Spatial Heterogeneity of China’s Environmental Regulation on Industrial Pollution: Evidence from a Top–Down Environmental Enforcement Action

To obtain precise information about enterprises’ pollution control and take corresponding environmental protection measures is the key to preventing and controlling industrial pollution. Taking the lead–acid battery industry as an example, this paper employs data from the Environmental Enforcement Action to analyze the urban–rural and inter-provincial distributions of pollution-intensive enterprises and to quantitatively verify the spatial differences in China’s environmental regulation on industrial pollution. The study finds that lead–acid battery manufacturing enterprises are mainly located in rural areas instead of urban areas; most pollution-intensive firms located in industrial parks, especially those approved by governments below the provincial level. The multivariate logistic model analysis finds that environmental regulation in urban districts is more strict than that in towns and villages, while the suburban areas are the laxest; environmental regulation in national-level development zones is more strict than that in provincial-level development zones, while zones below the provincial level are the laxest. In general, the environmental regulation is stricter in urban areas than in rural areas, and stricter in clustered space than in scattered space, while most inter-provincial environmental regulations have no significant differences. Local governments should effectively allocate conventional environmental law enforcement resources and shift the focus of law enforcement downwards to parks below the provincial level, and on suburbs and townships.

Invoking International Environmental Norms Through Treaty Interpretation

This article analyses the way in which international tribunals considering treaty- based disputes incorporate extraneous environmental principles through the use of interpretative mechanisms. Increasingly prominent in the international sphere, this approach allows States bringing claims under historical treaties to adopt and enforce contemporary understandings of environmental obligations. This article pursues an extensive survey of cases exhibiting this process, focusing on the interpretative techniques used; the extent to which the tribunals allowed for environmental arguments; and the basis, and use, of environmental norms. These results facilitate a comparative analysis, which concludes that tribunals’ choices regarding each of these features ultimately depends on the underlying treaty’s relationship with intertemporal law. This article thus provides a guide as to how States may effectively enforce environmental obligations, even absent explicit environmental enforcement mechanisms.

Lessons Learned and Corrective Actions from BSEE Initiated Unannounced Source Control Exercises In 2018–2019

Government initiated unannounced exercises (GIUEs) conducted by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) provide operators a challenging but fair opportunity to demonstrate their response capabilities. When a source control GIUE is initiated, personnel from both industry and government are expected to perform their response roles in real time as they would in an actual incident. Source control GIUEs are also used to objectively assess spill preparedness and identify any deficiencies and vulnerabilities. The intent of this report is to share appropriately redacted lessons learned and corrective actions that transpired from BSEE source control GIUEs for the benefit of regulators, operators, and other responders seeking to improve upon their existing capabilities. During the 2018 and 2019 fiscal years, the BSEE Oil Spill Preparedness Division (OSPD) conducted 29 GIUEs. Of those 29 GIUEs, 17 were functional exercises and 12 were full-scale exercises involving the deployment of response equipment. The Source Control GIUEs, which comprised 7 of the 29 exercises, intended to assess a broader scope of readiness as compared to the more familiar capping stack soft shut-in scenarios from past years. OSPD coordinated with numerous stakeholders to ensure the appropriate experts were involved in the GIUE planning process. These interdisciplinary planning teams collaborated to develop previously unexplored but relevant scenarios involving surface blowouts, relief wells, and subsea well interventions. BSEE's intention is to maintain this coordinated effort to produce new and challenging scenarios for the purpose of ensuring maximal preparedness for all potential and plausible response conditions. Increasing the source control GIUE program's scope and scale in this directed manner resulted in significant lessons learned and corrective actions relevant to both the regulated community and the regulators. OSPD has compiled and summarized these results for distribution. Lessons learned were classified utilizing the following 6 categories adapted from the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) Guidance: Communications, Leadership and Management Processes, Organizational Structures, Plans or Procedures, Resources, and Training. With regards to corrective actions, OSPD issued these directives with the intent of providing operators an opportunity to resolve deficiencies identified during the source control GIUEs to ensure adequate preparedness and are not to be considered punitive. This paper will present a redacted summary of these lessons learned and corrective actions identified during the 2018 and 2019 GIUE years for the benefit of everyone involved in spill response preparedness.