Wilson 21 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Who Governs?  Why have environmental issues become so important in American politics and policy-making?  Does the public get the environmental laws it wants? To What Ends?  If we wish to have cleaner air and water, how far should we go in making them cleaner when the cost of each additional gain goes up?  What is the best way for the government to achieve an environmental goal: by issuing orders or offering incentives? OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS

 Policies create winners and losers  Enmeshed in scientific uncertainty  Mobilizes decision-makers with strong, emotional appeals  Policies affect states and other nations  Majoritarian appeal  Entrepreneurial pressure  Client benefits  Interest group fights CONTROVERSY

 Policy is much more adversarial than it is in most European nations  Conflicts, lawsuits, antagonistic – US  Business and politics work together, flexible – GB  Local politics plays larger role  Dependent on states to enforce rules  “science” plays larger role elsewhere AMERICAN CONTEXT

 Global Warming  Earth Day, 4/22/1970  Public ground swell  Cuyahoga River  EPA  Clean Air Act  Water Quality Improvement Act  Endangered Species Act  Modern arguments  Conflicts between elites over ideologies ENTREPRENEURIAL

 Pollution  Started as entrepreneurial  Became majoritarian when localities had to meet air quality standards  Local rules  Smog control  Export competition  More targeted since the 1990s  NEPA – environmental impact studies, low cost  Gas tax – public push back when costs too high MAJORITARIAN

 Acid Rain  High sulfur, coal burning power plants  Natural resources and tourism  2 powerful lobbies  Scientific uncertainty  Scrubbers added to smokestacks  Carbon tax and offset market  Political stalemates  More groups  Less fervent than entrepreneurial  Less deep than majoritarian INTEREST GROUP

 Pesticides  Organized farmers  Balance costs and benefits  Too many to test them all  DDT as example of winning entrepreneurial public campaign  EPA challenges  Affects not clear cut  Public opinion changes  Strategies to reach goals  Command-and-control  Offering incentives CLIENT POLITICS

 What is the problem?  What are the goals?  How do we achieve our goals?  Offsets – close a polluting factory to open another  Bubble Standard – meeting total pollution goals  Allowances or Banks – saving or selling credits  Superfund example and shift away from rules  Tax and sue toxic waste dumpers  Who is responsible  Expensive clean-up  Expansion of sites and standards UNCERTAIN SOLUTIONS

 High support for environment  General agreement over degeneration  Disagreement over problems and solutions  Considerable improvements in air quality  Some improvements in water quality  Little gains in hazardous waste and pesticide use RESULTS