环境会计相关信息披露

1、1 / 24En vir onmen tai acco unting .Issues,report ingand disclosureAbstractWith cleanup costs of hazardous wastes expected to run as highas $500 billion to $1 trillion over the next 50 years, en vir onmen talreport ing and disclosure by firms in theUnited States during the 2000s will becomemore prol

2、ific.This manu script seeks to provide an un dersta nding of the magnitudeof environmental issues, a brief history of theEPA, discussion of environmental regulatory acts and en forceme nt,and report ing and disclosure requireme nts by the SEC and FASB.In troducti onOne of the biggest concerns that f

3、irms will face in the 2000s willbe report ing and disclos ing of en vir onmen tal issues. By early 1996,the Environmental ProtectionAgency(EPA) had identified over 36,000 hazardous waste sites in the UnitedStates, and the identification of additional sites continues. TheEPAestimates that total clean

4、up costsof all identified hazardous waste sites could run as highas $500 billion to $1trillionover the next 50 years2 / 24(Jensen and Un ger 1991). In teresti ngly,someof the largestpubliccorporationsin the UnitedStates have beeniden tified by the EPA as resp on sible parties.The 1,405 most seriousl

5、y contaminated properties have beenplaced on the National Priorities List (NPL), and are com mon lyreferred to as Superfu ndsites. From theseSuperfu nd sites alone, the EPA has ide ntified more tha n 15,000PotentiallyResponsible Parties (PRPs) (Jensen andUn ger 1991). (A PRPis a pers on or en tity d

6、esig nated by the EPA aspotentially responsible for the costs incurred in clea ning up the site(s).)The average cost to clea n up a Superfund site is estimated to be $35million(Dixon,Drezner, and Hammitt 1993); more troublesome sites could run ashigh as $1 billi on each (Je nsen and Un ger 1991). To

7、 date, only about498 of these Superf und sites have bee n clea ned up totally.In light of time and resource commitment costs to clean up thesehazardous waste sites, the potential impact onbe eno rmous. Accord in gly,it islogical that the public would want toknow about theexistenee of any environment

8、al issues for which a reporting entitysome specific entities could3 / 24might be held responsible. With this in mind, the un derly ing purposefor this manu script is to provide an understanding of the magnitude ofenvironmentalissues inthe Un ited States, a brief history of the En viro nmen talProtec

9、tio nAgen cy, en vir onmen talregulatory acts andmethods of en forceme nt by the EPA, and curre nt disclosurerequirementsfor corporations by the Securities andExcha nge Commissi on (SEC) and the Finan cialAcco untingSta ndards Board (FASB).Magn itude of En viro nmen tal Polluti onEnvironmental pollu

10、tion in the United States is a major issue. Inassessing environmentalpollution,specificallyhazardous wastes, in thiscountry,the EPA made thefollowing statements:There are approximately 240, 000, 000 people in theUnited States. Try to imagine a ton of hazardous waste piled next toeach of them, with a

11、nother ton added each and every year.Hazardous waste is produced in this country at the rate of700,000 tons per day. Thats 250 milliontons per4 / 24year-e no ugh to fill the Superdome in New Orlea ns 1,500 times over.(Environmental ProtectionAgency 1987, p. 14)Although it is true that the amount of

12、hazardous waste is large,most of this waste is not dumped directly into the environment. Givensufficient incentives, mostof thehazardous waste produced probably could be recycled as en ergysources or be chemically stabilized.However, in the past, public corporations were not as knowledgeable about t

13、he impact of these hazardous wastes on huma nsas they are now. Additi on ally,they lackedsufficientincentives to, and were not required to,properly dispose of hazardous materials. Today, these companies arebeing forced to address their lack of foresight by acceptanee ofresponsibilityand, therefore,l

14、iability for past wastes. This liability ultimately leads to disclosure bypublic corporations. The EPA is the prin cipal federal age ncy resp onsible for ide ntify ing the compa nies to be held resp on sible for thesepast wastes.History of the En viro nmen tal Protectio n Agency5 / 24Preside nt Rich

15、ard M. Nix on created the En viro nmen talProtectio n Agency (EPA) as an in depe ndent age ncy of the Un itedStates gover nment by an Executive Order en titled ReorganizationPlan 3 of 1970. While most federalagencies have been created by Congress, the creationof anage ncy by executive order was uniq

16、ue and implied lack of legislativesupport.Desig ned toen suretheprotecti onof n ati onalenvironmentalhealth, the EPA has not always receivedmeanin gfulsupport from Con gress.Early budgets weremeager, and the agencys main headquarters in Washington, D.C.was located in an old condominium。(once owned b

17、y Vice-Preside ntSpiro Agn ew, who had trouble selli ng it through regular real estatecha nn els).Although it received mini mal support orig in ally,its creationtwo decades ago, the EPA has witnessedagradual and steady growth in public concern for the environment.During the 1970s, in its first decad

18、e ofexiste nee, the EPA focused its atte nti on primarily on thesince6 / 24implementation of major environmental legislation enacted byCongress. During the next decade, the 1980s, the agency began toturn its attention toward the problem of enforcing its many statutes.Today, en viro nmen tal concerns

19、 have n ever bee n higher in the countrys social, econo mic, and political age ndas (Vin coli 1993). I nadditi on, there havebee n several laws passed that are directly concerned with en vironmen tal issues.En vir onmen tal Regulatory ActsSome of the more sig ni fica nten viro nmen tal federalregula

20、tions in the United States include: Clean Air Act (CAA) - 1963(revised and amen dedin 1967, 1970, 1972, 1977, and 1990); Clea nWater Act (CWA) - 1972 (ame nded in 1977and 1987); Federal Insecticide,Fungicide and RodenticideAct (FIFRA) - 1949 (amended in 1972 and 1978); Hazardous MaterialTran sportat

21、io n Act (HMTA) -1975; ToxicSubsta nces Act (TSCA) - 1976; Resource Con servation andRecovery Act (RCRA) - 1976 (ame nded in 1980 and 1984);Comprehensive EnvironmentalResponse, Compensation andLiability Act (CERCLA) (Superfu nd)- 1980; Superfu nd7 / 24Amendments and Reauthorization Act(SARA) - 1986

22、(amended1991); Hazardous Waste Operati ons and Emerge ncy Resp onse(HAZWOPER) - 1990; Pollution Preve ntion Act (PPA) - 1990.Each of these federal acts gives the EPA and other federalage ncies the ability to en forceclea nup ofabandoned and existinghazardous waste sites and to imposeliability on res

23、p on sible parties to pay for the clea nup.As the enactment dates of these federal acts indicate, prior to1970 en viro nmen tal regulati onwas limited. Sincethe creationof the EPA, there has been a substantialin crease in en viro nmen tal aware ness by the public that has leddirectly to a large number of governmental regulations. Each of theseenvironmental acts has contributeddirectlyto our countrysoverall intent to control hazardous wastes.One of the most significant acts related to environmental issues is theSuperfu nd Act (CERCLA).Finan cial Report ing and Disclos