Environmental Policy

1. Environmental Policy

2. Why Controversial?? • Creates winners and losers • Interest groups or average citizens • Losers must pay the costs but receive no benefit • Scientific uncertainty • Takes the form of entrepreneurial politics • Emotional appeals lead to distorted priorities • Decisions affect federal and international relations • States can pass own laws • US rarely signs international environ. treaties

3. The American Context: Unique Features • US more adversarial • Uniform laws require many rules and regulators • Antagonistic interests: govt vs. business • Depends heavily on the states • Standards/practices left to states (some fed control) • Local politics rules • Federalism reinforces adversarial culture

4. Entrepreneurial Politics • Santa Barbara oil spill gave rise to environmental movement • EPA, Earth Day, lots of legislation • Public opinion rallied • Political suicide to “oppose environmentalism” • But are all issues equally deserving?? • Global Warming- rise in temp from trapped gases will cause floods, storms, disease etc • Activists: agree w/predicted results, want to act now (more influence) • Skeptics: want to learn more before acting (more people)

5. Endangered Species Act 1973 • Prohibits buying/selling plants or animals on the “endangered” list (over 600) • Firms and agencies wishing to build in areas with endangered species must comply with federal regulations • Complaints outweigh public support

6. Majoritarian Politics Clean Air Act 1970- tough restrictions on pollutants from automobiles • Started as entrepreneurial- public w/ media support demanded changes • Small provision of law said states would have to restrict use of cars if pollution problem persisted • Huge popular opposition, efforts failed (Congress and EPA backed down) • Consumers, auto industry, unions objected • Loss of horsepower, competitiveness, jobs • Clean Air Act revived in 1990 w/tougher restrictions, but a 20 year deadline • Most current laws target particular industries

7. Majoritarian Politics • When people believe costs are low: • National Environmental Policy Act 1969 (NEPA) • Required Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for any project “significantly affecting human environment” • Overwhelming support, but caused lots of lawsuits and delays • When people believe costs are high: • Increase in gas tax • Most would pay, most would benefit, but benefits not obvious • More accepted if benefits concrete, like highways, bridges, etc

8. Interest Group Politics Acid Rain • 2 well-organized interests hoping to reap the benefits and/or avoid the costs • East vs. Midwest, US vs. Canada • Solutions/Compromises • Burn low-sulfur coal (effective, but costly and not local) • Install smokestack scrubbers (costly, complex, caused sludge waste, didn’t always work, but would burn high-sulfur coal)

9. Interest Group Politics: Acid Rain • Congress voted for scrubbers on all new plants • Political Advantages: • Protected jobs • Preferred by environmentalists (definitive solution), scrubber manufacturers (duh!), and eastern governors (their plants more competitive) • Practical Disadvantages: • Imposed scrubbers on plants next to low-sulfur mines • Scrubbers didn’t work well • Failed to address problem of existing plants

10. Interest Group Politics: Acid Rain • Interest group politics permeates environmental policy making • Often lack moral fervor of entrepreneurial politics • Many more groups are organizing- able to block proposals • Industry plays important role in supporting laws that favor them (and blocking laws that don’t) • Are much better organized today than the 70’s • But momentum sticks with policy entrepreneurs • The environment is good politics

11. Client Politics Agricultural Pesticides: issue is control of use and runoff, farmers have been able to resist much entrepreneurial pressure (except DDT ban) • 1962 Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring set off public outcry • 1972 Congress directed EPA to evaluate claims • Program hasn’t succeeded: • Too many pesticides to evaluate (over 50,000)- costs time and money • Benefits of pesticides may outweigh harm

12. Client Politics: Pesticides • Political Complications • Farmers are well-represented in Congress • Subsidies encourage over-production • =over use of pesticides • Damage hard to see and dramatize • EPA budget kept small • Few pesticides banned- those that were had a very public problem (DDT killing birds) • Client politics wins!

13. Environmental Uncertainties • What is the problem? –often hard to see • Support goes to most current/popular problem, Congress and public, not the EPA, often decide • What goals do we want to achieve? • Must be realistic • Weigh costs and benefits • How do we achieve the goals? • Command-and-control strategy: set rules, enforce them in court • But often don’t know how to get the most environmental gain for the least cost

14. Environmental Policy • Incentives replace command-and-control rules • Offsets: if you increase pollution in one way you must decrease it in another • Bubble Standard: total amount of air pollution allowed from a given factory. Company can decide how to meet it • Pollution allowances (or banks): if company comes in under the standard they can bank the leftover • Results • Less air pollution, probably less water pollution (harder to judge) • Hazardous waste (Superfund sites) still a problem