Environmental Injustice & Impacts of COVID-19 on the Delmarva Peninsula
Read a fact sheet from CPR, Fair Farms, Sentinels of Eastern Shore Health, and the Sussex Health and Environmental Network prepared for a hearing of the Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee of the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee. The hearing focused on the environmental justice impacts of COVID-19 on the Delmarva Peninsula.
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Author(s): Katlyn Schmitt
Toxic Floodwaters: Public Health Risks and Vulnerability to Chemical Spills Triggered by Extreme Weather
Coastal communities in the United States are largely unprepared for the projected effects of the climate crisis, including more intense storm surges, sea level rise, increased precipitation, and other drivers of coastal and inland flooding. That flooding is damaging enough on its own, but in recent years, chemical spills triggered by extreme weather, such as hurricanes, have become more frequent, exposing nearby communities to toxic chemicals and hazardous waste in the midst of natural disaster. In this web article, CPR's Darya Minovi discusses the danger and offers recommendations.
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Author(s): Darya Minovi
Deregulation on Demand: Trump EPA Panders to Polluters in Dismantling Clean Power Plan
Corporate capture of regulatory agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency has long been a barrier to promulgation and enforcement of effective safeguards. But under the Trump administration, it has progressed to a dizzying degree of brazenness, helping to power the president’s dangerous assault on public safeguards. In Deregulation on Demand, CPR's James Goodwin, working with researchers from the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, documents the extent to which corporate capture by polluters played a role in the dismantling of the Clean Power Plan.
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Author(s): James Goodwin
Climate Justice: State Courts and the Fight for Equity
Given the scope of the damage from climate change, individuals, organizations, and specific jurisdictions have turned to litigation to hold industry accountable for past and continuing behavior. Such litigation is the only way those who have suffered climate-related damage can seek recourse for loss of homes, livelihoods, health, and the death and injury of loved ones. It could also have an important impact on climate change policy in the United States. Read CPR's November 2019 report on the trend toward state-based litigation.
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Author(s): Karen Sokol, Thomas McGarity, Sidney Shapiro, David Flores
Regulation as Social Justice: A Crowdsourced Blueprint for Building a Progressive Regulatory System
On June 5, 2019, the Center for Progressive Reform hosted a first-of-its-kind, one-day convening that brought together a diverse group of more than 60 progressive activists and academics. Our purpose was to begin the process of developing a progressive vision of the U.S. regulatory system – one that is not only robust and responsive enough to meet the immediate challenge of protecting people and the environment against unacceptable risks, but that also is institutionally designed to promote the broader social goals of justice and equity. CPR's James Goodwin synthesized the ideas into a report.
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Author(s): James Goodwin
Regulation as Social Justice Library of Resources
In September 2019, CPR released Regulation as Social Justice: A Crowdsourced Blueprint for Building a Progressive Regulatory System, a report that synthesizes recommendations from more than 60 progressive advocates into a comprehensive, action-oriented agenda for rebuilding the regulatory system. To increase the usefulness of the report, CPR has created this web-based library of materials developed by CPR Member Scholars and staff along with our progressive allies that provides more details on the reforms included the report. We will continuously update this library as additional materials become available.
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Author(s): James Goodwin
Carbon Pricing: Essential But Insufficient
Carbon pricing continues to be a hot-button issue, a promising tool in the effort to stave off climate change, but one roundly opposed by industry. In her June 19 issue brief, CPR's Alice Kaswan argues that carbon pricing is necessary, but both practically and politically insufficient for achieving a clean energy transition. June 2019.
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Author(s): Alice Kaswan
Regulation as Social Justice Convening Briefing Memo
In this briefing memo for participants in CPR's June 5, 2019, Regulation as Social Justice conference, James Goodwin sets the table for discussions aimed at devising reforms for the regulatory system so that it can do a better job promoting social justice and addressing unmet community needs.
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Author(s): James Goodwin
June 2019 Update on Trump EPA’s ‘Benefits-Busting’ Rule
CPR's James Goodwin examines the implications of EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler's May 13, 2019, memo to the agency’s Assistant Administrators. In the memo, Wheeler announced the agency was partially backtracking on its pending rulemaking to overhaul how it would perform cost-benefit analyses for its future rules.
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Author(s): James Goodwin
The 2019 WIPs: An Evaluation of the Watershed Implementation Plans Submitted by Maryland, Virginia & Pennsylvania
In April 2019, each of the Chesapeake Bay states submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the public drafts of their Phase III Watershed Implementation Plans, encompassing their plans for meeting the 2025 pollution reduction targets. CPR's Evan Isaacson evaluates the plans put forward by the three states responsible for the bulk of the pollution in the Bay, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. A companion analysis by David Flores examines whether and how well the plans account for the impacts of climate change.
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Author(s): David Flores, Evan Isaacson