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The article offers information on the climate policies in California and New York. It mentions the role played by politicians in the two states why their policies were considered as stronger in the U.S. along with the usefulness of the process and structural theories in the policy adoption of the two states. It discusses certain structural advantages and constraints that contributes to development of strong climate policies in California and New York. It highlights the similarities of the climate policies of the states and the reason why California's policy was stronger compared with New York's.

The article discusses the importance of urban forests. Topics discussed include ecological, economic, social, and aesthetic benefits from California's investment in urban forests; California's Global Warming Solutions Act; impact of climate change on urban ecosystems; laws under which municipalities manage urban forests; and the role of urban forests in carbon-sequestration.

In the United States, new environmental policy instruments have emerged to address some of the economic, social and environmental contradictions of neoliberal urbanism. Amongst these instruments, regional habitat conservation planning under the Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) is becoming de facto a suburban growth management tool widely deployed across different parts of Southern California. One reason why speculator-developers, property owners, conservationists, planners, municipalities and other suburban interests have bought into this tool is due to the growing link between the federal protection of endangered species and the availability of voter-approved funds for major road infrastructure projects. Evidence of this link is examined in the context of two regional conservation planning processes underway in Riverside County. The paper argues that inadvertently the Federal ESA has been transformed from a species protection law into a regulatory tool with which to co-ordinate private land development, public infrastructure provision and habitat conservation in suburbanising regions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The State of California is developing and implementing a new generation of environmental policies to transition to a low-carbon economy and energy system in order to reduce the risks of future damages from global climate change. At the same time, it is increasingly clear that climate change impacts are already occurring and that further effects cannot be completely avoided. Thus, anticipating and planning for emerging and potential future climate change impacts in California must complement the state's greenhouse gas mitigation efforts. These impacts will depend substantially on the future evolution of the state's social structure and economy. To support impact studies, this report describes socioeconomic storylines and key scenario elements for California that are broadly consistent with the global 'A2' and 'B1' storylines in the 2000 Special Report on Emissions Scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, including qualitative socioeconomic context as well as quantitative projections of key variables such as population, urbanization patterns, economic growth, and electricity prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the effectiveness of the use of conservation easements, which are partial-property-rights agreements that bind future landowners in perpetuity, to improve the science and practice of conservation through the analysis of conservation literature and multidisciplinary research on conservation easements. It explores the application of the outputs-outcomes-impacts logic model framework, an approach used to evaluate environmental policies, to conservation easements. It mentions the connections between debates regarding conservation easement permanence adaptation and the outputs-outcomes-impacts framework. Furthermore, a case study on the rangeland conservation easements at the Lassen Foothills in the northern part of California is discussed.

Problem: Even if significant reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions are achieved, some amount of climate change appears to be inevitable. Local, regional, state, and federal planning and regulation should begin to address how to adapt to these changes. Purpose: This article presents a policy synthesis of adaptation planning issues, using California as a case study. We examine the institutional and regulatory challenges and tradeoffs that climate change poses in six particularly vulnerable areas: water resources, electricity, coastal resources, air quality, public health, and ecosystem resources. We discuss obstacles to adaptation planning and successes overcoming these barriers, and suggest how planning can incorporate adaptation. Methods: This article presents a policy synthesis of adaptation planning issues, drawing on our recent research on California's experience and related literature. We summarize the results of six studies that draw on quantitative and qualitative information gathered through surveys, interviews, and literature review. Results and conclusions: Planners should use forward-looking climate data that include higher water and air temperatures, sea-level rise, and increased numbers of extreme events like heat waves, floods, and wildfires when making decisions about future development, infrastructure investments, open-space protection, and disaster preparedness. Climate change will exacerbate conflicts between goals for economic development, habitat protection, and public safety, requiring stronger interagency coordination and new laws and regulations. Takeaway for practice: Local and regional planners can help society adapt to a changing climate by using the best available science, deciding on goals and early actions, locating relevant partners, identifying and eliminating regulatory barriers, and encouraging the introduction of new state mandates and guidelines. Research support: Partial support for this research was provided by Pacific Gas and Electric, The Nature Conservancy, and Next 10. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In California v. U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Ninth Circuit held that the Bush administration improperly promulgated the 2005 State Petitions Rule in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, and reinstated the Clinton administration's 2001 Roadless Rule. The August 2009 ruling is only the latest decision in a nearly decade-long litigation battle over the fate of roadless areas. This battle began shortly after the Clinton administration promulgated the Roadless Rule, which sought to protect administratively 58.5 million acres of roadless lands from development. These roadless lands were initially identified as a result of the 1964 Wilderness Act, which directed the Forest Service to study such areas for potential inclusion into the wilderness system. This Note goes back to the root of the roadless area debate-the Wilderness Act itself-for insight into the issues surrounding roadless-area management. Roadless areas share many of the characteristics of wilderness, and often serve as precursors to wilderness designation. The value of roadless areas and their connection to wilderness have animated much of the modern struggle over roadless area management, including the Forest Service's roadless area reviews, the administrative rules promulgated by the Clinton and Bush administrations, and the ensuing litigation. California v. U.S. Department of Agriculture, the most recent decision concerning the Roadless Rule, signals a need for change. This Note argues that managing roadless areas through administrative rulemaking is not viable because it lacks the permanence necessary for lasting resource conservation. Additionally, it might conflict with the Wilderness Act and appears to be creating "de facto wilderness." In keeping with the Wilderness Act, Congress should provide more legislative guidance. It could codify the Roadless Rule into law, amend the Wilderness Act to provide for different levels of protection, or amend the National Forest Management Act to require the Forest Service to take roadless values into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the regulation of emissions from auxiliary engines on ocean-going vessels by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). It explores the response by the CARB to the harms caused by the regulatory failures at the international and national level with the Marine Vessel Rules. It also reflects on the application of the regulation by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the case Pacific Merchant Shipping Association v. Goldstene.

Urban national parks were designed in the 1970s to bring nature and recreational opportunities to socio-economically disadvantaged communities in the USA. Using the theoretical frame of environmental justice, this paper discusses findings of a recent survey of visitors to Los Angeles' Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area - the United States' largest urban national park. Findings show park visitors were predominantly white, affluent, and lived nearby. People of colour travelled further, were significantly less likely to be return visitors, and were less inclined to use the park for active recreation. Seemingly, this park fails to meet the needs of the disadvantaged urban communities for whom it was created, a problem that may also affect other parks in the United States and potentially parks in other countries. Park planners and managers can take practical steps to increase accessibility to this park for people of colour and low-income earners, and should monitor other parks for patterns of ethno-racially differentiated access and utilisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South Central Farm (SCF) in Los Angeles was a 14-acre urban farm in one of the highest concentrations of impoverished residents in the county. It was destroyed in July 2006. This article analyzes its epic as a landscape of resistance to discriminatory legal and planning practices. It then presents its creation and maintenance as an issue of environmental justice, and argues that there was a substantive rationale on the basis of environmental justice and planning ethics that should have provided sufficient grounds for the city to prevent its dismantling. Based on qualitative case study methodology, the study contributes to the formulation of creation and preservation rationales for community gardens and other “commons” threatened by eventual dismantlement in capitalist societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author addresses the issues facing California with regard to its regional cap-and-trade market linkage. The author highlights the benefits and costs of cap-and-trade linkage. On the other hand, she offers recommendations to protect California from damaging linkage without violating the Dormant Commerce Clause.

This article discusses the health impact of global trade on U.S. communities surrounded by ports, railroad yards and goods movement. According to the author, nearly half of all U.S. Imports come through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in Southern California. They contribute nearly a quarter of the regions diesel particulates and are the single largest source of pollution in Southern California. Throughout the U.S. there are more than 50,000 premature deaths due to ship emissions. Environmental justice groups have urged more regulations to protect communiities.

This article presents the results of a comparative study of environmental policy making in Toronto and Los Angeles. The study was intended to explain how social formations at the urban scale play an increasingly important role in constructing environmental policy and practice as articulated in documents, rhetoric and political actions. It is suggested that environmental policy is embedded in broader and more long-term political goals, and that ecological discourse is not only about the environment but also brings together various social projects under the environmental protection flag. The four case studies— in Toronto, contaminated soil and the Don River were examined, and in Los Angeles air pollution and the Los Angeles River—revealed considerable variation but all reflected an agenda of ecological modernisation. In particular it was found that demands for maintaining or improving environmental integrity and coherence have lost legitimacy to concerns for efficiency, competitiveness, marketability, flexibility and development. Similarly, market driven regulation and an openness to civil society have played a major role in transforming policy making apparatuses. In contrast, the cases revealed that relationships between nature and society go beyond those expected in ecological modernisation theory and include both social ecology and urban ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. Although previous environmental justice research has focused on analysis of the disproportionate burden of environmental hazards on minority residents, few studies have examined demographic inequities in health risks among children. This article evaluates the demographic distribution of potentially hazardous facilities and health risks associated with ambient air toxics exposures among public schoolchildren in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Methods. We combine Geographic Information System analysis with multivariate statistics to compare enrollment and demographic information for students who attend district schools with the spatial pattern of land use, locations of toxic emissions and facilities, and calculated indices of estimated lifetime cancer risk and respiratory hazards associated with exposures to toxic air emissions. Results. District schools are more likely to be located in census tracts containing potentially hazardous facilities; however, these tracts actually have slightly lower cancer and respiratory health risks associated with air toxics when compared to other tracts in the district. Demographic comparisons among school sites indicate that minority students, especially Latinos, are more likely to attend schools near hazardous facilities and face higher health risks associated with outdoor air toxics exposure. Conclusions. These patterns of hazard exposure and health risk should be considered both in the process of siting new schools to house the rapidly growing regional student population and in remediation efforts at existing schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the political obstacles that affected the implementation of the REgional CLean AIr Market (RECLAIM) in Los Angeles, California. History of the RECLAIM emission program; Analysis of the decisions concerning RECLAIM; Political barriers presented by consumer groups.

The emissions factor modeling component of the motor vehicle emissions inventory (MVEI) modeling suite is currently being revised by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). One of the proposed changes in modeling philosophy is a shift from using link-based travel activity data to trip-based travel data for preparing mobile emissions inventories. Also as part of the revisions, new speed correction factors (SCFs) will be developed by CARB for the revised model. The new SCFs will be derived from vehicle emissions on 15 new driving cycles, each constructed to represent a typical trip at a specific average speed. This paper discusses how the new SCFs will affect transportation conformity and emissions inventory development, and evaluates the differences in total emissions produced by trip-based and link-based distributions of speed and vehicle miles of travel (VMT). We simulated both link-based and trip-based speed-VMT distributions using travel data from the Sacramento and San Diego travel demand models. On the basis of the simulation results, there is reason to expect that mobile emissions inventories constructed using the proposed trip-based philosophy will differ markedly from those constructed in the current manner. Noting that results may vary by region, increases are expected in the CO and HC inventory levels, with concomitant decreases in the NO[subx] mobile emissions inventories.

Investigates the effect of emissions control strategies on the size and composition distribution of urban aerosol in Los Angeles, California. Presentation of the changes in the size and composition distribution of airborne particles; Emissions inventory summary; Specific emissions control measures for primary particulate matter.

Aerosol samplers collect material that is locally generated as well as that transported from upwind; knowing the extent of the area from which the sample is drawn is necessary for proper interpretation of sampler data. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) PM[sub2.5] monitoring guidelines recognize a conceptual hierarchy of sampler spatial representation, but provide no objective measures of a site's spatial representativeness. A case study of a sampler tributary area in central California provides insights into the factors that determine a sampler's spatial representation. Winter diurnal cycles of fine particle concentrations at places of habitation ranging from urban cores to small farm towns show a marked cycle that can be linked to local human activity. Assessment of the possible causes of the observed cycles leads to the hypothesis that local sources dominate primary particle mass in winter samples. The hypothesis was tested using a simple model to relate routine 24-hr PM[sub10] and PM[sub2.5] samples to a sampler's surroundings. Model results indicate that even minor sources very close to a sampler will overwhelm any regional component in a sample. The results for the cases studied also demonstrate that, in winter, most coarse (PM[sub10-2.5]) particles collected are less than 2 hr old, and most primary fine (PM[sub2.5]) particles are less than 4 hr old. Even on days that are not truly "stagnant," samplers are very strongly influenced by their immediate surroundings (distances less than 10 km), and only weakly influenced by regional emissions. The implications for interpretation of sample analyses are as follows: (1) Typical PM sampling networks are unlikely to represent regional conditions; (2) Similarity of samples in time and space between widely separated samplers probably arises from sampling analogous local environments rather than a uniformly mixed regional air mass; (3) Even weak... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indicates how science and social science can be combined to assess the range and effectiveness of policy alternatives available to environmental decision-makers. Cost-effective regulatory alternatives to the Los Angeles, California particulate sulfate problem; Application of both sciences to the relationship of emissions to pollution levels and environmental quality; Rejection of notion that a simple reduction in emissions leads to a commensurate reduction in pollution levels; Problem of applying licenses and emissions.

Discusses the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) need to focus on population growth in solving environmental problems in the Los Angeles Basin in California. Suit filed by environmental groups against the EPA to force it to produce a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) for California; Group Against Smog Pollution (GASP); Control of population growth from illegal immigration.

Evaluates plans for allocation of joint environmental control cost among polluters using the drainage water pollution problem of San Joaquin Valley of California. Cost allocation methods; Game theory cost allocation solutions; Description of the area studied; Stability of the allocation schemes.

Describes and evaluates the performance of the Regional Clean Air Center Incentives Market (RECLAIM) that started operating in Southern California in 1994. Background and history of RECLAIM; Measuring RECLAIM activity; Overall market activity of RECLAIM until February 26, 1996.

Policy directed at managing automobile pollution is complicated by the concern for legitimate means of control over urban populations. Especially in regions where vehicle diversity is extensive, uniform policies of in-use vehicle emissions control are not always effective, but any stratified regulatory effort that concentrates on "weeding out" those vehicles that are the worst offenders can result in an awkward administrative predicament involving public accountability. In California, this challenge is particularly serious since automobile culture is pervasive to the point of being the most significant aspect of the urban experience. The history of automobile pollution control in the state demonstrates that in imposing rules on vehicle owners concerning emissions, regulators have had to tread cautiously on the issue of "driving fights" by invoking a public awareness of risk in order to gain consent to their intrusions on the private spaces of driver-citizens. Disproportionate restrictions o,n older vehicles with malfunctioning or poorly functioning emission control systems could not only challenge the doctrine of fairness and point to a problem of social justice but also raise additional problems concerning individual rights in liberal democratic societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the Fourth Occasional California Workshop on Environmental and Resource Economics held at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) on October 16 and 17, 1999. Samples of papers presented evaluating policy and trends set by them; Funding from the United States Environmental Protection Agency; Schedule of next workshop.

The article reports that the United States has slowly cast aside its role as a leader in the field of environmental assessments because successive administrations have chipped away at the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) since it was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in January 1, 1970. The NEPA was enacted after the news coverage on the oil spill in Santa Barbara, California and the Cuyahoga River fire in Ohio. NEPA protections have slowly been taken away by Congress and by federal agencies which have issued the rules.

Reports on science-related issues in the United States, compiled as of March 23, 2001. Reactions of legislators on the policy reversal of U.S. President George W. Bush in relation to the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions; Restoration of the budget for three California Institutes for Science and Innovation two days after removing the budget to bolster an emergency fund to deal with the state energy crisis.