Environmental Regulation

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• Environmental Regulation
• Class time/schedule
• Readings/book/links
• Email list
• Briefing
• Topics
• Sources
• presentations
• Grading
• Syllabus / topics

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Do you support laws that regulate private
activity to protect the environment? Why?

• because pollution is morally wrong?
• because pollution harms people directly?
• because pollution harms people indirectly?
• because pollution harms other living things?

Anthropocentrism / Utilitarianism
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Should all pollution be illegal? How do you
decide how much pollution is permissible?
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• ECONOMICS/LOGIC
• DEFINITIONS
• Externalities
• Public Goods
• Tragedy of the Commons
• Free rider problem
• Prisoners Dilemma

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    PRISONER'S DILEMMA     COLUMN   Cooper
ate Defect   ROW Cooperate 3, 3 1,
4     Defect 4, 1 2, 2 
Is the PD a good metaphor for the problem of
environmental protection, in your view?
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LEGAL RESPONSES TO EXTERNALITIES/PUBLIC GOODS
PROBLEMS

• PIGOVIAN TAXES tax creator of externality an
  amount that maximizes social net benefit
• REGULATION
• Prescriptive and proscriptive rules
• allow regulatory agencies to impose conditions to
  minimize/internalize externalities
• What, if anything, is wrong with these solutions
  to the environmental cooperation problem?

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FACTORY A
Homeowner B
Homeowner A
Homeowner C
Value of plant operations 1000/yr Harm to each
homeowner 300/yr Solution?

• does it matter who was there first?
• does it matter how well FACTORY A is already
  controlling pollution?

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LEGAL RESPONSES TO EXTERNALITIES/PUBLIC GOODS
PROBLEMS

• PIGOVIAN TAXES tax creator of externality an
  amount that maximizes social net benefit
• REGULATION
• Prescriptive and proscriptive rules
• allow regulatory agencies to impose conditions to
  minimize/internalize externalities
• PRIVATE LAW (TORTS)
• Coase theorem

9
FACTORY A
Homeowner B
Homeowner A
Homeowner C
Value of plant operations 1000/yr Harm to each
homeowner 300/yr Coasean Solution?
What if the harm to each homeowner was 400/yr?
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COASE AND PRIVATE VS. PUBLIC LAW In what sense is
private law more efficient? Do polluting
activities have social value? Whats wrong with
willingness to pay as a measure of social
value? What is the transaction cost objection to
the Coase Theorem? How might regulation lead to a
worse environmental outcome than the market?
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ECOLOGY
Whole systems (not necessarily human-centered) Int
erconnectedness Balance or flux Precautionary
principle and the burden of proof
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• Cost Benefit Analysis and Ecology

• Valuing environmental benefits
• Market Value
• Travel cost/shadow prices
• Contingent Valuation/wtp problem
• Can CBA accommodate the precautionary principle?
  How does CBA account for future costs?
• Is CBA appropriate for policy decisions like the
  one presented in the Makah Whale Hunt case?

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Back to values David Broder (1990) "The
argument is no longer about values. Thats over
and the environmentalists have won. The argument
is now about policies. And those with the best
evidence and the best arguments, not just the
purest hearts, will prevail. Do you agree?