7 Environmental Policy: Decision Making and Problem Solving
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7 Environmental Policy: Decision Making and Problem Solving Chapter Objectives This chapter will help you: Describe environmental policy and assess its societal context Identify the institutions important to U.S. environmental policy and recognize major U.S. environmental laws Categorize the different approaches to environmental policy Delineate the steps of the environmental policy process and evaluate its effectiveness Discuss the role of science in the policy process List the institutions involved with international environmental policy and describe how nations handle transboundary issues Lecture Outline I. Central Case: San Diego and Tijuana: Sewage Pollution Problems and Policy Solutions A. In 2007, San Diego officials closed public beaches 27 times, issued 668 days’ worth of health advisories, and kept one area off-limits to swimming the entire year. Of these beach closures, 76% were due to pollution from the Tijuana River. A river’s watershed consists of all the land from which water drains into the river. The Tijuana River’s watershed covers 4,500km2 (1,750 mi2) and is home to 2 million people of two nations, making this a transboundary issue. B. This problem also occurred across the border in the Mexican city of Tijuana, as raw sewage leaking from old sewer systems overflowed into streets, beaches, and the Tijuana River, directly affecting people’s day-to- day lives. C. The rise of U.S.-owned factories, or maquiladoras, on the Mexican side of the border has contributed to the river’s pollution, both through direct disposal of industrial waste and by attracting thousands of new workers to the already crowded region. D. As impacts have intensified, many people in the San Diego and Tijuana areas have worked with policymakers to address this problem. II. Environmental Policy: An Overview 1. A policy is a formal set of general plans and principles intended to address problems and guide decision making. 2. Public policy is made by governments, and consists of laws, regulations, orders, incentives, and practices intended to advance societal welfare. 3. Environmental policy pertains to human interactions with the environment. 4. Forging effective policy requires input from science, ethics, and economics. A. Environmental policy addresses issues of equity and resource use. 1. Government interacts with individual citizens, organizations, and the private sector in a variety of ways to formulate policy. 2. Environmental policy aims to protect environmental quality and the natural resources people use, and to promote equity in people’s use of resources. 3. The tragedy of the commons, as explained by Garrett Hardin, is when an unregulated resource held in common eventually becomes overused and degraded. 4. Although public oversight through government can alleviate the tragedy of the commons, this dilemma can also be addressed in other ways, including a cooperative approach and privatization. 5. If a community agrees to reduce use, or pollution, in a common resource while one or two groups or individuals do not participate, they are free riders on the efforts of others; this can collapse the system. 6. External costs are harmful impacts borne by people not involved in the market transactions that created them. 7. Some policies, such as the polluter pays principle, specify that the party responsible for pollution should also be held responsible for covering the costs of its impacts. This helps avoid a tragedy of the commons. B. Many factors can hinder environmental policy. 1. Some people see government policies that regulate the environment as restrictive, inconvenient and an economic loss in their implementation. 2. Another reason people sometimes do not see a need for environmental policy stems from the nature of most environmental problems, which often develop gradually. III. U.S. Environmental Law and Policy A. Federal policy arises from the three branches of government. 1. Legislation is created by Congress, which consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives. 2. Legislation is enacted (approved) or vetoed (rejected) by the president, who may also issue executive orders, specific legal instructions for government agencies. a. Regulations are specific rules or requirements intended to help achieve the objectives of the more broadly written statutory law. 3. The judiciary, consisting of the Supreme Court and various lower courts, is charged with interpreting legislation. a. Courts interpret laws because over time social norms, societal conditions, and technologies change. b. Decisions made by the courts are known as case law. c. Previous rulings then serve as precedents for new cases. B. State and local governments also make environmental policy. 1. States, counties, and municipalities all generate environmental policy of their own, and interact to address environmental problems. 2. States with higher population densities often have more strict environmental laws and tend toward more regulation because citizens observe the damage from unregulated activities. 3. State laws cannot violate principles of the U.S. Constitution, and if state and federal laws conflict, federal laws take precedence. C. Some constitutional amendments bear on environmental law. 1. One of these is the clause from the Fourteenth Amendment prohibiting states from denying ―equal protection of its laws‖ to any person. 2. The Fifth Amendment ensures, in part, that private property shall not ―be taken for public use without just compensation.‖ a. A regulatory taking occurs when the government, by means of a law or regulation, deprives a property owner of some or all economic uses of that property. D. Early U.S. environmental policy promoted development. 1. The early environmental laws were intended to promote settlement and the extraction and use of the continent’s abundant natural resources. a. Among these early laws were the General Land Ordinances of 1785 and 1787. It gave the federal government the right to manage unsettled lands, and it created a grid system for surveying them and readying them for private ownership. b. This law wholly displaced the Native Americans who were inhabiting these lands. c. All of these policies encouraged settlers, entrepreneurs, and land speculators to move west. E. The second wave of U.S. environmental policy encouraged conservation. 1. In the late 1800s, as the continent became more populated and its resources were increasingly exploited, public perception and government policy toward natural resources began to shift. 2. During this time, the government created national parks, wildlife refuges, and the forest system. F. The third wave of U.S. environmental policy responded to pollution and public outcry. 1. The publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring awakened the American public to the negative impacts of pesticides and industrial chemicals. 2. The burning of the Cuyahoga River moved the public to prompt Congress to do more to protect the environment. 3. Earth Day, first celebrated on April 22, 1970, continues to be supported by millions of people worldwide. G. NEPA gives citizens input into environmental policy decisions. 1. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was signed in 1970 and requires that an environmental impact statement (EIS) be prepared for any major federal action. 2. The EIS process uses a cost-benefit approach typical of neoclassical economics, and generally does not halt development projects, while providing incentives to lessen the environmental damage resulting from a development or activity. H. Creation of the EPA marked a shift in environmental policy. 1. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is charged with conducting and evaluating research, monitoring environmental quality, setting and enforcing standards, assisting the states in meeting standards and goals, and educating the public. I. Other prominent laws followed. 1. This included the Federal Water Pollution Control Acts (1965 and 1972) and Clean Water Act (1977). 2. In the 1980s, Congress strengthened, broadened, and elaborated on the major laws of the 1970s. For example, major amendments were made to the Clean Water Act in 1987 and to the Clean Air Act in 1990. J. Many people reacted against regulation. 1. From 1994 through 2006, the Republican-controlled Congress, and the White House under George W. Bush, sought to weaken or eliminate hard- won environmental protection measures. 2. In a departure from the former environmental advocacy stance that relied on technological fixes, consultants argued that arguments based on people’s core values were more effective in gaining public support for environmental protection. 3. New perspectives helped contribute to the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008. K. Today’s environmental policy focuses on sustainability and climate change. 1. With Obama’s election and enhanced Democratic majorities in Congress came widespread optimism that the United States might reestablish its international leadership in environmental policy. 2. We may now be embarking on a fourth wave of environmental policy, one focused on sustainability and sustainable development. IV. Approaches to Environmental Policy A. Conflicts can be addressed in court. 1. Prior to the legislative push of recent decades, most environmental policy questions in the United States were addressed with lawsuits in the courts through tort law, which is law that deals with harm caused to one entity by another. B. Command-and-control policy has improved our lives. 1. Most environmental laws of recent decades, and most