Environmental Decision-Making

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Environmental Decision-Making

• Business as Usual, Crisis-Response, and Prevention

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I. How is environmental policy made?

• Must understand level of policy,
  decision-making process, issue characteristics,
  and policy implementation.

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A. Levels of Environmental Policy
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Local Policy

• Many environmental problems have local cause and
  small radius of effects
• Long history of local community actions to
  regulate members of the community
• Traditional use of common property resources
• Regulation of public nuisances
• Zoning laws

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A. Levels of Environmental Policy
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National Policy

• The main wave of (US) Federal environmental
  legislation starts around 1970 at a crest of the
  environmental movement (First Earth Day 1970)
• The Big 4
• National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) 1969
• Clean Air Act - 1970
• Clean Water Act - 1972
• Endangered Species Act - 1973

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B. Patterns of Decision-Making

• Business as usual Interest Group Politics (see
  previous lecture)
• Crisis Response
• Something must be done Driven by media
  coverage (remember spin bias)
• This is something Agenda-setters asked for
  proposals
• Therefore, this must be done Little debate,
  easy and often unanimous passage

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3. Bureaucratic Regulation Incrementalism

• Slow EPA regulations typically require 12-18
  months to become effective
• Deliberate Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)
  Process
• EPA Inter-Office Work Group concurrence required
  for significant actions (agency is fragmented by
  issue area)
• Inter-Agency agreement required for many rules
  (Agriculture, State, Defense, etc)
• Office of Management Budget (OMB) review -- up
  to 90 days (added by Reagan Administration)
• Public Comment period (30-60 days)
• Process repeated for Final Rules (except Public
  Comment)

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C. Framing the Problem

• 1. Technological Problem
• Identify the best technologies to reduce
  environmental damage and mandate their use
• Style Command and control
• Most common in 1970s and 1980s

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2. Behavioral Problem

• Eliminate the incentives that cause people to
  damage the environment
• Style Market-based incentives (costs and
  benefits)
• Most common in 1990s, 2000s

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3. Dominant Principles

• Polluter Pays Initial wave of toxic waste laws
• Pollution Prevention Principle of CAA, CWA
• Sustainable Development Try to overcome
  growth-environment trade-off
• Precautionary Principle Act while action is
  still possible (analogous to pre-emptive strikes)

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D. Policy Implementation

• General constraint resources allocated to
  program funding and enforcement
• Example EPA gets more workers, no more money ?
  cuts in program funding

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EPA Budget and Workforce
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2. Implementation is Political

• Efforts to limit enforcement budget of EPA
• Repeated deadline extension
• Arguments against adversarial enforcement
  support for partnerships with communities and
  businesses

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II. How does politics affect the environment?

• Party Politics Republicans and Democrats have
  different bases of support.

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Party Platforms, 1976
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Party Platforms, 1984
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Party Platforms, 1992
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Party Platforms, 2000
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Party Politics?
Senate House
NEPA, CAA CWA RCRA, TSCA CAA, CWA CERCLA SARA,
EPCRA CAA
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B. The Environment as a Campaign Issue