1. ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

2. Why is environmental policy so controversial?
Creates both winners and losers
Losers may be interest groups or average citizens
Losers may not want to pay costs Example: auto exhaust control
Shrouded in scientific uncertainty Example: greenhouse effect
Takes the form of entrepreneurial politics
Encourages emotional appeals: "good guys" versus "bad guys"

3. POLITICS OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
THEME A
POLITICS OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

4. I. MAJORITARIAN POLITICS: Distributed benefits, distributed costs
A. Gives benefits to large numbers.
B. Distributed costs to large numbers

5. II. INTEREST GROUP POLITICS: Concentrated benefits, concentrated costs.
A. Gives benefits to relatively small group.
B. Cost imposed on another small group

6. III. CLIENT POLITICS: Concentrated benefits, distributed costs
A. Relatively small group benefits
B. Costs distributed widely
C. Most people unaware of costs

7. IV. ENTREPRENEURIAL POLITICS: distributed benefits, concentrated costs
A. Gives benefits to large number
B. Cost imposed on small group
C. Success depends on people who work for unorganized majorities - Ralph Nader, Rachael Carson

8. The American context
Environmental policy is shaped by unique features of American politics
More adversarial than in Europe
Rules are often uniform nationally (auto emissions)
But require many regulators and rules, strict deadlines, and expensive technologies
Often government (pro-) versus business (anti-)
Example: Clean Air Act, which took thirteen years to revise in Congress
In England, rules are flexible and regional (1). Compliance is voluntary (2). Government and business cooperate

9. The American context Depends heavily on states
Standards are left to states, subject to federal control
Local politics decides allocations
Federalism reinforces adversarial politics; separation of powers provides multiple points of access

11. Figure 21.1: Government Regulation
Source: Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report (January 20, 1990), 185, updated with Wirthlin Worldwide Survey.

12. MAJORITARIAN POLITICS: POLLUTION FROM AUTOMOBILES
Many people hope to benefit, but many people (anyone who owns a car) will have to pay the cost.
When People Believe the Costs Are Low Environmental Impact Statements.
When People Believe the Costs Are High Gasoline Taxes

13. INTEREST GROUP POLITICS: ACID RAIN
Regions hurt by acid rain (mainly in the Northeast) argue with regions that product a lot of acid rain (mainly in the Midwest) about who should pay.

14. CLIENT POLITICS: AGRICULTURAL PESTICIDES
Farmers manage to minimize federal controls over the use of pesticides. Most people are unaware of what foods contain what pesticides or which, if any, are harmful; farmers are keenly aware of the economic benefits of pesticides and are well organized to defend them.

15. ENTREPRENEURIAL POLICIES: POLLUTION FROM FACTORIES
Many people hope to benefit from rules that impose costs on a few firms.

16. Entrepreneurial politics gave rise to environmental movement
Santa Barbara oil spill, Earth Day
Led to the formation of EPA and passage of the Water Quality Improvement Act and tougher Clean Air Act in 1970
Two years later Congress passed laws designed to clean up water
Three years later Congress adopted the Endangered Species Act
New laws passed into the 1990s
Existing environmental organizations grew in size and new ones formed
Public opinion rallied behind environmental slogans

17. Global warming
Earth's temperature rises from trapped gases in the atmosphere
Predicted result: floods on coastal areas as the polar ice caps melt; wilder weather as more storms are created; and tropical diseases spread to North America
Activist scientists versus skeptics scientists
Activists agree with predicted results and say we should act now, despite scientific doubts
Skeptics say we should learn more before doing anything
Survey indicates skeptics outnumber activists
Activists have greatest influence
U.S. signed Kyoto Protocol in 1997

18. THEME B - TRANSPORTATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Much of environmental policy is connected with the nation's transportation system especially to the use of automobiles.

19. At present, the number of cars in use is increasing two times faster than the rate of population growth. The amount of land nationwide devoted to parking lots is equivalent to the size of the state of Georgia. The largest source of toxins in our air is from Motor Vehicles. .

20. Majoritarian politics: pollution from automobiles
Clean Air Act imposed tough restrictions
1975: 90 percent reduction of hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide; 1976: 90 percent reduction in nitrous oxides
Required catalytic converters
States were required to restrict public use of cars
If auto emissions controls were insufficient- parking bans required, implementation of car pools, gas rationing
Efforts failed: opposition too great
Congress and the EPA backed down, postponed deadlines
Consumers, auto industry, and unions objected
Loss of horsepower
Loss of competitiveness
Loss of jobs
The Clean Air Act was weakened in 1977 but revived in 1990 with tougher standards

21. Public will support tough laws
If costs are hidden (catalytic converters)
But not if they have to change habits (car pools)

22. Majoritarian politics when people believe the costs are low: National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA)
Requires environmental impact statement (EIS)
Does not require specific action
Passed Congress with overwhelming support
But encouraged numerous lawsuits that block or delay projects
Popular support remains strong: costs appear low, benefits high

23. Majoritarian politics when people believe the costs are high
Increased gasoline taxes
Would discourage driving, save fuel, and reduce smog
Most would pay, most would benefit
But costs come long before benefits
And benefits may not be obvious
Easier to raise gas tax if benefits are concrete, for example, highways, bridges, and so forth

24. Interest group politics: acid rain
Source of acid rain
Burning of high-sulfur coal in midwestern factories
Winds carry sulfuric acid eastward
Rains bring acid to earth
Effects of acid rain
Acidification of lakes
Destruction of forests
Long-term and some short-term effects are unclear
Regional battle
East versus Midwest, Canada versus United States
Midwestern businesses deny blame and costs

25. Interest group politics: acid rain
Solutions and compromise
Burn low-sulfur coal one alternative
Effective but expensive
Low-sulfur coal comes from West, high-sulfur coal is local
Install smokestack scrubbers a second alternative
Costly, not always effective, and leave sludge
But allow use of inexpensive high-sulfur coal
Congress voted for scrubbers for all new plants
Including those that burned low-sulfur coal
Even if plant was next to low-sulfur coal mine
Political advantages
Protected jobs of high-sulfur coal miners; powerful allies in Congress
Environmentalists preferred scrubbers; "definitive" solution to problem
Scrubber manufacturers preferred scrubbers
Eastern governors preferred scrubbers; made their plants more competitive

26. Interest group politics: acid rain
Solutions and compromise
Practical disadvantages
Failed to allow for plants that burn low-sulfur coal; why spend money on scrubbers?
Scrubbers didn't work well
Failed to address problem of existing plants
Stalemate for thirteen years
Two-step regulation proposed by Bush
Before 1995: some plants could choose their approach; fixed reduction but plants decide how to do
After 1995: sharper reductions for many more plants, requiring some use of scrubbers
Sulfur dioxide allowances could be bought and sold
Financial compensation for coal miners who lose jobs
Became part of Clean Air Act of 1990

27. Client politics: agricultural pesticides
Issue: control of use and runoff of pesticides; farmers have mostly resisted policy entrepreneurs, with DDT an exception
EPA efforts to evaluate safety of all pesticides
Given mandate by Congress in 1972
Program has not succeeded
Too many pesticides to evaluate (1). Many have only long-term effects needing extended study (2). Expensive and time-consuming to evaluate
Benefits of pesticide may outweigh harm
Political complications
Farmers are well-represented in Congress
Subsidies encourage overproduction, which encourages overuse of pesticides
Damage is hard to see and dramatize
The EPA budget is small
Few pesticides have been removed from the market; only those receiving heavy media coverage such as DDT in 1972
Client politics has won out

28. THEME C - ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY WITHOUT PUBLIC INTEREST
THE ENVIRONMENTAL UNCERTAINTIES
1. What is the Problem?
2. What Are Our Goals?
3. How Do We Achieve Our Goals.?

29. Offsets
An environmental rule that a company in an area with polluted air can offset its own pollution by reducing pollution from another source in the area. For instance, an older company that can't afford to pay for new anti-pollution technologies may buy pollution credits from a newer company that has reduced its source of pollution below the levels required by law.

30. Bubble standard
The total amount of air pollution that can come from a given factory. A company is free to decide which specific sources within that factory must be reduced and how to meet the bubble standard.

31. Pollution Allowances (or banks)
If a company reduces its polluting emissions by more than the law requires, it can either use this excess to cover a future plant expansion or sell it to another company.

32. Command-and-control strategy
A strategy to improve air and water quality, involving the setting of detailed pollution standards and rules.

33. Why is it so controversial?
1. Every policy creates winners and losers.
2. Many environmental issues are enmeshed in scientific uncertainty.
3. Much environmental policy takes the form of entrepreneur politics - mobilizing decisions with strong, often emotional appeals in order to overcome the political advantages of client groups that oppose a change.

34. THEME D - THE FUTURE ENVIRONMENT - THE RESULTS
Evidence indicates that many current environmental problems are intensifying while new problems are continually emerging. Science has been unable to develop workable solutions to most forms of pollution. Such uncertainty precludes the formulation of a coherent public policy. As a result, this is an area where politics will necessarily lag behind technology. Science must define a direction.

35. The results: the environment has improved since 1970 in some aspects
Less air pollution
Maybe less water pollution but harder to judge
Hazardous wastes remain a problem

36. IMPORTANT WEB SITES

37. SELF TEST