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Regulation of Chemical Risks: Lessons for Reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act from Canada and the European Union
Get PDFThe purpose of this Article is to compare the regulatory systems in Canada and the EU, and use comparative insights to draw some lessons that may be of interest to U.S. policy makers engaged in TSCA reform. CEPA and REACH are seen by stakeholders as state of the art in chemicals assessment and management, and thus the U.S. may draw useful insights from them. Indeed, the European Union and Canada have each been urging other countries to join in a globalization of the REACH or Canadian programs, respectively. Regardless of what TSCA reformers choose to learn from the Canadian and European experiences, a secondary objective of the Article is to provide comparative information that may be of interest to reformers in Canada, Europe, or other countries and regions where chemical risk management is under consideration for reform. Thus, the Article\u27s long-term value extends beyond the current U.S. debate over TSCA reform.
The Article is organized in three Parts. In Part I, we describe the scope of our analysis, our research methods, and our analytical approach. In Parts II and III, we compare CEPA and REACH across two significant dimensions: (1) prioritization of existing chemicals for assessment and regulation; and (2) placement of the burdens to produce data and demonstrate safety of specific chemical uses. We conclude by summarizing the possible lessons for TSCA reform and highlighting some future research needs
An Investigation of Authorship Authentication in Short Messages from a Social Networking Site
No full textAn authorship authentication system was presented in this research to assess authorship authentication in short text that was extracted from sample posts of a social networking site. Authorship authentication is one of the trending security problems for social networking sites. Stylometry has been a well-known technology for authenticating an author to a disputed document in question. Authorship authentication in short text from social networking sites is a relatively newer domain to be explored. The goal of this research is to determine the degree to which social networking postings can be authenticated as coming from the purported user and not from an intruder. Facebook data was used for illustration. The proposed research solution is an authorship authentication system that includes the use of 233 features (a combination of 227 stylometric features and 6 social network specific features), Support Vector Machine (SVM) Linear kernel function, and the Leave-One-Out method. Various sets of stylometry and ad hoc social networking specific features were developed to categorize short messages from thirty Facebook authors as authentic or non-authentic using SVM. The challenges of applying traditional stylometry on short messages were discussed. The full set of 233 features achieved the best accuracy rate of 79.6% over any of its subsets. The social network-specific features showed marginal accuracy improvement when added to stylometric features. However, users who adopted these features were more distinguishable in writing styles. The test results showed the impact of sample size, features, and user writing style on the effectiveness of authorship authentication, indicating varying degrees of success compared to previous studies in authorship authentication in short text. The proposed stylometric features and method were also tested on 300 sample long book data. SVM showed better accuracy rate than k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN) on Facebook data, while k-NN showed a better accuracy rate than SVM on book data. Finally, a comparison of a number of commonly used classification methods was tested on Facebook data to assess their performance for short text authorship authentication. Decision tree showed the best accuracy rate followed by SVM with a linear kernel function
Alternative Funding for an Equitable Park System in New York City and State
Get PDFPrivate efforts have successfully transformed a select few parks, which has created allegations of park inequity at a time when many neighborhood parks are overgrown and understaffed. Public-private partnerships reflect a national debate about the proper role of the private sector in maintaining parks, highways, bridges, and other essential civic infrastructure. But for most neighborhood parks the debate is irrelevant. They completely lack access to either adequate public funding or private revenue. One-time infusions of public capital dollars into the neediest parks cannot solve the ongoing operation and maintenance problem.
This paper identifies an array of alternative revenue strategies to solve this inequitable situation. It then addresses the challenge of adapting strategies developed in the highest income communities to resolving disparate park conditions in other neighborhoods. While this paper focuses on examples from New York City, the practices discussed are applicable throughout the State, including state parks that have also suffered from funding shortfalls in the past decade
Mommy Dearest: Determining Parental Rights and Enforceability of Surrogacy Agreements
Get PDFThe governing law in this area is new and evolving and, as such, the allocation of the legal rights and responsibilities depend on which state has jurisdiction over the matter. This article will discuss the basic types of surrogacy agreements and examine the legal distinctions of their enforceability under New York and California law
I Am Opposed to This Procedure : How Kafka\u27s In the Penal Colony Illuminates the Current Debate About Solitary Confinement and Oversight of American Prisons
Get PDFThis is the 100th anniversary of Franz Kafka\u27s In the Penal Colony. The story brilliantly imagines a gruesome killing machine at the epicenter of a mythical prison\u27s operations. The torture caused by this apparatus comes to an end only after the “Traveler,” an outsider invited to the penal colony by the new leader of the prison, condemns it. In the unfolding of the tale, Kafka vividly portrays how, even with the best of intentions, the mental and physical well-being of inmates will be jeopardized when total control is given to people who run the prisons with no independent oversight.
At the core of America\u27s vast prison system is the pervasive practice of solitary confinement, a practice that in many ways is analogous to the penal colony machine. Like the machine, it inflicts great psychological and often physical pain on people subjected to it. It, like the machine, is used to punish people for trivial offenses without due process. Like the machine, it is seen as essential to the operation of this closed prison system. Many of the new leaders of American prisons want to reform solitary confinement practices, but like the new Commandant in Kafka\u27s tale, without oversight, these leaders operate in the dark, unable to effectuate meaningful change by themselves.
Kafka knew what he was talking about. The historic record, reviewed in this Article, demonstrates that Kafka had a notable legal career as an attorney at the Workers\u27 Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia in Prague. In that job he worked on behalf of industrial workers to open closed worksites to oversight, thereby improving worker safety and preventing needless accidents. These experiences gave Kafka a realistic understanding of what can happen in closed, unregulated institutions such as prisons.
Despite the relevance of In the Penal Colony, Kafka\u27s voice has not yet been heard in this debate. This Article is intended to fill that void and to reveal how Kafka\u27s profound insights, so artfully crafted in the powerfully beautiful prose of In the Penal Colony, help us understand why we must open prison doors to outside scrutiny and put an end to the gruesome practice that is solitary confinement
The Clean Power Plan Puzzle: The Future of Efforts to Control Climate Pollution in the Northeast
Get PDFIn October 2015 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the first national plan to cut climate pollution from power plants. Called the Clean Power Plan (CPP), the effort requires a 32% nation-wide reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the power sector. The CPP also gives states multiple pathways to comply. Now states are on the clock: they must submit their individual compliance plans or signal their intent to submit multi-state plans by September 2016.
The nine states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the first market-based trading platform established to cut climate pollution from power plants in the Northeast, must now decide the future of the effort.
This paper explores a few of the key issues for state regulators in the RGGI region with a special focus on New York State. We discuss the need to reset the RGGI cap to ensure progress toward New York’s and other state climate pollution reduction goals. We recommend a change to RGGI’s structure that will ensure compliance with the CPP. We discuss the EPA’s proposed Clean Energy Incentive Program (CEIP), an effort to encourage early state actions to reduce emissions. And we discuss other implementation issues with respect to linking RGGI to other mass-based state compliance plans.
In brief, we recommend that the RGGI states adopt a new cap that requires at least a 2.5 percent per year reduction in region-wide GHG emissions
Charting the Course for Energy Efficiency in New York: Lessons from Existing Programs
Get PDFThis report examines the performance of the existing suite of energy efficiency efforts run by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the state’s investor owned utilities. The latest data shows that through 2014 EEPS program administrators had achieved 79 percent of their to-date savings goals.
The report focuses on the best ways to transition from the EEPS program model to the emerging REV model. Reviewing publicly available information, this analysis takes stock of what the EEPS has achieved and calls for a REV planning and delivery program that builds upon lessons learned from decades of past efforts to achieve self-sustaining efficiency markets. It 1) describes the proposed changes to energy efficiency delivery currently under consideration by the Cuomo Administration, 2) reviews overall EEPS performance through the third quarter of 2014, 3) recommends a framework to serve as the basis for future decision-making, and 4) makes additional recommendations for the future of energy efficiency efforts in New York State
Reexamining What We Stand to Lose: A Look at Reinitiated Consultation Under the Endangered Species Act
Get PDFThis article first examines the role reinitiated consultation plays within Congress\u27s statutory framework and concludes that in many ways, reinitiated consultation is the glue that holds the Endangered Species Act\u27s protective scheme together. While the ESA generally prohibits any injury to an endangered species, Congress has authorized the Service to permit such injuries under certain circumstances. But these authorizations must be accompanied by a limit that will trigger reinitiated consultation if exceeded. Thus, without reinitiated consultation, these preauthorized injuries or “takes” would prove gaping leaks in Congress\u27s “Ark,” leaving little or no safety for endangered species. Moreover, reinitiated consultation has significant real world consequences for federal agencies and private parties. Failure to reinitiate consultation when legally required can subject the agency and its employees, as well as private parties, to civil and even criminal liability.
Next, this article explores the legal basis for reinitiated consultation. Despite its central role, Congress never provided for reinitiated consultation within the Act itself. While the Service has acknowledged this silence, the courts generally do not raise this question of statutory authority. In light of the ambiguities within the ESA and Congress\u27s clear direction in the legislative history of the Act that it intended for agencies to reinitiate consultation, this article concludes that the practice is legally supportable.
Finally, given the significance of reinitiated consultation, and the likelihood that it is here to stay, this article then explores how courts have reviewed suits concerning reinitiated consultation. This discussion highlights potential challenges and best practices for federal agencies and permittees. This article concludes that, with few exceptions, courts have taken a surprisingly deferential approach to reviewing agency decisions to reinitiate, or more commonly not reinitiate, consultation. For example, courts have allowed agencies to expand a project\u27s scope, duration, or impact on listed species or to recalculate how to measure the impacts altogether without requiring reinitiated consultation. Nonetheless, courts have taken a much stricter approach when considering the triggers for reinitiated consultation and have frequently insisted that those triggers be as meaningful and as exact as possible.
However, before discussing reinitiated consultation in detail, this article provides some additional background on the ESA in general and reinitiated consultation in particular. To understand the purpose and effect of reinitiated consultation, one must first understand several key ESA provisions - namely, the ESA\u27s listing, liability, and consultation provisions