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Demand for liquid fuels (i.e., petroleum products) has burdened the U.S. with major challenges, including national security and economic concerns stemming from rising petroleum imports; impacts of global climate change from rising emissions of CO2; and continued public health concerns from criteria and hazardous (i.e., toxic) air pollutants. Over the last decade or so, biofuels have been touted as a supply-side solution to several of these problems. Biofuels can be produced from domestic biomass feedstocks (e.g., corn, soybeans), they have the potential to reduce GHG emissions when compared to petroleum products on a lifecycle basis, and some biofuels have been shown to reduce criteria air pollutants. Today, there are numerous policy incentives—existing and proposed—aimed at supporting the biofuels industry in the U.S. However, the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Program stands as perhaps the most significant mandate imposed to date to promote the use of biofuels. Overall, the RFS stands as the key driver in a transition to biofuels in the near term. By mandating annual consumption of biofuels, increasing to 36 bgy by 2022, the program has the potential to significantly alter the state of the U.S. liquid fuels sector. Fuel transitions in the transportation sector are the focus of this thesis. More specifically, the increasing consumption of biofuels in the transportation sector, as mandated by the RFS, is examined. With a well-developed, efficient, and expensive, petroleum-based infrastructure in place, many barriers must be overcome for biofuels to play a significant role in the transportation sector. Identifying and understanding the barriers to a biofuels transition is the objective of this thesis. Although fuel transitions may seem daunting and unfamiliar, the U.S. transportation sector has undergone numerous transitions in the past. Chapter 2 reviews major fuel transitions that have occurred in the U.S. liquid fuels sector over the last half century, including the phasing out of lead additives in gasoline, the transition from MTBE to ethanol as the predominant oxygenate additive in gasoline, and the recent introduction of ULSD. These historical transitions represent the uncertainty and diversity of fuel transition pathways, and illustrate the range of impacts that can occur across the fuel supply chain infrastructure. Many pertinent lessons can be derived from these historical transitions and used to identify and assess barriers facing the adoption of alternative fuels (i.e., biofuels) and to understand how such a transition might unfold. Computer models can also help to explore the implications of fuel transitions. In order to better understand the barriers associated with fuel transitions, and to identify options for overcoming these barriers, many recent research efforts have used sophisticated modeling techniques to analyze energy transitions. Chapter 3 reviews a number of these recent modeling efforts with a focus on understanding how these methodologies have been applied, or may be adapted, to analyzing a transition to biofuels. Four general categories of models are reviewed: system dynamics, complex adaptive systems, infrastructure optimization, and economic models. In chapter 4, scenarios created from a high-level model of the liquid fuels sector (the Liquid Fuels Transition model) are presented to explore potential pathways and barriers to a biofuels transition. The scenarios illustrate different pathways to meeting the requirements of the RFS mandate, and differ based on the overall demand of liquid fuels, how the biofuels mandate is met (i.e., the mix of biofuels), and the status of the ethanol blend limit in the motor gasoline sector. The scenarios are used to evaluate the infrastructure implications associated with a biofuels transition, and illustrate the uncertainty that exists in assessing such a transition. / text

Embedded within the notably constrained American state, how can regulatory agencies ensure that enforcement goals are met? Some analyses suggest that this is not so easily done; rather, constraints on agencies' formal administrative powers are said to threaten their capacity for effective regulation. But recent scholarship contends that such accounts underestimate the pivotal and oftentimes `hidden' regulatory role played by less formal mechanisms of enforcement, such as private litigation. Building on this revisionist strain, this dissertation project closely examines the ways in which constrained agencies look outside themselves - and their formally granted administrative authority - for enforcement power by developing incentive structures that motivate private actors to engage in litigation that advances regulatory goals. Through an historical analysis of the development of the regulatory capacity of three agencies - the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, and the Office of Equal Opportunity at HUD - this project uses qualitative and quantitative approaches to explore how and when regulatory agencies choose to focus their limited resources on mobilizing private enforcement of public policy. First, using a careful examination of agency and presidential archival materials, I specify the mechanisms by which agency actors promote private litigation and uncover the institutional and political conditions under which this legal enforcement strategy is employed over time. And then, from these archival observations, I construct original quantitative measures capturing the deployment of these legal enforcement strategies, and conduct statistical analyses to confirm the success of agency efforts to encourage private litigation over time. Ultimately, by reconsidering how to integrate informal mechanisms of enforcement, like agency-motivated private litigation, into theories of bureaucratic regulation, this research contributes to our practical understandings of day-to-day agency behavior and to our conceptions and assessments of state capacity, more broadly.

Denna studie handlar om svenska kommuners arbete med att integrera ekosystemtjänster i stadsplanering. Fokus riktas mot drivkrafter och utmaningar i implementeringsarbetet. Semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med Kristianstad, Umeå och Gävle kommun. En ekolog och en person inom fysisk planering intervjuades från respektive kommun för att ge en samlad bild av kommunens ekosystemtjänstarbete i stadsplanering. Drivkrafter som identifierats hos kommunerna är Egna mål och förutsättningar, Externa samarbeten och Nationella mål. Utmaningarna som identifierats är Ekosystemtjänster som begrepp, Kommunikation, Exploatering och Värdering. Kommunernas perspektiv på drivkrafter och utmaningar ställs mot tidigare forskning. Myndigheten Naturvårdsverkets perspektiv på kommunernas utmaningar redovisas också. Studiens slutsatser är att ekosystemtjänster kan fungera som ett potentiellt verktyg till en hållbar stadsutveckling. Det finns delade tankar om ansvarsfördelning mellan kommun och myndighet. För att stödja kommunernas integrering av ekosystemtjänster i stadsplanering bör framtida forskning lyfta fram praktiska exempel på hur kommuner kan applicera detta utefter sina lokala förutsättningar. Kommuner behöver arbeta utifrån sin lokala kontext med ett holistiskt synsätt. De behöver även fortsätta att kommunicera och samarbeta inom och utanför kommunen för att öka kunskap om ekosystemtjänster i stadsplanering. / This study is about the integration of ecosystem services in urban planning in Swedish municipalities. There is a focus on the driving forces and challenges in the process of implementation. Semi-structured interviews was performed with the municipalities of Kristianstad, Umeå and Gävle. An ecologist and a physical planner were interviewed from each municipality to present an overall picture of their work with ecosystem services. The identified driving forces within the municipalities is Own goals and conditions, External cooperation and National goals. The identified challenges is Ecosystem services as a concept, Communication, Exploitation and Valuation. The perspectives on the driving forces and challenges was compared to previous research. The perspectives from the authority Swedish Environmental Protection Agency on the challenges were also presented in this study. The conclusions from this study were that ecosystem services may work as a potential tool for sustainable urban development. There are different views on distribution of responsibility between the municipalities and the authority. To support the integration of ecosystem services in urban planning within the municipalities, future research should highlight practical examples on how the they can integrate ecosystem services according to their local conditions. The municipalities should work according to their local conditions and from a holistic point of view. A progressive work must take place in form of communication and cooperation within and outside the municipalities to increase the knowledge about ecosystem services in urban planning.

The paper examines through a legal analysis of some articles of the Cote d’Ivoire Stepping Stone Agreement, how ECOWAS can strengthened its approach in negotiating a comprehensive EPA for the region. These articles are scrutinized with a special focus on market access as to point out fields that need to be re-thinked with regard objectives set out in the agreement. It is argue that current bilateral and multilateral Trade and Investment Agreements are shrinking in their legal framework the policy space need for development in countries that need it the most. This study, underlines the fact that the legal provisions contain in the Cote d’Ivoire IEPA do reduce actually its ability to set up policies tool aim at achieving development goals. It is the sustainability of the IEPA legal provisions that is questioned under this topic with regard to sensitive issues such as the safeguard measures, the stand still clause, the MFN clause, the Rules of Origin etc….. In so doing, the analysis reveals as well the ambiguity of the IEPA relationship with the Cotonou Agreement and the multilateral trade rules of the WTO. This ambiguity is highlighted in an attempt to drawn the attention of the region on the fact that; if there is indeed a need to update the Economic Partnership Agreement currently negotiating with the EC, this cannot be done without first of all updating the negotiating approach of the region. In fact, its weak bargaining approach coupled with that overwhelming of the EC has resulted in the agreement currently on the table. Substantial changes can be made with this regard by acknowledging the insufficiencies in the legal framework of the IEPA but also in learning lesson from mistakes the region itself and Cote d’Ivoire have done in negotiating EPAs and its Interim version. Thus, since EPAs often triggered the debate on liberalization and what it may carry in terms of consequences on developing countries’ economies, examples of countries that took a different step toward liberalization and whose current situation may be use as a testimony by ECOWAS are quoted. Finally, propositions are made to ECOWAS region as to enlarge current development space while battling for more flexibility under the EPA. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

Reducing population exposure to inorganic arsenic (iAs), a known carcinogen and highly toxic metalloid of great public health concern, remains an ongoing challenge worldwide and in the United States (US). In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates the maximum contaminant level (MCL) for total arsenic in public drinking water supplies through the Safe Drinking Water Act. In 2001, the US EPA implemented the Final Arsenic Rule, which lowered the MCL for arsenic in public drinking water supplies from 50 to 10 µg/L. Reductions in iAs exposure and subsequent related disease associated with this important regulatory change have not been quantified. Currently, no national-level exposure estimates of iAs drinking water exposure are available for US residents reliant on public drinking water. There is a critical need to identify susceptible subgroups of the US population who remain at risk for elevated iAs drinking water exposure. This dissertation aimed to quantify the reduction in drinking water iAs exposure resulting from the US EPA MCL regulatory change, to estimate drinking water iAs exposure for US residents reliant on public drinking water, to identify susceptible subgroups across the US whose water iAs remains high, and to determine if iAs exposure was associated with heart disease mortality in the general US population. Chapter 1 provides background information necessary to contextualize the work contained in this dissertation. In Chapter 2, we conducted a cross-sectional analysis of dietary sources of iAs exposure in the Strong Heart Family Study, a cohort of American Indian adults followed primarily for cardiovascular disease, using a self-reported food frequency questionnaire and urinary iAs measurements. Self-reported intake of rice, organ meat, processed meat, and non-alcoholic drinks was associated with increased urinary iAs concentrations. Diet alone explained only 3% of total variability in urinary iAs concentrations, indicating that the majority of iAs exposure for SHFS participants occurs from drinking water. Second, (in Chapter 3), we explored trends in water iAs exposure in the general US population associated with the EPA’s MCL change using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2003-2014, separately for participants reliant on public drinking water vs. private well water (which is not subject to US EPA regulation). We estimated that implementation of the new US EPA MCL was associated with a 17% reduction in drinking water iAs exposure for all participants reliant on public drinking water; the corresponding reduction was 32% for Mexican-American participants. No reduction was observed for participants reliant on private wells. Third (in Chapter 4), we estimated drinking water iAs exposure at the community water system and county-level across the entire US from 2006-2011 using the US EPA’s Six Year Review of Contaminant Occurrence database. We estimated that nationwide public drinking water iAs concentrations decreased by 8.5% and 21.6% at the 80th and 99th percentiles of the water iAs distribution in accordance with the MCL implementation, with significant differences across US subgroups. Greater decreases in iAs concentrations were reported for systems reliant on groundwater, systems serving smaller populations, and systems in the Northeast, Central Midwest, and Southwestern regions of the US. Susceptible subgroups whose public drinking water iAs exposure remains high include populations served by small community water systems reliant on groundwater, communities in the Southwestern US, Semi-Urban, Hispanic communities, and Rural, American Indian communities. Fourth (in Chapter 5), we assessed six-year average arsenic concentrations in community water systems exclusively serving correctional facilities in the US (e.g. prisons, jails, detention centers) compared to other community water systems. Average arsenic concentrations were twice as high in correctional facility community water systems located in the Southwest (6.41 µg/L, 95% CI 3.48, 9.34) compared to all other community water systems in the Southwest (3.11 µg/L, 95% CI 2.97, 3.24). Over a quarter of correctional facility systems in the Southwest reported a six-year average arsenic concentration exceeding the 10 µg/L MCL. Persons incarcerated in the Southwestern US were at disproportionate risk of drinking water arsenic exposure and related disease from 2006-2011. Fifth (in Chapter 6), we multiply imputed urinary arsenic concentrations below the limit of detection (LOD) in NHANES 2003-2016 using a Bayesian Tobit regression model. Epidemiological analyses of urinary arsenic data in NHANES are limited by the relatively high analytical LODs and large proportion of participants with undetectable values. Distributions of urinary arsenic originally reported in NHANES, which replace values below the LOD with the LOD divided by the square root of two, likely overestimate iAs exposure at the lowest exposure levels and may introduce significant bias. Bayesian-multiply imputed datasets may improve the assessment of iAs exposure in cohorts with high analytical LODs for arsenic species. Finally (in Chapter 7), we evaluated the association between urinary iAs concentrations (internal dose) and heart disease mortality as recorded in the National Death Index in NHANES 2003-2014 participants. We found a positive but non-significant prospective association between increasing iAs exposure and heart disease mortality for all participants (hazard ratio 1.15, 95% CI 0.77, 1.70), and a significant positive association for non-Hispanic white participants using flexible spline models. Geometric mean ratios of iAs exposure were higher among cases compared to non-cases, especially for Mexican-American participants (1.30, 95% CI 0.90, 1.88). These findings further support the potential association between low- to moderate- iAs exposure and cardiovascular disease in the US population, and indicate that further high-quality prospective studies of Hispanic and Latino Americans are needed to investigate the potential increased susceptibility of Mexican-Americans to iAs-related cardiovascular disease. Taken together, these studies suggest that while the implementation of the US EPA’s 10 µg/L MCL has reduced drinking water arsenic exposure for many Americans reliant on public drinking water systems, these reductions were not uniform across all US populations. Populations who remain at risk of elevated drinking water arsenic exposure include those reliant on domestic wells, those located in the Southwest, persons incarcerated in the Southwest, tribal communities, and Hispanic communities. Further high-quality epidemiologic research is needed to evaluate the association between low- to moderate iAs exposure and cardiovascular disease in these populations. Stronger federal regulations, targeted compliance enforcement and technical assistance, and other public health interventions are needed to reduce drinking water arsenic exposure in these communities.

Naturvårdsverkets koncept naturum är ett besökscentrum i naturen och syftar till att vara en port till naturen. Detta för skapa ett fortsatt intresse i att bevara den svenska naturen. Naturumen är också en viktig del av Naturvårdsverkets arbete att göra naturen mer tillgänglig för människor och en del av att synliggöra naturen, dess värde och samtidigt locka fler människor att utforska och upptäcka naturen. Flera kommuner har på eget initiativ skapat naturum och ytterligare kommuner är intresserade av konceptet, dock är betydelsen för kommunerna de är placerade i ett outforskat område. Därför har denna explorativa studie genomfört en kartläggning av tidigare erfarenheter av naturumens betydelse, och applicerats i Tyresö kommun, för att bidra till en ökad förståelse kring betydelsen av Naturvårdsverkets koncept naturum. Kartläggningen av erfarenheter är insamlat via intervjuer med flera aktörer som Naturvårdsverket, Länsstyrelsen Stockholm, stiftelsen Tyrestaskogen och kommuner med naturum tillsammans med ett frågeformulär utskickat till naturumföreståndarna. De tidigare erfarenheterna visar att naturum har en stor betydelse för kommunerna och har många olika funktioner utöver att vara en port till naturen. Dessa sträcker sig från kunskapsspridande och besöksmål, till social mötesplats, symbol för kommunen och en resurs för utbildningsverksamhet. I uppsatsen konstateras att det finns stora möjligheter för Tyresö att uppnå dessa funktioner genom ett naturum och att det väl knyter an till flera av Tyresös kommuns existerade mål. Uppsatsen avslutas med vidare rekommendationer för Tyresö kommun kring deras arbete med ett potentiellt naturum i kommunen. / The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency concept naturum is a visitor center aimed at being a gateway to nature. It also aims at creating a continuing interest in preserving the Swedish nature. Naturum is also an important part of the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to make nature more accessible to people and it is also aims at visualizing nature, its value and at the same time attract more people to explore and discover nature. Several municipalities have on their own initiative created naturum and there are several others that are interested in the concept, however the impacts of naturum towards the municipalities they are located in is an unexplored field of research. Therefore, this exploratory study conducted an examination of previous experiences of naturums impacts applied in Tyresö municipality to contribute to an increased understanding of the importance of the Environmental Protection Agency concept. The examination of experiences were collected through interviews with several actors as the Environmental Protection Agency, County Administrative Board of Stockholm, the foundation Tyrestaskogen and municipalities together with a questionnaire sent out to the head of all the naturum in Sweden. The previous experience shows that naturum has a great importance for municipalities and has many functions in addition to being a gateway to nature. These range from the dissemination of knowledge and tourist attraction to a social meeting place, a symbol of the municipality and a resource for educational purposes. The paper noted that there are numerous opportunities for Tyresö municipality to achieve these functions through a naturum in the municipality and that it links to several of Tyresö municipality existing goals. The paper concludes with recommendations for Tyresö municipality about their future work with a potential naturum in the municipality.

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The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket) has overseen the implementation, evaluation and development of the environmental political decisions in Sweden since 1967. In 1999 one “generation goal” (the general direction of the environmental politics) and fifteen “environmental quality goals” was installed to guide their work, in 2005 a sixteenth goal was instated. These goals (except for one) are supposed to be met in 2020. This is a study from a communication perspective of these goals and The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s role based on the theoretical concepts issue arena, stakeholder thinking, network, translation and mass communication. The method used is critical discourse analysis which focuses on how we understand, relate to and value different aspects of reality. The way political goals about the environment are written has implications on our relationship with nature and how we choose to govern it. The analysis shows, in line with previous studies on environmental policy documents, that the economical and human-centred discourses dominate. Ecological metaphors and expressions are mostly allowed within the discourse ecological modernisation. What differs from previous studies is that the growth discourse and the neo-liberal discourse are somewhat challenged and that the economical and human-centred discourses are questioned in some cases. The main conclusions are that more ecological discourse should be implemented in the translations of the political goals to gradually change the way we value and relate to nature and thereby create solutions that are sustainable long term. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency also should not back away from expressing the ethical responsibilities we have to restore and protect nature.

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