Measuring the NEPA Litigation Burden: A Review of 1,499 Federal Court Cases

We reviewed thirteen years of National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) litigation data summarizing 1,499 federal court opinions to assess: (1) How frequently NEPA compliance efforts result in litigation; (2) how agency NEPA decisions fare in court; and (3) how NEPA litigation outcomes compare to outcomes in other challenges to federal agency decisions. We found that only one in 450 NEPA decisions were litigated and that the rate of NEPA challenges declined during the thirteen-year study period. We noted an inverse relationship between the amount of time spent on Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”) preparation and the likelihood that an EIS would be challenged in court. We also found that while federal agencies prevail in NEPA litigation at slightly higher rates than in other civil cases where the government is a defendant, environmental plaintiffs win at higher rates than any other class of NEPA challengers. Overall, we conclude that the NEPA litigation burden may be overstated because few decisions are challenged in court, the rate of challenge is declining, and environmental plaintiffs are likely to bring only cases where they have a high likelihood of success. We therefore recommend against imposing strict deadlines and page limits on EISs as these “reforms” may do little to reduce the NEPA compliance burden while limiting opportunities for public engagement

Measuring the NEPA Litigation Burden: A Review of 1,499 Federal Court Cases

We reviewed thirteen years of National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) litigation data summarizing 1,499 federal court opinions to assess: (1) How frequently NEPA compliance efforts result in litigation; (2) how agency NEPA decisions fare in court; and (3) how NEPA litigation outcomes compare to outcomes in other challenges to federal agency decisions. We found that only one in 450 NEPA decisions were litigated and that the rate of NEPA challenges declined during the thirteen-year study period. We noted an inverse relationship between the amount of time spent on Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”) preparation and the likelihood that an EIS would be challenged in court. We also found that while federal agencies prevail in NEPA litigation at slightly higher rates than in other civil cases where the government is a defendant, environmental plaintiffs win at higher rates than any other class of NEPA challengers. Overall, we conclude that the NEPA litigation burden may be overstated because few decisions are challenged in court, the rate of challenge is declining, and environmental plaintiffs are likely to bring only cases where they have a high likelihood of success. We therefore recommend against imposing strict deadlines and page limits on EISs as these “reforms” may do little to reduce the NEPA compliance burden while limiting opportunities for public engagement

A privacy preserving approach to energy theft detection in smart grids

A major challenge for utilities is energy theft, wherein malicious actors steal energy for financial gain. One such form of theft in the smart grid is the fraudulent amplification of energy generation measurements from DERs, such as photo-voltaics. It is important to detect this form of malicious activity, but in a way that ensures the privacy of customers. Not considering privacy aspects could result in a backlash from customers and a heavily curtailed deployment of services, for example. In this short paper, we present a novel privacy-preserving approach to the detection of manipulated DER generation measurements

Prediction of the consequences of a CO2 pipeline release on building occupants

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is recognised as one of a suite of solutions required to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere and prevent catastrophic global climate change. In CCS schemes, CO2 is captured from large scale industrial emitters and transported to geological sites, such as depleted oil or gas fields or saline aquifers, where it is injected into the rock formation for storage. Pipelines are acknowledged as one of the safest, most efficient and cost-effective methods for transporting large volumes of fluid over long distances and therefore most of the proposed schemes for CCS involve onshore and/or offshore high pressure pipelines transporting CO2.In order to manage the risk in the unlikely event of the failure of a CO2 pipeline, it is necessary to define the separation distance between pipelines and habitable dwellings in order to ensure a consistent level of safety. For natural gas pipelines, existing and accepted QRA (Quantitative Risk Assessment) techniques can be implemented to define safety zones based on thermal hazards. However for high pressure CO2 pipelines, for which the hazard is toxic, the consequences of failure need to be considered differently, which will impact on the QRA assessment and the definition of safety distances.The requirement to develop a robust QRA methodology for high pressure CO2 pipelines has been recognised by National Grid as being critical to the implementation of CCS. Consequently, as part of the COOLTRANS (CO2 Liquid pipeline TRANSportation) research programme, failure frequency and consequence models are being developed that are appropriate for high pressure CO2 pipelines. One of the key components in the consequence modelling of a release from a CO2 pipeline is an infiltration model for CO2 into buildings to describe the impact on people inside buildings, and outside seeking shelter, during a release event.This paper describes the development of an infiltration model to predict how the concentration of CO2 within a building will change based on both wind driven and buoyancy driven ventilation of an external CO2 cloud into the building. The model considers the effects of either a constant or changing external concentration of CO2 during a release and allows the density effects of the dense cloud to be taken into account to enable the toxic effects on people within the building to be predicted. The paper then demonstrates how the ventilation model can be coupled to the results of a dispersion analysis from a pipeline release under different environmental conditions to develop the consequence data required for input into the QRA. These effects are illustrated through a case study example

Methyl orange photo‐degradation by tio2 in a pilot unit under different chemical, physical, and hydraulic conditions

The photo‐catalytic degradation of a textile azo‐dye as Methyl Orange was studied in an innovative unit constituted by a channel over which a layer of titanium dioxide (TiO2) catalyst in anatase form was deposited and activated by UVB irradiation. The degradation kinetics were followed after variation of the chemical, physical, and hydraulic/hydrodynamic parameters of the system. For this purpose, the influence of the TiO2 dosage (g/cm3), dye concentration (mg/L), pH of the solution, flow‐rate (L/s), hydraulic load (cm), and irradiation power (W) were evaluated on the degradation rates. It was observed that the maximum dosage of TiO2 was 0.79 g/cm3 while for higher dosage a reduction of homogeneity of the cement conglomerate occurred. The Langmuir– Hinshelwood (LH) kinetic model was followed up to a dye concentration around 1 mg/L. It was observed that with the increase of the flow rate, an increase of the degradation kinetics was obtained, while the further increase of the flow‐rate associated with the modification of the hydraulic load determined a decrease of the kinetic rates. The results also evidenced an increase of the kinetic rates with the increase of the UVB intensity. A final comparison with other dyes such as Methyl Red and Methylene Blue was carried out in consideration of the pH of the solution, which sensibly affected the removal efficiencies

Generation of <em>Escherichia coli</em> nitroreductase mutants conferring improved cell sensitization to the prodrug CB1954

Escherichia coli nitroreductase (NTR) activates the prodrug CB1954 to a cytotoxic derivative, allowing selective sensitization of NTR-expressing cells or tumors to the prodrug. This is one of several enzyme-prodrug combinations that are under development for cancer gene therapy, and the system has now entered clinical trials. Enhancing the catalytic efficiency of NTR for CB1954 could improve its therapeutic potential. From the crystal structure of an enzyme-ligand complex, we identified nine amino acid residues within the active site that could directly influence prodrug binding and catalysis. Mutant libraries were generated for each of these residues and clones screened for their ability to sensitize E. coli to CB1954. Amino acid substitutions at six positions conferred markedly greater sensitivity to CB1954 than did the WT enzyme; the best mutants, at residue F124, resulted in ∼5-fold improvement. Using an adenovirus vector, we introduced the F124K NTR mutant into human SK-OV-3 ovarian carcinoma cells and showed it to be ∼5-fold more potent in sensitizing the cells to CB1954 at the clinically relevant prodrug concentration of 1 μM than was the WT enzyme. Enhanced mutant NTRs such as F124K should improve the efficacy of the NTR/CB1954 combination in cancer gene therapy

Near-Earth asteroid sample return missions

The rate of discovery of new NEAs and the success of D-S 1 and NEAR-Shoemaker, suggest that sample return from NEAs is now technically feasible. Here we present a summary of a recent workshop on the topic