New Source Review for the Prevention of Significant Deterioration

Environmental issues, like much of the nation's domestic agenda, are in equilibrium, a condition unlikely to change until the next presidential election. By "equilibrium," I mean that while the views of stakeholders are polarized, and much time is spent engaging in damaging guerrilla attacks on the other side, little has changed in the big picture.

A New Principle

Agenda 21¹ and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development² puts a human face on sustainable development, clearly stating that sustainable development is development that leads to maximizing human potential while protecting the environment, but that if there is a conflict, human welfare must be determinative.

Environmental Trading in Context

The colonization of outer space, especially Mars, has become increasingly relevant in recent years. With technological advances and biological discoveries, Mars is perceived as more hospitable to life than previously imagined. Just recently, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft has discovered vast quantities of ice on Mars.¹ As a result, long-term projects like the colonization, or even terraformation, of Mars are becoming less daunting.²

In 1977, the U.S. Congress amended the Clean Air Act (CAA)¹ to codify a new source review (NSR) program for major new or modified sources in areas that attain national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). These prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) provisions require major new or modified sources² that will emit significant amounts of regulated pollutants³ to obtain a permit before commencing construction of the source or modification.

States have been and should continue to be engines of sustainable development in the United States. They are not the only forces at work, and some have been willing to let others, along with the large federal locomotive, pull them up the sustainable development hill, but they are necessary if the United States is to reach its goals. The important roles that states have in policymaking and implementation means that a complete assessment of progress toward sustainable development in the United States must include an examination of what states are accomplishing.

In June 2001, the majority of the Supreme Court of Canada cited the precautionary principle¹ as a principle of international law and policy and concluded that municipal power to regulate pesticides is consistent with the principle.² This decision marked a decade of growth for the precautionary principle in Canada.

Gridlock and Its Implications