chinese parties and special issues, some of which concern Chinese business culture, but many of which involve interpreting questions of Chinese law. How is proving Chinese law accomplished in these cases and how have US courts performed in interpreting Chinese law? This article first discusses the approach to proving Chinese law in US courts. While expert testimony is often submitted and can be valuable to a US court, the applicable US rule offers no standards by which these opinions are to be judged. And, in the China context, without specific guidance, it can be challenging for a judge, unaccustomed with China or the Chinese legal system to determine which version of the law to believe. Moreover, under the applicable rule, the US court can simply ignore competing Chinese law opinions and conduct its own Chinese law legal research, presumably using English language sources. This can lead to interesting interpretations of Chinese law to say the least. The article anchors its discussion in an examination of those recent cases which have interpreted Article 277 of the Civil Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China. This is the legal provision of Chinese law that can be implicated in certain situations involving cross-border discovery, and there are now numerous Article 277 cases among the reported US decisions. The article analyses Article 277 by placing it within the larger context of Chinese civil procedure and argues that the language used in the provision has a special meaning within Chinese evidence law that has been obscured in those US case decisions interpreting it, leading to erroneous results. The article concludes by offering judges and practitioners some suggestions for interpreting Chinese law in future US cases. Keywords: Chinese law; US courts; Article 277; deposition; cross-border discovery; Hague Evidence Convention; Chinese civil procedure.


Author(s):  
Earl H. Fry

This article examines the ebb and flow of the Quebec government’s economic and commercial relations with the United States in the period 1994–2017. The topic demonstrates the impact of three major forces on Quebec’s economic and commercial ties with the US: (1) the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which became operational in 1994 and was fully implemented over a 15-year period; (2) the onerous security policies put in place by the US government in the decade following the horrific events of 11 September 2001; and (3) changing economic circumstances in the United States ranging from robust growth to the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The article also indicates that the Quebec government continues to sponsor a wide range of activities in the United States, often more elaborate and extensive than comparable activities pursued by many nation-states with representation in the US. 1 1 Stéphane Paquin, ‘Quebec-U.S. Relations: The Big Picture’, American Review of Canadian Studies 46, no. 2 (2016): 149–61.


Legal Concept ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 137-144
Author(s):  
Alexey Szydlowski

Introduction: the election law of the US states to date remains insufficiently studied not only in Russia but also abroad. This is due to the fact that the legal regulation of the electoral process in America is attributed to the powers of the states or municipalities, depending on the legal doctrine applied by the state – Cooley Doctrine or Dillon Rule, which objectively imposes a limit on its study and generalization. The purpose of the study is to acquaint a wide range of scientific community with the latest research in the field of the US election law in regard to the first in the domestic law full description of the organizers of elections and referendums at the state and municipal levels in the United States. The author reviews a wide range of regional and local legislation with references to the constitutional, legal and regulatory acts of the US States. The paper is part of a series that explores all fifty subjects of the American Federation and the District of Columbia. Procedure and methods of research: the author analyzes the constitutional and electoral legislation of the United States at the level of Montana at the beginning of 2019. The methodology of the study was the comparative law, formal-legal, formal-dogmatic, specific-sociological, empirical, dialectical, analytical methods, the systematic approach. Results: the information about the organizers of elections and referendums in Montana, which was not previously covered in the Russian scientific literature, is introduced into scientific circulation. The interpretations of certain provisions of the law and legal consciousness of the U.S election law and law enforcement practice are given. The gaps of the legislation requiring additional research are surfaced. The theoretical and practical significance lies in the generalization of both the established and the latest legal sources (constitutions, organic laws, federal laws, charters, by-laws and regulations) of the United States and the subject of the American Federation and the development of proposals for the enrichment of the Russian science and the formation of objective understanding of the processes taking place in the United States in the field of constitutional, electoral law and the state-building. Conclusions: for a systematic and comparative legal analysis the author proposed the review of the legislation on the organizers of elections and referendums of Montana, revealing the existing contradictions, from the point of view of the Russian researcher, which allows considering the full range of elements of the electoral legislation of Montana from a new angle, seeing new legal structures, previously unknown to the domestic statesmen and law enforcers.


Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Robert D. Brown ◽  
Tamanna Tasnum ◽  
YouJoung Kim

Landscape architecture programs in the United States are assessed based on the quality of the professional education received by their students. Research is becoming an increasingly important part of the profession as evidence-based landscape architecture grows, and it is critical that university faculty provide information that can be used in professional practice to resolve important environmental and social issues. In many universities, individual landscape architecture faculty are encouraged to conduct research and their performance is evaluated based largely on the quantity and quality of their scholarly output. This paper used publicly-available information to conduct a citation analysis for individual faculty and professionally accredited landscape architecture programs across the US. There was a wide range in the contribution level with some programs and some individuals who were very productive, while many others contributed very little. This might point to an attempt by programs to maintain a balance between scholarly contributions and the education of professional landscape architects. As research becomes an increasing important part of the profession, the productive programs and individuals identified in this study might provide models for others to emulate.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 2527-2559 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. H. Alemohammad ◽  
K. A. McColl ◽  
A. G. Konings ◽  
D. Entekhabi ◽  
A. Stoffelen

Abstract. Validation of precipitation estimates from various products is a challenging problem, since the true precipitation is unknown. However, with the increased availability of precipitation estimates from a wide range of instruments (satellite, ground-based radar, and gauge), it is now possible to apply the Triple Collocation (TC) technique to characterize the uncertainties in each of the products. Classical TC takes advantage of three collocated data products of the same variable and estimates the mean squared error of each, without requiring knowledge of the truth. In this study, triplets among NEXRAD-IV, TRMM 3B42, GPCP and GPI products are used to quantify the associated spatial error characteristics across a central part of the continental US. This is the first study of its kind to explore precipitation estimation errors using TC across the United States (US). A multiplicative (logarithmic) error model is incorporated in the original TC formulation to relate the precipitation estimates to the unknown truth. For precipitation application, this is more realistic than the additive error model used in the original TC derivations, which is generally appropriate for existing applications such as in the case of wind vector components and soil moisture comparisons. This study provides error estimates of the precipitation products that can be incorporated into hydrological and meteorological models, especially those used in data assimilation. Physical interpretations of the error fields (related to topography, climate, etc) are explored. The methodology presented in this study could be used to quantify the uncertainties associated with precipitation estimates from each of the constellation of GPM satellites. Such quantification is prerequisite to optimally merging these estimates.


Significance The United States has stationed 600 paratroopers in the Baltic countries and will defend their airspace for the duration of the Zapad-2017 exercise in a bid to reassure NATO allies of Washington’s commitment to their security. Longer term, Washington's European Deterrence Initiative (EDI) is paying for a forward presence of additional US forces in Europe, construction of additional infrastructure and upgrades to existing facilities. Impacts The US military will seek to conclude detailed hosting agreements with Eastern European NATO countries. Poland and South Korea are likely candidates for an expanded permanent US forward presence. Repeated US congressional budget standoffs will worry allies awaiting longer-term infrastructure projects. Stationing US tactical nuclear weapons on NATO’s eastern borders would be more provocative to Moscow than EDI-funded rotations. Replacing incompatible cross-border railway gauges between the Baltic states and Poland will take over a decade.


Significance The hearing was part of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer’s investigation of China under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, initiated in August. The US delegation to the WTO submitted in September a request for China to delay implementation of its Cybersecurity Law, citing its anticipated impact on cross-border technology transfers. Both of these developments reflect increasing technology trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Impacts US allies are likely to face pressure from Washington over procurement of Chinese ICT in government facilities. The US government is likely to use power over contracts, regulation and informal pressure to shape tech companies’ behaviour. Espionage fears will drive harsher US and European scrutiny of Chinese investment in their domestic tech sectors.


2003 ◽  
Vol 2003 (1) ◽  
pp. 311-318
Author(s):  
Debra Scholz ◽  
Steven R. Warren ◽  
Heidi Stout ◽  
Gregory Hogue ◽  
Ann Hayward Walker ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT During a response to spilled oil or hazardous material, the protection, retrieval, and rehabilitation of affected wildlife is the jurisdiction of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the US Department of Interior (DOI), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and the affected state resource trustees. Only permitted and trained individuals (Qualified Wildlife Responders - QWR) are allowed to directly handle the affected wildlife. QWRs are familiar with a wide range of actions that can be taken to minimize the adverse effects of spilled oil on fish and wildlife resources and their habitats. However, decision-makers and QWRs are not always familiar with the effects that various oil spill products and technologies may have on different wildlife resources. Applied oil spill products and technologies are listed under the National Contingency Plan (NCP) Product Schedule (40 CFR § 300.317) and are the focus of the Selection Guide for Oil Spill Applied Technologies. These applied oil spill products and technologies are relatively unknown and most decision-makers have limited experience in their use. To facilitate greater understanding of these products and technologies, the Selection Guide assists the decision-maker to evaluate the various spill response products and technologies for potential or suspected impacts to the environment, workers, and natural resources. Of particular interest is the evaluation of the use of various oil spill response


2020 ◽  
pp. 096701062090674
Author(s):  
Jennifer Hobbs

This article argues that feminist technoscience studies can enrich our understanding of biopolitics by challenging the body’s boundaries and focusing on mundane practices of security. To do so, this article looks to Mexicanas/os who cross the US–Mexico border in order to donate plasma in the United States. The article argues that Mexicanas/os are objectified in cross-border donation practices as both desirable sources of life-giving matter and dangerous sources of disease. The article begins by giving some empirical context to plasma donation, before outlining the conceptual contributions of a feminist technoscience studies approach. The article then explores how Mexican bodies are produced as sites of valuable matter which have the ability to make others live. The article shows how the ‘bioavailability’ of Mexicanas/os is produced through colonial and racist histories. Finally, the article turns to the circulation of plasma, demonstrating how persistent fears about Mexican plasma as infectious reproduce highly racializing stereotypes about Mexico and Mexican bodies. The article finishes by reflecting on the importance of a feminist technoscience studies approach for stressing the co-constitutive relationship between race and matter, and that racialized productions of the body at security sites stretch well beyond the body’s skin.


2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah P Slight ◽  
Tewodros Eguale ◽  
Mary G Amato ◽  
Andrew C Seger ◽  
Diana L Whitney ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective To test the vulnerabilities of a wide range of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems to different types of medication errors, and develop a more comprehensive qualitative understanding of how their design could be improved. Materials and Methods The authors reviewed a random sample of 63 040 medication error reports from the US Pharmacopeia (USP) MEDMARX reporting system where CPOE systems were considered a “contributing factor” to errors and flagged test scenarios that could be tested in current CPOE systems. Testers entered these orders in 13 commercial and homegrown CPOE systems across 16 different sites in the United States and Canada, using both usual practice and where-needed workarounds. Overarching themes relevant to interface design and usability/workflow issues were identified. Results CPOE systems often failed to detect and prevent important medication errors. Generation of electronic alert warnings varied widely between systems, and depended on a number of factors, including how the order information was entered. Alerts were often confusing, with unrelated warnings appearing on the same screen as those more relevant to the current erroneous entry. Dangerous drug-drug interaction warnings were displayed only after the order was placed rather than at the time of ordering. Testers illustrated various workarounds that allowed them to enter these erroneous orders. Discussion and Conclusion The authors found high variability in ordering approaches between different CPOE systems, with major deficiencies identified in some systems. It is important that developers reflect on these findings and build in safeguards to ensure safer prescribing for patients.


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