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Policy responses to the challenges associated with environmental change, including more frequent and severe climatic events, have interlinked environmental and social impacts. Less attention has been afforded to the latter, and specifically to the question of not just whether but how such responses create or entrench inequality. This paper examines policy responses to drought events in California, United States, and the Western Cape Province, South Africa, in terms of their effects on inequality, revealed in relationships to water access networks. We use concepts of water justice and hydraulic citizenship to evaluate how and why these policy responses reproduced water injustices in the two settings. We focus particularly on two mechanisms linking responses to widened inequalities: values‐reinforcement and strategic communication. Using interviews, policy documents, and media reports, we employ process tracing methods to illustrate these mechanisms through which drought policy impacts hydraulic citizenship experiences, manifesting water injustice. We contribute to emerging examinations of environmental policy responses and maladaptation by demonstrating how concepts of hydraulic citizenship and an emphasis on mechanisms can help us better understand and identify experiences of water injustice. We note policy implications and areas for future research, highlighting droughts as consequential policy sites for advancing social and environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pesticides are critical for protecting agricultural crops, but the off-site transport of these materials via spray drift and runoff poses risks to surface waters and aquatic life. California's Central Coast region is a major agricultural hub in the United States characterized by year-round production and intensive use of pesticides and other chemical inputs. As a result, the quality of many waterbodies in the region has been degraded. A recent regulatory program enacted by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board set new pesticide limits for waterways and imposed enhanced enforcement mechanisms to help ensure that water quality targets are met by specific dates. This regulatory program, however, does not mandate specific changes to pest management programs. In this study, we evaluate the economic, environmental, and pest management impacts of adopting two alternative pest management programs with reduced risks to surface water: 1) replacing currently used insecticide active ingredients (AIs) that pose the greatest risk to surface water with lower-risk alternatives and 2) converting conventional arthropod pest management programs to organic ones. We utilize pesticide use and toxicity data from California's Department of Pesticide Regulation to develop our baseline and two alternative scenarios. We focus on three crop groups (cole crops, lettuce and strawberry) due to their economic importance to the Central Coast and use of high-risk AIs. For Scenario 1, we estimate that implementing the alternative program in the years 2017–2019 would have reduced annual net returns on average by $90.26 – $190.54/ha, depending on the crop. Increased material costs accounted for the greatest share of this effect (71.9%–95.6%). In contrast, Scenario 2 would have reduced annual net returns on average by $5,628.12 – $18,708.28/ha during the study period, with yield loss accounting for the greatest share (92.8–97.9%). Both alternative programs would have reduced the associated toxic units by at least 98.1% compared to the baseline scenario. Our analysis provides important guidance for policymakers and agricultural producers looking to achieve environmental protection goals while minimizing economic impacts. • Agricultural pesticide use in California has degraded surface water quality. • New regulations will require growers to adopt more sustainable practices. • We analyze impacts of two lower-risk pest management programs in three crops. • Both program scenarios reduce toxic unit contributions by over 98% versus baseline. • In contrast, the economic impact differs greatly between scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between the early adoption of new technologies, the probability of firm survival, and environmental regulations through a case study of dry cleaners in the South Coast Basin of California (SC Basin). Most dry cleaners use machines that use the toxic chemical perchloroethylene (PERC) to clean garments. PERC vapors are emitted into the ambient air during the dry cleaning process and can cause cancer in people who live and work nearby. In 2002, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) required all dry cleaners in the region to purchase a costly alternative machine that used a non-toxic cleaning solvent by the year 2020. Using bivariate and multivariate analysis, we found that the timing of the early adoption of non-PERC machines among dry cleaners was optimal, ceteris paribus, and adopting early did not have a negative effect on the probability of surviving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014 the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) released CalEnviroScreen 2.0, developed to identify communities facing "multiple burdens of pollution and socioeconomic disadvantage" (CalEnviroScreen FAQs, 2016). Contemporaneously, California was suffering a severe drought. CalEPA implemented emergency water cutbacks such that community allowances ranged from approximately 70%–430% of the U.S. average for water consumption. Decades of research find that racial and ethnic minorities face greater environmental burdens than others. Did the CalEPA cutbacks disproportionately affect already burdened communities or those with higher percentages of minorities? Using geographic information systems and spatial regression analysis, we find that the water cutbacks did not, ceteris paribus, further stress already burdened communities, but communities with a more significant percentage of Hispanics are estimated to receive lower water allowances even controlling for poverty. This research broadens the areas in which we can look for environmental (in)justice beyond standard dis/amenities, and implies that even intra‐organizational policy goals of reducing environmental justice burdens may not be enough. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

Stormwater is a complex political and geographical problem. It is at once bound to land-use decisions, tied to geographical features such as lakes and rivers, and capable of flowing across different political boundaries and jurisdictions. In this paper, I empirically focus on how disparate understandings of stormwater are forged through different institutional arrangements and the ways multiple actors interact across scales of governance in Los Angeles. The results indicate four discourses influence decisions on urban stormwater management and are articulated through different forms of knowledge and power in environmental governance. The discourses diverge over contrasting perspectives on infrastructural interventions, the role of economic approaches, and the need for new institutions and rules. I suggest that disagreement may not deter integration and collaboration across different scales of governance, but without addressing conflict over key discursive claims about how stormwater governance should proceed, broadly accepted outcomes may remain elusive. With current trends in environmental governance moving towards hybrid forms that bring together groups that transcend traditional organizational structures, this paper reveals how more sustainable outcomes are being devised through current configurations of knowledge and power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights California's tri-partite statutory structure aimed at the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, linking air quality, transportation, and sustainable land use through regional and local planning. It examines laws to prevent global warming and greenhouse gas emissions by linking air quality, transportation, and sustainable land use1 through regional and local planning.

Fully-automated driverless vehicles will likely drastically change the way people and goods are transported, implicating land use and transportation. They would not only provide a convenient means of transportation to many, but also become an effective tool to reduce transportation-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which account for a large portion of the total emissions in many jurisdictions throughout the world. To encourage the use of fully-automated driverless vehicles as such a tool, this article proposes several legal mechanisms that should be adopted in California. Although these legal mechanisms have been developed based primarily on existing California laws, countries and jurisdictions throughout the globe that wish to efficiently minimise transportation-related emissions should consider adopting these legal mechanisms because they can readily be adopted in various jurisdictions including those currently lacking a legal framework similar to California's. This article proposes these legalmechanisms primarily by examining existing California laws intended to reduce the transportation-sector emissions, including the California GlobalWarming Solutions Act of 2006, or Assembly Bill 32, and the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008, or Senate Bill 375, and the potential impacts that driverless vehicles would have on GHG emissions based on expert opinions and literature review. The legal mechanisms proposed in this article would serve as foundations on which a more comprehensive scheme of GHG emissions reduction measures related to fully-automated driverless vehicles can be developed as driverless vehicle technology further develops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Both public health, and the health of the natural environment, are affected by policy decisions made across portfolios as diverse as finance, planning, transport, housing, education, and agriculture. A response to the interdependent character of public health has been the "health in all policies" (HiAP) approach. OBJECTIVES: With reference to parallels between health and environment, this paper argues that lessons from HiAP are useful for creating a new integrated environmental management approach termed "environment in all polices" (EiAP). DISCUSSION: This paper covers the theoretical foundations of HiAP, which is based on an understanding that health is strongly socially determined. The paper then highlights how lessons learned from HiAP's implementation in Finland, California, and South Australia might be applied to EiAP. It is too early to learn from evaluations of HiAP, but it is apparent that there is no single tool kit for its application. The properties that are likely to be necessary for an effective EiAP approach include a jurisdiction-specific approach, ongoing and strong leadership from a central agency, independent analysis, and a champion. We then apply these properties to Victoria (Australia) to demonstrate how EiAP might work. CONCLUSIONS: We encourage further exploration of the feasibility of EiAP as an approach that could make explicit the sometimes surprising environmental implications of a whole range of strategic policies. CITATION: Browne GR, Rutherfurd ID. 2017. The case for "environment in all policies": lessons from the "health in all policies" approach in public health. Environ Health Perspect 125:149-154; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/EHP294 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restoration ecology struggles to mitigate human‐caused ecological damage. Non‐native species are a particular challenge. This article describes two restoration attempts following introduced species in California and then makes a radical culling proposal. Environmental regulations, legal protections, and restoration projects are necessary to preserve ecosystem services, but such policies are often unpopular. Restorers often struggle when public opinion opposes evidence‐based practice, and this occurs particularly when the interventions involve killing mammals. Therefore, restoration efforts may benefit from more attention to how individuals perceive the acceptability of environmental policies and how to communicate policy options effectively for individuals to make informed decisions. Restoration ecology can follow the recent shift of medicine away from imperatives and toward informed patient choice. Restoration projects may benefit from recent advances in psychology and communication that help individuals make policy decisions that align with their personal values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional energy and demand savings metrics for distributed energy resources (DER) do not accurately describe the value of DERs to meet future energy needs, minimize grid investments, maintain reliability, and reduce greenhouse gasses. This problem is exacerbated in an increasingly renewable grid in which DER impact varies significantly with time and location. Moreover, different DERs are also valued using disparate metrics; this fragmented DER valuation and procurement creates process and economic inefficiencies. A new path forward is the Total System Benefits metric (TSB); the TSB aggregates all electric system benefits, and relevant environmental externalities that accrue to DERs. The TSB is the only metric that comprehensively values DER's to meet future electric system needs and environmental policy goals. This common metric will enable electricity planners, regulators, utilities, and implementers to best deploy and track DER to meet electric grid and environmental policy needs. This paper explains why the TSB is the right metric to value all DER, data requirements to develop the TSB, how to express DER in terms of the TSB, and lessons learned so far from California's implementation of the TSB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of new environmental policy instruments (NEPIs) has launched a debate about the continued relevance of traditional regulatory approaches. Previous research examining the relationship of regulations and NEPIs has shown that regulations can compel engagement with voluntary approaches. In this paper, we demonstrate that the linkages between regulation and voluntary approaches need not be coercive. Through a study of sediment pollution in northern California, we show that regulatory processes have facilitated learning and motivated landowners to undertake voluntary actions. We suggest three elements that are fundamental to the success of this process: (a) the voluntary action must benefit the landowner, (b) resources must be available to reduce the implementation burden, and (c) the regulatory process must involve open and respectful communication between the landowner and the regulator. While not a panacea, this process of regulatory spillover offers a promising pathway for extending the reach of existing regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

Potential impacts of low energy homes were reviewed to identify research needs for indoor environmental quality in California's building energy-efficiency programs. California and several nations are planning to implement low-energy or low-carbon requirements for new and existing homes. These homes will be well-insulated, airtight, high-performance buildings, but they will have a narrower margin of safety for control of pollutant sources, moisture, and ventilation. California has a growing fraction of vulnerable persons, such as the elderly and asthmatics. Indoor environmental quality problems will be impacted by climate change, urban densification, and transit-oriented development. Building technology trends expected to affect indoor environmental quality for better or worse include increased use of insulation, thermal mass, fault-detection and diagnostics systems, integrated design, and commissioning. Several studies of low-energy homes have documented problems, such as overheating, poor maintenance of air filters and ventilation systems, and excess noise. Current indoor environmental quality problems requiring further research include attached space infiltration; effective range hood operation; ventilations system commissioning; and builder, operator, and occupant training. An expert panel and stakeholders helped develop a prioritized list of research needs for various determinants of indoor environmental quality. The major drivers and research gaps were related to human behavior, pollutant sources, and integrated design. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although California's carbon market is generally seen as a model climate policy, recent reforms now credit utilities for shifting legacy coal contracts to their unregulated neighbors, a practice that causes leakage. To the extent the market relies on leakage to generate compliance on paper, it is producing the false appearance of emissions reductions through an accounting scheme that does not reflect real climate benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study how government green procurement policies influence private-sector demand for similar products. Specifically, we measure the impact of municipal policies requiring governments to construct green buildings on private-sector adoption of the US Green Building Council׳s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard. Using matching methods, panel data, and instrumental variables, we find that government procurement rules produce spillover effects that stimulate both private-sector adoption of the LEED standard and investments in green building expertise by local suppliers. These findings suggest that government procurement policies can accelerate the diffusion of new environmental standards that require coordinated complementary investments by various types of private adopter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article shares reflections about the climate change program of California. Topics discussed include the state's goal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions under the 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act, the state's launch of a market-based cap-and-trade program, and the view that the federal government should follow California's model in terms of its climate change policy.

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]

Little research has examined how and why institutional context and framing dynamics shape the institutionalization of movement claims into the state's formal policies, and what the implication of these processes might be for movements attempting to mobilize on the same conceptual terms after institutionalization. In this study, I explore the role institutional context and framing play in the institutionalization of movement claims in a case: the implementation of environmental justice policy in the California Environmental Protection Agency from 2002 to 2007. I ask: How and why were aspects of the environmental justice frame institutionalized into regulatory policy while others were not? I use ethnographic field methods and content analysis of archival data to answer this question and offer two contributions to previous research. First, I add to previous scholarship on the environmental justice movement by identifying the character of newer problems faced by movement actors as they engage in regulatory policy processes with opponents in the United States. Second, I extend social movement framing theory by developing the notion of 'state resonance' to understand how and why a collective action frame is institutionalized and implemented in regulatory policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cap-and-trade schemes are of tremendous interest in the current trends of climate law and policy. Taking into account Phase I and Phase II, the EU ETS directive has been reformed in 2009 and will establish a totally new Phase III starting from 2013 until 2020. The new system will propose a broader material scope, new forms of allocation of allowances, due attention to benchmark free allowances and careful measures to address carbon leakage. Furthermore, the directive sets new forms of market oversight and opens up for stronger relations with other compatible systems. On the other side of the Atlantic, the lack of a US federal cap-and-trade system has not prevented the creation of sub-national or regional cap-and-trade schemes. The Californian cap-and-trade final regulation represents the most interesting and most advanced scheme in the US. It has been eventually adopted in fall 2011 and is designed to reduce GHG emissions by 2020 through a market-based compliance system. The two systems show improvements to earlier forms of emissions trading, but still raise questions on the actual compatibility between each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Integrated solutions are needed for sustainable management of risks posed by recreational boats to coastal water quality and ecosystems. Fouling organisms roughen vessel hull surfaces, creating friction that slows sailboats and increases fuel consumption by powerboats. Hull fouling control strategies for recreational boats that are stored in the water may include antifouling hull paints, newer alternative hull coatings, periodic in-water hull cleaning, and excluding propagules by surrounding the boat with a slip liner or raising it above water on a lift. Copper discharged to harbor waters from antifouling paints via passive leaching and in-water hull cleaning may elevate dissolved copper levels above government standards. Invasive species carried among boat-hull fouling organisms may be introduced as boats move among coastal areas. Some of these species tolerate copper in antifouling paints and copper-polluted harbor waters. Policy development must consider supply-side capacity, as well as economic and environmental sustainability, in managing these issues. This paper presents a supply-side evaluation useful in developing policies to co-manage water quality and invasive species risks for recreational boats navigating along the coasts of California, the Baja California peninsula and California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Supply-side perspectives on services, materials, costs, and boat owner behaviors, such as residence and travel patterns, awareness of hull-coating choices and selection of hull coatings, are determined. Analyses include evaluation of risks, risk management capacity and costs, and role of education in risk management. The issues raised are broadly applicable, as they are appearing on research and policy agendas in diverse coastal areas. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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.

Abstract: Spatial gradients in biomass and community composition have important consequences for ecosystem structure and function. In this study, small-scale inshore–offshore (1–10 km) and vertical (1–50 m) patterns of microphytoplankton biomass and community composition are described, and the environmental controls of microphytoplankton biomass are evaluated in a coastal ecosystem of the Southern California Bight (SCB). During a two-year period, persistent inshore–offshore gradients in phytoplankton biomass and occasional inshore–offshore gradients in community composition, coincident with regional precipitation, were found, although the strength of the gradients varied between sampling periods. The chlorophyll a maximum was generally present between 15 and 45 m, the cell abundance maximum occurred in surface waters, and there was little evidence of vertical gradients in community composition. Variability in chlorophyll a concentrations was linked to variability in environmental parameters only after some rain and upwelling events. This study demonstrates that inshore–offshore patterns in phytoplankton biomass previously documented at large spatial scales (100–700 km) in the SCB can also persist at smaller scales (1–10 km), although the mechanisms for the gradients are likely to be different at the different spatial scales. The results provide a baseline data set that can be used to focus monitoring and management efforts in the SCB. In particular, this work shows that a limited number of sampling stations are sufficient for phytoplankton monitoring in Santa Monica Bay. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Voting referenda provide direct evidence of the demand for public goods. A number of previous studies have used referenda to analyze the support for public environmental goods. These studies have used aggregate data from large jurisdictional units (usually counties) and summary income measures such as the mean or median, and have usually found that higher income areas offer greater support for environmental propositions. We examine environmental referenda voting in California using census block group data, spatial dependence controls, and detailed income distribution data. We find that household income has a negative marginal effect on environmental referenda voting for most of the income range when using census block data. In addition, controls for spatial dependence significantly reduce the magnitude of most coefficients. This suggests that OLS estimates of referenda determinants are biased. We also show that county level data may be subject to severe aggregation bias and might not be appropriate for referenda studies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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]

The article focuses on the measures imposed in California to address climate change. It explores different policies in California such as The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 and cap-and-trade program and states that their measures will need for coordinated strategies for it has broad set of goals. It adds that with California's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emission they shown that effective national program for climate change will require leadership and immediate response.

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]

"As If Equity Mattered" was the theme of the 2009 Berkeley symposium that resulted in the articles collected in this issue of the Natural Resources Journal. In this article we argue that for some aspects of natural resource policy, equity already matters a great deal. The challenge is understanding how policymakers and citizens deal with conflicting ideas about equity in a given policy context. This article considers the role of conflicting equity norms in public policy, with special attention to the protection of endangered species on private lands. After a brief review of the limited attention to norms and normative conflict in dominant understandings of the policy process, we review the role of two important normative ideas in endangered species conservation: an intrinsic norm of ownership as an individual right subject only to limited government interference, and an intrinsic normative duty to prevent extinction, regardless of a species' utility or practical value. Tracing the prominence of these norms in endangered species policy back to the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, we document in more detail the broad support for both ideas of "equity" among current private landowners affected by endangered species regulations in several locations across the United States. Our conclusion is that both norms remain highly salient, if in some tension, leaving many landowners with strong views about property rights receptive to the idea of cooperative efforts to protect species on private land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Future air pollution emissions in the year 2030 were estimated for the San Joaquin Valley (SJV) in central California using a combined system of land use, mobile, off-road, stationary, area, and biogenic emissions models. Four scenarios were developed that use different assumptions about the density of development and level of investment in transportation infrastructure to accommodate the expected doubling of the SJV population in the next 20 years. Scenario 1 reflects current land-use patterns and infrastructure while scenario 2 encouraged compact urban footprints including redevelopment of existing urban centers and investments in transit. Scenario 3 allowed sprawling development in the SJV with reduced population density in existing urban centers and construction of all planned freeways. Scenario 4 followed currently adopted land use and transportation plans for the SJV. The air quality resulting from these urban development scenarios was evaluated using meteorology from a winter stagnation event that occurred on December 15th, 2000 to January 7th 2001. Predicted base-case PM2.5 mass concentrations within the region exceeded 35 μg m−3 over the 22-day episode. Compact growth reduced the PM2.5 concentrations by ∼1 μg m−3 relative to the base-case over most of the SJV with the exception of increases (∼1 μg m−3) in urban centers driven by increased concentrations of elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC). Low-density development increased the PM2.5 concentrations by 1–4 μg m−3 over most of the region, with decreases (0.5–2 μg m−3) around urban areas. Population-weighted average PM2.5 concentrations were very similar for all development scenarios ranging between 16 and 17.4 μg m−3. Exposure to primary PM components such as EC and OC increased 10–15% for high density development scenarios and decreased by 11–19% for low-density scenarios. Patterns for secondary PM components such as nitrate and ammonium ion were almost exactly reversed, with a 10% increase under low-density development and a 5% decrease under high density development. The increased human exposure to primary pollutants such as EC and OC could be predicted using a simplified analysis of population-weighted primary emissions. Regional planning agencies should develop thresholds of population-weighted primary emissions exposure to guide the development of growth plans. This metric will allow them to actively reduce the potential negative impacts of compact growth while preserving the benefits. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the actions taken by the state administrations in California to address several environmental issues including climate change, dead zones and massive problems. It examines the effectiveness and accuracy of the conventional policy approaches proposed in administrative law scholarship to alleviate the said problems. It also explores the importance of clear awareness on the nature and challenges of the issues before responding them.

Cumulative risks and impacts have taken on different meanings in different regulatory and programmatic contexts at federal and state government levels. Traditional risk assessment methodologies, with considerable limitations, can provide a framework for the evaluation of cumulative risks from chemicals. Under an environmental justice program in California, cumulative impacts are defined to include exposures, public health effects, or environmental effects in a geographic area from the emission or discharge of environmental pollution from all sources, through all media. Furthermore, the evaluation of these effects should take into account sensitive populations and socioeconomic factors where possible and to the extent data are available. Key aspects to this potential approach include the consideration of exposures (versus risk), socioeconomic factors, the geographic or community-level assessment scale, and the inclusion of not only health effects but also environmental effects as contributors to impact. Assessments of this type extend the boundaries of the types of information that toxicologists generally provide for risk management decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the search of Yolo County Housing (YCH) for financial stability by a new working model which comprises the green and sustainable practices in Yolo County, California. It states that YCH started to look at every cost center within the budget and started to look at every line item inside the budget. It cites the action plan was to build a sustainable efficiency thru better deployment of resources as well as minimization or recycling of waste.

Problem: Sustainability remains “the current object of planning's fascination,” as Campbell described it in 1996, but it is unclear what causes local governments to adopt environmentally sustainable policies and whether they are effective once adopted. Purpose: The goal of this article is to explain why communities adopt environmentally sustainable policies. Methods: We develop an environmental policy sustainability index for 100 incorporated cities in California's Central Valley using a combination of survey and archival data. We then use regression and cluster analyses to test which independent variables expressing three theoretical perspectives (Tiebout's public goods development model, Peterson's fiscal capacity model, and Logan and Molotch's interest group/growth machine model) are best at explaining this index. Results and conclusions: The results suggest that sustainable policies are more likely to occur in cities with better fiscal health and whose residents are of higher socioeconomic status. These findings raise important questions about the relationship between developed and developing cities that were not raised in previous studies, which focused only on major metropolitan areas in the United States. Takeaway for practice: Our results suggest that small, less-developed cities will need substantial technical, financial, and planning assistance to move toward greater sustainability. Many medium-sized, more developed cities may also need technical assistance, but are otherwise capable of becoming more environmentally sustainable. Any new policies should not discourage the largest cities from continuing to pursue their current sustainability activities, but should pass the lessons they have learned along to smaller cities to help them change to more sustainable development trajectories. Research support: This research was supported by NSF Grant 0350817. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive assessment was conducted of California's Used Oil Program, which was established in 1992 to reduce the illegal disposal, and promote the reuse, of used lubricating oil. This paper summarises selected key findings of the assessment and discusses them in the context of designing and implementing policy instruments for promoting environmentally responsible waste management. The approach known as 'community-based social marketing' is identified as a promising option. [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.