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Example research essay topic: Clean Air Act Hillary Rodham - 1,679 words

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... and a decline in biodiversity (Watson Institute for International Studies). Another view classifies environmental problems into land degradation that includes deforestation and desertification; and environmental pollution and degradation that includes chemical, solid waste, water and radiation pollution, as well as air pollution within which acid rain and global warming are included (Long). In recent times, the Clear Skies Policy has been claimed by its advocates to have the capacity to reach ambitious goals for air quality by rewarding innovative endeavors, reduction of operational cost, and ascertaining results.

Instead of the Government imposing how and where to reduce air pollution, utilities will be told how much and when to carry out reductions. These utilities are anticipated to be given strict deadlines, as well as motivation to determine the most innovative methods of meeting such deadlines. The Government also regulates how many allowances are distributed, cutting them down as time progresses. Each power plant facility need to secure a trading permit for every ton of pollutant it gives off to the atmosphere. The restricted number of allowances made available guarantees that the needed reductions are accomplished. By also having the permits traceable, the system is financially motivating for firms to pollute the air less, rendering them incentive to carry out early and cost-efficient emission level reduction.

The Clear Skies Policy is foreseen to generate almost $ 50 billion of investments in pollution regulation on more than a thousand existing major electric power plants, as well as in the building of new standard-conforming plants. (CEQ 2006). All these decisions depend on people who are cognizant enough of the effects of global warming. The utilities, as well as the proposed new clean air rules, posit that the decisions about whether a power plant is required to conform to the regulations after upgrading must be derived from quantifying how much pollution the plant could potentially give off in an hourly basis, instead of the prevailing standard of measuring the cumulative level of pollution it emits in a year. The Opposition sees that under the new standard the total emissions of an upgraded plant could soar if the modernization permitted it to operate for longer hours.

To elucidate its argument, the Opposition makes use of court filings in 2002 wherein the EPA approximated that an hour-based standard would permit eight power plants in five states to legally produce as much as 100, 000 tons of pollutants annually. This figure is actually illegal in terms of the level prescribed by the NSR under the Clean Air Act, which is just about a third of the Epa's projected total emissions (The Washington Post, August 31, 2005). According to the NRDCs argument, the EPA essentially makes use of the amount of pollution that a particular plant emits, rather than the cost entailed by an upgrade to its facility, in determining whether air pollution control equipment are required to be put up. The EPA proposal bespeaks the Government to evaluate aging electric power plants through comparing maximum hourly emissions that are achievable at a particular unit after the upgrade to decide if it requires the installation of pollution scrubbers. A former head of the environmental agency's Office of Regulatory Enforcement said that CAIR subverts the master goal of the Clean Air Act, which was to bit by bit convey aging power plants into complying with more stringent laws on air pollution. However, the EPA proposal, such compliance has dim chances of being achieved.

Under the Clean Air Act, more specifically the NSR provision, utilities are required to put up new pollution control equipment when they carry out major modifications, a requirement whose interpretation has been igniting serious debate. The Clinton administration acknowledged that even just simple routine maintenance of older facilities is construed as a new source of emissions subject to compliance with the NSR (Cohen 2006). The Clinton EPA started litigating utility firms during the mid- 1990 s for their failure to comply, but Bush contrarily argued that such approach was too punitive. The environmental officials of the Bush administration sought, via regulatory means, to spare consumers and utilities from the encumbrance caused by the Clinton administrations reinterpretation of the NSR (Cohen 2006). From the point of view of the Bush administration, the utilities were intertwined. If these firms deferred routine maintenance for the apprehension of being levied expensive requirements by the NSR, emission levels would increase and the environment consequently would suffer.

On the other hand, if aging electric power plants were closed down, the prices of electricity would soar up correspondingly. Both of these outcomes are not preferable (Cohen 2006). The response of the Bush administration was to set up its own NSR interpretation. Among other things, it included a definition of routine maintenance. This new interpretation of the NSR exempted firms from requirements of the original NSR whenever they carry out modifications to their facilities that amount to less than 20 percent of the cost for replacing equipment with pollution control capability (Cohen 2006). In other words, new pollution controls would be required only when the cost of a plant upgrade amounted to 20 percent of its total value (The Washington Post, August 31, 2005).

The Opposition fears that this exemption would encourage increased emissions from older power plants, thereby undermining the Clean Air Acts primary aims. In a 2005 Federal Court ruling, the 20 percent threshold was criticized. Judge Judith Rogers, one of the three judges that comprised the panel, argued that Epa's approach would ostensibly require that the definition of modification include a phrase such as regardless of size, cost, frequency, effect, or other distinguishing characteristic (Cohen 2006). Hence, the criteria set by the policy are vague enough to allow for several loop holes when litigation's based on such legislation would be undertaken. One obvious deficiency that the opposition has found in the Clear Skies Policy is the lack of control measures for reducing CO 2 emissions (NRDC 2003).

Note that 40 percent of the annual U. S. total in CO 2 emissions is produced by electric power plants. The policy did propose programs to restrict SO 2, NOx, and mercury emission levels coming from power plants but have failed to lay out corresponding programs for CO 2 emissions.

Emission level of CO 2, if left unregulated, would ultimately lead to the depletion of the ozone layer that brings forth global warming. The Clean Air Act, on the other hand, has clear goals regarding the reduction of CO 2 levels (Morris 2002). It is said that more than a billion urban dwellers, out of a total of three billion, are located in slum areas, with half living in Asia. This is indicative of the mammoth problems of governments with regard to the provision for food (Sustainable Development Networking Program), opportunities for employment, environmental degradation, sanitation, and general quality of living in cities.

Another problem causing the decline in quality of life is said to be urban sprawl, whose effects range from over-congestion to pollution (Goodwin). In the US, the states that are the destination of internal and external migration and immigration in the ongoing shift in geographic distribution of the population that will have to deal with these issues. Proposed solutions include the revision of federal laws to limit immigration, the creation of boundaries that will redirect urban growth to places where urban services can be provided, and tighter control on allowable density and housing (Goodwin). There are many environmentalists like Senator Hillary who had been bold about her support on the Supreme Courts Global Warming Decision. She states that the scientific consensus is that global warming poses a serious threat to human activities (Statement of Senator Hillary Clinton on the Supreme Court 2007, par 1). She challenges President Bush to address this pressing global environmental threat as soon as possible.

In sum, human beings must not respond to emergencies that unfold in slow motion. People do not respond adequately to the invisible. Scientists who study the changes that are now in progress in the atmosphere and the biosphere must strive for a calm and disembodied objectivity. They need to work as if from a cosmic distance if they are to put into society's possession facts that do not lie. They prefer the studied neutrality of the term global change; to the term they might use for events this big in the geological record: global catastrophe. REFERENCES Bill, Joseph R. , Daniel Houser and Gary D.

Liberal. Public Choice Issues in Collective Action: Constituent Group Pressures and International Global Warming Regulation. Retrieved March 27, 2008 < web 00000219 / 00 /bill 041100. pdf> Bongaarts, J. (September 2001). Future Population Trends. Sustainable Food Security for All by 2020.

Retrieved March 27, 2008 < web >. Cohen, Bonner R. 2006. Federal Court Overturns Bush Clean Air Rule. Environment News: The Heartland Institute. Retrieved March 27, 2008 at: web Cooper, Richard N.

Toward a Real Global Warming Treaty. Foreign Affairs. Mar/Apr 1998. Retrieved March 27, 2008 < web 19980301 fa essay 1375 /richard-n-cooper / toward -a-real -global-warming-treaty.

html> Council on Environmental Quality. 2006. Cleaner Air. Retrieved March 27, 2008 at: web Goodwin, A. (7 July 2003). Sprawl threatens quality of life, study says The Spokesman Review. Retrieved March 27, 2008 < web story. asp?

date = 070703 &ID = &cat = section. spokane>. Long, R. (19 April 2004. ). Social Problems Chapter 4: Threats to the Environment Retrieved March 27, 2008 web Morris, James W. 2002. Chemical Kinetics and Microphysics of Atmospheric Aerosols. Thesis Appendix.

Doctoral Thesis. Retrieved March 27, 2008 Natural Resources Defense Council. 2003. Dirty Skies: The Bush Crichton, Michael. Global warming. Retrieved March 27, 2008 web PARADE Magazine ^ Sandler, Todd.

Global Collective Action. Cambridge University Press. 2004. Retrieved March 27, 2008 < web catalogue. asp? isbn = 0521542545 &ss = exc> Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on the Bankruptcy of New Century Financial (April 2, 2007). Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton Statements and Releases.

Retrieved March 27, 2008 web Watson Institute for Development Studies. Global Environmental Problems: Implications for US Policy Brown University. Retrieved March 27, 2008 < web >. web


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