Environmental Policy and Property-Based Interests: the Domestic and International Politics of Air Pollution in Canada and the United States
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Environmental Policy and Property-based Interests: The Domestic and International Politics of Air Pollution in Canada and the United States by Owen Frederick Temby A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario ©2012 Owen Frederick Temby Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du 1+1 Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-93698-6 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-93698-6 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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Canada Abstract This thesis provides an account of continuity and change in air pollution governance in Canada and the United States. In doing so, it explicates the role of property-based interests in this process. Property-based interests are spatially bound actors who seek to benefit economically from the use and sale of land. In pursuance of this objective, they tend to promote economic growth, although often this takes the form of managed growth within limits. They include, but are not limited to, homeowners’ associations, local and regional chambers of commerce, issue-specific regional environmental organizations, and urban newspapers. As air pollution undermines the ability of these actors (or their members) to generate wealth from property holdings, they have historically provided much of the political will to address it by lobbying governments, engaging in litigation, promoting their cause to the broader public, conducting or framing research, and developing policy solutions. At the same time, the industrial interests causing much of the pollution (including resource processing, electricity generating, and manufacturing firms) are less concerned about the local or regional economy, and more with the health of the broader market for their products, and in keeping down the costs of production. These industrial interests tend to lobby governments and engage in litigation with the objective of preventing the imposition of costly regulation. In providing an account of the role of property (and, to a lesser extent, industry) in shaping air pollution governance, this dissertation employs the concept, common in the international relations literature, of a governance “regime.” Four regimes of air pollution governance are examined: (1) the American domestic regime, (2) the Canadian domestic regime, (3) the Canada-US bilateral regime, and (4) the multilateral air pollution regime in which both countries participate. The accounts of the development of these regimes focus on the role of property-based interests in pushing for air pollution relief and industrial interests in resisting. The dissertation shows that policy outcomes tend to be the result of compromises between these two categories of actors, and also provides a framework for understanding how it is that some efforts at governing air pollution result in substantive governance, while others do not. Acknowledgements When I began the journey resulting in this dissertation, I approached it with the goal of understanding how air pollution governance has evolved over time and how the various domains of this governance relate to one another. To me, the fact that air pollution governance occurs both internationally and domestically promised a topic full of puzzles and challenges. Did it ever. In short order I found myself blinded by the fact that the theoretical tools I had been trained in during my graduate school coursework were both too narrow to see air pollution governance in its various manifestations, yet too broad to suggest a starting place. I found that much of what I was told to investigate was ineffective, irrelevant, or misunderstood. Like photochemical smog itself, air pollution politics is the stuff of smoke and mirrors. Its inherently symbolic nature ensures that it is in oversupply, yet it is not always clear where it is coming from, what is real, and what is a sideshow best ignored yet begging for attention. As I toiled in the metaphorical smoke, I read many observations by scholars and other experts I encountered which, at closer investigation, turned out to be highly questionable. I read that a trend is occurring toward the use of reflexive or voluntary measures. No. Policy follows science. Sometimes yes, sometimes no, and sometimes yes in a way that is environmentally destructive. The United States and Canada govern air pollution federally. Certainly for automobile emissions, but that is only a part of the story. The Canadian “national concern” doctrine has paved the way for the courts to play an important role in environmental (and thus air pollution) governance. Keep dreaming. Every rule the EPA passes is subject to numerous lawsuits. Strange...but perhaps now we’re onto something... Living in Canada, I quickly became aware of the sensitivity Canadians have at times exhibited about air pollution travelling across the border from the United States. I read Don Munton’s analysis of Canada as environmentally dependent on the United States, and thought there must be reason for this sensitivity to environmental dependence apart from norms of ecological virtue. After all, Canada is the land of the oil sands. There must be an economic explanation for the politicization of the source-receptor relationship, perhaps related to competitiveness? This is when I re-discovered George Gonzalez’s The Politics o f Air Pollution (I had read it more than a year earlier but not initially realized the accuracy and elegance of its arguments). I found the distinction between the interests of property and industry to be consistent with what I had observed, yet on a wider scale than strictly in urban areas. Once I focused on the role of property-based interests as a persistent feature of substantive environmental governance, I found interesting variation, over space and time, in terms of the means through which these interests are channeled. They acted as catalysts for air pollution policy in Toronto in the 1950s and New York in the 1980s, for example, but in different ways. I found that the EPA is indeed important in air pollution governance, but not in a top-down way; rather, as a site of contestation between different interests competing for the policy they believe favors them economically. I further found the importance of looking at these local political processes for an understanding of what happens internationally in bilateral and multilateral forums. Air pollution is not just an abstract problem that treaty negotiators look for solutions for; it is something experienced by the people whose livelihoods (and health) it damages. To say that successful efforts to address transborder air pollution must involve them in some way is not a platitude, but a factual statement based on history. Without economic winners championing air pollution policy, the costs to the losers are hard to justify. I see this as good news: businesses can and do have a positive influence on environmental governance. The roots of this project extend to my experience as a master’s student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Utah. In this intellectually stimulating environment, I learned from enriching discussions with my fellow students, namely, Mark Bean, Robert Forbis, Paul Hartzog, Saban Kardas, and many others. I also benefitted from my coursework at Utah, and wish to thank the following faculty members for their mentorship: Matthew Burbank, Radoslav Dimitrov, John Francis, James Gosling, Jeff Kentor, Howard Lehmann, and Ken Smith. As it turns out, Dr. Dimitrov’s course, “Global Environmental Politics,” was the most important and influential one in which I had the good fortune to participate. I am grateful for the care he put into preparing it and advising me. "Wdien I handed my in paper for the course, he commented in response, firmly, that I should prioritize empirical accounts over theoretical exercises. That stuck with me. Parts of Chapter 4 have appeared in the Journal o f Urban History and parts of Chapter 6 have appeared in the Journal o f Integrative Environmental Sciences. Material from these articles is included here with permission. I wish to thank and acknowledge the following individuals. The staff of the European Centre for Minority Issues for letting me use an office in their historic building in Flensburg, Germany, during the summer of 2010.