Egregious Polluters: A socially-structured explanation of disproportionality in the production of pollution

严重污染者：对污染产生不成比例的社会结构解释

• 批准号: 1534976
• 负责人: Simone Pulver
• 金额: $ 34.93万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1534976&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Egregious; Polluters; socially; structured; explanation

Non-Technical DescriptionThis project is a three-year program of basic research designed to examine the social structures that give rise to patterns of inequality (i.e. disproportionalities) in the production of pollution. Although others have noted that a key feature of economic and social impacts on the environment is unevenness in the creation of and exposure to impacts, few have sought to evaluate the socially-structured factors that create and support such disproportionality. Towards this end, this prjoect focuses on three research questions: 1) How has disproportionality in the production of pollution changed over time? 2) What drives changes over time in disproportionality in the production of pollution? 3) What factors account for the persistence of egregious polluters? This project will answer these questions by using both quantitative and qualitative comparative techniques that analyze facility-level emissions for over 600 establishments in the pulp and paper milling, printed circuit board manufacturing, and PVC pipe manufacturing industries in the U.S. This inquiry offers a new framework within which to analyze the production of environmental harm, challenging several common assumptions; namely the notion that environmental harm is proportional to economic growth and that firms are disconnected decision-making units. In addition to theoretical and empirical insights, a disproportionality approach also has direct implications for the regulation of pollution. Rather than setting absolute standards for an entire industry, a disproportionality approach focuses on identifying egregious polluters and enabling the reconfiguration of production among those who are the worst actors. Improving the environmental performance of a select few egregious polluters can significantly reduce the pollution burden generated by an industry.Technical DescriptionThe focus of this project is on facility pollution production metrics and socially-structured drivers of change over time. The analyses will rely on US EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data from 1988 to 2012 for three industry classifications: printed circuit board manufacturing (NAICS 334412), PVC pipe manufacturing (NAICS 326122), and pulp and paper milling (NAICS 3221). To answer the first research question (assessing the temporal dimensions of disproportionality), TRI data will be used to calculate several annual measures of disproportionality (Gini coefficients, lower-tail inequality ratios, relative ranking scoring, and spatial techniques) within each case study industry, using both raw and size adjusted facility-level data. To answer the second question (an assessment of the drivers of temporal changes in disproportionality in industrial pollution), analytical techniques such as regression and/or Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) will be used to to evaluate eight hypotheses, related to industry visibility, capital costs, contribution to GDP, offshoring, growth and decline, regulation, and niche-seeking behavior. The dependent variable in this will be annual measures of disproportionality by industry and/or ranks of individual facilities within the disproportionality distribution, yielding a total of seventy-five observations of disproportionality over the twenty-five year study period. To answer the third research question (assessing the persistence of disproportionate patterns), two most polluting facilities will be selected, based on multi-year average, size-adjusted TRI data, from each case study industry. The research team will then develop profiles of these six facilities, collecting data on operational characteristics, financial performance, characteristics of the communities in which they are located, interactions with regulators and the history of the facility within the community. Data will be gathered both through archival sources and through on-site interviews with facility managers, representatives of local government, and community organizations. Interviews will focus on the relationship between the facility and the local community. The goal of these facility profiles is to analyze the socially-structured factors that allow for the persistence of egregious pollution.

非技术描述该项目是一项为期三年的基础研究计划，旨在研究产生不平等（即不平衡）污染产生的社会结构。 尽管其他人指出，经济和社会对环境的影响的关键特征是创造和暴露影响的环境不平衡，但很少有人试图评估创造和支持这种不成比例的社会结构因素。 为此，这种关注的重点是三个研究问题：1）污染产量的不成比例随着时间而变化？ 2）是什么驱动会随着时间的流逝而随着时间的流逝而变化，而污染的产生不成比例？ 3）哪些因素解释了严重污染者的持续性？该项目将通过使用定量和定性比较技术来回答这些问题，该技术分析了纸浆和纸张铣削，印刷电路板制造业以及PVC管道制造业的600多个机构的设施级排放，该询问为环境危害，挑战几个常见的假设提供了一个新的框架；即，环境伤害与经济增长成正比，并且企业是断开决策单位的观念。除了理论和经验见解外，一种不成比例的方法还对调节污染也有直接影响。 与其为整个行业设定绝对标准，而是一种不成比例的方法着重于确定卑鄙的污染者，并能够在最糟糕的行为者中重新配置生产。 改善少数多重污染者的环境绩效可以大大减轻行业产生的污染负担。技术描述该项目的重点是设施污染产量指标和随时间变化的社会结构化驱动因素。 这些分析将依赖于1988年至2012年的美国EPA的毒品释放库存（TRI）数据，用于三种行业分类：印刷电路板制造（NAICS 334412），PVC管道制造（NAICS 326122），以及纸浆和纸浆和造纸工厂（NAICS 3221）。 为了回答第一个研究问题（评估不成比例性的时间维度），将使用每个案例研究行业中使用原始的和尺寸调整后的设施级别的数据，将使用原始的案例研究行业和尺寸调整后的设施级别的数据，来计算几种年度的年度衡量不相比（GINI系数，下尾不平等比率，相对排名得分和空间技术）。 To answer the second question (an assessment of the drivers of temporal changes in disproportionality in industrial pollution), analytical techniques such as regression and/or Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) will be used to to evaluate eight hypotheses, related to industry visibility, capital costs, contribution to GDP, offshoring, growth and decline, regulation, and niche-seeking behavior. 在此，因变量将是在不成比例分布中按行业和/或单个设施等级的年度衡量标准，在二十五年的研究期间总共观察到了75个观察到不成比例的观察。为了回答第三个研究问题（评估不成比例的模式的持久性），将根据每个案例研究行业的多年平均平均值，大小调整后的TRI数据选择两个最污染的设施。 然后，研究团队将开发这六个设施的概况，收集有关其所在社区的运营特征，财务绩效，特征，与监管机构的互动以及社区中设施的历史的数据。 数据将通过档案资源以及与设施经理，地方政府代表和社区组织的现场访谈收集。 访谈将集中于设施与当地社区之间的关系。 这些设施概况的目标是分析允许持续污染的社会结构因素。