Resources Radio

Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced $8.2 billion in funding for selected high-speed rail projects across the country. One major rail project that is receiving support will connect Las Vegas and Los Angeles; another will connect several cities in California, including Los Angeles and San Francisco. “America disinvested over the last many decades in our rail systems,” said Pete Buttigieg, secretary of the US Department of Transportation. “We’re reversing that trend.” One result of this disinvestment and additional challenges in the rail industry is a large number of abandoned railroad lines. But, although many of these railroad lines no longer carry trains, the lines have been put to new transportational use. In this rebroadcasted episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Peter Harnik, cofounder of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, about grassroots and legislative efforts to repurpose abandoned railroad lines as recreational trails. Harnik discusses why the United States has so many abandoned railroad lines, the process of converting a railroad line into a trail, and the legislation that provides funding for trail projects. References and recommendations: “From Rails to Trails: The Making of America’s Active Transportation Network” by Peter Harnik; https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496222060/ Rails-to-Trails Conservancy; https://www.railstotrails.org/ “Stolen Focus” by Johann Hari; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/634289/stolen-focus-by-johann-hari/

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Ann Wolverton, a senior research economist at the US Environmental Protection Agency, about how the agency incorporates environmental justice in its rulemaking and its analysis of agency regulations. Wolverton discusses the history of accounting for environmental justice at federal agencies, how the availability and granularity of data affect this ability to evaluate environmental justice outcomes, and how formally considering environmental justice can inform federal regulations. References and recommendations: “Environmental Justice Analysis for EPA Rulemakings: Opportunities and Challenges” by Ann Wolverton; https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/724721 “EPA Draft Revision of Technical Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis” public comment period; https://www.epa.gov/environmental-economics/epa-draft-revision-technical-guidance-assessing-environmental-justice “Toms River” by Dan Fagin; https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/dan-fagin

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Isaac Opper, an economist at the Rand Corporation and professor at the Pardee Rand Graduate School, about how natural disasters can affect education outcomes for students and the resulting stock of skills in the US labor force. Opper discusses the relationship between education and skills in the US labor force, which is known as human capital; how natural disasters can disrupt education for students; and how school administrators and policymakers could mitigate learning losses that result from natural disasters. References and recommendations: “The effect of natural disasters on human capital in the United States” by Isaac M. Opper, R. Jisung Park, and Lucas Husted; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01610-z “The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World” by Andrea Wulf; https://penguinrandomhousehighereducation.com/book/?isbn=9780345806291

In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls talks about improving equity in urban park systems with Norma García-González, the director of the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, and Catherine Nagel, the executive director of the City Parks Alliance. García-González discusses how data and community engagement have helped Los Angeles County increase the accessibility and quality of its urban park system. Nagel discusses similar efforts in other cities to create equitable urban park systems and the social, environmental, and economic value of parks in urban areas. References and recommendations: “Los Angeles Countywide Comprehensive Parks & Recreation Needs Assessment” by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation; https://lacountyparkneeds.org/final-report/ “Parks Needs Assessment Plus” by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation; https://lacountyparkneeds.org/pnaplus-report/ People, Parks, and Power: A National Initiative for Green Space, Health Equity, and Racial Justice from Prevention Institute; https://preventioninstitute.org/projects/people-parks-and-power “Park Equity, Life Expectancy, and Power Building” by Prevention Institute; https://coeh.ph.ucla.edu/park-equity-life-expectancy-and-power-building/ “The association of green space, tree canopy and parks with life expectancy in neighborhoods of Los Angeles” by Rachel Connolly, Jonah Lipsitt, Manal Aboelata, Elva Yañez, Jasneet Bains, and Michael Jerrett; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412023000582 “Sacred Nature: Restoring Our Ancient Bond with the Natural World” by Karen Armstrong; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/671038/sacred-nature-by-karen-armstrong/

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with David Wear, a nonresident senior fellow and director of the Land Use, Forestry, and Agriculture Program at Resources for the Future, about the ability of US forests to remove and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Wear discusses how US forests fit into emissions-reduction efforts, different approaches for estimating the amount of carbon dioxide that US forests can sequester, the implications of using different modeling approaches in designing policy, and the potential of afforestation and forest protection as carbon offsets. References and recommendations: “Land Use Change, No-Net-Loss Policies, and Effects on Carbon Dioxide Removals” by David N. Wear and Matthew Wibbenmeyer; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/land-use-change-no-net-loss-policies-and-effects-on-carbon-dioxide-removals/ “Managing Wildfires to Combat Climate Change” episode of Resources Radio with David Wear; https://www.resources.org/resources-radio/managing-wildfires-to-combat-climate-change-with-david-wear/ “A Sand County Almanac” by Aldo Leopold; https://www.aldoleopold.org/about/aldo-leopold/sand-county-almanac/ “The American West as Living Space” by Wallace Stegner; https://press.umich.edu/Books/T/The-American-West-as-Living-Space “The Great Cash-for-Carbon Hustle” by Heidi Blake; https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/23/the-great-cash-for-carbon-hustle

In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Temple Stoellinger, an associate professor at the University of Wyoming, about state trust lands, which are public lands that states own and must use to raise revenue for public schools and other public beneficiaries. Stoellinger discusses how state trust lands historically have been used; the existing and potential uses of these lands for conservation; the legal and policy barriers to conservation efforts; and additional uses of these lands, including energy development and livestock grazing. References and recommendations: “Valuing conservation of state trust lands” by Temple Stoellinger; https://www.americanbar.org/groups/environment_energy_resources/publications/trends/2022-2023/march-april-2023/valuing-conservation/ “Opening the Range: Reforms to Allow Markets for Voluntary Conservation on Federal Grazing Lands” by Shawn Regan, Temple Stoellinger, and Jonathan Wood; https://dc.law.utah.edu/ulr/vol2023/iss1/4/ “Allow ‘nonuse rights’ to conserve natural resources” by Bryan Leonard, Shawn Regan, Christopher Costello, Suzi Kerr, Dominic P. Parker, Andrew J. Plantinga, James Salzman, V. Kerry Smith, and Temple Stoellinger; https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abi4573 “Stolen” by Ann-Helén Laestadius; https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Stolen/Ann-Helen-Laestadius/9781668007167 “Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter” by Ben Goldfarb; https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/eager-paperback/

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Ben Storrow, a reporter with E&E News, about recent challenges for the offshore wind industry. Storrow discusses state and federal goals for offshore wind development; how factors related to inflation, supply chains, installation capacity, and tax rules can create obstacles for wind projects; and methods for pushing offshore wind projects through these obstacles and toward successful development. References and recommendations: “What is an ‘Energy Community’? Understanding the Effects of the Inflation Reduction Act” event hosted by Resources for the Future; https://www.rff.org/events/rff-live/what-is-an-energy-community/ “Dune” series of books by Frank Herbert; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/AU8/dune

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Jimena González Ramírez, an associate professor at Manhattan College, and Sarah Jacobson, a professor at Williams College. González Ramírez and Jacobson discuss some ways that systemic racism can unintentionally permeate research in the field of environmental and natural resource economics. They consider how historically racist policies and practices can affect research data and analysis and, in turn, produce findings which may render outcomes that discriminate. Specifically, the scholars identify several contributing issues: the prioritization of cost-effectiveness; inattention to procedural justice; abstraction from social and historical context; and a focus on problems that are easier, rather than more important, to solve. A recent Common Resources article by González Ramírez, Jacobson, and other coauthors delves into even more of the details that their conversation here doesn’t cover. References and recommendations: “Looking at Environmental and Natural Resource Economics through the Lens of Racial Equity” by Amy Ando, Titus Awokuse, Jimena González Ramírez, Sumeet Gulati, Sarah Jacobson, Dale Manning, Samuel Stolper, and Matt Fleck; https://www.resources.org/common-resources/looking-at-environmental-and-natural-resource-economics-through-the-lens-of-racial-equity/ “Achieving environmental justice: A cross-national analysis” by Karen Bell; https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qgzvd “Sensing Air Pollution Exposure in New York City Schools, with Beia Spiller” podcast episode; https://www.resources.org/resources-radio/sensing-air-pollution-exposure-in-new-york-city-schools-with-beia-spiller/ Work on waste sanitation infrastructure from Catherine Coleman Flowers; https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-2020/catherine-coleman-flowers “An Immense World” by Ed Yong; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/616914/an-immense-world-by-ed-yong/ “Solito: A Memoir” by Javier Zamora; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/705626/solito-by-javier-zamora/ “Can we talk to whales?” by Elizabeth Kolbert; https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/09/11/can-we-talk-to-whales

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Angela Parker, an assistant professor at the University of Denver, about oil and gas production on Native American reservations. Parker discusses the history of oil production on Native American lands, the environmental and economic effects of this production, Native American perceptions of the oil and gas industry, and the current state of the industry on Native American lands. Parker and Raimi also talk about the historical exploitation of oil and gas–producing Native nations and the history behind the new film “Killers of the Flower Moon.” “The Prize” documentary series; https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278873/ “Reservation Dogs” television series; https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/reservation-dogs “Sex Education” television show; https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7767422/

In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Becky Epanchin-Niell, an associate professor at the University of Maryland and a senior fellow at Resources for the Future. Epanchin-Niell discusses how climate change and human land and water use have accelerated the frequency and extent of saltwater intrusion, which is saltwater contamination in freshwater rivers, soils, and aquifers. Epanchin-Niell and Walls also talk about the implications of saltwater intrusion for coastal ecosystems, drinking water, and the agricultural sector. Epanchin-Niell’s recent research examines how saltwater intrusion affects agricultural practices on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. References and recommendations: “The Spread and Cost of Saltwater Intrusion in the US Mid-Atlantic” by Pinki Mondal, Matthew Walter, Jarrod Miller, Rebecca Epanchin-Niell, Keryn Gedan, Vishruta Yawatkar, Elizabeth Nguyen, and Katherine L. Tully; https://www.rff.org/publications/journal-articles/the-spread-and-cost-of-saltwater-intrusion-in-the-us-mid-atlantic/ “Coastal agricultural land use response to sea level rise and saltwater intrusion” by Rebecca S. Epanchin-Niell, Alexandra Thompson, Xianru Han, Jessica Post, Jarrod Miller, David Newburn, Keryn Gedan, and Kate Tully; https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/agsaaea22/335970.htm "The Invisible Flood: The Chemistry, Ecology, and Social Implications of Coastal Saltwater Intrusion" by Kate Tully, Keryn Gedan, Rebecca Epanchin-Niell, Aaron Strong, Emily S. Bernhardt, Todd BenDor, Molly Mitchell, John Kominoski, Thomas E. Jordan, Scott C. Neubauer, and Nathaniel B Weston; https://www.rff.org/publications/journal-articles/invisible-flood-chemistry-ecology-and-social-implications-coastal-saltwater-intrusion/ “Two Degrees” by Alan Gratz; https://www.alangratz.com/writing/two-degrees/