SELC REPORTS
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How Do We Get There? A Roadmap for North Carolina’s Transportation Future
May 2009North Carolina, touted in the 1930’s as the “Good Roads State,” finds itself at a critical transportation crossroads as we close out the first decade of a new century. The path we choose for the future will have a profound impact on our economy, environment and overall quality of life in the coming years, and for future generations.
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Courting Disaster 4-14-09
April 2009Report by Clean Water Action, Earthjustice, Environment America, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and Southern Environmental Law Center details the threats to America’s waters and highlights the urgent need for Congress to act immediately and restore full Clean Water Act protections to our waters.
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Coal Waste Blueprint
January 2009SELC outlined the minimum safeguards necessary to protect the environment and public health and safety from coal waste in its "Blueprint to Safeguard the Environment, Public Health & Safety from Coal Waste."
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Global Warming, Healthy Air, and a New Energy Future
September 2008If SELC's six southeastern states were viewed as a country, it would rank as the seventh largest source of heat-trapping carbon dioxide on the planet. The region is central to any global solution because it is disproportionately contributing to the problem-and because it offers such promising possibilities for change.
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Drought in the South: Planning for a Water-Wise Future
September 2008Despite recent rainfall across the South, much of the region is still experiencing drought conditions ranked as severe, or worse. We can no longer count on having all the water we want, when we want it, where we want it. In the past, water management has focused on extending water supply. But reservoirs and interbasin pipelines can no longer be the region’s first choice for water management.
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Before the Storm
July 2008Water has long been a defining feature of Albemarle County. The area’s abundant supply of freshwater streams and rivers offers a wide range of health, recreational, economic, and environmental benefits, contributing significantly to the strong quality of life County residents enjoy. However, more than twenty stretches of waterways flowing within or along the County’s borders are now included on the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) list of “impaired waters.”
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Alabama Water Agenda: Guiding the way to healthy waters
May 2008SELC and the Alabama Rivers Alliance identify the six most urgent threats to Alabama's rivers, wetlands, groundwater and coastal waters, and provide a blueprint for restoring and protecting these critical resources. The agenda was developed with the input of dozens of grassroots groups, and is a call to action to state leaders and all Alabamians to put in place the policies and regulations that will ensure pure and plentiful water throughout the state.
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Connections and Choices: The High Cost of Transportation
May 2008Transportation consumes an enormous – and rising – amount of income. The average southern household spends $7,990 per year on transportation, almost 19 cents out of every dollar spent.
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New Directions: Land Use, Transportation and Climate Change in Virginia
December 2007Sprawling development and asphalt-centered transportation policies are steering Virginia toward dire consequences - yet it's not too late to change course. In this report, SELC's Trip Pollard examines multiple trends and offers a host of steps that can be taken to address the problems.
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Connections and Choices: Affordable Housing and Smarter Growth in the Greater Richmond Area
September 2007For better or for worse, the Richmond region is rapidly expanding. This report explores the enormous economic, health, environmental, and social impacts of the housing, land development, and transportation trends transforming the Greater Richmond Area.
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At the Tipping Point
July 2007Nothing characterizes Georgia’s coast more than its marshes. Vast and sweeping, these landscapes still inspire visitors today just as they inspired Sidney Lanier over a hundred years ago. Unfortunately, this heritage is in jeopardy. Developers are heading to the Georgia coast with a “gold rush mentality.”
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Too much of a good thing? Retail overload in Albemarle County, Virginia
May 2006SELC's report provides the first comprehensive look at retail trends, past and future, in Albemarle County. The report shows that the county already has approved roughly three times more 'big box' shopping centers and other retail space than its own consultants say can be reasonably absorbed. The report offers a number of recommendations to curb the impacts of the potential growth.
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Analysis of Virginia’s Public-Private Transportation Act
December 2004The first comprehensive analysis of a 1995 Virginia law that allows private entities to build transportation projects in the Commonwealth shows the law is failing to live up to its promise of attracting private money to fund increasingly expensive projects. Instead, projects proposed under the Public-Private Transportation Act (PPTA) rely almost exclusively on tolls and/or taxpayer dollars, according to the analysis.
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Roadless Areas of the Southern Appalachians
April 2004There are 728,487 acres of roadless areas on the National Forests of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia that are protected by the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. If the rule is reversed by the Bush administration, 553,000 acres, or seventy-six percent of those areas would be placed into management designations that allow roadbuilding and/or logging not allowed under the rule.