Engineering the Environment: Regulatory Engineering at the U.S
Engineering the Environment: Regulatory Engineering at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1970-1980 Jongmin Lee Dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Science and Technology Studies Matthew H. Wisnioski, Chair Mark V. Barrow, Jr. Gary L. Downey Saul Halfon Ann Johnson August 2, 2013 Blacksburg, VA Keywords: air pollution, control technology, environmental regulation, regulatory engineering, catalytic converter, scrubber, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Copyright Jongmin Lee Engineering the Environment: Regulatory Engineering at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1970-1980 Jongmin Lee ABSTRACT My dissertation addresses how engineers, scientists, and bureaucrats generated knowledge about pollution, crafted an institution for environmental protection, and constructed a collective identity for themselves. I show an important shift in regulators’ priorities, from stringent health-based standards to flexible technology-based ones through the development of end-of-pipeline pollution control devices, which contributed to the emergence of economic incentives and voluntary management programs. Drawing on findings from archival documents, published sources, and oral history interviews, I examine the first decade of the EPA amid constant organizational changes that shaped the technological and managerial character of environmental policy in the United States. Exploring the EPA’s internal research and development processes and their relationship with scientific and engineering communities sheds light on how the new fields of environmental engineering and policy were co-produced in the 1970s. I argue that two competing approaches for environmental management, a community health approach and a control technology approach, developed from EPA’s responses to bureaucratic, geographical, and epistemic challenges.
[Show full text]