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Incorporating Environmental Justice Into Benefit-Cost Analysis of Federal Rulemakings
Get PDFPresident Biden proposes to revise the federal rulemaking process to advance
the values of justice and equity. This analysis offers a practical path
forward by adding an equity test to the efficiency test applied to new federal
regulations by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. This article explores
the feasibility of the proposal with applications to regulation of hazardous
air pollutants and drinking water contaminants. The proposal seeks
to advance the interests of low-income Americans in federal rulemaking, a
subgroup that has received little historical priority in the regulatory impact
analyses prepared by federal regulatory agencies
Armoring the Just Transition Activist
Get PDFThe fossil fuel energy system, reinforced by oppressive policies and practices,
has disproportionately harmed poor people, Indigenous people, and
Brown and Black people and driven the global climate crisis. A just transition,
which displaces fossil fuels and redistributes renewable energy resources,
requires policies that are rooted in equity and shift power back to
the hands of the most vulnerable. Just Transition Activists, leaders, organizers,
and changemakers in the just transition movement, must develop transformative
skillsets necessary to radically reimagine our world and dismantle
the current unequal system of law and policy. This analysis explores the
skills, attributes, beliefs, and attitudes for Just Transition Activists required
in the pursuit of systemic change in the energy system. Section I discusses the
lessons learned from the environmental justice and climate justice movements,
which have yet to create the transformative change in the energy system
required for a just transition. Section II describes the Just Transition
Framework that provides a reimagined path forward to justice in the energy
system. And Section III explores a transformative skillset for Just Transition
Activists engaged in the energy justice movement. These recommendations
were crafted for activists and advocates to build upon lessons learned from
earlier movements and develop the skillsets necessary to achieve a truly just
society
The Banker Removal Power
Get PDFThe Federal Reserve (“the Fed”) can remove bankers from office if they violate the law, engage in unsafe or unsound practices, or breach their fiduciary duties. The Fed, however, has used this power so rarely that few even realize it exists. Although major U.S. banks have admitted to repeated and flagrant lawbreaking in recent years, the Fed has never removed a senior executive from one of these institutions.
This Article offers the first comprehensive account of the banker removal power. It makes four contributions. First, drawing on a range of primary sources, it recovers the power’s statutory foundations, showing that Congress created the authority to better align the interests of senior bankers and the public. Second, using a novel dataset obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, it maps the actual practice of banker removal—who is removed, how often removal occurs, and for what reasons. It reveals that the Fed now uses the removal power mostly to prevent already-terminated, low-level employees from working at other banks, even though Congress never intended for the power to be used primarily in this way. Third, harnessing corporate law theory, the Article defends the legislative design. It argues that removal of senior bank executives for unsound management practices is a critical component of effective bank supervision, filling gaps left by regulatory rules and traditional corporate governance measures. Finally, the Article concludes by assessing obstacles to the use of the removal power against bank leadership and suggesting policy responses
Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Spreadsheet Calculators Based on the SECURE Act of 2019
Get PDFThe Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act) of 2019 made significant changes to the required minimum distribution (RMD) schedule for individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and defined contribution retirement plans. Excel spreadsheet calculators are developed to calculate annual RMD cash flows throughout retirement for those who are retired and for those who are planning to retire. Unlike internet calculators, the spreadsheet calculators allow savings to earn monthly interest throughout retirement. Further, the calculators are easy to use and allow individuals to forecast long horizon RMD distributions for subsequent tax or reinvestment planning purposes
unfAIR: Investigating the Links Between Richmond’s Air Quality Issues and Environmental Racism
Get PDFWith breathable air being a resource inequitably distributed among populations based on race and socioeconomic status, this study’s objective was to analyze heat and air quality distributions in Richmond, Virginia and provide recommendations for minimizing its effects throughout the city. Richmond provided an ideal subject for this analysis as it has a lengthy history of racial segregation and discrimination and is one of the worst ranking cities for Asthma sufferers. Background was given on environmental racism as a means of systemic disproportionate pollution distribution to minorities, urban air pollution( via Fine Particulate Matter/PM 2.5) and the historical housing segregation process known as redlining. These aforementioned issues contributed greatly to the environmental vulnerability of parts of many American cities, including Richmond. Later, research was done on the specific environmental racism realities within Richmond. Using heat data from the summer 2021 Virginia Heat Watch Project, the CDC’s environmental vulnerability Index, historic maps of redlined neighborhoods in Richmond, and the Berkeley Environmental Justice Index, this study found that areas of Richmond with the greatest socioeconomic and environmental vulnerability to aggregate air and heat pollution were located in the poorest and most racial minority dense areas of Richmond. This analysis recommended that efforts to increase public awareness of environmental racism, continue to finetune an aggregate environmental justice index, and to create a government agency in charge of monitoring and reducing environmental vulnerability would be the best steps forward.
Paper prepared for the Environmental Studies Senior Seminar/Geography Capstone.
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Todd Lookingbill
Measuring, Reporting and Communicating Volunteer Impact
Get PDFThis study seeks a more comprehensive understanding of the importance of volunteer impact reporting. Volunteers serve as an essential and inspirational resource to nonprofits. They also assist organizations in a variety of ways that touch lives, build philanthropy and help to sustain a legacy. So, how can nonprofits recognize the value of a volunteer program? This study will examine existing literature’s best practices and methods of reporting volunteer impact, the challenges facing impact reporting and the benefits obtained when an organization communicates to all stakeholders about volunteer impact. Specifically, the study interviews local healthcare nonprofit volunteer directors to ascertain how volunteer impact reporting is being utilized and shared across an organization. The findings detail the types of data being measured and tracked, how impact data is reported and to whom, and lastly, in what ways volunteer impact is communicated. The overall objective of the study was to determine how volunteer impact directly influences outcomes for an organization
Imagining a Better Public Health (Law) Response to COVID-19
Get PDFThis Article is not a thorough-going history of the pandemic response. By way of critique and suggesting a way forward for public health, we are going to imagine how public health—both the official agencies and the interconnected nodes in academia and health systems—might have approached COVID-19 differently. This is a story that focuses on good judgment as the lynchpin of optimal pandemic response and allows us to think about where good judgment seems to have been lacking, and how public health culture and institutions might change to improve the chances of better judgment next time