Variation of Environmental Regulation Stringency Among the Top Ten U.S. Hog Producing States

The U.S. hog industry, once primarily made up of small owner-operated crop-hog farms, has become dominated by large specialized operations characterized by low costs and improved technologies in livestock management. Such changes have triggered concerns over the dangers large Hog Feeding Operations (HFOs) are likely to pose to the environment. In 2007, the top ten states accounted for more than 85 percent of total U.S. hog production (Iowa (IA), North Carolina (NC), Minnesota (MN), Illinois (IL), Nebraska (NE), Indiana (IN), Missouri (MO), Oklahoma (OK), Ohio (OH), and Kansas (KS)). With such domination on production, these states are often the subject of environmental debate relating to hog production. When farmers are required to incorporate environmental measures in hog production, their costs of production increase. Metcalfe (2001) found that small HFOs have found it difficult to cope with such costs and many have exited the industry, while large operations have not been affected at the same level. Due to the variation of environmental regulations among states, other operations moved to states with lax regulations (e.g. NC prior to the late 1990s). Such regulations appear to have played a major role in shaping the structure of the hog industry.

Ethyl tert-Butyl Ether and Methyl tert-Butyl Ether: Status, Review, and Alternative Use Exploring the Environmental Issues of Mobile, Recalcitrant

Petroleum products leaking from under ground storage tanks have raised concerns regarding the quality of ground water resources, The concerns about the environmental behavior and rate of MTBE as an oxygenated additive prompted this iuvestigation to explore the technical characteristics of MTBE in comparison to ETBF. Evaluation of the existing literature suggests that ETBE has more favorable characteristics than MTBE. Findings in this research suggest that ETBE is a technically sound oxygenated octane enhancer, which can help refiners meet specificatios for cleaner burning gasoline.