tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/environmental-protection-agency-17496/articlesEnvironmental Protection Agency – The Conversation2023-05-16T12:41:27Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2048892023-05-16T12:41:27Z2023-05-16T12:41:27ZEPA’s crackdown on power plant emissions is a big first step – but without strong certification, it will be hard to ensure captured carbon stays put<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526015/original/file-20230513-80599-50hj2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=836%2C0%2C2108%2C1350&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Power plants contribute a quarter of the United States' climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/polluted-beauty-royalty-free-image/991612992">Howard C via Getty images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. government is <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-proposes-new-carbon-pollution-standards-fossil-fuel-fired-power-plants-tackle">planning to crack down</a> on power plants’ greenhouse gas emissions, and, as a result, a lot of money is about to pour into technology that can capture carbon dioxide from smokestacks and lock it away.</p>
<p>That raises an important question: Once carbon dioxide is captured and stored, how do we ensure it stays put?</p>
<p>Power plants that burn fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas, release a lot of carbon dioxide. As that CO₂ accumulates in the atmosphere, it traps heat near the Earth’s surface, <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide">driving global warming</a>. </p>
<p>But if CO₂ emissions can be captured instead and <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/03/srccs_wholereport.pdf">locked away for thousands of years</a>, existing fossil fuel power plants could meet the proposed new federal standards and reduce their impact on climate change. </p>
<p>We <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XO3TyEUAAAAJ&hl=en">work on</a> carbon capture and storage technologies <a href="https://keep.lib.asu.edu/items/172390">and policies</a> as a scientist and an engineer. One of us, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jOPykuwAAAAJ&hl=en">Klaus Lackner</a>, proposed a tenet more than two decades ago that is echoed in the proposed standards: For all carbon extracted from the ground, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1323-0_3">an equal amount</a> must be disposed of safely and permanently. </p>
<p>To ensure that happens, carbon capture and storage needs an effective certification system. </p>
<h2>EPA’s proposed carbon crackdown</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-air-pollution/greenhouse-gas-standards-and-guidelines-fossil-fuel-fired-power">proposed new power plant rules</a>, announced by the Environmental Protection Agency on May 11, 2023, are based on performance standards for carbon dioxide releases. They aren’t yet finalized, and they <a href="https://theconversation.com/bidens-strategy-for-cutting-carbon-emissions-from-electricity-generation-could-extend-the-lives-of-fossil-fuel-power-plants-204723">likely will face fierce legal challenges</a>, but the industry is paying attention.</p>
<p>Power plant owners could meet the proposed standards in any number of ways, including by shutting down fossil fuel-powered plants and replacing them with renewable energy such as solar or wind.</p>
<p>For those planning to continue to burn natural gas or coal, however, capturing the emissions and storing them long term is the most likely option. </p>
<h2>How CCS works for power plants</h2>
<p>Carbon capture typically starts at the smokestack with <a href="https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/carbon-capture-and-storage-101">chemical “scrubbers</a>” that can remove more than 90% of carbon dioxide emissions. The captured CO₂ is compressed and sent through pipelines for storage.</p>
<p>At most storage sites, CO₂ is injected <a href="https://www.netl.doe.gov/coal/carbon-storage/strategic-program-support/natcarb-atlas">into underground reservoirs</a>, typically in porous rocks more than 3,300 feet (1,000 meters) below the surface. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525964/original/file-20230512-23-7qw92n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cutaway and closeup shows how CO2 is trapped in rock pore spaces." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525964/original/file-20230512-23-7qw92n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525964/original/file-20230512-23-7qw92n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525964/original/file-20230512-23-7qw92n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525964/original/file-20230512-23-7qw92n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525964/original/file-20230512-23-7qw92n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525964/original/file-20230512-23-7qw92n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525964/original/file-20230512-23-7qw92n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A cutaway of the Earth shows how impermeable rocks cap CO₂ reservoirs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.globalccsinstitute.com/">Global CCS Institute</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Geologists look for sites with multiple layers of protection, including impermeable rock layers above the reservoir that can prevent gas from leaking out. In some sites, CO₂ chemically reacts with minerals and is eventually immobilized as a solid carbonate.</p>
<p>Carbon capture and storage is <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-carbon-capture-and-storage-epas-new-power-plant-standards-proposal-gives-it-a-boost-but-ccs-is-not-a-quick-solution-205462">currently expensive</a>, and developing the pipeline and storage infrastructure will likely take years. But as more CCS projects are built – helped by some <a href="https://www.wri.org/update/45q-enhancements">generous tax credits</a> in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act – costs are likely to drop.</p>
<p>The Sleipner project in the North Sea has been putting away <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876610217317174%5d.">roughly 1 million</a> metric tons of CO₂ a year since 1996. In Iceland, CO₂ is injected into volcanic basalt rocks, where it reacts with the stone and rapidly <a href="https://www.carbfix.com/">forms solid mineral carbonates</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525958/original/file-20230512-24221-4sjmk9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A US map shows reservoirs across the Plains, Southeast and Midwest in particular, as well as the coasts." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525958/original/file-20230512-24221-4sjmk9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525958/original/file-20230512-24221-4sjmk9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525958/original/file-20230512-24221-4sjmk9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525958/original/file-20230512-24221-4sjmk9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525958/original/file-20230512-24221-4sjmk9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525958/original/file-20230512-24221-4sjmk9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525958/original/file-20230512-24221-4sjmk9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Several regions of the U.S. have geological reservoirs with the potential to store captured carbon dioxide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climatechange/carbon-dioxide-capture-and-sequestration-overview_.html">Environmental Protection Agency</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the U.S., companies have been injecting CO₂ into underground reservoirs for decades – initially, as a way to force more oil out of the ground. Today, these “enhanced oil recovery” projects can receive tax credits for the CO₂ that remains underground. As a result, some now inject more carbon into the ground than they extract as oil. </p>
<p>While there have been no notable CO₂ releases from geologic storage, <a href="https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M292/K947/292947433.PDF">other gas storage leaks demonstrate</a> that injection has to follow well-defined safety rules. Nothing is guaranteed. </p>
<p>That’s why monitoring and certification are essential.</p>
<h2>How to effectively certify carbon storage</h2>
<p>The EPA has rules for CO₂ storage sites, but they are focused on protecting drinking water rather than the climate. Under <a href="https://www.epa.gov/uic/class-vi-wells-used-geologic-sequestration-carbon-dioxide">those rules</a>, monitoring is required for all phases of the project and for 50 years after closing to check the safety of the groundwater and ensure that material injected underground does not contaminate it.</p>
<p>However, the current <a href="https://netl.doe.gov/coal/carbon-storage/faqs/permanence-safety">monitoring techniques</a> don’t measure the amount of carbon stored, and the rules do not require that leaked carbon be replaced. </p>
<p>To provide more direction, we developed a <a href="https://keep.lib.asu.edu/_flysystem/fedora/c160/Conceptual_framework_certification_v2_1.pdf">certification framework</a> designed to ensure that all carbon is stored safely and for the tens of thousands of years necessary to safeguard the climate.</p>
<p>We envision liability for the captured carbon dioxide shifting from the power plant owner to the storage site operator once the carbon dioxide is transferred. That would mean the storage site operator would be held liable for any leaks.</p>
<p>Under <a href="https://keep.lib.asu.edu/_flysystem/fedora/c160/Conceptual_framework_certification_v2_1.pdf">the framework</a>, a certificate authority would vet storage operators and issue certificates of carbon sequestration for stored carbon. These certificates could have market value if, as the EPA suggests, power plant operators are held responsible for the carbon stored. Future regulations could expand this requirement to other emitters, or simply demand that any carbon released is cleared by a corresponding certificate showing the same amount of carbon has been sequestered.</p>
<p>Careful monitoring, paired with certification that requires storage site owners to make up any losses, could help avoid <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/24/shell-ccs-facility-in-canada-emits-more-than-it-captures-study-says.html">greenwashing</a> and ensure that the investments meet the nation’s climate goals. </p>
<p><iframe id="Fsawi" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Fsawi/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Certification can be useful for carbon stored in any quantifiable storage reservoir, including trees, oceans and human infrastructure such as cement. We believe a <a href="https://keep.lib.asu.edu/_flysystem/fedora/c160/Conceptual_framework_certification_v2_1.pdf">universal approach to certification</a> that sets minimum requirements and responsibilities is necessary to assure that carbon is stored safely with a guarantee of permanence, regardless of how it is done.</p>
<p>Climate change will <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/briefing-room/2022/04/04/quantifying-risks-to-the-federal-budget-from-climate-change/">cost trillions of dollars</a>, and the federal government is putting <a href="https://www.wri.org/update/carbon-removal-BIL-IRA">billions into research and tax breaks</a> to encourage development of carbon capture and storage sites. To avoid dubious methods, corner-cutting and greenwashing, carbon storage will have to be held to high standards. The U.S. can’t afford to pin a large chunk of <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/climate/">its climate strategy</a> on carbon storage without proof.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204889/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephanie Arcusa receives funding from Arizona State University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Klaus Lackner receives funding from Arizona State University and the Kaiteki Institute at ASU.</span></em></p>Fossil fuel power plants can avoid most emissions by capturing carbon dioxide and pumping it underground. But to be a climate solution, that carbon has to stay stored for thousands of years.Stephanie Arcusa, Postdoctoral Researcher in Carbon Sequestration, Arizona State UniversityKlaus Lackner, Professor of Engineering and Director of the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1961262022-12-08T07:39:35Z2022-12-08T07:39:35ZOur laws fail nature. The government’s plan to overhaul them looks good, but crucial detail is yet to come<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499721/original/file-20221208-24-53is9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C17%2C3876%2C2566&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Albanese government has just released its long-awaited response to a scathing independent <a href="https://epbcactreview.environment.gov.au/resources/final-report">review</a> of Australia’s environment protection law. The 2020 review ultimately found the laws were <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-major-report-excoriated-australias-environment-laws-sussan-leys-response-is-confused-and-risky-154254">flawed</a>, outdated and, without fundamental reform, would continue to see plants and animals go extinct. </p>
<p>The extent to which the government implements the review’s 38 recommendations to strengthen the laws will determine the fate of many species and ecosystems – so, how did it go?</p>
<p>As biodiversity conservation experts, we find the plan to be promising. For example, federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek pledged to establish an independent environmental protection agency to be “a tough cop on the beat”. </p>
<p>But some uncertainty remains, and there is also a lot of important detail still to be worked through. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-major-report-excoriated-australias-environment-laws-sussan-leys-response-is-confused-and-risky-154254">A major report excoriated Australia's environment laws. Sussan Ley's response is confused and risky</a>
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<h2>Australia’s extinction crisis</h2>
<p>Australia has the world’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/gut-wrenching-and-infuriating-why-australia-is-the-world-leader-in-mammal-extinctions-and-what-to-do-about-it-192173">worst track record</a> for mammal extinctions. The national threatened species list comprises more than 1,700 species and over 100 threatened ecological communities, and more are added every year. </p>
<p>Extraordinary species such as mountain pygmy possums, northern hairy-nosed wombats and regent honeyeaters are hanging on by a thread. Others, such as the white-footed rabbit-rat and the central hare-wallaby, are already lost forever. Previously abundant animals such as bogong moths, which the mountain pygmy possum relies on for food, have become rare.</p>
<p>Australia’s <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2021C00182">environment law</a> – the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act – is ostensibly wildlife’s best defence against a range of threats to their habitat, such as urban development, mining and land clearing. </p>
<p>But this defence has failed, time and again. In just one example, the extinction <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/biodiversity/threatened/species/koala">threat</a> facing the iconic koala has become worse, not better, since it was “protected” under the EPBC Act. </p>
<h2>What the plan got right</h2>
<p>We note a few standout positives in the government’s response today. One is the promise to rapidly prepare and implement conservation plans – with strong regulatory standing – for each nationally listed threatened species and ecological community.</p>
<p>There is strong merit in this. We encourage a similar emphasis on developing plans to abate threats such as such as feral cats, foxes, deer, and rabbits, that should also have strong regulatory standing. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gut-wrenching-and-infuriating-why-australia-is-the-world-leader-in-mammal-extinctions-and-what-to-do-about-it-192173">'Gut-wrenching and infuriating': why Australia is the world leader in mammal extinctions, and what to do about it</a>
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<p>We’re also pleased to see confirmation of the formation of the environmental protection agency (EPA). This addresses one of the review’s top criticisms on the lack of resourcing and independent enforcement of the EPBC Act. </p>
<p>The model could be a game-changer: undertaking assessments and making decisions about development proposals at arm’s length from government. The EPA will have its own budget and mandatory tabling of an annual report in parliament.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408578/original/file-20210628-13-rw4gnl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Brown rodent" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408578/original/file-20210628-13-rw4gnl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408578/original/file-20210628-13-rw4gnl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408578/original/file-20210628-13-rw4gnl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408578/original/file-20210628-13-rw4gnl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408578/original/file-20210628-13-rw4gnl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408578/original/file-20210628-13-rw4gnl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408578/original/file-20210628-13-rw4gnl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Bramble Cay melomys was declared extinct in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Bell, EHP, State of Queensland</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Another big plus is the government’s pledge to deliver on national environmental standards, overseen by the newly formed EPA. These standards describe the environmental outcomes that must be achieved. For example, the standards could require that decisions result in no further population decline of threatened species.</p>
<p>Crucially, these standards will apply to “regional forest agreements”. These agreements <a href="https://www.ecolsoc.org.au/?hottopic-entry=regional-forest-agreements-fail-to-meet-their-aims">are controversial</a> because they effectively exempt forest logging from scrutiny under the EPBC Act. However, the timeline for imposing the standards on regional forest agreements is uncertain, and currently “subject to further consultation with stakeholders”. </p>
<p>Finally, a regional planning approach will be used to identify environmentally valuable and sensitive areas in which new developments pose too great a risk, as well as places that are more-or-less available for new development. The critical detail of how those zones are determined is yet to be negotiated. </p>
<h2>A major uncertainty: offsets</h2>
<p>Perhaps the biggest concern we have about the federal government’s approach relates to environmental offsets. Offsets can be imposed by the government as a way to compensate for environmental destruction by improving nature in other places. </p>
<p><a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/150021">Evidence shows</a> offsets have so far been largely ineffective, in part because <a href="https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/referrals-assessments-and-approvals-controlled-actions-under-the-epbc-act">existing policy is not</a> properly implemented and rules not enforced. They may even facilitate more biodiversity loss by <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/150021">removing ethical roadblocks</a> to destroying ecosystems and habitat for threatened species.</p>
<p>Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek on Thursday emphasised a move away from simply protecting habitat that already exists in exchange for habitat loss elsewhere (so-called “avoided loss offsets”), and instead focusing on restoration. This is a welcome improvement to how offsets are delivered. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ehso8_tRU-k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The basics of what biodiversity offsetting involves.</span></figcaption>
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<p>However, the government will accept payments into a fund when offsetting is too difficult: for example, when there’s no like-for-like habitat available. This is worrying. If offsets for a threatened species are hard to find, it’s an important signal that we’re reaching the limit of habitat we can lose. </p>
<p>Imagine if a developer cleared cassowary habitat in a Queensland rainforest, and compensated for that by paying for koala tree planting in another part of Australia. Nice for the koala, but we have guaranteed a further decline for the cassowary.</p>
<p>The government’s plan points to the New South Wales Biodiversity Conservation Trust as an example of how these offset payments could be managed. Yet the auditor-general of NSW recently <a href="https://www.audit.nsw.gov.au/media-release/media-release-effectiveness-of-the-biodiversity-offsets-scheme">discredited</a> the way this scheme handles offsets, saying it doesn’t lead to enough biodiversity gains compared to the losses and impacts from development in the state. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499730/original/file-20221208-11-qh64s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two cassowaries on a road" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499730/original/file-20221208-11-qh64s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499730/original/file-20221208-11-qh64s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499730/original/file-20221208-11-qh64s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499730/original/file-20221208-11-qh64s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499730/original/file-20221208-11-qh64s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499730/original/file-20221208-11-qh64s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499730/original/file-20221208-11-qh64s7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The government plans to change environmental offsets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>The national system would need to be very different to the NSW one if it’s to support the federal government’s goal of zero extinctions by 2030. In practice, this would mean avoiding the use of offsets to compensate for the destruction of habitats that aren’t replaceable or cannot be readily recreated elsewhere. </p>
<p>National environmental standards for environmental offsets haven’t yet been finalised. The detail included in these will be crucial to the success of the scheme. </p>
<h2>Show us the money</h2>
<p>Much of the federal government’s overhaul is to be welcomed. But we won’t prevent new extinctions unless it’s supported by serious investment to develop and implement plans, and enforce laws. Increased funding to recover endangered species is also urgently needed, to the tune of <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12682">A$2 billion per year</a>.</p>
<p>This is nowhere near as much as we spend on, for instance, <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/australia-s-price-tag-for-nuclear-submarines-could-soar-by-billions-20220719-p5b2p7">submarines</a> or even <a href="https://animalmedicinesaustralia.org.au/media-release/survey-reveals-the-spending-and-care-habits-of-aussie-pet-owners">caring for our cats and dogs</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-big-ideas-how-australia-can-tackle-climate-change-while-restoring-nature-culture-and-communities-172156">5 big ideas: how Australia can tackle climate change while restoring nature, culture and communities</a>
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<p>But it’s an order of magnitude more than our current spend on targeted threatened species recovery actions. </p>
<p>By and large, the proposed plan looks set to make a positive difference to Australia’s threatened plants and animals. But a lot of detail remains to be worked through. Getting that detail right could mean the difference between a species surviving, or disappearing forever.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196126/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Wintle has received funding from The Australian Research Council, the Victorian State Government, the NSW State Government, the Queensland State Government, the Commonwealth National Environmental Science Program, the Ian Potter Foundation, the Hermon Slade Foundation, and the Australian Conservation Foundation. Wintle is a Board Director of Zoos Victoria. Brendan Wintle is a member of the Biodiversity Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martine Maron has received funding from various sources including the Australian Research Council, the Queensland Department of Environment and Science, and the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program. She is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, President of BirdLife Australia, a Councillor with the Biodiversity Council, a member of the board of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy and a Governor of WWF-Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Bekessy receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Ian Potter Foundation and the European Commission. She is a Councillor of the Biodiversity Council, a Board Member of Bush Heritage Australia, a member of WWF's Eminent Scientists Group and a member of the Advisory Group for Wood for Good.</span></em></p>Getting that detail right could mean the difference between a species surviving, or disappearing forever.Brendan Wintle, Professor in Conservation Science, School of Ecosystem and Forest Science, The University of MelbourneMartine Maron, Professor of Environmental Management, The University of QueenslandSarah Bekessy, Professor in Sustainability and Urban Planning, Leader, Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group (ICON Science), RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1811372022-11-09T13:39:20Z2022-11-09T13:39:20ZEnvironmental justice has the White House’s attention, building on 40 years of struggle – but California suggests new funding won’t immediately solve deeply entrenched problems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490208/original/file-20221017-15096-1khxm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C46%2C5176%2C3409&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Smokestacks in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/residential-houses-next-to-oil-refinery-at-wilmington-news-photo/129370063?phrase=Latinos hazardous waste&adppopup=true">Citizen of the Planet/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A new office within the Environmental Protection Agency is bringing increased attention to a once-obscure concept: environmental justice.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.epa.gov/perspectives/epas-new-office-environmental-justice-and-external-civil-rights-moment-history">The Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights</a> will distribute funds designated to help communities that are systematically overexposed to air pollution, contaminated water and other environmental harms. The money – <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/todaysclimate/inflation-reduction-act-commits-just-47-billion-to-environmental-justice-activists-say/">between US$45 billion</a> and <a href="https://www.epa.gov/perspectives/inflation-reduction-act-big-deal-people-and-planet">$60 billion</a>, depending on whom you ask – was authorized as part of the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/5376/text">Inflation Reduction Act</a> enacted in August 2022.</p>
<p>I describe environmental justice as a goal of sustainable, healthy societies in which all people have plentiful access to environmental goods and equitable – but minimal – exposure to environmental risks. The movement coalesced in the late 1970s and the 1980s when working-class and Indigenous communities, along with communities of color, organized across the U.S. against environmental hazards that threatened their health. </p>
<p>My new book, “<a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520376984/evolution-of-a-movement">Evolution of a Movement: Four Decades of Environmental Justice Activism in California</a>,” documents this struggle in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2020.1848502">California starting in the 1980s</a>. It shows that despite many wins in the state, actual environmental justice remains elusive.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490207/original/file-20221017-15193-xg96n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Black man speaks in the foreground, with a white man and an American flag behind him" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490207/original/file-20221017-15193-xg96n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490207/original/file-20221017-15193-xg96n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490207/original/file-20221017-15193-xg96n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490207/original/file-20221017-15193-xg96n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490207/original/file-20221017-15193-xg96n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490207/original/file-20221017-15193-xg96n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490207/original/file-20221017-15193-xg96n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">EPA Administrator Michael Regan, right, announces in 2022 that the Department of Justice will emphasize enforcement of environmental cases that disproportionately harm marginalized and low-income communities. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland stands in the background.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/administrator-michael-regan-speaks-during-a-press-news-photo/1395577821?phrase=environmental%20justice%20EPA&adppopup=true">Win McNamee/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Environmental justice history</h2>
<p>One California group that helped build this movement is <a href="https://az.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/envh10.sci.life.eco.enhdiscrim/environmental-justice-opposing-a-toxic-waste-incinerator/">El Pueblo para el Aire y Agua Limpio</a>, or People for Clean Air and Water. </p>
<p>Based in the small town of Kettleman City in California’s agricultural San Joaquin Valley, El Pueblo’s members were working-class Latinos. From 1988 to 1993, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520376984/evolution-of-a-movement">they organized against a proposed hazardous waste incinerator</a>. If constructed, the incinerator – the first of its kind in the nation – would have spewed dioxins and other hazardous chemicals. </p>
<p>El Pueblo <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-10-13-mn-1032-story.html">staged protests</a>, spoke at <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814715376/from-the-ground-up/">public hearings</a> and <a href="https://www.elr.info/sites/default/files/litigation/22.20357.htm">filed lawsuits</a> to prevent the construction of the incinerator. Eventually, their resistance forced the giant firm Chemical Waste Management Inc. to withdraw its proposal. </p>
<p>Tiny Kettleman City’s win was hailed as a <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814715376/from-the-ground-up/">national victory</a> by other protest groups in similar circumstances. By 1990, these groups came together in a loose national network of people <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Confronting_Environmental_Racism/yVr9lhrrTVwC?hl=en">fighting battles</a> to reduce the <a href="http://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2011.0153">health risks of toxic exposures</a> in poor communities. </p>
<p>This nascent movement filled a need not well addressed by existing environmental groups. Organizations like the Sierra Club and Environmental Defense Fund were composed of mostly white, middle- and upper-class staff and members.</p>
<p>The exclusionary hiring of such groups followed a long history of racism in the U.S. environmental movement. Some early conservation organizations such as the <a href="https://www.savetheredwoods.org/about-us/mission-history/">Save the Redwoods League</a> and the New York Zoological Society – now the <a href="https://www.nycgovparks.org/about/history/zoos/bronx-zoo">Bronx Zoo</a> – had <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/environmentalisms-racist-history">roots in the eugenics movements</a> of the late 1800s and early 1900s, though you won’t see it mentioned on their websites.</p>
<p>As author Miles Powell documents in his 2016 book “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674971561">Vanishing America</a>,” these early conservationists were motivated in part by a desire to preserve the conditions of the American frontier, where they believed whites had achieved the pinnacle of their innate racial superiority by “taming the wilderness.” </p>
<p>By 1990, formal eugenics policies were largely a thing of the past, but the American environmental movement remained highly segregated. </p>
<p>“The lack of people of color in decision-making positions in your organizations … is also reflective of your histories of racist and exclusionary practices,” wrote 103 activists and community leaders in <a href="https://www.ejnet.org/ej/swop.pdf">a 1990 letter</a> to 10 of the nation’s environmental groups.</p>
<p>The next year, the <a href="https://www.ucc.org/30th-anniversary-the-first-national-people-of-color-environmental-leadership-summit/">First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit</a> brought together some 1,100 people from across the U.S., Chile, Mexico and the Marshall Islands to publicize the concepts of <a href="https://www.nypl.org/sites/default/files/holifield_defining_ej_and_environmental_racism.pdf">environmental justice</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0453">environmental racism</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490209/original/file-20221017-7418-m56gir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A crowd of people with environmental justice signs, standing on stairs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490209/original/file-20221017-7418-m56gir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490209/original/file-20221017-7418-m56gir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490209/original/file-20221017-7418-m56gir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490209/original/file-20221017-7418-m56gir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490209/original/file-20221017-7418-m56gir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490209/original/file-20221017-7418-m56gir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490209/original/file-20221017-7418-m56gir.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Civil rights leader Benjamin Chavis speaks at the 1991 First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Dorsey</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>California as model, California as warning</h2>
<p>The movement made early gains in California. There, under grassroots pressure, state legislators started passing environmental justice bills in the early 1990s, though it took years for any governor to <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/ggulrev/vol31/iss4/6/">sign them into law</a>. </p>
<p>The result is that California today has an array of <a href="https://calepa.ca.gov/envjustice/">environmental justice programs</a>. One directs <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/auction-proceeds/cci_annual_report_2022.pdf">billions of dollars</a> from <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/cap-and-trade-program">California’s carbon cap-and-trade program</a> back into marginalized communities.</p>
<p>Accordingly, California is widely seen by activists and policymakers as a model for environmental justice. But, in spite of its many advances, researchers <a href="https://www.lung.org/blog/environmental-justice-air-pollution">continue to document</a> race-based inequalities in California residents’ exposure to environmental risks and benefits. </p>
<p>For example, despite El Pueblo’s early anti-incinerator victory and <a href="https://earthjustice.org/our_work/cases/2013/challenging-epa-s-free-pass-for-the-avenal-power-plant">other successes</a>, the <a href="https://data.census.gov/cedsci/profile/Kettleman_City_CDP,_California?g=1600000US0638394">Spanish-speaking</a>, <a href="https://data.census.gov/cedsci/profile/Kettleman_City_CDP,_California?g=1600000US0638394">low-income residents</a> of Kettleman City still breathe in some of the country’s <a href="https://www3.epa.gov/airquality/greenbook/ancl.html">most polluted</a> <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/california-has-some-of-the-worst-air-quality-in-the-country-the-problem-is-rooted-in-the-san-joaquin-valley">air</a> and live near the largest hazardous waste landfill in the American West.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492379/original/file-20221028-61500-lf1bpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="In a crowded scene, people chant and hold protest signs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492379/original/file-20221028-61500-lf1bpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492379/original/file-20221028-61500-lf1bpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492379/original/file-20221028-61500-lf1bpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492379/original/file-20221028-61500-lf1bpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492379/original/file-20221028-61500-lf1bpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492379/original/file-20221028-61500-lf1bpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492379/original/file-20221028-61500-lf1bpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kettleman City residents and supporters protest the expansion of the nearby hazardous waste landfill.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/residents-of-kettleman-city-hold-a-vigil-outside-the-news-photo/566063377">Luis Sinco via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-11-84">Studies</a> show that Californians with <a href="https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1476-069X-11-84">contaminated drinking water</a> are disproportionately <a href="http://auditor.ca.gov/reports/2021-118/index.html">people of color and the poor</a>. California’s three hazardous waste landfills are located in or near predominantly Latino communities, as are the state’s two <a href="https://earthjustice.org/features/california-municipal-waste-incinerators">waste incinerators</a>. </p>
<p>Activists <a href="https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/01/california-air-quality-environmental-justice-law/">express frustration</a> with the very policies that are supposed to help them. They argue that some of California’s much-vaunted environmental policies are actually bad for poor people and communities of color.</p>
<p>Indeed, researchers have shown that during the early phase of cap-and-trade, some industrial facilities’ air pollution emissions increased instead of decreasing. These facilities were more likely to be in places that had <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002604">higher proportions of people of color and the poor</a> than were facilities that reduced their air pollution emissions. </p>
<p>I believe California is better off for its activists’ relentless pursuit of safe, equitable places to live over the past four decades. But the limits of the state’s success show that California should not be seen only as an environmental justice model, but also as a warning of how much more is needed to reverse environmental racism. </p>
<h2>The rest of the nation</h2>
<p>These lessons apply nationwide.</p>
<p>Recent federal actions under the Biden administration, including a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/01/26/fact-sheet-a-year-advancing-environmental-justice/">spate of executive orders</a> made early in his presidency, promise historic levels of funding to address environmental inequalities. Yet advocates question whether even the billions of new dollars promised will be enough to rectify the government’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/24/epa-environmental-justice/">“historic neglect” and active discrimination against</a> the communities nationwide that have forever shouldered the bulk of the country’s environmental hazards. </p>
<p>Activists are also <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/environmental-justice-advocates-respond-inflation-reduction-act">asking questions</a> about how the money will be distributed. Some of these federal funds will be distributed via grant-making or similar mechanisms even though the poorest places may be least well equipped to fight for federal dollars. In California, such processes have <a href="https://calmatters.org/environment/2017/09/come-hat-hand-californias-green-money/">put the country’s neediest communities in competition with one another</a>.</p>
<p>And, just as California leaders have taken some actions to slow global warming while simultaneously pursuing others that hasten it, the Inflation Reduction Act moves both toward and away from environmental justice. It includes funds to reduce pollution and slow climate change but, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-technology-science-oil-and-gas-industry-climate-environment-28df40ad9ebb33f4447815b6593673b3">under pressure from Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia</a>, it also directs the Department of Interior to go ahead with oil- and gas-drilling lease sales in the Gulf Coast and Alaska that were previously canceled.</p>
<p>Many environmentalists say the bill’s <a href="https://earthjustice.org/brief/2022/what-the-inflation-reduction-act-means-for-climate">benefits outweigh its negative impacts</a>. A national coalition of <a href="https://climatejusticealliance.org/the-inflation-reduction-act-is-not-a-climate-justice-bill/">environmental justice organizations disagrees</a>. These groups say that, once again, the front-line communities living closest to dirty energy infrastructure are being <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/08/17/1117725655/the-spending-bill-will-cut-emissions-but-marginalized-groups-feel-they-were-sold">sacrificed</a> for political expediency.</p>
<p>Environmental racism is deeply entrenched in American society, and will require far-reaching changes to reverse. The Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights has its work cut out for it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181137/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tracy Perkins currently receives or has previously received research funding from: the University of New Hampshire; University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and University of Arizona; the DC Oral History Collaborative; American Sociological Association; and the University of California. She was a 2014 Duke HASTAC Scholar.
</span></em></p>Poor communities of color have spent decades battling US industrial and agricultural pollution. A new EPA office is designed to support their struggle, but history suggests reason for caution.Tracy Perkins, Assistant Professor, School of Social Transformation, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1602412021-05-04T12:15:32Z2021-05-04T12:15:32ZUS, China commit to phase down climate-warming HFCs from refrigerators and air conditioners – but what will replace them this time?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398511/original/file-20210504-23-1kgtfb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5139%2C3415&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">HFCs keep refrigerators cool, but their leaks are warming the planet.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/asian-boy-searching-through-refrigerator-royalty-free-image/470621975">Jed Share/Kaoru Share via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/us-will-dramatically-cut-climate-damaging-greenhouse-gases-new-program-aimed-chemicals">finalized a rule</a> to start eliminating a class of climate-warming chemicals that are widely used as coolants in refrigerators, air conditioners and heat pumps.</p>
<p>If that plan feels like déjà vu, it should.</p>
<p>These chemicals, called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, were commercialized in the 1990s as a <a href="http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1216414">replacement for earlier refrigerants</a> that were based on chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. CFCs were destroying the ozone layer high in the Earth’s atmosphere, which is essential for protecting life from the Sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation.</p>
<p>HFCs are less harmful than CFCs, but they create another problem – they have a <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/safeguarding-the-ozone-layer-and-the-global-climate-system/">strong heat-trapping effect</a> that is contributing to global warming.</p>
<p>Several <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/IF11541.pdf">states have announced plans</a> over the past few years for phasing out HFCs. Now the EPA, following a <a href="https://www.ccacoalition.org/en/news/latest-us-pandemic-relief-bill-includes-hfc-phasedown">vote in Congress</a> in 2020, has established <a href="https://www.epa.gov/climate-hfcs-reduction/final-rule-phasedown-hydrofluorocarbons-establishing-allowance-allocation">federal regulations</a> to cut HFC production and imports starting in 2022, and aims to reduce their production and use by 85% within 15 years.</p>
<p>If HFCs can be phased down globally – as <a href="https://ozone.unep.org/all-ratifications">many countries</a> have agreed to do under the 2016 Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol – that would <a href="https://csl.noaa.gov/news/2016/196_1016.html">avoid about half a degree Celsius</a> of temperature rise compared to preindustrial times. <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/alex-hillbrand/china-accepts-kigali-amendment-will-phase-down-hfcs">China</a>, a major producer of these chemicals, ratified the amendment effective Sept. 15, 2021.</p>
<p>Let’s take a closer look at what HFCs are and what might replace them next.</p>
<h2>How HFCs keep rooms and food cool</h2>
<p>Refrigerators and air conditioning use a technology known as a heat pump. It sounds almost miraculous – heat pumps use energy to take heat out of a cold place and dump it in a warm place.</p>
<p>Here’s <a href="https://www.danfoss.com/en/about-danfoss/our-businesses/cooling/the-fridge-how-it-works">how a refrigerator works</a>: A fluid – CFCs back in the old days, and now HFCs – circulates in the walls of the refrigerator, absorbing the ambient heat to keep the fridge cooled down. As that liquid absorbs the heat, it evaporates. The resulting vapor is pumped to the coils on the back of the refrigerator, where it is condensed back to a liquid under pressure. In the process, the heat that was absorbed from inside the fridge is released into the surrounding room. Air conditioners and home heat pumps do precisely the same thing: they use electric-powered compressors and evaporators to move heat into or out of a house.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/viM36llqxCU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How a refrigerator works.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Choosing the right fluid for a refrigerator means finding a substance that can be evaporated and condensed at the right temperatures by changing the pressure on the fluid.</p>
<p>CFCs seemed to fit the bill perfectly. They didn’t react with the tubing or compressors to corrode the equipment, and <a href="https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/hats/publictn/elkins/cfcs.html">they weren’t toxic or flammable</a>. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the chemical stability of CFCs turned out to be a problem that threatened the whole world, as scientists discovered in the 1980s. Leaking CFCs, mostly from discarded equipment, remain in the atmosphere for a long time. Eventually they make their way to the stratosphere, where they are finally destroyed by UV radiation from the sun. But when they break down, they create chlorine that reacts with the protective ozone, letting dangerous radiation through to the Earth’s surface. </p>
<p>When production of CFCs was eliminated in the 1990s to protect the ozone layer, new refrigerants were developed and the industry shifted to HFCs.</p>
<h2>Why HFCs are a climate problem</h2>
<p>HFCs are like CFCs but much more reactive in air, so they never reach the stratosphere where they could harm Earth’s protective radiation shield. They largely saved the world from impending ozone disaster, and they are now found in refrigerators and heat pumps everywhere.</p>
<p>But while HFCs’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-hydrofluorocarbons-saved-the-ozone-layer-so-why-are-we-banning-them-86672">chemical reactivity</a> prevents them from depleting the ozone layer, their molecular structure allows them to absorb a lot of thermal radiation, making them a greenhouse gas. Like carbon dioxide on steroids, HFCs are extremely good at capturing infrared photons emitted by the Earth. Some of this radiant energy warms the climate.</p>
<p>Unlike CO2, reactive HFCs are consumed by chemistry in the air, so they only warm the climate for a decade or two. But a little bit goes a long way – each HFC molecule absorbs thousands of times as much heat as a CO2 molecule, making them powerful climate pollutants.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Chart showing increase by country, with the largest increase in China." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398515/original/file-20210504-17-1y4xkj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398515/original/file-20210504-17-1y4xkj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398515/original/file-20210504-17-1y4xkj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398515/original/file-20210504-17-1y4xkj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398515/original/file-20210504-17-1y4xkj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398515/original/file-20210504-17-1y4xkj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398515/original/file-20210504-17-1y4xkj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">HFC emissions are increasing. The chart shows their anticipated growth without control measures in place.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.rivm.nl/en/hydrofluorocarbons/contribution-of-hfcs-to-greenhouse-effect">Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>HFCs <a href="https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/17/2795/2017/acp-17-2795-2017.pdf">leaking from discarded cooling equipment</a> are estimated to contribute about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions – about twice as much as aviation.</p>
<p>This is why it’s time to retire HFCs and swap them out for alternative refrigerants. They’ve done their job saving the ozone layer, but now HFCs are a major contributor to short-term global warming, and their <a href="https://www.ccacoalition.org/en/initiatives/hfc">use has been increasing</a> as demand for cooling increases around the world.</p>
<h2>What can replace HFCs?</h2>
<p>Because they are so powerful and short-lived, stopping the production and use of HFCs can have a <a href="https://www.drawdown.org/solutions/alternative-refrigerants">significant cooling effect</a> on the climate over the next couple of decades, buying time as the world converts its energy supply from fossil fuels to cleaner sources.</p>
<p>The good news is that there are <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/documents/choosing-new-system">alternative refrigerants</a>.</p>
<p>Ammonia and hydrocarbons like butane evaporate at room temperature and have been used as refrigerants since the early 20th century. These gases are short-lived, but they have a downside. Their greater reactivity means their compressors and plumbing have to be more corrosion-resistant and leak-proof to be safe. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Rows of freezer cases in a store." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398507/original/file-20210504-15-1a8c5p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C4653%2C3396&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398507/original/file-20210504-15-1a8c5p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398507/original/file-20210504-15-1a8c5p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398507/original/file-20210504-15-1a8c5p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398507/original/file-20210504-15-1a8c5p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398507/original/file-20210504-15-1a8c5p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398507/original/file-20210504-15-1a8c5p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Designing refrigeration equipment for different chemicals will likely mean retooling the industry, which could raise costs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/freezer-cases-in-supermarket-royalty-free-image/1134353358">Mint Image via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The chemical industry has been developing newer alternatives intended to be safer for both people and climate, but as we saw with CFCs and HFCs, inert chemicals can have unintended consequence. Several industry leaders have <a href="https://www.ahrinet.org/App_Content/ahri/files/RESOURCES/Kigali_JMS_04-19-18.pdf">supported efforts to phase out HFCs</a>.</p>
<p>So, it’s time for another generation of cooling equipment. Just as our TVs and audio equipment and light bulbs have evolved over past decades, our refrigerators and air conditioners will be replaced by a new wave of improved products. New refrigerators will look and work just like the ones we’re used to, but they will be much gentler on the climate system.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated Sept. 23, 2021, with EPA formalizing the new rule and China ratifying the Kigali Amendment.</em></p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160241/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Denning does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>HFCs keep refrigerators cool, but when these short-lived climate pollutants leak, they warm the planet.Scott Denning, Professor of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1150262019-04-15T10:55:48Z2019-04-15T10:55:48ZTop EPA advisers challenge long-standing air pollution science, threatening Americans’ health<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269077/original/file-20190412-76846-g4hona.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fine particle pollution in Denver exceeded federal health standards on March 6, 2019, triggering a citywide alert.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Denver-Air-Pollution/240a0c8ca3814f9683723f702215df3e/43/0">AP Photo/David Zalubowski</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Americans rely on the Environmental Protection Agency to set pollution control standards that protect their health. But on April 11, an important scientific advisory group <a href="https://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/LookupWebReportsLastMonthCASAC/6CBCBBC3025E13B4852583D90047B352/$File/EPA-CASAC-19-002+.pdf">submitted recommendations</a> to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler that propose new and dangerous ways of interpreting findings on the health effects of air pollution. </p>
<p>Wheeler has already <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-rush-to-judgment-the-trump-administration-is-taking-science-out-of-air-quality-standards-106507">dismissed a qualified, independent panel</a> of air pollution scientists appointed by the Obama administration to advise the agency on health effects of fine particulate air pollution – a step that <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ucs-documents/science-and-democracy/12-10-18-expert-sign-on-letter-to-casac-and-epa-acting-administrator-wheeler.pdf">hundreds of scientists, including me, have criticized</a>. As a result, members of EPA’s <a href="https://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabpeople.nsf/webcommittees/CASAC">Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee</a> – a group of seven independent experts mandated under the Clean Air Act to advise the agency – have admitted that they <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aax5195">don’t have enough expertise</a> to make appropriate judgments. </p>
<p>Despite this, the committee submitted its recommendation anyway. Its approach appears to be heavily influenced by a rule on <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2018-04-30/pdf/2018-09078.pdf">“Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science</a>” that former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt proposed in 2018. In my view, this measure – which Wheeler is now preparing to finalize – could threaten Americans’ health and well-being by weakening the scientific basis for air pollution regulations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269078/original/file-20190412-76831-1gnq2oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269078/original/file-20190412-76831-1gnq2oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269078/original/file-20190412-76831-1gnq2oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269078/original/file-20190412-76831-1gnq2oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269078/original/file-20190412-76831-1gnq2oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269078/original/file-20190412-76831-1gnq2oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269078/original/file-20190412-76831-1gnq2oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269078/original/file-20190412-76831-1gnq2oc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scientists have accused EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, shown testifying to Congress on April 9, 2019, of downgrading the role of science in air pollution regulation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Congress-EPA/ad5fa4c3947a4a4292e2d96dda421427/5/0">AP Photo/Patrick Semansky</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The dose makes the poison</h2>
<p>The relevant part of this proposal targets assumptions about how people’s bodies respond to pollution. These are called <a href="https://toxtutor.nlm.nih.gov/02-002.html">dose-response models</a>, and are critical to setting health-based pollution standards. They are based on studies in which human or animal subjects are exposed to very high levels of a pollutant, then monitored to see whether they develop cancer, asthma or other pollution-related illnesses. </p>
<p>At higher exposure levels, there tends to be more disease. When pollution is lower, there typically are fewer cases. Scientists call this relationship the dose-response function, although in air pollution research we usually refer to it as concentration-response, because it is hard to accurately measure a dose of air pollution. </p>
<p>Researchers take findings from studies and apply them to concentrations in the real world, which typically are much lower than those used in the laboratory. As a result, scientists often have only a limited amount of research data that shows how people respond to the lower concentrations commonly found where people live.</p>
<p>Historically, to protect people’s health, researchers have assumed that even low levels of exposure have some effect on health, though studies don’t always include specific data on that. So they extrapolate the harm documented at high levels of pollution all the way down to zero. This produces an estimate known as a linear non-threshold response. It assumes that there is a linear relationship between pollution concentrations and disease, and even low levels of exposure will have some effect on health. “No-threshold” means there is no level below which we would expect to see zero effects.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269091/original/file-20190412-76840-7h6igy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269091/original/file-20190412-76840-7h6igy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269091/original/file-20190412-76840-7h6igy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269091/original/file-20190412-76840-7h6igy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269091/original/file-20190412-76840-7h6igy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269091/original/file-20190412-76840-7h6igy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269091/original/file-20190412-76840-7h6igy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A simplified example dose-response curve showing data from research studies (open boxes). The red line is a linear dose response, and the grey dashed line is a linear no-threshold model. ‘Alternative’ models (solid dark lines) show a sublinear model, a J-curve and a threshold model. Each of these would underestimate health effects at ambient concentration levels, making the expected public health risk look smaller. A J-curve (middle line) could actually suggest that low doses of pollution are beneficial to health.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Using ‘alternative’ models</h2>
<p>The proposed rule would require the EPA to consider oddly specific scientific theories about dose-response relationships, using differently shaped dose-response curves. Doing so could lead to the conclusion that low doses of air pollutants are harmless. This is an outlying view in science that <a href="https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/isa/recordisplay.cfm?deid=341593">is not consistent with views of independent experts who study air pollution and health</a>. </p>
<p>Alternate dose-response models are important and complicated topics in toxicology. It is widely agreed that some things, such as physical exercise, vitamin D and possibly alcohol can be good for you in low doses but harmful in high doses. But using vague “alternative models” to estimate risk from environmental pollutants would require the EPA to ignore scientists’ best estimates of how people actually respond to lower concentrations of those substances. </p>
<p>It also would enable political appointees to base regulatory judgments on opinion, rather than on the weight of evidence from the broad scientific community. The EPA could even choose to assume – wrongly – that exposure to lower doses of pollution is good for you, as some of its newly appointed science advisers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/16/modern-air-is-too-clean-the-rise-of-air-pollution-denial">have implied</a>.</p>
<p>Alternatively, agency leaders might conclude that there isn’t enough data to support the assumption that exposure to low levels of a pollutant will cause harm. Instead, they might set standards at the lowest levels tested by scientists, which are often many times higher than levels we experience in daily life. This would dramatically weaken or eliminate many existing regulations. </p>
<p>In fact, the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee’s <a href="https://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/LookupWebReportsLastMonthCASAC/6CBCBBC3025E13B4852583D90047B352/$File/EPA-CASAC-19-002+.pdf">recommendations</a> clearly show this is the approach they are now taking.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GVBeY1jSG9Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An estimated 4.6 million people die worldwide every year from causes directly attributable to outdoor air pollution, including heart and lung disease, cancer and stroke.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ensuring Adequate Protection</h2>
<p>Relying on a linear non-threshold response is a conservative approach to regulation. Scientists do not fully understand how people are affected by these lower concentrations, so it makes sense to be careful and assume such exposures can cause harm – especially in vulnerable populations, such as children and the elderly. </p>
<p>The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to “protect public health with an <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/7409">adequate margin of safety</a>,” which means the agency should set exposure standards low enough to protect all Americans, but err on the side of additional safety. One recent paper by a large group of air pollution researchers concluded that standard assumptions about harm from low doses <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1803222115">aren’t conservative enough</a>. </p>
<p>This study, which examined dose-response relationships for exposure to fine particulate air pollution in 16 countries, found more illness than expected was occurring at lower concentrations. This suggests that air pollution levels occurring daily in parts of the United States may cause more disease and death per unit than scientists previously thought. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269083/original/file-20190412-76840-k0kbdv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269083/original/file-20190412-76840-k0kbdv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269083/original/file-20190412-76840-k0kbdv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269083/original/file-20190412-76840-k0kbdv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269083/original/file-20190412-76840-k0kbdv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269083/original/file-20190412-76840-k0kbdv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269083/original/file-20190412-76840-k0kbdv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269083/original/file-20190412-76840-k0kbdv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Approximately 111 million people in the United States lived in counties with pollution levels that exceeded federal standards in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.epa.gov/air-trends/air-quality-national-summary">EPA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Attacking regulation by attacking science</h2>
<p>Modern air pollution rules based on the linear no-threshold model protect Americans from the worst harms of air pollution. But no society is completely pollution-free, so regulators must choose what levels of air pollution and corresponding adverse health outcomes they are willing to allow.</p>
<p>It is up to policymakers to decide whether one extra asthma case, or 1 million, is acceptable. But estimating how populations are likely to be affected by lower concentrations is a question for scientists. I believe it is inappropriate and dangerous for political appointees to intervene on these issues – especially when they are pushing unproved arguments that pollution might be good for us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115026/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard E. Peltier has received research funding from the National Institute of Health, the US EPA, the Health Effects Institute, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts</span></em></p>Are health risks from air pollution less serious than we think? Mainstream scientists call this a fringe view, but it’s getting high-level attention at the Environmental Protection Agency.Richard E. Peltier, Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1060302018-11-15T11:44:35Z2018-11-15T11:44:35ZFine particle air pollution is a public health emergency hiding in plain sight<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245596/original/file-20181114-194509-11yc04d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Kosovo policeman directs cars in Pristina after the government banned traffic in response to extremely high fine particle pollution levels, Jan. 31, 2018.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Kosovo-Pollution/befa0ac567ad4872ba4ccd45d1efc5fa/10/0">AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ambient air pollution is the largest environmental health problem in the United States and in <a href="http://www.healthdata.org/gbd/publications">the world more generally</a>. Fine particulate matter smaller than 2.5 millionths of a meter, known as PM2.5, was the fifth-leading cause of death in the world in 2015, factoring in approximately <a href="http://www.healthdata.org/research-article/global-regional-and-national-comparative-risk-assessment-84-behavioral">4.1 million global deaths annually</a>. In the United States, PM2.5 contributed to about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30505-6">88,000 deaths in 2015</a> – <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr66/nvsr66_06.pdf">more than diabetes, influenza, kidney disease or suicide</a>. </p>
<p>Current evidence suggests that PM2.5 alone causes more deaths and illnesses than <a href="http://www.healthdata.org/gbd/publications">all other environmental exposures combined</a>. For that reason, one of us (Douglas Brugge) recently <a href="https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319895864">wrote a book</a> to try to spread the word to the broader public.</p>
<p>Developed countries have made progress in reducing particulate air pollution in recent decades, but much remains to be done to further reduce this hazard. And the situation has gotten dramatically worse in many developing countries – most notably, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15030438">China</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2018/11/08/air-pollution-skyrockets-hazardous-levels-india/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0b794d2ae70b">India</a>, which have industrialized faster and on vaster scales than ever seen before. According to the World Health Organization, <a href="http://www.who.int/ceh/publications/air-pollution-child-health/en/">more than 90 percent of the world’s children</a> breathe air so polluted it threatens their health and development.</p>
<p>As environmental health specialists, we believe the problem of fine particulate air pollution deserves much more attention, including in the United States. New research is connecting PM2.5 exposure to an alarming array of health effects. At the same time, the Trump administration’s efforts to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-other-reason-to-shift-away-from-coal-air-pollution-that-kills-thousands-every-year-78874">support the fossil fuel industry</a> could increase these emissions when the goal should be further reducing them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245587/original/file-20181114-194516-15zl8pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245587/original/file-20181114-194516-15zl8pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245587/original/file-20181114-194516-15zl8pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245587/original/file-20181114-194516-15zl8pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245587/original/file-20181114-194516-15zl8pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245587/original/file-20181114-194516-15zl8pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245587/original/file-20181114-194516-15zl8pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245587/original/file-20181114-194516-15zl8pz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The average human hair is about 70 micrometers in diameter – 30 times larger than the largest fine particle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/particulate-matter-pm-basics#PM">EPA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Where there’s smoke …</h2>
<p>Particulate matter is produced mainly by burning things. In the United States, the majority of PM2.5 emissions come from <a href="https://www.epa.gov/air-emissions-inventories/national-emissions-inventory-nei">industrial activities, motor vehicles, cooking and fuel combustion, often including wood</a>. There is a similar suite of sources in developing countries, but often with more industrial production and more burning of solid fuels in homes. </p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/EDE.0000000000000556">Wildfires</a> are also an important and growing source, and winds can transport wildfire emissions hundreds of miles from fire regions. In August 2018, environmental regulators in Michigan reported that fine particles from wildfires burning in California were <a href="http://www.michiganradio.org/post/air-pollutants-california-wildfires-reach-michigan">impacting their state’s air quality</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1062494409428627456"}"></div></p>
<p>Most deaths and many illnesses caused by particulate air pollution are cardiovascular – mainly <a href="http://www.healthdata.org/gbd/publications">heart attacks and strokes</a>. Obviously, air pollution affects the lungs because it enters them as we breathe. But once PM enters the lungs, it causes an inflammatory response that sends signals throughout the body, much as a bacterial infection would. Additionally, the smallest particles and fragments of larger particles can leave the lungs and travel through the blood.</p>
<p>Emerging research continues to expand the boundaries of health impacts from PM2.5 exposure. To us, the most notable new concern is that it appears to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40572-018-0209-9">affect brain development</a> and has <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29298278?report=abstract">adverse cognitive impacts</a>. The smallest particles can even travel directly from the nose into the brain via the olfactory nerve. </p>
<p>There is growing evidence that PM2.5, as well as even smaller particles called ultrafine particles, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29298278">affect children’s central nervous systems</a>. They also can <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.114.008348">accelerate the pace of cognitive decline in adults</a> and increase the risk in susceptible adults of <a href="https://theconversation.com/air-pollution-exposure-may-increase-risk-of-dementia-72623">developing Alzheimer’s disease</a>.</p>
<p>PM2.5 has received much of the research and policy attention in recent years, but other types of particles also raise concerns. Ultrafines are less studied than PM2.5 and are not yet considered in risk estimates or air pollution regulations. Coarse PM, which is larger and typically comes from physical processes like tire and brake wear, may also pose health risks.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tHiaaHoVeg0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Coverage of an air quality alert in Delhi and neighboring cities, Nov. 5, 2018.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Regulatory push and pull</h2>
<p>The progress that developed countries have made in addressing air pollution, especially PM, demonstrates that regulation works. Before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1970, air quality in Los Angeles, New York and other major U.S. cities bore a striking resemblance to Beijing and Delhi today. Increasingly stringent air pollution regulations enacted since then have protected public health and undoubtedly saved millions of lives.</p>
<p>But it wasn’t easy. The first regulatory limits on PM2.5 were proposed in the 1990s, after <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1164/ajrccm/151.3_Pt_1.669">two important studies</a> showed that it had <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJM199312093292401">major health impacts</a>. But <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/f12-six-cities-environmental-health-air-pollution/">industry pushback was fierce</a>, and included accusations that the science behind the studies was flawed or even fraudulent. Ultimately federal regulations were enacted, and follow-up studies and reanalysis <a href="https://www.healtheffects.org/system/files/Reanalysis-ExecSumm.pdf">confirmed the original findings</a>. </p>
<p>Now the Trump administration is working to <a href="https://theconversation.com/scott-pruitts-approach-to-pollution-control-will-make-the-air-dirtier-and-americans-less-healthy-96501">reduce the role of science in shaping air pollution policy</a> and reverse regulatory decisions by the Obama administration. One new appointee to the <a href="https://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabpeople.nsf/WebExternalCommitteeRosters?OpenView&committee=BOARD&secondname=Science%20Advisory%20Board">EPA’s Science Advisory Board</a>, <a href="https://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=2255">Robert Phalen</a>, a professor of medicine at the University of California, Irvine, is known for asserting that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/16/modern-air-is-too-clean-the-rise-of-air-pollution-denial">modern air is actually too clean for optimal health</a>, even though the empirical evidence does not support this argument.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245591/original/file-20181114-194491-1diglmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245591/original/file-20181114-194491-1diglmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245591/original/file-20181114-194491-1diglmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245591/original/file-20181114-194491-1diglmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245591/original/file-20181114-194491-1diglmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245591/original/file-20181114-194491-1diglmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245591/original/file-20181114-194491-1diglmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245591/original/file-20181114-194491-1diglmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. counties failing to meet national standards for at least one of six major air pollutants regulated under the Clean Air Act: PM2.5, PM10, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and eight-hour ozone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www3.epa.gov/airquality/greenbook/mapnpoll.html">EPA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On Oct. 11, 2018, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aav7157">disbanded a critical air pollution science advisory group</a> that dealt specifically with PM regulation. Critics called this an effort to limit the role that current scientific evidence plays in establishing national air quality standards that will protect public health with an adequate margin of safety, as required under the Clean Air Act. </p>
<p>Opponents of regulating PM2.5 in the 1990s at least acknowledged that science had a role to play, although they tried to discredit studies that supported the case for regulation. The new approach seems to be to try to cut scientific evidence out of the process entirely.</p>
<h2>No time for complacency</h2>
<p>In late October 2018, the World Health Organization convened a special conference on <a href="http://www.who.int/airpollution/events/conference/en/">global air pollution and health</a>. The agency’s heightened interest appears to be motivated by risk estimates that show air pollution to be a concern of similar magnitude to more traditional public health targets, such as diet and physical activity. </p>
<p>Conferees endorsed a goal of <a href="http://www.who.int/phe/news/clean-air-for-health/en/">reducing global deaths from air pollution by two-thirds by 2030</a>. This is a highly aspirational target, but it may focus renewed attention on strategies such as reducing economic barriers that make it hard to deploy pollution control technologies in developing countries. </p>
<p>In any case, past and current research clearly show that now is not the time to move away from regulating air pollution that arises largely from burning fossil fuels, in the United States or abroad.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106030/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Douglas Brugge receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Kresge Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin James Lane receives funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Federal Aviation Administration.</span></em></p>The head of the World Health Organization calls air pollution ‘the new tobacco’ because it causes millions of preventable deaths yearly. Fine particle pollution is especially deadly.Doug Brugge, Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts UniversityKevin James Lane, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/916052018-05-07T10:42:58Z2018-05-07T10:42:58ZIs air pollution making you sick? 4 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215647/original/file-20180419-163962-1c6rdqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C633%2C4470%2C2177&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Morning smog in New Delhi, India.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Manish Swarup</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Not a day seems to go by without a story of an “airpocalypse,” usually somewhere in a developing nation. It’s hard not to empathize with the people in the smoggy images of New Delhi or Ulaanbataar or Kathmandu, <a href="https://theconversation.com/millions-rely-on-cheap-cloth-masks-that-may-provide-little-protection-against-deadly-air-pollution-64791">often wearing masks</a>, walking to school or work though soupy cloudiness. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)30505-6/fulltext">Last year, a study found</a> that more than 8 million people per year die early from air pollution exposure. This amounts to more deaths than diarrheal disease, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS combined. </p>
<p>As a researcher in air pollution and its health effects, I know that even if you don’t live in these places, air pollution likely still affects your quality of life. Here’s what you need to know.</p>
<h2>1. What exactly is air pollution?</h2>
<p>Air pollution is a general term that usually describes a mixture of different chemicals that circulate in the air.</p>
<p>Invisible gases, like ozone or carbon monoxide, and tiny particles or droplets of liquids mix together in the atmosphere. Each molecule is impossible to see with the naked eye, but when trillions gather together, you can see them as haze.</p>
<p>These chemicals are almost always mixed together in varied amounts. Scientists do not yet understand how these different mixtures affect us. Each person responds differently to air pollution exposure – some people have few effects, while others, such as kids with asthma, might become very ill. </p>
<p>What’s more, air pollution mixtures in a given location change over time. Changes can occur quickly over a few hours or gradually over months. </p>
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<p>Short-term increases in air pollution from, for example, heavy traffic in rush hour, can make us sick. Such pollution occurs year-round. But seasonal pollutants, such as ozone, usually occur only in the warmest and sunniest parts of year. What’s more, the amount of ozone in air also goes up and down through the day – generally highest in the afternoons and lowest in the early mornings. </p>
<p>These variations can make it quite difficult for environmental health scientists and epidemiologists to know precisely how air pollution can affect humans. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216523/original/file-20180426-175058-1ghvd8i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216523/original/file-20180426-175058-1ghvd8i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216523/original/file-20180426-175058-1ghvd8i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216523/original/file-20180426-175058-1ghvd8i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216523/original/file-20180426-175058-1ghvd8i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216523/original/file-20180426-175058-1ghvd8i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216523/original/file-20180426-175058-1ghvd8i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A calendar showing particulate matter concentration in Ulaanbataar, Mongolia in 2017. Note the highest concentrations appear in wintertime. The unusual increase in pollution in July corresponds with a Mongolian holiday.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Where does air pollution come from?</h2>
<p>You might imagine air pollution as smoke pouring out of a factory chimney or the tailpipe of a car. </p>
<p>While these are important sources of air pollution, there are many others. Air pollution includes chemicals humans put into the atmosphere and chemicals released by natural events. For example, forest fires are a large source of air pollutants that affect many communities. Dust that’s picked up by wind can also contribute to poor air quality. </p>
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<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/may/13/thisweekssciencequestions3">Ronald Reagan famously said</a> that “trees cause more pollution than automobiles do.” While this myth has been debunked, he was right in at least some ways. Trees do release certain gases, such as volatile organic carbon, that are ingredients in air pollution chemistry. This, when mixed together with emissions from cars and industry, leads to increases in other types of pollution, such as ozone.</p>
<p>There isn’t much that scientists can, or should, do about tree emissions. Public health researchers like myself focus most on the ingredients from human activities – from burning petroleum to emissions controls on industrial facilities – because these are sources located close to where people live and work. </p>
<p>There are also many chemical reactions that occur in the air itself. These reactions create what are known as secondary pollutants, some of which are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4455590/">quite toxic</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, it’s important to realize that air pollution knows no boundaries. If a pollutant is emitted in one location, it very easily moves across borders – both regional and national – to different places. New Delhi, for example, experiences seasonal pollution, thanks to extensive burning of agricultural fields some 200 miles away. </p>
<p>New Delhi is an extreme example. But, even if you live in a less polluted environment, pollutants emitted elsewhere often travel to where other people live and work, as seen in <a href="https://theconversation.com/exposure-to-wildfire-smoke-5-questions-answered-88742">recent wildfires</a> in California.</p>
<h2>3. How do we know that air pollution causes problems?</h2>
<p>This is a tricky question, because air pollution is a hidden problem that acts as a trigger for many health problems. Plenty of people suffer from asthma and lung diseases, heart attacks and cancer, and <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/">all of these are linked to particulate matter exposure</a>. The best <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673617305056">evidence to date</a> suggests that the higher the dose of air pollution, the worse our response will be. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, there are many other things that lead to these diseases, too: poor diet, your inherited genes, or whether you have access to high quality medical care or you smoke cigarettes, for example. This makes figuring out the cause of a specific illness attributed to air pollution exposure much more difficult.</p>
<p>Every health study provides a slightly different result, because each study observes a different group of people and usually different types of air pollution. Scientists usually report their results based on any change in risk of developing a disease from air pollution, or based on whether your odds of developing a certain disease might change. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/EHP2466.alt_.pdf">a study in Taiwan</a> looked at concentrations of particulate matter averaged over two years. The researchers found that, for every 10 micrograms per cubic meter increase in particulate matter, the odds of developing high blood pressure increased by about 3 percent. This could suggest that if an increase of particulate matter concentration in any community might lead to an increase in high blood pressure. </p>
<p>Conversely, scientists usually assume that decreases in air pollution lead to decreases in diseases.</p>
<h2>4. Why does this matter to you?</h2>
<p>A typical adult takes around 20,000 breaths per day. Whether or not you become sick from air pollution depends on the amount and type of chemicals you inhale, and whether you might be susceptible to these diseases. </p>
<p>For someone living in polluted New Delhi, for example, those 20,000 breaths include the equivalent of around 20 grains of table salt worth of particulate matter deposited in their lungs each day. While this may not seem like much, keep in mind that this particulate matter isn’t harmless table salt – it’s a mixture of chemicals that come from burning materials, unburned oils, metals and even biological material. And this doesn’t include any of the pollutants that are gases, like ozone or carbon monoxide or oxides of nitrogen.</p>
<p>The U.S. and Europe have made <a href="https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/progress-cleaning-air-and-improving-peoples-health#pollution">excellent progress</a> in reducing air pollution concentrations over the past couple of decades, largely by crafting effective air quality regulation. </p>
<p>However, in the U.S. today, where environmental laws are being <a href="http://columbiaclimatelaw.com/resources/climate-deregulation-tracker/">methodically dismantled</a>, there is a bigger worry that policymakers are simply choosing to ignore science. One new member of the Environmental Protection Agency’s science advisory board is Robert Phalen of the University of California, Irvine, who has suggested that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/16/modern-air-is-too-clean-the-rise-of-air-pollution-denial">“modern air is too clean for optimum health”</a>. </p>
<p>This goes against thousands of research papers and is certainly not true. While some components of air pollution have little effect on human health, this should not be used to muddy our understanding of air pollution exposure. This is a common tactic to confuse the public with unimportant statistics in order to sow confusion, presumably with an underlying intent to influence policy.</p>
<p>The evidence is clear: Air pollution exposure is lethal and causes death across the world. That should be important to all of us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91605/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard E. Peltier receives funding from the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources.</span></em></p>According to one study, more than 8 million people per year die early from air pollution exposure.Richard E. Peltier, Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/943792018-04-06T10:46:21Z2018-04-06T10:46:21ZWhy California gets to write its own auto emissions standards: 5 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213470/original/file-20180405-189830-1st08cd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rush hour on the Hollywood Freeway, Los Angeles, September 9, 2016.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Los-Angeles-Mayor/178af7a4248c43d78e61ee64950ea57f/324/0">AP Photo/Richard Vogel</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: On April 2, 2018, the Trump administration froze the fuel efficiency standards for cars and light-duty trucks, following the EPA’s finding earlier this year that tailpipe emissions standards negotiated by the Obama administration for motor vehicles built between 2022 and 2025 <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-administrator-pruitt-ghg-emissions-standards-cars-and-light-trucks-should-be">were set “too high.”</a>. The EPA also revoked California’s historic ability to adopt standards that are more ambitious than the federal government’s. UCLA legal scholars Nicholas Bryner and Meredith Hankins explain why California has this authority – and what may happen if the EPA tries to curb it.</em></p>
<h2>1. Where does California get this special authority?</h2>
<p>The Clean Air Act empowers the EPA to regulate air pollution from motor vehicles. To promote uniformity, the law generally bars states from regulating car emissions. </p>
<p>But when the Clean Air Act was passed, California was already developing innovative laws and standards to address its unique air pollution problems. So Congress carved out an exemption. As long as California’s standards protect public health and welfare at least as strictly as federal law, and are necessary “to meet compelling and extraordinary conditions,” the law <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/7543">requires</a> the EPA to grant California a waiver so it can continue to apply its own regulations. California has received <a href="https://www.epa.gov/state-and-local-transportation/vehicle-emissions-california-waivers-and-authorizations#notices">numerous waivers</a> as it has worked to reduce vehicle emissions by enacting ever more stringent standards since the 1960s.</p>
<p>Other states can’t set their own standards, but they can opt to follow California’s motor vehicle emission regulations. Currently, <a href="https://database.aceee.org/state/tailpipe-emission-standards">12 states and the District of Columbia</a> have adopted California’s standards.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213472/original/file-20180405-189813-27gz1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213472/original/file-20180405-189813-27gz1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213472/original/file-20180405-189813-27gz1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213472/original/file-20180405-189813-27gz1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213472/original/file-20180405-189813-27gz1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213472/original/file-20180405-189813-27gz1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213472/original/file-20180405-189813-27gz1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213472/original/file-20180405-189813-27gz1i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gov. Ronald Reagan signs legislation establishing the California Air Resources Board to address the state’s air pollution, August 30, 1967.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/about/history">CA ARB</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. What are the “compelling and extraordinary conditions” that California’s regulations are designed to address?</h2>
<p>In the 1950s scientists <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00966665.1953.10467586">recognized</a> that the unique combination of enclosed topography, a rapidly growing population and a warm climate in the Los Angeles air basin was a recipe for dangerous smog. Dutch chemist <a href="https://www.arb.ca.gov/research/hsawards/a_lesson_from_the_smog_capital_of_world.pdf">Arie Jan Haagen-Smit</a> discovered in 1952 that worsening Los Angeles smog episodes were caused by photochemical reactions between California’s sunshine and nitrogen oxides and unburned hydrocarbons in motor vehicle exhaust. </p>
<p>California’s Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Board issued <a href="https://www.arb.ca.gov/html/brochure/history.htm">regulations</a> mandating use of the nation’s first vehicle emissions control technology in 1961, and developed the nation’s first vehicle emissions standards in 1966. Two years later the EPA adopted standards identical to California’s for model year 1968 cars. UCLA Law scholar Ann Carlson calls this pattern, in which California innovates and federal regulators piggyback on the state’s demonstrated success, “<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1115556">iterative federalism</a>.” This process has continued for decades. </p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">California’s severe air pollution problems have made it a pioneer in air quality research.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. California has <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-blazing-a-low-carbon-path-pay-off-for-california-72168">set ambitious goals</a> for slowing climate change. Is that part of this dispute with the EPA?</h2>
<p>Yes. Transportation is now the <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/digest/transportation-replaces-power-in-u-s-as-top-source-of-co2-emissions">largest source</a> of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States. The tailpipe standards that the Obama EPA put in place were designed to limit GHG emissions from cars by improving average fuel efficiency. </p>
<p>These standards were developed jointly by the EPA, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and California, which have overlapping legal authority to regulate cars. EPA and California have the responsibility to control motor vehicle emissions of air pollutants, including GHGs. DOT is in charge of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/49/32902">regulating fuel economy</a>.</p>
<p>Congress began regulating fuel economy in response to the oil crisis in the 1970s. DOT sets the Corporate Average Fuel Economy <a href="https://www.nhtsa.gov/laws-regulations/corporate-average-fuel-economy">(CAFE) standard</a> that each auto manufacturer must meet. Under this program, average fuel economy in the United States improved in the late 1970s but <a href="https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=P100TGLC.pdf">stagnated</a> from the 1980s to the early 2000s as customers shifted to purchasing larger vehicles, including SUVs, minivans and trucks.</p>
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<p>In 2007 Congress responded with a new law that required DOT to set a standard of at least 35 miles per gallon by 2020, and the “maximum feasible average fuel economy” after that. That same year, the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/05-1120.ZS.html">ruled</a> that the Clean Air Act authorized the EPA to regulate GHG emissions from cars.</p>
<p>The Obama administration’s tailpipe standard brought these overlapping mandates together. EPA’s regulation sets how much carbon dioxide can be emitted per mile, which matches with DOT’s increased standard for average fuel economy. It also includes a “midterm review” to assess progress. Administrator Scott Pruitt’s <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-04/documents/mte-final-determination-notice-2018-04-02.pdf">new EPA review</a>, released on April 2, overturned the Obama administration’s midterm review and concluded that the 2022 to 2025 standard was not feasible.</p>
<p>The EPA now <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-administrator-pruitt-ghg-emissions-standards-cars-and-light-trucks-should-be">argues</a> that earlier assumptions behind the rule were “optimistic” and can’t be met. However, its review almost entirely ignored the purpose of the standards and the costs of continuing to emit GHGs at high levels. Although the document is 38 pages long, the word “climate” never appears, and “carbon” appears only once.</p>
<p>The EPA’s decision does not yet have any legal impact. It leaves the current standards in place until the EPA and DOT decide on a less-stringent replacement. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213476/original/file-20180405-189821-6qv7x2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213476/original/file-20180405-189821-6qv7x2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213476/original/file-20180405-189821-6qv7x2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213476/original/file-20180405-189821-6qv7x2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213476/original/file-20180405-189821-6qv7x2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=301&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213476/original/file-20180405-189821-6qv7x2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213476/original/file-20180405-189821-6qv7x2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213476/original/file-20180405-189821-6qv7x2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from transportation exceeded those from electric power generation in 2016 for the first time since the 1970s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=29612">USEIA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Can the Trump administration take away California’s authority to set stricter targets?</h2>
<p>The EPA has never attempted to revoke an existing waiver. In 2007, under George W. Bush, the agency <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/washington/20epa-web.html">denied</a> California’s request for a waiver to regulate motor vehicle GHG emissions. California sued, but the EPA reversed course under President Obama and granted the state a waiver before the case was resolved. </p>
<p>California’s <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-01-09/pdf/2013-00181.pdf">current waiver</a> was approved in 2013 as a part of a “<a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/08/28/obama-administration-finalizes-historic-545-mpg-fuel-efficiency-standard">grand bargain</a>” between California, federal agencies and automakers. It covers the state’s Advanced Clean Cars program and includes standards to reduce conventional air pollutants like carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, as well as the GHG standards jointly developed with the EPA and DOT.</p>
<p>The Trump administration is threatening to revoke this waiver when it decouples the national GHG vehicle standards from California’s standards. EPA Administrator Pruitt has <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-administrator-pruitt-ghg-emissions-standards-cars-and-light-trucks-should-be">said</a> that the agency is re-examining the waiver, and that “cooperative federalism doesn’t mean that one state can dictate standards for the rest of the country.” In our view, this statement mischaracterizes how the Clean Air Act works. Other states have voluntarily chosen to follow California’s rules because they see benefits in reducing air pollution. </p>
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<h2>5. How would California respond if the EPA revokes its waiver?</h2>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/JerryBrownGov/status/980894214903836672">Gov. Jerry Brown</a>, <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-epa%E2%80%99s-assault-federal-greenhouse-gas-emission-standards">Attorney General Xavier Becerra</a> and <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/carb-chair-issues-response-epa-press-release-weakening-vehicle-standards">California Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols</a> have all made clear that the state will push back. It’s almost certain that any attempt to revoke or weaken California’s waiver will immediately be challenged in court – and that this would be a <a href="http://legal-planet.org/2018/03/16/will-pruitt-join-sessions-in-expanding-the-attack-on-california/">major legal battle</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94379/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Air pollution could be the next battleground between California and the Trump administration, which is reviewing the Golden State’s special legal authority to regulate tailpipe emissions.Nicholas Bryner, Assistant Professor of Law, Louisiana State University Meredith Hankins, Shapiro Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/945292018-04-06T10:44:28Z2018-04-06T10:44:28ZGovernment fuel economy standards for cars and trucks have worked<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213431/original/file-20180405-189821-4h8c16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Customers line up to buy gasoline in San Jose, California, on March 15, 1974, during an Arab oil embargo. The crisis spurred enactment of the first U.S. vehicle fuel economy standards.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Recession-Watch/a2f5775e99684a0299a9819932bd1af6/51/0">AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>U.S. cars are twice as fuel-efficient today as they were 40 years ago. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards are a major reason why.</p>
<p>These standards are in the news because the Trump administration plans to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-epas-u-turn-on-auto-efficiency-rules-gives-china-the-upper-hand-93840">scale back increases</a> scheduled under President Barack Obama that require automakers to double fuel economy by 2025. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt now <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-administrator-pruitt-ghg-emissions-standards-cars-and-light-trucks-should-be">says</a> that this standard is too high.</p>
<p>This announcement has rightfully sparked debate – not just about narrow costs and benefits of fuel economy standards, but also over the U.S. role in shaping a global industry that faces a trio of radical transformations via <a href="https://theconversation.com/range-anxiety-todays-electric-cars-can-cover-vast-majority-of-daily-u-s-driving-needs-63909">electrification</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/driverless-cars-are-already-here-but-the-roads-arent-ready-for-them-93456">self-driving cars</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-uber-or-not-why-car-ownership-may-no-longer-be-a-good-deal-83558">ride-sharing</a>.</p>
<p>How have CAFE standards shaped the U.S. auto market? While they are an imperfect tool, these regulations have pushed automakers to greatly increase vehicle fuel economy – and have saved consumers millions of dollars.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213430/original/file-20180405-189830-127qudu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213430/original/file-20180405-189830-127qudu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213430/original/file-20180405-189830-127qudu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213430/original/file-20180405-189830-127qudu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213430/original/file-20180405-189830-127qudu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213430/original/file-20180405-189830-127qudu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213430/original/file-20180405-189830-127qudu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213430/original/file-20180405-189830-127qudu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Mandatory fuel economy label design adopted in 2011 for gasoline-powered vehicles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Gas_26mpg_500px.jpg">NHTSA/EPA</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Saving money and cutting pollution</h2>
<p>Before Congress mandated the first CAFE standards in 1975, the average American car got about <a href="https://www.epa.gov/fuel-economy-trends/highlights-co2-and-fuel-economy-trends">13.5 miles per gallon</a>. By 2016, fuel economy had roughly doubled to 25 miles per gallon.</p>
<p>To get a sense of what that means, if Americans kept driving exactly as much as they do today but operated pre-CAFE gas guzzlers, the average U.S. household would spend nearly US$2,000 more on gasoline each year. And annual U.S. carbon dioxide emissions would jump by 1 billion tons. Economists <a href="https://sites.nationalacademies.org/DBASSE/BECS/Valuing-Climate-Damages/index.htm">debate</a> how much <a href="https://theconversation.com/curbing-climate-change-has-a-dollar-value-heres-how-and-why-we-measure-it-70882">damage</a> these emissions cause, but conventional estimates peg the cost at $37 billion per year.</p>
<p>Does CAFE deserve credit? Yes, at least partly. Historically, the average fuel economy of vehicles in the U.S. has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/reep/req021">closely tracked</a> the minimum required by law. Fuel economy was stagnant before CAFE, then increased rapidly in lockstep with the law as CAFE standards phased in over 15 years. </p>
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<p>When the standard sat unchanged in the 1990s, average fuel economy flatlined. Technological progress continued, but instead of designing cars that exceeded CAFE standards, auto makers made cars that were <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.101.7.3368">bigger</a> and faster and just met the minimum efficiency required by law. This pattern only shifted in the early 2000s, when high gasoline prices drove fuel economy gains even while CAFE was flat. </p>
<p>There are better ways to improve fuel economy. Many economists like <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=iwuJ9uwAAAAJ&hl=en">me</a> would like to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-100815-095220">replace CAFE standards</a> with a <a href="https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/2015/01/05/raise-the-gas-tax/">gasoline tax</a>, or at least pair them with policies that target congestion and accidents. For now, however, as lawmakers debate scaling back CAFE standards, they should remember the important role these regulations have played.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94529/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James M. Sallee has received funding from the Sloan Foundation for research related to fuel economy standards. </span></em></p>Since the federal government started setting fuel economy standards, US-built cars have doubled their fuel efficiency, saving money for consumers and reducing pollution.James M. Sallee, Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, BerkeleyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/661902017-10-31T02:15:48Z2017-10-31T02:15:48ZHow has the US fracking boom affected air pollution in shale areas?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192359/original/file-20171029-13378-7w18ow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fracking has led to an increase in truck traffic, one of the reasons for worsening trends on air quality in areas with oil and gas drilling.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Urban air pollution in the U.S. has been <a href="https://www.epa.gov/air-trends/air-quality-national-summary">decreasing</a> near continuously since the 1970s. </p>
<p>Federal regulations, notably the Clean Air Act passed by President Nixon, to reduce toxic air pollutants such as <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/benzene.pdf">benzene</a>, a hydrocarbon, and <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ozone-pollution">ozone</a>, a strong oxidant, effectively lowered their abundance in ambient air with steady progress.</p>
<p>But about 10 years ago, the picture on air pollutants in the U.S. started to change. The “fracking boom” in several different parts of the nation led to a new source of hydrocarbons to the atmosphere, affecting abundances of both toxic benzene and ozone, including in areas that were not previously affected much by such air pollution.</p>
<p>As a result, in recent years there has been a spike of research to determine what the extent of emissions are from fracked oil and gas wells – called “unconventional” sources in the industry. While much discussion has <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-utilities-have-little-incentive-to-plug-leaking-natural-gas-63092">surrounded methane emissions</a>, a greenhouse gas, less attention has been paid to air toxics. </p>
<h2>Upstream emissions</h2>
<p>Fracking is a term that can stir strong emotions among its opponents and proponents. It is actually a combination of techniques, including hydraulic fracturing, that has allowed drillers to draw hydrocarbons from rock formations which were once not profitable to tap.</p>
<p>Drillers shatter layers of shale rock with high-pressure water, sand and chemicals to start the flow of hydrocarbons from a well. The hydraulic fracturing process itself, aside from its large demand for water, is possibly the least environmentally impactful step along the complete operational chain of drilling for hydrocarbons. Arguably, the more relevant environmental effects are wastewater handling and disposal, as well as the release of vapors from oil and gas storage and distribution.</p>
<p>The production, distribution and use of hydrocarbons have always led to some emissions into the air, either directly via (intended or accidental) leaks, or during incomplete combustion of fuels. However, through regulations and technological innovation, we have <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2012JD017899/abstract">reduced this source</a> dramatically in the last 30 years, approximately by a factor of 10. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Video taken with an infrared camera shows gases leaking from storage tanks, valves and other equipment used by the oil and gas industry.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nevertheless, wherever hydrocarbons are produced, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2010JD013931/abstract">refined or stored</a>, there will be some emissions of pollutants. In the age of fracking, the large operations at conventional well sites have been replaced by <a href="http://skytruth.org/2015/11/freaky-fracking-ohio-wellpads/">hundreds of well pads</a> dotting the landscape. Each requires the transportation of water, chemicals and equipment to and from these pads as well as the removal of wastewater, and none is regulated like any larger facility would be. </p>
<p>As a result, unconventional production has not only increased truck traffic and related emissions in shale areas, but also established a <a href="http://vibe.cira.colostate.edu/ogec/docs/meetings/2016-07-14/State%20Officials%20Presentation%20July%202016.pdf">renewed source of hydrocarbons</a>. They enter the atmosphere from leaks at valves, pipes, separators and compressors, or through exhaust vents on tanks. Together with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOx">nitrogen oxides</a> emissions, largely from diesel engines in trucks, compressors and drilling rigs, these hydrocarbons can form significant amounts of harmful, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ozone-pollution/ozone-basics#what%20where%20how">ground-level ozone</a> during daytime.</p>
<h2>Measurement challenges</h2>
<p>In 2011, a paper argued that <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-011-0061-5">methane emissions</a> from unconventional sources compared to conventional oil and gas exploration were being significantly underestimated. Researchers began to investigate hydrocarbon emissions from fracking operations in earnest. And thus a significant body of literature has developed since 2013, much of which focuses on methane emissions, the main component of natural gas and a potent greenhouse gas. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192361/original/file-20171029-13315-xa3sct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192361/original/file-20171029-13315-xa3sct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192361/original/file-20171029-13315-xa3sct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192361/original/file-20171029-13315-xa3sct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192361/original/file-20171029-13315-xa3sct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192361/original/file-20171029-13315-xa3sct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192361/original/file-20171029-13315-xa3sct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192361/original/file-20171029-13315-xa3sct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scientists have turned to satellites and other ways to measure methane emissions which can be higher in areas of oil and gas production.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/09oct_methanehotspot/">NASA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The EPA keeps track of methane emissions in its <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/us-greenhouse-gas-inventory-report-1990-2014">greenhouse gas inventory</a>, but the numbers are based upon estimates developed in the 1980s and 1990s and are compiled through calculations and self-reporting by the industry.</p>
<p>In fact, both <a href="http://www.climatecentral.org/news/us-60-percent-of-global-methane-growth-20037">satellite</a> and <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015JD023242/abstract">atmospheric measurements</a> suggest that the EPA estimates could be underestimating real-world methane emissions by up to a factor of two. And if this is true for methane, co-emitted hydrocarbon gases are likely underestimated as well. </p>
<h2>Ozone formation</h2>
<p>As in many such cases, nuances exist. </p>
<p><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014JD022697/abstract">Airborne measurements by NOAA</a> suggest that the EPA methane estimates may be applicable to older, mature shale areas with mostly natural gas production. But that’s not the case in younger shale areas that also produce large amounts of oil alongside natural gas, such as the Bakken in North Dakota. Emissions from just the Bakken may be so large as to be responsible for roughly half of the renewed <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/4/044010">increase of atmospheric ethane</a> in the Northern Hemisphere since the beginning of the fracking boom.</p>
<p>Similarly, our own studies for the <a href="https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/17/11163/2017/">Eagle Ford shale</a> in south-central Texas suggest that hydrocarbon emissions are higher than currently estimated. This increases the potential for regional ozone formation as these hydrocarbons are oxidized in the atmosphere in the presence of nitrogen oxides. And as the ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard was recently lowered to 70 parts per billion, with <a href="https://www.tceq.texas.gov/cgi-bin/compliance/monops/8hr_attainment.pl">ozone in San Antonio</a> downwind of the Eagle Ford trending close to the old threshold of 75 ppb, the impact of shale hydrocarbon emissions is not trivial.</p>
<p>San Antonio’s ozone woes are not unique. In <a href="http://www.scrimhub.org/opportunities/summer-scholars/pdf/slatten.pdf">some areas</a>, decades-long progress on ozone air quality has stalled; in others, particularly the <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es405046r">Uintah basin in Utah</a>, a <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v514/n7522/full/nature13767.html">new ozone problem</a> has emerged due to the fracking industry’s emissions.</p>
<h2>Benzene</h2>
<p>Aside from effects on ozone trends, the increase of hydrocarbon emissions has also led to the resurgence of an air toxic thought to be a story of the past in the U.S.: benzene. Unlike ozone, which is widely monitored, benzene is not. However, since it is a known <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3053447">carcinogen</a>, it has long been on the radar of regulatory agencies. </p>
<p>Routinely measured above 1 part per billion in urban areas in the 1970s and ‘80s, urban ambient <a href="https://cfpub.epa.gov/roe/documents/BenzeneConcentrations.pdf">benzene concentrations have dropped</a> 5-10 percent per year, similar to other air pollutants, throughout the last 20 to 30 years. Annual average benzene levels are now below 1.5 parts per billion at over 90 percent of locations monitoring benzene regularly, but few such monitoring stations are in or near shale areas. </p>
<p><a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es405046r">High levels of benzene</a> in shale areas, such as <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/news/texas/2010/01/28/High-benzene-levels-found-on-Barnett-3021">near well pads in the Barnett shale in Texas</a>, were recorded early into the fracking boom, but few continuous air monitoring data are available to this day, with virtually no data prior to the fracking boom for comparison. </p>
<p>While benzene is generally monitored below levels the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) would be concerned about, it is becoming clear that levels must have increased at rural shale area locations.</p>
<p><a href="https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm16/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/158569">Our fingerprinting analysis</a> of 2015 data from the newest air monitor in Karnes City, Texas, at the center of the Eagle Ford shale, suggests that less than 40 percent of benzene is still related to tailpipe emissions, its formerly dominant emission source. Instead, over 60 percent is now linked to various oil and gas exploration activities, including gas flaring emissions.</p>
<p>Studies from <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016JD025327/abstract">Colorado</a> and <a href="http://www.elementascience.org/articles/96">Texas</a> show that elevated levels of benzene in shale areas are clearly correlated with other hydrocarbon gases emitted from oil and gas exploration. </p>
<h2>Health impacts</h2>
<p>While ozone is distributed relatively uniformly in a region, primary emissions of benzene and other <a href="http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/14/10977/2014/">nonmethane hydrocarbons will be at higher concentrations in air next to sources</a>. Therefore, whereas most monitoring stations of ozone are quite representative for a larger area, monitoring benzene far from its dominant sources in shale areas does not provide a representative picture. </p>
<p>The risks for people living in shale areas are <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10934529.2015.992663">elevated by their nearness to well pads</a>. Ongoing health research has revealed that certain minor health effects such as <a href="https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/ehp281/">sinusitis, migraines and fatigue</a>, but also <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0131093">hospitalization rates</a> and certain <a href="http://journals.lww.com/epidem/Abstract/2016/03000/Unconventional_Natural_Gas_Development_and_Birth.2.aspx">birth defects</a>, are identifiably connected to an area’s well density or a home’s distance to oil and gas wells as a proxy of exposure, warranting more detailed research.</p>
<p>In conclusion, the shale boom has created a new source of large-scale, diffuse hydrocarbon emissions that adversely affect air toxics levels. While the effects are subtle, they happened in areas generally without any air pollutant monitoring, making estimates of trends difficult.</p>
<p>In many cases, these pollutants can be reduced by common-sense emissions reduction measures, and some companies <a href="http://www.expressnews.com/business/eagleford/item/Up-in-flames-Day-4-While-the-gas-burns-32642.php">put</a> or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/business/energy-environment/exxon-methane-leaks.html">plan to put</a> good practice in place. Nevertheless, continued growth of the fracking industry as well as plans to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/05/climate/trump-environment-rules-reversed.html">remove regulations on methane emissions</a> will not alleviate high hydrocarbon emissions and associated regional ozone problems.</p>
<p><em>The title of this article has been updated on November 2 to reflect that it only addresses air pollutants in areas of shale drilling.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66190/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gunnar W. Schade received funding for air quality research from a local ranch owner in Dimmit County, TX, in 2015.</span></em></p>The fracking boom has led to a large increase of hydrocarbon emissions in rural areas, reversing some regional air toxics trends.Gunnar W. Schade, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/747412017-07-11T01:09:41Z2017-07-11T01:09:41ZCleaning up toxic sites shouldn’t clear out the neighbors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166326/original/file-20170422-27254-1ib9u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Abandoned industrial buildings at San Francisco's Pier 70, with a smokestack in the background.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lindsey Dillon</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>San Francisco has embarked on a project to transform its industrial southeast waterfront into a bike-friendly destination called the <a href="http://bluegreenway.org/#/home/page">Blue Greenway</a>. When completed, the Blue Greenway will be a 13-mile network of parks, bike lanes and trails along the southeastern edge of the city. </p>
<p>Among its many benefits, the project creates green space and waterfront access in the low-income <a href="http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Brief_History_of_Bayview-Hunters_Point">Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood</a>. The Blue Greenway is part of a larger transformation of Bayview Hunters Point. This older, neglected neighborhood is still full of vacant lots and a large, abandoned naval base, but it is becoming a landscape of <a href="http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/article/Arrival-of-Peet-s-signals-change-in-10942164.php">hip townhomes and new coffee shops</a>. Its transformation includes the complicated cleanup of many toxic waste sites – most notoriously, a military radiation lab on the <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/aboutsfgate/article/Former-nuclear-test-site-planned-for-housing-10854245.php">former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard</a>. </p>
<p>The Blue Greenway project cleans up toxic land along its route with funding from the Environmental Protection Agency’s <a href="https://www.epa.gov/brownfields">Brownfields Program</a>, which supports the cleanup and reuse of contaminated sites. Brownfield redevelopment projects like the Blue Greenway are intended to bring environmental and economic benefits to run-down urban areas. And yet, as I have found in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/anti.12009">my own research</a>, they can also contribute to gentrification and economic displacement. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177428/original/file-20170708-4444-17buz4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177428/original/file-20170708-4444-17buz4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177428/original/file-20170708-4444-17buz4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177428/original/file-20170708-4444-17buz4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177428/original/file-20170708-4444-17buz4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177428/original/file-20170708-4444-17buz4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177428/original/file-20170708-4444-17buz4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Blue Greenway creates small parks and waterfront access along San Francisco’s industrial shoreline.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://sfenvironment.org/sites/default/files/editor-uploads/sfe_ej_event_blue_greenway_006_0.jpg">San Francisco Environment</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Recycling land</h2>
<p>Brownfields are contaminated sites such as old gas stations, dry cleaning facilities, former factories and power plants. In the case of the Blue Greenway, they are small, vacant lots in old industrial areas and median strips along the road. </p>
<p>Brownfields are less heavily contaminated than sites on the EPA’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/cutting-superfunds-budget-will-slow-toxic-waste-cleanups-threatening-public-health-and-property-values-74787">Superfund list</a>, which can take decades to clean up. The brownfields program is designed to move more quickly and make contaminated sites available for reuse. Ideally, returning these sites to use stimulates the economy and revitalizes neighborhoods. The program is widely popular with people who live near brownfield sites, as well as with city politicians and the private sector, which profits from the business of cleanup and redevelopment. </p>
<p>Even EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, a forceful advocate of cutting back federal environmental protection, has voiced support of the brownfields program, calling it “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/03/02/heres-one-part-of-epa-that-the-agencys-new-leader-wants-to-protect/?utm_term=.421631ebcd86">absolutely essential</a>.” When the agency released US$56 million in brownfield grants in May, Pruitt <a href="https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/announcing-award-568-million-fy17-brownfields-assessment-and-cleanup-grants">lauded the program</a> for “improving local economies and creating an environment where jobs can grow.”</p>
<p>EPA’s brownfield program was developed in the mid-1990s to provide incentives for states and companies to voluntarily clean up toxic spills and vacant industrial sites. At that point, Superfund was the only federal program that managed toxic cleanups. Superfund cleanups are federally mandated, top-down projects in which EPA has significant enforcement authority – notably, to make polluters pay for the cleanup. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176663/original/file-20170703-32624-1ffndbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176663/original/file-20170703-32624-1ffndbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176663/original/file-20170703-32624-1ffndbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176663/original/file-20170703-32624-1ffndbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176663/original/file-20170703-32624-1ffndbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176663/original/file-20170703-32624-1ffndbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176663/original/file-20170703-32624-1ffndbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams is housed in a former electronics manufacturing complex that was cleaned up with funds including federal and state brownfield remediation grants. The museum has become a major tourist draw that attracts thousands of visitors yearly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/citystreet/14997620809/in/photolist-oRhJa8-VNchKT-VNbFND-UHgfuy-UL6gh6-VprZco-79UBP1-hUtva-7ucvRR-q7xNUR-ajcwcj-79UBrN-VW8DAf-79UxJ5-a2q5ZB-VNbCSD-a2pXZK-VW9crj-a2q2FR-79QMV8-6egGjh-79R8hT-VW9bXo-3biYdg-3bosVu-79QF4B-dJpSwR-dJpT2D-79UwCS-fv9JjC-dJvjhb-dJpRFM-79Uw7G-VNcjUT-6egGTs-79Uxc5-dJpS56-dJpRP2-6ecwB4-dJpSDv-6doTGF-6doUiV-79UyNj-a2sNAd-zEhjdc-UL5VJP-VZDHdX-VZDmCi-6dt4aY-ABaQPZ">Downstreets</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In contrast, the brownfields program is more market-friendly. It decentralizes authority to states and offers incentives for voluntary cleanups, such as grants, tax breaks and other subsidies.</p>
<p>The brownfields program emerged at a moment when many U.S. cities sought to redevelop their postindustrial areas. In contrast to Superfund, which at that time had little to say about land reuse, brownfields projects aimed not just to clean up industrial sites but to redevelop and reuse them. The word “brownfield” itself is a real estate term: Brownfields are the opposite of “greenfields,” or undeveloped land. </p>
<p>In this way, brownfields redevelopment projects are often framed as environmental solutions to urban deindustrialization. As the U.S. Conference of Mayors stated in a 1999 report, the brownfields program helps “<a href="http://mayors.org/brownfields/taskforce.htm">recycle America’s land</a>.” </p>
<h2>Preventing ‘green gentrification’</h2>
<p>However, these projects also raise questions about <a href="https://works.bepress.com/bhavna_shamasunder/3/">environmental justice</a>. Many brownfield sites are concentrated in low-income communities of color. This spatial concentration of toxic sites is, in part, an effect of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/05/28/evidence-that-banks-still-deny-black-borrowers-just-as-they-did-50-years-ago/?utm_term=.49b71f92ec1c">redlining</a> – the practice of denying loans to racial minorities based on <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/housing-discrimination-redlining-maps/">color-coded neighborhood maps of financial risk</a>. It is also an effect of 20th-century patterns of inner-city disinvestment and discriminatory zoning policies, which allowed for the siting of hazardous industries in low-income neighborhoods. Together, these and other factors have produced well-documented geographical <a href="http://www.ucc.org/environmental-ministries_toxic-waste-20">entanglements of race and toxic waste</a>. </p>
<p>At its best, brownfield redevelopment can transform vacant lots into parks and bring other amenities to neglected neighborhoods. It is most successful when local communities are meaningfully involved in the planning process, and when it is combined with other policies aimed to reduce social and economic inequalities. </p>
<p>One successful example is Fruitvale Transit Village in East Oakland, California, where a nonprofit called <a href="https://unitycouncil.org/">The Unity Council</a> led the transformation of an <a href="http://pacinst.org/publication/brownsfields/">old rail parking lot into a mixed-use development</a>. The complex includes a senior center, a library, a health clinic and a mix of market-rate and affordable housing. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177429/original/file-20170708-3066-1uqo5iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177429/original/file-20170708-3066-1uqo5iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177429/original/file-20170708-3066-1uqo5iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177429/original/file-20170708-3066-1uqo5iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177429/original/file-20170708-3066-1uqo5iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177429/original/file-20170708-3066-1uqo5iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177429/original/file-20170708-3066-1uqo5iy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fruitvale Transit Village in Oakland, California was designed by the city, planners, neighborhood activists and developers to bring a mix of housing, services, retail and transit together near the Fruitvale BART station.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/neighborhoods/3158963818/in/album-72157616897142327/">Eric Fredericks</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But these projects can also contribute to <a href="http://grist.org/cities/can-we-green-the-hood-without-gentrifying-it/">green gentrification</a> by increasing land values and rents and displacing low-income residents. One example is <a href="http://www.thehighline.org/">New York City’s High Line</a>, an old elevated rail line that was “recycled” into a destination by converting it into a walkable pathway, lined by native plants. Today the High Line is an enormously popular attraction. It also has spurred development that has priced many small businesses and less wealthy households <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/06/dangers-ecogentrification-best-way-make-city-greener">out of the neighborhood</a>.</p>
<h2>Fewer cleanups</h2>
<p>Ideally, EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice could help to address some of the inequalities produced by brownfields cleanups. However, President Trump’s proposed 2018 budget for the EPA <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/03/09/epas-environmental-justice-leader-steps-down-amid-white-house-plans-to-dismantle-program/">eliminates this office</a>. It also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/climate/trump-epa-budget-cuts.html">cuts funding for the brownfield program</a>, by 30 percent, from $48 million to $33 million, along with large cuts to Superfund cleanups and emergency response capabilities and other hazardous waste management programs. </p>
<p>These cutbacks threaten the lives and livelihoods of all U.S. residents, and are <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/15/politics/scott-pruitt-epa-cuts-republicans/index.html">unpopular among both Democrats and Republicans</a>. Yet because of the legacies of race and industrial zoning patterns, their effects will fall hardest on already marginalized communities.</p>
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
<p>One way to protect communities from both toxic waste and green gentrification would be to increase funding for EPA’s <a href="https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/environmental-workforce-development-and-job-training-grants">Brownfield Job Training Program</a>, assuming that it survives the Trump administration. Many brownfield communities struggle with unemployment, and residents are easily priced out of neighborhoods as they become more expensive to live in. The Brownfield Job Training Program creates jobs for low-income residents, which can help them reap some of the benefits of brownfield redevelopment. </p>
<p>State support for affordable housing and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/07/affordable-housing-always/397637/">community land trusts</a> also can complement brownfield cleanups. Successful community land trusts are managed by nonprofits that buy land and build affordable homes. The homes are sold to local residents, while the nonprofit retains ownership of the land. This strategy can protect low-income neighborhoods from commercial developers.</p>
<p>More broadly, our notions of “sustainability” and “urban greening” ought to <a href="https://critical-sustainabilities.ucsc.edu/hunters-point/">include values of justice and equity</a>. Otherwise, important projects like the Blue Greenway will build sustainable waterfronts for the urban elite, rather than spreading the environmental benefits of toxic cleanup to the many.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lindsey Dillon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Cleaning up and reusing contaminated sites, known as brownfields, can create jobs and promote economic growth. But it also can drive gentrification that prices out low-income residents.Lindsey Dillon, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa CruzLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/788202017-06-05T01:43:29Z2017-06-05T01:43:29ZWhy Trump’s withdrawal from Paris doesn’t matter as much as you think<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172164/original/file-20170604-20569-13pntvs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fortunately, it's not quite so gloomy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Susan Walsh</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-trumps-decision-to-leave-paris-accord-hurts-the-us-and-the-world-78707#comment_1304030">Many reacted</a> to President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord with understandable dismay, fearful that the U.S. <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-decision-to-withdraw-from-the-paris-accord-cedes-global-leadership-to-china-76279">is shirking its global leadership role</a>, will fall behind in green technology and is helping usher in the worst effects of global warming.</p>
<p>Let’s take a collective breath and think about what withdrawal really means. After weighing many pros and cons, I believe it’s sensible to conclude it doesn’t really matter. </p>
<p>That’s because efforts by cities, states and companies are already underway to keep up the spirit of Paris, even if the feds won’t. We’re at a point where ecological forces such as climate change are increasingly driving economic behavior, as <a href="http://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=19445083&AN=47365043&h=WkIUBVO0E30u8ptyMGpJJdmq8YoHAwBVSq27lTIKpPFivcMk6T%2bdnJTRuU%2bZp52QJBK1CFSG00yNO9fUG1rjEA%3d%3d&crl=c&resultNs=AdminWebAuth&resultLocal=ErrCrlNotAuth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d19445083%26AN%3d47365043">I explored in a 2009 paper</a>, which is making these efforts to combat it more inevitable, regardless of Trump. </p>
<p>While the Paris withdrawal is unfortunate, there’s a bigger threat. </p>
<h2>Reasons to worry?</h2>
<p>From a political perspective, the United States <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/in-climate-talks-its-always-been-america-first/articleshow/58955848.cms">has often been</a> a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2001/mar/29/globalwarming.usnews">noncontributor</a> in the global carbon emissions reduction game. </p>
<p>The United States signed <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/26/world/kyoto-protocol-fast-facts/index.html">but never ratified the Kyoto Protocol</a> – citing many of the same reasons as President Trump (large, developing countries are held to lower standards, and this will put the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage). </p>
<p>Yet there was far less outrage with Kyoto – probably because people knew less about climate change. We know more now and <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-get-rid-of-carbon-in-the-atmosphere-not-just-reduce-emissions-72573">realize that climate change is real</a> and poses serious threats – anyone who actually reads the <a href="http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/16/3761/2016/acp-16-3761-2016.html">evidence</a> comes to this conclusion.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2012/nov/26/kyoto-protocol-carbon-emissions">actual performance</a> of the Kyoto Protocol, however, does give us reason to worry today. While some countries did limit their emissions, many did not. The largest polluters (e.g., China and the United States) did not participate, so the <a href="https://350.org/science/#causes">carbon emissions problem continued to get worse</a>, which is a serious problem. </p>
<h2>‘Creative destruction’</h2>
<p>Fortunately there are trends in force that will likely limit the practical effect of Trump’s decision and, in fact, may make it almost meaningless over time, for three reasons. </p>
<p>Before I get to those, a brief economics lesson. Economist Joseph Schumpeter in his 1942 book <a href="http://cnqzu.com/library/Economics/marxian%20economics/Schumpeter,%20Joeseph-Capitalism,%20Socialism%20and%20Democracy.pdf">“Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy”</a> popularized the term “creative destruction.” Schumpeter used this term to describe the process whereby old, inefficient capitalist systems, industries and ideas are destroyed by newer, more industrious and more highly valued capital. </p>
<p>For example, been to a video rental store lately? Me neither. While video stores were useful in their time, technology changed the game (seemingly overnight) and they became obsolete. This same creative destruction is beginning to occur now for oil, gas and other nonrenewable energies. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurapennington/2013/06/19/embrace-the-life-building-power-of-creative-destruction/#28574d0c6454">Companies such as Tesla</a> point to the future, and Schumpeter would state this is not only a good thing, but inevitable.</p>
<p>Global warming isn’t going to disappear, and engineers, scientists and companies in the United States know this and will push development – regardless of any accords. That leads me to my three reasons. </p>
<p>First, states, cities and corporations in the U.S. can set carbon targets on their own that meet (or ideally beat) global goals. For example, <a href="https://onenyc.cityofnewyork.us/">OneNYC’s 80x50 commitment</a> to reduce emission in New York City by 80 percent by 2050. If more cities, states and corporations commit to ambitious environmental goals, than President Trump not signing the accord looks less important – and may, ironically, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/climate/american-cities-climate-standards.html">kickstart more innovation</a>. </p>
<p>Second, those cities and states that accomplish ambitious environmental improvements will benefit from new technology and cleaner environments and <a href="https://www.greenbiz.com/article/how-sustainable-cities-can-drive-business-growth">will probably attract highly educated citizens</a> who appreciate progressive development. And that in turn could pressure other communities to follow suit as they witness the benefits.</p>
<p>Third, the rest of the world will act likewise, so the countries that <a href="https://www.oecd.org/greengrowth/green-development/50559116.pdf">lead with green technology will have a significant competitive advantage</a> in the future (<a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/reports/2009/06/18/6192/the-economic-benefits-of-investing-in-clean-energy/">both domestically and internationally</a>). </p>
<h2>The bigger threat</h2>
<p>So while I’m not pleased Trump withdrew from Paris, I’m comforted that the impact will be limited. </p>
<p>Americans should be less concerned about Paris and far more so with <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/epa-11106">what is happening</a> at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The administration’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-planned-epa-cuts-us-to-lose-vital-connection-to-at-risk-communities-74489">changes</a> and <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/16/white-house-seeks-to-cut-epa-budget-31-as-trump-targets-regulation.html">proposed cuts</a> will have a <a href="https://www.environmentalintegrity.org/trump-watch-epa/trumps-proposed-cuts-to-epa-budget/">much more meaningful impact</a> on the environment, from the air we breathe to the water we drink, which will also harm the economy. </p>
<p>In fact, the EPA – <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/12/gallery-why-nixon-created-the-epa/67351/">notably established</a> by President Richard Nixon in 1970 – has been underfunded for many years. Its <a href="https://www.epa.gov/planandbudget/budget">workforce has declined 15 percent since 1999</a>. </p>
<p>The recent water crisis in Flint, Michigan, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-behind-the-flint-water-crisis-corrosion-of-pipes-erosion-of-trust-53776">offers a vivid illustration</a> of what happens when funding for environmental protection is cut: It becomes harder to spot, study, analyze and solve problems like Flint’s. And many other areas in the country <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/24/americas-water-crisis-goes-beyond-flint-michigan.html">face similar threats</a> from polluted drinking water. </p>
<p>The threat of climate change is real, and our withdrawal is disappointing, but creative destruction will continue and local governments and individual companies will pick up the slack. The effects of a weakened EPA, however, can’t be made up for elsewhere. </p>
<p>The consequences are far more important and immediate than Paris.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78820/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert H. Scott III does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Economic forces – alongside a moral imperative – are driving cities, states and companies to make changes to forestall climate change, regardless of the whims of the White House.Robert H. Scott III, Associate Professor of Economics, Monmouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/747872017-06-01T12:56:06Z2017-06-01T12:56:06ZCutting Superfund’s budget will slow toxic waste cleanups, threatening public health and property values<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171198/original/file-20170526-6385-1bjlhm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cleanup at the GE Housatonic Superfund site in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 2007. Years of PCB and industrial chemical use at GE's Pittsfield facility and improper disposal led to extensive contamination around the town and down the entire length of the Housatonic River.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corpsnewengland/4295848200/in/photolist-7xBm1h-9N7yGW-6Np5v-4tGwpg-9DyTve-9msxb8-9VjzaV-rYwwH4-pWmaRr-5s9bf6-pPPVYS-PiGqx-4yJevn-ptZHxK-pq9itf-pnA9YY-oAXG1P-p1fLKA-9mtB6g-oRT248-oDkwfS-pFYRWe-eBXsZA-otH9jc-7AXPot-ouG3CP-kwvWU-owtYTu-3mNeoR-qHLM58-3mNoJp-pp2DkA-qALY8i-3mQW3o-pasanx-R62Xyd-p9WQEM-qCjnrT-3mNpGn-4yJdMZ-4yJe2D-peBqkU-prn44k-4yNvi3-oWim1W-ptDts8-puAAh9-cBzF-9iYuQ3-q4hAFg">USACE/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of the Love Canal crisis, when toxic chemicals were found to be leaking from an underground dump into homes in Niagara Falls, New York. State and federal agencies <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/25/booming/love-canal-and-its-mixed-legacy.html">relocated more than 200 families</a> out of the affected area. A <a href="https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/investigations/love_canal/docs/report_public_comment_final.pdf">state investigation</a> later found elevated rates of birth defects among families who had lived at Love Canal. </p>
<p>This disaster called public attention to health risks from improperly controlled toxic waste. In response, President Jimmy Carter signed the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/superfund/superfund-cercla-overview">Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act</a> (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund, into law in December 1980. </p>
<p>Superfund has supported cleanups of toxic waste sites in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia. But its funding decreased by nearly half between 1999 and 2013, and President Trump’s 2018 budget proposal calls for an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/budget/fy2018/msar.pdf">additional 30 percent cut</a>, despite EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s assertion that Superfund is “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/03/02/heres-one-part-of-epa-that-the-agencys-new-leader-wants-to-protect/?utm_term=.512c99422a53">absolutely essential</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171514/original/file-20170530-23684-wppfwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171514/original/file-20170530-23684-wppfwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171514/original/file-20170530-23684-wppfwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171514/original/file-20170530-23684-wppfwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171514/original/file-20170530-23684-wppfwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171514/original/file-20170530-23684-wppfwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171514/original/file-20170530-23684-wppfwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, New York demand compensation for families that have been told to evacuate from their homes because chemicals are leaching to the surface, Aug. 5, 1978.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-NY-USA-APHS468860-Love-Canal/51f3a058f3bc42579ffc541227a69833/1/0">AP Photo/DS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As an economist specializing in housing issues, including the relationship between toxic cleanups and property values, I have published several <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FA%3A1007835329254?LI=true">studies of Superfund sites</a>. In my view, further funding cuts will make it extremely hard for EPA to clean up <a href="https://www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-you-live">more than 1,300 sites still on the Superfund list</a>. Slower cleanups will leave more people exposed to harm from toxic chemicals and will hurt adjoining communities by lowering property values and impacting future development.</p>
<h2>Making polluters pay, where possible</h2>
<p>Under Superfund, EPA has the power to place heavily contaminated sites on a National Priorities List, and find and force parties responsible for the damage to pay for cleaning them up. Initially, if polluters could not afford to pay or the responsible parties could not be identified, cleanups were to be financed from a trust fund supported by a tax on chemical companies and crude oil. </p>
<p>In the program’s early years, only a few sites were cleaned up and minimal funds were recovered from responsible polluters. To speed up remediation, Congress passed the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/superfund/superfund-amendments-and-reauthorization-act-sara">Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act</a> (SARA) in 1986. SARA directed EPA to pursue permanent remedies for toxic contamination rather than seeking simply to contain waste. It also increased the trust fund from US$1.6 billion to $8.5 billion. Three further rounds of reforms in the 1990s expanded public involvement and enforcement, highlighted environmental justice and attempted to make the program more cost-effective. </p>
<p>In 1995 the Superfund tax expired and Congress did not renew it. Critics <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=1pbDCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT14&lpg=PT14&dq=revesz+superfund&source=bl&ots=d8mKBZ9Cw2&sig=SMyMWdhmgk-mRdSKBRPKzX-pv9Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjD74q5ss_TAhXKTSYKHXVpAb8Q6AEINjAE#v=onepage&q=revesz%20superfund&f=false_">argued</a> that EPA spent too much money on litigation trying to get polluters to pay, that few sites were cleaned and that those that were cleaned took longer than necessary. In addition, they <a href="http://www.heritage.org/node/20734/print-display">asserted</a> that sites should be cleaned up to levels that were appropriate to their future uses, rather than to a uniform level. </p>
<p>Since 1995, although a majority of cleanups have been paid for by the responsible polluters, EPA has requested funds from Congress to remediate sites where the polluter cannot be identified or has gone out of business. The state where the site is located pays 10 percent of costs for these projects. </p>
<p>Between 1999 and 2013 Superfund appropriations decreased by 45 percent, <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-812">from $2.1 billion to $1.1 billion</a>, although EPA received <a href="https://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/843A292279CAFA29852575990056E22E">an additional $600 million</a> through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009. <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/680/672734.pdf">According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office</a>, funding shortfalls forced EPA to delay the start of approximately one-third of new projects that were ready to begin during this period. Spending at cleanup sites fell from roughly $700 million yearly to $400 million annually, and the number of project completions declined by 37 percent.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Nearly one in six Americans lives within three miles of a Superfund site.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Health and economic payoffs</h2>
<p>In spite of shrinking budgets, Superfund has been relatively successful. In total, 392 sites have been cleaned up and <a href="https://www.epa.gov/superfund/deleted-national-priorities-list-npl-sites-state">delisted</a>, ranging from landfills to former military sites. Currently there are 1,337 sites on the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/superfund/national-priorities-list-npl-sites-state">Superfund list</a>, with another 53 proposed sites <a href="https://www.epa.gov/superfund/proposed-national-priorities-list-npl-sites-state">under review</a>. At Superfund sites that are being reused, EPA <a href="https://www.epa.gov/superfund-redevelopment-initiative/redevelopment-economics-superfund-sites#national">estimates</a> that in 2014 approximately 3,400 businesses were operating, generating $31 billion in sales and employing 89,000 people.</p>
<p>Research shows that removing toxic waste from these sites provides major health and economic benefits. A <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w16844">2011 study</a> estimated that cleanups reduced the risk of congenital anomalies in newly born babies living near sites by 20 to 25 percent. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2012.12.001">Another study</a> estimated that residential property values that were within three miles of a cleaned and delisted Superfund site increased by approximately 19 to 25 percent between 1990 and 2000.</p>
<p>Toxic waste sites also raise environmental justice concerns. Several analyses have <a href="http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-resource-083110-120011">found</a> that neighborhoods around Superfund sites tend to be lower-income and have more minority residents. One study examined the duration of cleanups and found that sites in neighborhoods that were black, urban and had lower-income residents <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2014.04.028">took longer to be cleaned up prior to 1994</a>. However, this effect diminished over time – possibly as a result of SARA reforms that required program managers to give greater weight to environmental justice concerns. </p>
<h2>Doing less with less</h2>
<p>In 2016 the Environmental Protection Agency received approximately US$1.1 billion from Congress for the program and obtained nearly $1 billion from identified polluters of Superfund sites. President Trump’s 2018 budget <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/budget/fy2018/2018_blueprint.pdf">asserts</a> that cutting support for Superfund by 30 percent will reduce administrative costs and make the program more efficient. It also calls on EPA to find ways to return sites to community control more quickly. </p>
<p>Superfund budget reductions over the past decade reduced the number of sites cleaned up and increased the time required to complete them. If EPA is expected to clean up more sites at a faster pace, cuts will have to come from other parts of the program, such as enforcement, research, planning and preparing for emergencies, such as oil spills and chemical releases. Scott Pruitt may praise Superfund, but if he wants to reduce the cleanup backlog and get more properties back into use, he will have to fight for it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74787/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Kiel received funding from the U.S. EPA in the 1990s for research on the impact of toxic waste sites on housing prices. </span></em></p>President Trump’s budget would cut funding for Superfund, which cleans up the nation’s most toxic sites, by nearly one-third. An economist explains how Superfund cleanups benefit local communities.Katherine Kiel, Professor of Economics, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/761202017-04-16T22:19:23Z2017-04-16T22:19:23ZWill we reverse the little progress we’ve made on environmental justice?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165321/original/image-20170413-10077-1fmoez4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Flint water crisis was one of the few cases of environment-related social injustices that reached national attention in recent years. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Tainted-at-the-Tap-Lead-Standard/715ac12fd99745be98ce4438bab65b18/184/0">AP Photo/Andrew Harnik</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Flint water crisis was perhaps the most high-profile example of the social inequalities tied to environmental issues. But it is hardly the first.</p>
<p>There is ample <a href="http://annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-environ-082508-094348">evidence</a> that hazardous waste facilities, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-you-live">Superfund sites</a>, sources of toxic air and water pollution, and other environmental nuisances are more likely to be located in poor and minority communities, and that these communities face disproportionate health risks as a result.</p>
<p>After 20 years of federal polices failing to adequately address these types of issues, the EPA under President Obama was beginning to make progress on environmental justice. </p>
<p>Now following the election of President Trump and the appointment of Scott Pruitt to head the EPA, these positive developments are at risk of being reversed.</p>
<h2>What is environmental justice?</h2>
<p>The EPA <a href="https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice">defines environmental justice</a> as the “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.”</p>
<p>It was in 1994 that President Clinton issued an <a href="https://www.archives.gov/files/federal-register/executive-orders/pdf/12898.pdf">executive order</a> in that directed the EPA and other federal agencies to integrate environmental justice considerations into their policies, programs and decision-making. Despite this presidential directive, the EPA was slow to act to take on this issue and the executive order became little more than symbolic policy.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165322/original/image-20170413-25870-jk5u7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165322/original/image-20170413-25870-jk5u7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165322/original/image-20170413-25870-jk5u7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165322/original/image-20170413-25870-jk5u7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165322/original/image-20170413-25870-jk5u7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165322/original/image-20170413-25870-jk5u7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=668&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165322/original/image-20170413-25870-jk5u7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=668&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165322/original/image-20170413-25870-jk5u7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=668&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Created in the early 1990s, the office of Environmental Equity was later renamed the Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ). In its first two decades, it was largely a symbolic office within the EPA.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://blog.epa.gov/blog/2014/02/mama-johnson/">EPA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I edited a book in 2015 called <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/failed-promises">“Failed Promises</a>,” which brought together a team of social scientists to evaluate federal environmental justice policy. My colleagues and I found the federal government has largely fallen short of its commitments to address the disproportionate environmental burdens on low-income and minority communities. </p>
<p>The EPA during the Obama administration, however, dramatically changed course. The agency not only prioritized environmental justice in principle, it also invested significant resources to take on the issue with genuine seriousness and rigor. Backed by the strong personal commitments of Administrator Lisa Jackson and her successor, Gina McCarthy, the agency for the first time developed the guidance, procedures and tools necessary for taking concrete action to redress income- and race-based disparities in environmental protection. </p>
<p>For example, the EPA designed a new screening and mapping tool, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen">EJSCREEN</a>, to inform agency decisions. EJSCREEN provides information about the relationship between environmental risk and socioeconomic factors in local communities, providing officials (and the public) with a clear picture of vulnerabilities at different locations across the country.</p>
<p>In 2011, the EPA released its <a href="https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/plan-ej-2014">Plan EJ 2014</a>, which was followed a few years later by <a href="https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/about-ej-2020#about">EJ 2020 Action Agenda</a>, a 5-year strategic plan for advancing environmental justice. </p>
<p>These efforts began to pay dividends in the final years of the Obama administration, as the EPA more routinely considered environmental justice in its activities. This also came into play when, for example, officials evaluated the costs and benefits of new regulations, monitored toxic pollutants outside refineries and set federal enforcement priorities. </p>
<p>The record was not perfect. The EPA’s Civil Rights Office did not resolve its <a href="http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/Statutory_Enforcement_Report2016.pdf">historical mismanagement of Title VI claims</a> which are made by communities when they believe recipients of federal monies are violating their civil rights (e.g., a state agency issuing a permit for a new power plant in already overburdened minority neighborhood). And the agency <a href="https://www.epa.gov/office-inspector-general/report-drinking-water-contamination-flint-michigan-demonstrates-need">failed to effectively intervene</a> as the lead contamination crisis unfolded in Flint, Michigan. Nevertheless, a fair assessment is that the agency had started to turn the corner on environmental justice.</p>
<h2>What now?</h2>
<p>The future of environmental justice policy at the EPA during the Trump administration is vulnerable to diminishment, if not outright reversal.</p>
<p>Since taking the reins at the EPA, Scott Pruitt has focused most of his attention on reaching out to manufacturing, agriculture, mining and other industries affected by EPA regulation, as well as starting the rollback of high-profile regulations, such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-slams-brakes-on-obamas-climate-plan-but-theres-still-a-long-road-ahead-75252">Clean Power Plan </a>and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-farmers-and-ranchers-think-the-epa-clean-water-rule-goes-too-far-72787">Waters of the United States rule</a>.</p>
<p>Early indications are that policy retrenchment will run deep, as exemplified by the severe budget cuts proposed for the EPA. The targeted 31 percent budget cut to the agency overall means both direct and indirect threats to the EPA’s environmental justice efforts. </p>
<p>Most directly, the Trump administration has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/budget-reflects-trumps-vow-to-cut-epa-in-almost-every-form/2017/03/15/0611db20-09a5-11e7-a15f-a58d4a988474_story.html?utm_term=.3011f4070850">proposed to eliminate</a> the Office of Environmental Justice. This small office, created in 1992, serves to coordinate environmental justice activities throughout the agency. In the near term, the office was expected to play a key role in implementing the goals of EJ 2020 Action Agenda, including coordinating more comprehensive public outreach to vulnerable communities.</p>
<p>The proposed budget, if enacted by Congress, will affect the EPA’s environmental justice agenda in other ways as well. The Trump administration’s plans to scale back enforcement efforts by cutting resources and personnel are particularly important. Because major sources of pollution, such as power plants and oil refineries, tend to be located in poor and minority areas, any changes that result in more lax enforcement of environmental rules will disproportionately affect these communities. </p>
<p>Moreover, despite Scott Pruitt’s insistence that <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/04/11/523450904/cash-strapped-state-environmental-agencies-brace-for-budget-cuts">state governments will pick up the slack</a>, there is reason to doubt this happening given states’ own budgetary pressures. At the same time, the Trump budget <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/324242-trump-proposes-deep-cuts-to-epa-federal-climate-funding">proposes cuts</a> to the EPA’s grant programs to states, which will, in turn, weaken their enforcement capabilities to monitor pollution, carry out inspections or build legal cases against companies violating environmental laws.</p>
<p>And, of course, if the EPA rolls back existing regulations that target large sources of pollution, it is communities of color and low-income that are likely to fare worse. Regulations designed to improve air quality, water quality and the disposal of hazardous substances often benefit these communities the most, given they tend to live in closer proximity to such pollution risks.</p>
<p>Policy retrenchment at the EPA will affect all of us, as well as future generations, but it is the poor and minorities who stand to lose the most.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76120/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Konisky currently receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.</span></em></p>Addressing social and health inequalities from pollution is no longer a priority at the EPA. What did the Office of Environmental Justice do and what will happen if it’s shut down?David Konisky, Associate Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/744892017-04-13T01:39:16Z2017-04-13T01:39:16ZIn planned EPA cuts, US to lose vital connection to at-risk communities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164721/original/image-20170410-31898-6avxwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Activists, federal workers and union representatives rallied for environmental protection policies at the EPA. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/afge/33332539851/in/album-72157679761789290/">American Federation of Government Employees</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recent headlines point to a relentless undoing of policy and process within the Environmental Protection Agency. </p>
<p>The Trump budget calls for slashing the EPA budget <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-budget-would-cut-epa-funding-by-31-eliminate-programs-for-waterway-cleanup-1489636861">by an estimated 31 percent</a>. Staff would be reduced by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/04/07/epa-staffer-leaves-with-a-bang-blasting-agency-policies-under-trump/?utm_term=.fd74e5760da3">25 percent</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/04/07/epa-staffer-leaves-with-a-bang-blasting-agency-policies-under-trump/?utm_term=.0bdf923ec81c">50 programs could see cuts</a>, such as ones designed to lower the health risks from <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/04/05/trumps-epa-moves-to-defund-programs-that-protect-children-from-lead/?utm_term=.a78a8d8a988c">lead paint</a>. </p>
<p>In all likelihood, the first communities to feel effects of a dismantled EPA are those who consistently pay the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trumps-epa-cuts-are-going-to-hit-black-people-the-hardest_us_58e69a4fe4b07da81324f5ec">biggest price</a> when policy strays from being focused on people. It will be <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/05/14/478040492/native-americans-relocation-from-louisiana-home-first-climate-change-refugees">the indigenous people</a>, <a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/02/10/us/politics/climate-change-is-of-growing-personal-concern-to-us-hispanics-poll-finds.html?referer=&_r=0">the populations who live in poverty</a> and <a href="https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_record_report.cfm?dirEntryId=56219">at-risk communities</a> – often populated by people of color – <a href="https://talkpoverty.org/2017/01/16/shopping-cart-food-stamp-household-not-new-york-times-reported/">who typically feel</a> the sharp cuts and <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/03/east-chicago-indiana-drinking-water-lead">public health effects</a> first and fully.</p>
<p>As scholars studying the framing of climate and environmental messaging to different audiences, we expect dramatic changes in the communication sphere as EPA changes take effect. In a <a href="https://qz.com/877447/the-overwhelming-whiteness-of-the-us-environmentalist-movement-is-hobbling-the-fight-against-climate-change/">recent article</a>, we explored how environmental and climate messages are often constructed by and for a predominantly white audience. </p>
<p>The planned cuts in EPA programs would <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trumps-epa-cuts-are-going-to-hit-black-people-the-hardest_us_58e69a4fe4b07da81324f5ec">exacerbate</a> this existing environmental racism further by severing a critical communication channel between the federal government and disadvantaged communities.</p>
<h2>Champion for environmental justice</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164593/original/image-20170410-3845-xjuofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164593/original/image-20170410-3845-xjuofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164593/original/image-20170410-3845-xjuofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164593/original/image-20170410-3845-xjuofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164593/original/image-20170410-3845-xjuofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164593/original/image-20170410-3845-xjuofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164593/original/image-20170410-3845-xjuofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164593/original/image-20170410-3845-xjuofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A founding member of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice, Mustafa Ali, resigned because of the direction of the Trump administration.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/people/mustafa-santiago-ali">Georgetown University</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since the early 1990s, Mustafa Ali and his staff in the Office of Environmental Justice worked on outreach around environmental racism, turning the office into a touchpoint with grassroots organizations across the country and hub of activism and information. The office’s <a href="https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/about-office-enforcement-and-compliance-assurance-oeca#oej">mission</a> is to integrate environmental justice into the agency’s programs and policies. By becoming a network of information and communication practices, it has become a catalyst for environmental justice over the last two decades.</p>
<p>But the proposed budget ends funding and staff for the Office of Environmental Justice. In a strongly worded letter addressed to new EPA Director Scott Pruitt, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/03/09/epas-environmental-justice-leader-steps-down-amid-white-house-plans-to-dismantle-program/?utm_term=.e8ca221a65cc">Ali resigned</a> in early March, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3514958-Final-Resignation-Letter-for-Administrator.html">writing</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The upcoming choices you make will have significant impacts on the public health and environment of our country. Those choices can stand as a beacon of hope, and as a powerful role model to the rest of the world on our priorities and values. Those choices will be magnified ten-fold in our most vulnerable communities and will highlight the value we place on the lives in those communities who are too often overlooked and forgotten.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Only weeks earlier, a <a href="https://twitter.com/EPAScottPruitt/status/832735779407409152">tweet</a> on taking office from EPA Director Scott Pruitt – <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/trumps-epa-chief-rejects-that-carbon-dioxide-emissions-cause-climate-change/519054/">a climate change skeptic</a> and former Oklahoma attorney general who <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scott-pruitt-environmental-protection-agency_us_5878ad15e4b0b3c7a7b0c29c">sued the agency 13 times</a> over environmental protections – conspicuously left out any mention of people and communities. Instead, Pruitt focused on businesses, which stand to gain from the dismantling air and water policies. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"832735779407409152"}"></div></p>
<h2>Community work</h2>
<p>Yet EPA programs directly impact citizens in multiple ways, including at-risk communities. For example, the EPA currently runs programs to help Alaskan villages fight climate change and urban communities to face public health issues. </p>
<p>Mike Cox, a 25-year EPA staffer who recently quit because of these policy changes, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/04/07/epa-staffer-leaves-with-a-bang-blasting-agency-policies-under-trump/?utm_term=.5dc534e2cbb3">noted in a letter to Pruitt</a> that overwhelming environmental issues are happening now. Pacific Northwest communities are hurt by warming streams that affect salmon migration; farmers and agricultural workers are harmed by droughts. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164723/original/image-20170410-31873-1p72fa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164723/original/image-20170410-31873-1p72fa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164723/original/image-20170410-31873-1p72fa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164723/original/image-20170410-31873-1p72fa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164723/original/image-20170410-31873-1p72fa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164723/original/image-20170410-31873-1p72fa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164723/original/image-20170410-31873-1p72fa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164723/original/image-20170410-31873-1p72fa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The EPA runs programs to engage with local communities on environmental projects, such as this 2011 meeting with Alaska tribes on a watershed assessment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usepagov/6994027070/in/photolist-bE3dxu-bSWXmp-bSEmxg-bDKSJm-4CniDL-4C6Nec-bSE7hX-bDKCH3-bSEgh4-bE3dzC-fEtuod-fEbU7X-fEtuby-bDKzLC-bDKSNw-bSEAYk-qPSvov-pT6vhF-fCkAyZ-hywyNu-oSu5E6-oezH1P-bi62x4-fEtBM1-bi62D6-fEtATU-oWkQN5-oStB8f-fEbXE8-fEbYSc">EPA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once the Office of Environmental Justice and other community-oriented programs are scaled back or cut, the networks for disseminating information about them will fall into a communication abyss.</p>
<p>Moreover, cuts in staff and programs mean a significant loss in organizational memory. Theorists propose that <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2885.1992.tb00045.x/full">lists and stories</a> curated and passed through communication channels via organizational leaders to multiple audiences represent standards, accountability and certainty. Without this institutional memory, the very concept of an agency dedicated to environmental protection against socially constructed racism loses equity built over decades.</p>
<h2>Grassroots communication</h2>
<p>Can other organizations fill new gaps in communication? </p>
<p>One new Oregon data <a href="http://www.upstreamresearch.com/">company</a> focuses on aggregating local, state, federal and global data to show environmental health risks for any given location. Clothing and outdoor gear brand Patagonia sponsors a <a href="http://www.patagonia.com/tools-conference.html">Grassroots Activists Conference</a> biannually. <a href="https://www.seventhgeneration.com/come-clean/come-clean-rally-sacramento-ca">Seventh Generation</a>, a cleaning products brand, works to provide information and activism about toxic chemicals in California. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164725/original/image-20170410-31873-1opgocu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164725/original/image-20170410-31873-1opgocu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164725/original/image-20170410-31873-1opgocu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164725/original/image-20170410-31873-1opgocu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164725/original/image-20170410-31873-1opgocu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164725/original/image-20170410-31873-1opgocu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164725/original/image-20170410-31873-1opgocu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164725/original/image-20170410-31873-1opgocu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A research ship in Puget Sound studying the impact on local fisheries of pollution in water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usepagov/8408029975/in/photolist-bDKSNw-bSEgh4-mYs9X5-bSE7hX-bDKzLC-fEbYSc-fEtATU-mYqjzp-bSEAYk-bSWXmp-bDKCH3-6Xf7ym-fEbXE8-bE3dzC-smMUKn-dYpoXq-dNZmo4-dP5Y6A-6Xb86a-6Xb84Z-6Xb856-6Xf7yh-6Xf7xL">EPA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But businesses generally focus on profit margins even when seeking to mitigate social problems, no matter their best intent. </p>
<p>Community activism is sure to increase in this era – consider the number of protests over the last weeks – as will grassroots approaches. Local governments might help in addressing cataclysmic issues, but as witnessed in the Flint, Michigan water crisis, environmental problems are difficult to address when communities have strained budgets and no scientific platform. </p>
<p>To combat this, studies suggest that <a href="https://concept.journals.villanova.edu/article/viewFile/244/208">grassroots communication</a> within neighborhoods and tribal communities ensure culturally appropriate messages. Yet major challenges for such engagement arise in the form of time, organization, consistent knowledge and budgets.</p>
<p>That’s why no coalition of people and organizations with good intent can fully replace policy, best practices and precedent established at the EPA. Furthermore, the tragedy is compounded when what is lost is language and connection: the robust and well-framed communication plan, the organizational memory holding that plan in place efficiently and the messages and outreach to at-risk communities with empathy and solutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74489/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deborah Morrison receives funding from NTCI (National Institute for Transportation and Communities).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Smith Dahmen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The EPA served as a conduit between the federal government and at-risk communities. Communications scholars look at how environmental justice issues could be set back in scaled-down EPA.Deborah Morrison, Professor of Advertising, University of OregonNicole Smith Dahmen, Assistant Professor of Visual Communication, School of Journalism and Communication, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/440732015-06-30T17:32:55Z2015-06-30T17:32:55ZSupreme Court’s EPA mercury ruling is a victory for common sense regulation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86869/original/image-20150630-5819-19cc8do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The EPA seemed to think the benefits so outweighed the costs that the latter weren't worth considering.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cost benefit via www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Supreme Court <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-46_10n2.pdf">ruled</a> this week that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) misinterpreted the Clean Air Act when it deemed cost irrelevant to its decision to <a href="http://www.epa.gov/mats/actions.html">regulate</a> mercury levels in power plants. </p>
<p>This is a victory for common sense regulation, and for Americans who object to government agencies spending consumers’ money as if it were free.</p>
<p>In a 5-4 opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia, the majority sided with petitioners (electric utilities and 23 states), who argued that the EPA acted improperly in setting 2012 “<a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-02-16/pdf/2012-806.pdf">mercury and air toxics standards</a>,” without considering the US$9.6 billion per year price tag.</p>
<h2>Appropriate and necessary</h2>
<p>The key statutory phrase in Section 112 of <a href="http://www2.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-air-act">the Clean Air Act</a>, which authorizes the EPA to regulate to control hazardous air pollutants, including mercury, is whether the standard is “appropriate and necessary.” </p>
<p>In setting the 2012 standards, the EPA interpreted this phrase as not requiring it to consider costs. The majority of the court disagreed, observing “[o]ne would not say that it is even rational, never mind ‘appropriate,’ to impose billions of dollars in economic costs in return for a few dollars in health or environmental benefits.” </p>
<p>The majority observed that the EPA valued the benefits of the reductions in mercury emissions at $4–$6 million per year. It also noted that “the costs to power plants were thus between 1,600 and 2,400 times as great as the quantifiable benefits from reduced emissions of hazardous air pollutants.” </p>
<p>As I <a href="https://theconversation.com/justices-debate-benefits-and-costs-of-epa-mercury-power-plant-rule-39551">noted</a> in an earlier piece, the primary health benefits the EPA calculated result from reducing mercury emissions, which, when deposited in water can accumulate in fish and affect the IQ of children who consume large amounts of fish. The EPA puts a dollar value on the change in IQ, ranging from $500,000 to $6.2 million per year.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-46_10n2.pdf">dissent</a> joined by three other justices, Justice Elena Kagan agreed that “[c]ost is almost always a relevant – and usually, a highly important – factor in regulation.” However, she argued that the EPA did consider costs, but at a later stage in its rulemaking. </p>
<p>The dissent also emphasized that the EPA’s regulatory impact analysis “estimated that the regulation’s yearly costs would come in at under $10 billion, while its annual measurable benefits would total many times more – between $37 and $90 billion.” </p>
<h2>Calculating benefits</h2>
<p>The discrepancy between the benefit estimates emphasized by the majority opinion ($4-$6 million) and the dissent ($37-$90 billion) is interesting. </p>
<p>The larger figures depend on “co-benefits” or “ancillary benefits,” which derive from reductions in nonhazardous emissions of fine particles. These are not the focus of this regulation, and the Clean Air Act elsewhere <a href="https://theconversation.com/justices-debate-benefits-and-costs-of-epa-mercury-power-plant-rule-39551">authorizes</a> the EPA to regulate them more directly (and more cost-effectively). </p>
<p>The court ducked the question of whether the EPA acted appropriately when it stretched its authority in order to consider ancillary benefits while simultaneously ignoring consideration of costs. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Even if the EPA could have considered ancillary benefits when deciding whether regulation is appropriate and necessary — a point we need not address — it plainly did not do so here.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-46_10n2.pdf">concurring opinion</a>, Justice Clarence Thomas raises broader questions about “unconstitutional delegations we have come to countenance in the name of Chevron <a href="http://onward.justia.com/2012/05/21/chevron-deference-your-guide-to-understanding-two-of-todays-scotus-decisions/">deference</a>.” </p>
<blockquote>
<p>What EPA claims for itself here is not the power to make political judgments in implementing Congress’ policies, nor even the power to make tradeoffs between competing policy goals set by Congress… It is the power to decide – without any particular fidelity to the text – which policy goals EPA wishes to pursue. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Setting a precedent</h2>
<p>While the Supreme Court’s decision may not directly affect EPA regulations authorized by other sections of the Clean Air Act, which do not share the “appropriate and necessary” language (such as the upcoming “Clean Power Plan” rules), this decision may set a precedent. </p>
<p>Both Justice Thomas’ concurrence and the majority opinion signal a reduced willingness to defer to the EPA’s interpretation of its statute. The court’s focus on the statutory text, and the agreement among all justices that costs are an important consideration, signal to agencies that “absent contrary indication from Congress, an agency must take costs into account in some manner before imposing significant regulatory burdens.” </p>
<p>The court notes that “‘cost’ includes more than the expense of complying with regulations; any disadvantage could be termed a cost.” And it rejects the EPA’s interpretation that “precludes the agency from considering any type of cost – including, for instance, harms that regulation might do to human health or the environment.” </p>
<h2>Who really bears the cost burden</h2>
<p>In this case, the incidence of regulatory costs will fall not on power plants but ultimately on households and individuals, who will face higher electric bills. These price increases could have a significant negative impact on the health and welfare of families, particularly those with low incomes. </p>
<p>Not only will these increases directly affect the affordability of such things as heat and air conditioning. Higher electricity prices will also increase the costs of food and other goods, diverting scarce family resources from priorities such as their children’s education or health care.</p>
<p>As the court concludes, “No regulation is ‘appropriate’ if it does significantly more harm than good.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44073/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Dudley served as the presidentially appointed Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the US Office of Management and Budget from April 2007 through January 2009.
</span></em></p>Regulations that do significantly more harm than good are never appropriate, as the court concluded.Susan E Dudley, Distinguished Professor of Practice, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration, and Director of the Regulatory Studies Center, George Washington UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/431222015-06-16T20:24:35Z2015-06-16T20:24:35ZWithout a global deal, US curbs on airline emissions are hot air<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85152/original/image-20150616-5829-9zvk23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C113%2C2074%2C1106&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">US domestic carriers won't face emissions curbs until the rest of the world's airlines do too.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAmerican_Airlines_Boeing_757-200_N668AA.jpg">Lasse Fuss/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week issued a “<a href="http://www.epa.gov/otaq/documents/aviation/aircraft-ghg-pr-anprm-2015-06-10.pdf">proposed finding</a>” that greenhouses gases from aviation pose a danger to the health and welfare of current and future generations. It could pave the way for regulations to limit domestic US aircraft emissions – but there are plenty of hurdles still to jump before that happens.</p>
<p>The EPA already regulates aircraft pollution such as engine smoke, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide – and has done so for <a href="http://www2.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-air-act">more than 30 years</a>. So on the face of it, its new finding that greenhouse gases “may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health and welfare” makes it sound like it will be a straightforward matter to add carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the list.</p>
<p>Using the EPA to rule on emissions-reduction issues is a tactic that the Obama administration has <a href="https://theconversation.com/obamas-use-of-regulation-to-make-environmental-policy-not-unusual-and-not-illegal-42875">used several times recently</a>. The new finding on aviation follows similar reports on emissions from <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/19/us/politics/obama-to-request-new-rules-for-cutting-truck-pollution.html">road haulage</a>
and <a href="http://www2.epa.gov/carbon-pollution-standards/clean-power-plan-proposed-rule">power plants</a>. </p>
<h2>High-flying problems</h2>
<p>Aviation is the most emissions-intensive form of transport, and also the <a href="http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09554.pdf">fastest-growing source of emissions in the transport sector</a>. What’s more, those emissions are essentially unregulated. This means that emissions from aviation are increasing against a background of decreasing emissions (or at least, against a background of emissions regulation) from many other industry sectors.</p>
<p>Based on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calculations, aviation <a href="http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09554.pdf">accounts for about 3% of global greenhouse emissions</a>, although the figure could be as low as 2% or as high as 8%. If the aviation industry was a country, its carbon dioxide emissions would be <a href="http://www.transportenvironment.org/sites/te/files/publications/2013%2009%20Your%20Guide%20to%20ICAO_final.pdf.">ranked</a> about 7th, between Germany and South Korea. </p>
<p>Air travel continues to <a href="http://www.transportenvironment.org/sites/te/files/publications/2013%2009%20Your%20Guide%20to%20ICAO_final.pdf">grow at 4-5% per year</a>, and although emissions from domestic flights are regulated under many countries’ existing greenhouse gas targets, international aviation emissions are not covered by any agreement. </p>
<p>Under the <a href="http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.pdf">Kyoto Protocol</a>, emissions from international flights are the responsibility of the International Civil Aviation Organization (<a href="http://www.icao.int/Pages/default.aspx">ICAO</a>). Aviation is excluded from international climate policy; the problem is left to the industry to resolve, and none of the more than 3,500 bilateral air service agreements in place across the world addresses the question of emissions.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.cate.mmu.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/Bridging_the_aviation_emissions_gap_010313.pdf">UK study found</a> that even if the expanding industry were to implement the “maximum feasible reductions” in emissions through changes to technology and operating procedures, total emissions from the sector may still roughly double by 2050, depending on growth. </p>
<h2>Learning from Europe’s aviation debacle</h2>
<p>The new US regulations will not attempt to include overseas airlines in its regulatory reach – something the European Union tried and failed when it <a href="http://theconversation.com/the-not-so-friendly-skies-the-eu-aviation-and-climate-change-10784">attempted</a> to incorporate overseas airlines into its Emissions Trading Scheme from 2012.</p>
<p>To head off that action, the US Congress in 2011 passed <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112s1956enr/pdf/BILLS-112s1956enr.pdf">legislation</a>, which President Obama signed, prohibiting US aircraft operators from participating in the EU scheme, essentially making it illegal for US airlines to comply with EU law.</p>
<p>The result was that the EU backed down, and announced that it would freeze the inclusion of international aviation in its ETS, offering instead to “<a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-12-854_en.htm">stop the clock</a>” and allow the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to address the problem of regulation.</p>
<p>This time around, the US regulations would apply to private and scheduled flights on domestic routes, as well as international flights by US carriers, but not to non-US airlines flying routes into the United States.</p>
<p>This may sound like progress, particularly for a country with such a large domestic aviation market. But there is yet another reason why this is only progress on paper, for now.</p>
<h2>I’ll do it if you do it</h2>
<p>The US EPA has <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/b05a0066-0fac-11e5-94d1-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=intl#axzz3civo5HUM">stated</a> that its proposed regulations will only be implemented if international standards for emissions are agreed by ICAO. That’s a problem, because since 1997 the ICAO has failed to agree on any kind of solid approach to the issue.</p>
<p>In 2013, the ICAO Assembly reached a <a href="http://www.icao.int/Meetings/a38/Documents/WP/wp430_en.pdf">consensus agreement</a> to proceed with a roadmap towards a decision on a global market-based mechanism at the next assembly in 2016, for implementation in 2020. It is the kind of “agreement to agree” that the world is growing rather used to on matters of climate policy. </p>
<p>EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality director Christopher Grundler <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b05a0066-0fac-11e5-94d1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3coYZRqMO">said</a> that the United States wants to wait until there are international standards, because this “will achieve the most reductions [in emissions]”. And Airlines for America’s Nancy Young has <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/epa-airplane-emissions-118829.html">described it as “critical” for the industry</a> that agreement should be international.</p>
<p>On one view, then, this is simply the illusion of progress. It suggests that the US regulations are a long way from coming into force, given that the rest of the world – through the ICAO – is making no real or immediate progress. </p>
<p>The reality is that implementation of rules to hold the aviation industry to account for its emissions is still years away.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43122/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Greenhouse emissions from the aviation industry are still largely unregulated. The prospect of regulations for US flights sounds like progress, but it won’t happen without an elusive international consensus.David Hodgkinson, Associate Professor, The University of Western AustraliaRebecca Johnston, Adjunct Lecturer, Law School, University of Notre Dame AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/424662015-06-03T10:28:49Z2015-06-03T10:28:49ZEPA’s Clean Water Rule: what’s at stake and what comes next<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83580/original/image-20150601-6993-15y3h8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Where do clean water rules begin and end? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_t_in_dc/5840694661/in/photolist-9U8636-pKB2w4-obZFLz-doSgTX-aWXLa2-a1qkFB-qaxD1q-hQPZ7j-it1QmM-ckfTCh-awbxcN-52R72W-6esS8g-6wfEyv-kXyi2T-6a5C9b-nzWDp8-87SFzC-8vnFrk-oj1khr-bkG4Vu-fb4jGy-gtUvHe-gtTjuA-bqERVN-5DL5N8-34yBBD-fJnVeT-dqY4Zv-bVa38W-gWQPXh-aEc4Rf-e9NEaG-oGxjwi-2qobfs-7CNFgN-p1mj2X-pJruEg-q1CVcD-q1NwJM-iKsVKf-p54Qwi-quU6CH-7CKbR6-9DDMwT-7CJRGx-9DGvPW-7CP1HL-4qU5Ez-6s2qe2">Mr.TinDC</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers released the long-anticipated <a href="http://www2.epa.gov/cleanwaterrule">Clean Water Rule</a>. The new rule aims to clarify years of confusion about which waters – including certain tributaries, marshes and wetlands – fall within the definition of “waters of the United States” and are protected under the Clean Water Act (CWA). </p>
<p>The Supreme Court has always recognized that the CWA extends beyond navigable rivers and lakes to wetlands, marshes and other connected waterways. </p>
<p>Beginning in 2001, however, several decisions from the Supreme Court raised uncertainty about how far that jurisdiction reaches. The legal question has been where to draw the line of connectivity in the ecosystem when considering the impact on water quality downstream. </p>
<p>As a result of the confusion, government agencies, private landowners and others have engaged in a laborious and time-consuming, case-by-case analysis. A body of water that has a significant nexus, a phrase coined by Justice Anthony Kennedy, to a “jurisdictional” waterway (or one covered by the law) determines whether the CWA applies. The new rule seeks to be more specific on which waters are subject to the CWA. </p>
<p>Despite bitter public opposition from industries including homebuilders, energy developers and agriculture, the clarity and certainty provided by the rule presents a welcome change from the time-consuming individualized determinations that characterized the last decade. From the conservation perspective, the new rule protects clean water, reduces pollution and addresses upstream impacts on downstream vulnerable waterways.</p>
<h2>Rule-making process and the rule</h2>
<p>The nearly 300-page rule results from extensive public engagement, including over one million public comments and more than 400 meetings with stakeholders around the country.<br>
The process included a comprehensive review of all relevant literature, including over 1,200 peer-reviewed publications focused on the influence of upstream water quality on downstream water conditions. The EPA compiled this information in a draft report, sought additional peer review from the independent Science Advisory Board and released the <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/01/15/2015-00339/connectivity-of-streams-and-wetlands-to-downstream-waters-a-review-and-synthesis-of-the-scientific">findings</a> in January of 2015.</p>
<p>The Science Report concluded, among other things, that the scientific literature demonstrates that tributary streams, regardless of their size or frequency of flow, as well as wetlands, are connected to downstream waters and influence their integrity and function. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83583/original/image-20150601-6981-ys6s78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83583/original/image-20150601-6981-ys6s78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83583/original/image-20150601-6981-ys6s78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83583/original/image-20150601-6981-ys6s78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83583/original/image-20150601-6981-ys6s78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83583/original/image-20150601-6981-ys6s78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83583/original/image-20150601-6981-ys6s78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83583/original/image-20150601-6981-ys6s78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">EPA administrator Gina McCarthy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/29388462@N06/14444445141/in/photolist-o1pyiB-o1pPYp-o1H6F6-o1H5KP-nJ7YWv-nJ7ayW-o2o1yv-qQ2gbe-nJ6XDz-o1uPEw-qxsZT5-qxAGig-nZD23o-punyH4-k4ANJB-nJPJvk-k4Az4F-f147ND-f1im5C-f1igCS-f13ZUk-f13YYH-nGKp6M-n644kD-n644iz-n64bkt-n65VA5-n64be6-kUsTE2-nJPJtg-qYLMrg-q2VsEo-qGm3Mu-qGm3KA-qGuWLx-q38VJt-q38VLc-qGm439-qYQZCd-f1ih4N-f1igS1-f1iisU-oacj1u-f1igps-f1ikFs-o924tf-f1irG9-f13Xxc-f13XQt-q2VsBN">Chesapeake Bay Program</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The new rule can be thought of as dividing waters into three categories – <em>in, subject to analysis</em>, and <em>out</em>. </p>
<p>Waters that are <em>in</em> are not subject to any additional analysis of whether the CWA applies. This category includes water that can float a boat, coastal waters, interstate waters, water impounded behind dams, flowing rivers and lakes. The rule leaves unchanged the longstanding protections for waters that have always been considered jurisdictional. </p>
<p>Tributary water is defined as those waters with an ordinary high water mark and a bed and a bank, but not requiring the water to be navigable or flow year-round. In the past, tributary water was often evaluated on case-by-case basis to determine its significance to a downstream waterway. Under the new rule, tributary water is automatically within the reach of the CWA’s protections. </p>
<p>Adjacent waters include wetlands, ponds, oxbows and other waters that are adjacent to other covered waters. The rule defines these adjacent waters as any water body within the mapped 100-year floodplain. If waters are within 100 feet of the ordinary high water mark of covered water - or within the 100-year floodplain and within 1,500 feet of the ordinary high water mark of covered waters - then they are considered jurisdictional and are covered. The new rule draws these geographic lines, for the first time in the law’s 40-year history, and provides a level of bright-line clarity that has not been included before now. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83584/original/image-20150601-6967-di5hfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83584/original/image-20150601-6967-di5hfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83584/original/image-20150601-6967-di5hfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83584/original/image-20150601-6967-di5hfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83584/original/image-20150601-6967-di5hfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83584/original/image-20150601-6967-di5hfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83584/original/image-20150601-6967-di5hfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83584/original/image-20150601-6967-di5hfc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rejik/5579375214/in/photolist-9v2KSo-bFH7yR-2g9sq4-4uXCZF-9haXE4-nxV9tW-nxV7KW-nxVb6J-awbrYw-77mBDN-bkv6L3-8DD1oU-it61qM-pKD94N-9U8636-dRUvMH-dRUuuF-pKB2w4-obZFLz-doSgTX-kowFrq-kowF89-aWXLa2-9zLgMz-a1qkFB-qaxD1q-awhNn9-by6zpv-hQPZ7j-it1QmM-ckfTCh-7cZW4U-awbxcN-34Dbzd-52R72W-6esS8g-6wfEyv-5DL5N8-34yBBD-fJnVeT-dqY4Zv-bVa38W-gWQPXh-aEc4Rf-e9NEaG-kXyi2T-oGxjwi-2qobfs-7CNFgN-6a5C9b">Reji/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The second category of waters includes those that are subject to a case-by-case analysis. For these waters, the agencies will analyze the relationship to downstream waters by looking at whether actions have a significant effect on, or significant nexus to, conditions downstream. This category includes bodies of water that the rule sets out as deserving special consideration, including prairie potholes, Carolina and Delmarva bays, pocosins, western vernal pools in California, and Texas coastal prairie wetlands. This category also includes adjacent waters that are within the 100 year floodplain and within 4,000 feet of the ordinary high water mark of covered water. In conducting the case-by-case analysis under the new rule, the agencies are to consider not each feature individually, but the system in which they are a part in making the significant nexus conclusion. </p>
<p>The third category describes those waters that are excluded – or out of the reach of the CWA. The new rule retained all existing exclusions as well as adding some new categories. Those waters that are out include wetlands drained before a certain date, treatment ponds and lagoons, ditches, stormwater control features, water-delivery systems, artificial ponds used for livestock watering, groundwater and man-made channels, among others. In addition, this category also includes non-adjacent wetlands – those falling outside the 100-year floodplain and beyond 4,000 feet of jurisdictional water. These exclusions extend further than the previous rule. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83582/original/image-20150601-6997-1fs35uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83582/original/image-20150601-6997-1fs35uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83582/original/image-20150601-6997-1fs35uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83582/original/image-20150601-6997-1fs35uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83582/original/image-20150601-6997-1fs35uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83582/original/image-20150601-6997-1fs35uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83582/original/image-20150601-6997-1fs35uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Irrigation ditches – a concern for people in agriculture – are exempted from the new rule.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/29388462@N06/13384558283/in/photolist-ttikV9-dPjswM-6JtJpG-6hCijq-dPVFTx-oEx1XR-kkZB6B-a8emKG-dPjtbz-cjt8jE-moKmSg-moLWto-moM1r3-moLYn3-rKKjv4-3Gd4pS-fgJdyN-3mvFZB-9ykcQi-bvW7D-9yn7jJ-9yn7eC-9yj7JZ-8F5w16-e1AGoA-4bUKTf-dPqDes-4ni2qv-fg4x6r-qa64JS-e1v1NM-favsJ9-ffZGhH-ndK8gJ-33rrE6-7UMDiw-rkvA7b-3GcQxd-d6Eh3j-9qBzpV-5y4D5A-fA5o4D-fp5taR-fjzC7K">Chesapeake Bay Program</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As has always been the case, states and federally recognized tribes maintain their authority to implement their own programs to enact rules that are more protective than the standards provided at the federal level. </p>
<p>In all, the new rule expands the types of water that can be considered automatically protected by 3%, as estimated by the EPA. </p>
<p>Detailed case-by-case analysis is limited to categories of water listed for special consideration (seasonal wetlands, such as <a href="http://water.epa.gov/type/wetlands/potholes.cfm">prairie potholes</a> and <a href="http://water.epa.gov/type/wetlands/vernal.cfm">vernal pools</a>, as well as similar features) and waters that are outside the 100-year floodplain or within 4,000 feet from a jurisdictional waterway. </p>
<p>The new rule also contains a broader set of specific exemptions, including many for water features that were the most worrisome to critics of the proposed rule, such as many agricultural ditches. </p>
<h2>The road ahead</h2>
<p>Many in the conservation community are disappointed that the list of excluded waters has expanded, that geographical boundaries have been used for the first time in the history of the CWA to delineate jurisdiction, and that isolated wetlands, like the vernal pools, are not automatically covered. </p>
<p>Already some organizations are noting that the rule does not go as far as the underlying science would support. </p>
<p>On the other side of the fence, many of the people subject to regulation bristle at the expanded definition of tributary water and in general will accuse the agencies of jurisdictional overreach. Yet the intent of the rule is to provide the kind of consistency and clarity that has been sorely needed and often called for by those in the regulated community. </p>
<p>A bill in the House to <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/1732">block release</a> of the final rule has already passed, and <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/1140">similar legislation</a> has been introduced in the Senate. The White House has threatened veto. The rule will also face legal challenges on the rule-making process itself and the reach of the CWA. </p>
<p>Unless we are prepared to return to the uncertain regulatory landscape of the last decade or to dramatically change our shared commitment to clean water as embodied in the 40-year history of the CWA, these efforts to challenge the new rule seem more partisan and political than substantive. Either way, we are far from finished with this debate. </p>
<p>When the CWA was adopted in 1972, public sentiment supported clean healthy waterways. Perhaps that’s because the Cuyahoga River in Ohio was known to catch fire, raw sewage was regularly released into waterways like the Mississippi River and over two-thirds of the nation’s waterways were not safe for swimming. </p>
<p>Although rivers are no longer catching fire, clean, healthy water still needs protection. The Clean Water Rule offers a measured, predictable approach to addressing our shared commitment to clean water, recognizing the scientific reality that what happens upstream impacts all of us downstream.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42466/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adell Amos has received funding from National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the Willamette Water 2100 Project at Oregon State University.</span></em></p>The EPA is seeking to clarify the reach of the landmark Clean Water Act to cover tributaries, yet people in agriculture and homeowners worry it will lead to onerous permitting.Adell Amos, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Associate Professor of Environmental and Natural Resources Law, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.