Environmental
Policy
Chapter 21
Pop Quiz 21
1.What agency enforces the Clean Air Act?
2.What device was supposed to make
smokestacks cleaner?
3.On what date (m/d/y) was the 1st Earth Day
celebrated?
4.What pool of money pays for environmental
clean-up caused by corporations?
5.What book by Rachel Carson led to the banning
of the pesticide DDT?
6.Name an environmental disaster that was
polarized by the media.
Copyright © 2011 Cengage
Environmental Policy: What is it?
• Any course of action deliberately taken, or
not taken, to manage human activities.
• Prevents, reduces, or mitigates harmful
effects on nature and natural resources by
humans.
• Very controversial: Which is a priority—
• People or Places?
• Jobs or Animals?
• Protection or Affordability?
What's the BIG Deal?
There are 4 main reasons why Environmental
Policy is so controversial:
 Every government policy creates winners & losers
 Issues are debated by scientific uncertainty
 Most controversial measures take form of
Entrepreneurial Politics
 Environmental Policy of the federal government
impacts the states and other nations
• Clean Air & Water Acts
• The Kyoto Protocol (1997)
Environmental Politics
• Entrepreneurial: Controlling pollution by
corporations (All benefit, corp. pays)
• Majoritarian Politics: Reducing air
pollution cost caused by automobiles
(Everyone benefits, everyone pays)
• Interest Group Politics: Mediating
issues over Acid Rain (Businesses pay,
farmers & certain industries benefit)
• Client Politics: Continuing use of
pesticides to yield more (Farmers
benefit, everyone pays)
Entrepreneurial Politics: History
• Rachael Carson’s Silent Spring highlights
dangers of pesticides.
• Oil spill in 1969 in Santa Barbara, CA
• Start of Earth Day (1st celebrated 4-22-70)
• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
created by Nixon administration in 1970.
• Congress strengthened the Clean Air Act &
the Water Quality Improvement Act (1970)
• Various laws and amendments to these acts
were passed in the 1990s
Is global warming real or a myth? Is it human
generated or cyclical? How does this impact
environmental policy in the US?
Entrepreneurial Politics: Issues
• Endangered Species Act (1973)
o forbids buying or selling of endangered
animals & plants
o Animal rights groups support and polarize
destruction and poaching…benefits
widely distributed/costs to poachers
o May be popular if it saves a symbol as a
result: Example of the bald eagle
o May be unpopular if jobs are lost as a
result: Example of spotted owl
Majoritarian Politics
Based around perspective of the costs
Examples:
Low Perceived Costs: National Environmental Policy
Act (1969) required that an Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) be written before any agency
undertakes an activity that affects the environment.



EIS is a report that assesses possible effects
of project on the environment.
Costs are passed on to everyone, but large
projects move forward and costs are hidden
Discuss issue of mid-county bridge
Majoritarion Politics (cont.)
High Perceived Costs: Raising taxes on
gasoline
o Discourages
driving, conserves fuel &
reduces smog
o Everyone pays and everyone benefits
o Costs are greatly felt by most families
o Remains very unpopular
o Must sell an increase in the gas tax as
conferring a benefit
Majoritarian Politics: Issues
Clean Air Act (1970): imposed tough restrictions on
amount of automobile emissions
Amended from original act passed in 1963
o Smog became a huge problem in large cities
o Led to auto emissions and air quality standards
• Provision in law required states to develop land-use and
transportation rules
• Catalytic converters reduced emissions, but raised auto
prices. Leaded gasoline was phased out.
o
The public will support tough environmental laws when
someone else has to pay or the cost is hidden; if they
have to pay then their isn't strong support
Save the Planet!
 The legislation passed by Congress (Clean Air
Acts of 1970, 1977 & 1990) set strict time limits
that could not be met without burdening
individuals.
 Results? Time tables pushed back (1990 pushed
smog timeline to 2010, then reduced the
requirement in 2010)
 Some successes in major cities have been realized
with these measures. Debate centers on which action
led to the success, though.
 How will we gauge success and how much is the
average American willing to sacrifice to “save
the planet?”
Interest Group Politics:
Acid Rain is any form of precipitation that is acidic.
• What are the sources?
• Burning fuels from steels mills and electrical power
plants
• How did uncertainties provide support for each
side?
• In the Northeast and East, some forests & lakes
damaged, others were not
• The Midwest argued that not all could be
blamed on smokestacks
• Transitioning to low sulfur coal was too
expensive
Interest Group Politics:
Solution? (1977)
Scrubbers (Eliminate sulfurous fumes from gas
before leaving smokestacks)
 Four Great Advantages:
1. Jobs are protected
2. Environmentalists liked them
3. Scrubber manufacturers liked idea
4. Costly, but prevent shutdowns or moving plants
Problems? (1990)
 Scrubbers didn’t work well, old factories not
fitted, created offsets and allowances, timetables
extended
Client Politics: Agricultural Pesticides
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson caused public
outcry against the use of DDT
• In 1972, the EPA banned DDT, a common
pesticide, because it was shown to have
detrimental effects on wildlife
• Use of many pesticides make it hard for the EPA
to evaluate and remove dangerous ones.
• Many farmers advocate the continuing use of
pesticides on crops because they believe that
they have positive effects on crop yield
• Farmers are well-organized with iron triangles to
protect their use of pesticides.
Client Politics: The Superfund
Hazardous sites were found all over America
which led to the clean up of Toxic Waste
o Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA),
also known as Superfund
 Signed by Carter in 1980
 Taxed chemical and petroleum industries
 Gives gov't the power to sue and person or
company that dumps waste
o Only
limited success due to lawsuits and
appellate process
Environmental Uncertainties
Difficulties of the Environmental Policy Process:
1.Identifying the problem: Some are easy but
many problems are less clear-cut.
2.Costs & Benefits: What will it take to solve
problem, who pays & how much? How big is
the threat?
3.Setting Goals: What is good enough? What
goals are realistic?
4.Achieving Goals: Issuing rules and defining
them is easy, but enforcing them is difficult.
Environmental Strategies
o
Command-and-Control Strategy is assumed to
achieve greatest gain with the least cost.
 improve air & water quality
 setting of detailed standards & rules
Offsets: Companies wanting to open a new plant can
do so as long as in generates a counterbalance by
reducing pollution
o Bubble Standards: Total amt. of air pollution that can
come from each factory.
o Pollution Allowances (or banks): When company
reduces pollution more than required, it can use excess
to cover future plant expansions or sell to other
companies as an offset
o
What’s due When?
1. Read the assignments on the blue
tiles. Take notes by headings.
2. Be working on your legislation
template. Those are due shared by
Friday at 3:00.
3. Unit 8 Test on Friday. Discuss format.
4. All books will be collected and
checked in starting on Friday.