US NOAA http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2013/20130520_shipwrecks.html [From Press Release] NOAA presented to the U.S. Coast Guard today a new report that finds that 36 sunken vessels scattered across the U.S. seafloor could pose an oil pollution threat to the nation’s coastal marine resources. Of those, 17 were recommended for further assessment and potential removal of both fuel oil and … Continue reading »
Tagged with Risk Reduction …
National Adaptation Planning Lessons from OECD Countries
OECD / by Michael Mullan, Nicholas Kingsmill, Arnoldo Matus Kramer and Shardul Agrawala http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/environment/national-adaptation-planning_5k483jpfpsq1-en Since the first OECD country published its national adaptation strategy in 2005, there has been a marked increase in national planning for climate change adaptation. This paper provides an overview of national adaptation planning activity across OECD countries and identifies some of the emerging … Continue reading »
Analysis of Recent Proposals to Amend the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to Create a Coal Combustion Residuals Permit Program
Congressional Research Service bit.ly/Yu6XtE [InsideEPA.com, sub. req'd] The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is outlining a host of unanswered questions about the efficacy and regulatory impacts of legislation to circumvent EPA’s pending coal ash disposal rule with state-crafted standards, which environmentalists say raises potential new hurdles that could further dampen the bills’ prospects for approval. But … Continue reading »
Insurance as a Risk Management Instrument for Energy Infrastructure Security and Resilience
US DOE http://energy.gov/oe/articles/insurance-risk-management-instrument-energy-infrastructure-security-and-resilience The Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability has released a report that examines the key risks confronting critical energy infrastructure and ways in which the insurance industry can help manage these risks. In most developed countries, insurance is one of the principal risk management instruments for aiding in recovery after a … Continue reading »
In the Neighborhood: The Growing Role of Organizations in Disaster Risk Management
Brookings Institution / by Elizabeth Ferris http://bit.ly/XrsL8I Global demographic trends suggest that more people are living in areas vulnerable to sudden-onset natural disasters even as scientists predict that the frequency and intensity of these disasters are likely to increase as a result of the effects of climate change. These trends, coupled with recent high-profile mega-disasters, … Continue reading »
The National Flood Insurance Program: Status and Remaining Issues for Congress
Congressional Research Service http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42850.pdf [From Summary] Government payouts under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) are estimated to be between $12 billion and $15 billion in flood insurance claims. In the immediate aftermath of Sandy, this amount quickly exceeded the $4 billion in cash and remaining borrowing authority from the Treasury Department. By January 2013, the … Continue reading »
Environmental Decisions in the Face of Uncertainty
National Academy Press http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12568 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is one of several federal agencies responsible for protecting Americans against significant risks to human health and the environment. As part of that mission, EPA estimates the nature, magnitude, and likelihood of risks to human health and the environment; identifies the potential regulatory actions that … Continue reading »
Managing Spent Nuclear Fuel Strategy Alternatives and Policy Implications
Rand Corp. / by Tom LaTourrette, Thomas Light, Debra Knopman, James T. Bartis http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG970.html Increasing awareness of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has renewed interest in nuclear power generation. At the same time, the longstanding logjam over how to manage spent nuclear fuel continues to hamper the expansion of nuclear power. If nuclear … Continue reading »
Pipeline Safety: Better Data and Guidance Needed to Improve Pipeline Operator Incident Response
US Government Accountability Office http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/651408.pdf [From a Greenwire article by Nick Juliano, sub. req'd] Federal pipeline regulators should collect more data and better collaborate with industry to avoid leaks or explosions along the nation’s 2.5-million-mile network of oil and natural gas pipelines, the Government Accountability Office said in a report yesterday…
Late Lessons from Early Warnings: Science, Precaution, Innovation
European Environment Commission http://bit.ly/WWI0Si The 2013 Late lessons from early warnings report is the second of its type produced by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in collaboration with a broad range of external authors and peer reviewers. The case studies across both volumes of Late lessons from early warnings cover a diverse range of chemical … Continue reading »
