GO 231
Final Exam
Study
Questions
Spring
2011
The final exam is on Tuesday, May
11 from 1:30-4:30 pm. You will have three hours to complete the
exam, but I hope you can knock it off in two. You may bring in a one-page study
sheet. In writing the exam, I first write a list of Key Concepts (see below)
that we have covered in lecture and the readings. Then, I try to write essay
questions that will enable you to discuss several key concepts in a single
answer. The list of reading questions and IDs after the exam questions is
useful in formulating your answers to the essay questions. They are “what I am
looking for”.
You essay answers will be evaluated based
upon
1. the clarity of your argument;
2. the use of the readings;
3. the creative use of examples from
lectures and readings to make your arguments;
4. the clarity of concept definitions.
I. Short Questions: I will select 8 short questions from the
readings. You must answer 4. Each ID is worth 5%. Your answer should define the term and explain the significance of the concept is for
environmental policy. The questions will
be inspired by the big 10 themes of the class (see below).
Essay Questions I will
select 2; 22.5% each
III. Final Essay (35%) The Future of the
Environmental Movement
James
Speth, one of the godfathers of the American
environmental movement, writes, “A specter is haunting American
environmentalism – the specter of failure.”
Please assess Speth’s claim by writing an
essay which critically:
a.
Analyzes the environmental movement’s success and failures to assess what it has
done right and wrong;
b.
Explains the
larger political context, public
opinion, and environmental challenges facing the environmental movement;
c.
Identifies and explains the competing political strategies
of Speth, the Reapers (Shellenberger and Nordhaus) and Duffy for the
environmental movement and critically assesses their political viability and
environmental impact.
d. States your argument for which strategy you believe the environmental movement should follow and why.
Here are the Big 10
Themes from the 2nd half of the class. They are what you should know.
1. Command and control regulation- the politics, science, administration, economic, and technical aspects of how it works and what the problems are
2. Permitting- what are the political, economic, administrative, and technical characteristics of the permit process and why do they matter for environmental outcomes
3. Project XL- why does it sound great in theory for the environment; but not so good in practice? What are the implications for making environmental regulation smarter, cheaper, better?
4. Cost benefit analysis- what are the advantages and disadvantages of CBA for making environmental policy?
5. Market Approaches- What is a market approach to reducing pollution, how does it work, and why is it superior in terms of politics, economics, administrative, and technical factors to command and control approaches?
6. Policy solutions to global warming- how would cap and trade and carbon taxes work? What are the relative advantages and disadvantages in implementation; the economic impact; their political feasibility?
7. Environmental justice- Do minorities face greater exposure to environmental risk? Why? What are the arguments for differing definitions of discrimination?
8. Are natural disasters like Katrina environmental justice issues? Why or why not?
9. Corporate Environmentalism (CE)- What are the advantages and limits of CE? What are some of the key lessons for policy makers?
10. Environmental Movement- What are its successes and failures? What are the key limits on its effectiveness? What are the alternative strategies or visions for how it should frame issues, form coalitions, and pursue its policies?
IDs/Concepts
and Questions
If you only want a 2 page study sheet, look no
further. If you want to look at some of
the specific ids, concepts, and questions for many of the reading, turn the
page.
Command and Control Regulation
1. How do we regulate Industrial
Water pollution using command and control regulations? What is
the role of Congress, the EPA, states, and interest groups in the rule-making
process?
2. How well does it work from an
economic, administrative, political, and environmental perspective?
3. Is command and control a viable
strategy for saving the environment? Why or why not?
Key Terms
--complexity, rule-making, abatement costs,
compliance, perverse incentives, point and non point sources, publicly owned
treatment works, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, Biochemical
oxygen demand and total suspended solids, regulatory stringency,
A Political View of Command and Control
Regulation
-Stigler’s theory of regulation; why would firms want to be regulated?
- Terrie Davis, Reforming Permitting--role of
permits in command and control regulation, the key characteristics of
permitting process, problems with permitting, bargaining, compliance,
fragmentation, decentralization, flexibility and power,
- What are the implications for environmental
policy?
Solution: Improving Administrative Rationality, Project XL ("Excellence
and Leadership")
1. What is the basic premise of Project XL
2. How well has Project XL worked?
3. What are the difficulties in determining “superior environmental performance”
4. What are the procedural challenges
in implementing Project XL?
4. What does Project XL suggest about the long term potential for reinventing
the EPA and the potential of trading increased flexibility for superior environmental
performance?
You need to know the environmental and procedural details from:
Intel Ocotillo Campus, Chandler, AZ
Weyerhaeuser, Flint River plant
Merck Stonewall Plant, Elkton, VA
--difficulty in shifting from technology based
system to a performance based system.
Clean Air and Water Act II: The Revolt Against Command and Control
1. What is cost-benefit analysis?
2. What are the theoretical arguments for and against cost-benefit analysis?
3. What are the practical difficulties of performing cost-benefit comparisons
of environmental regulations? How has the use of cost-benefit analysis changed
over time?
4. Does cost-benefit analysis enhance or
diminish the quality of environmental policy making?
5. How accurate are the EPA’s cost-benefit analysis?
Do they have to be accurate to have a positive impact?
6. How is cost-benefit analysis actually used in
setting environmental policy?
7. How can we compare different kinds of costs
and benefits, such as lives saved versus ecosystems degraded versus dollars
spent?
8. Where are value judgments built into
cost-benefits analyses?
What do Coglianese and Marchant believe is wrong with the EPA’s rationale for
PM and Ozone standards for NAAQS? Why?
Risk risk analysis, threshold and non-threshhold effects,
Executive Order 12291, Marginal costs, Efficiency, Regulating benzene, GAO
study of water pollution, Pollution tax, Marketable or tradable discharge
permits, Section 812 Study
9. What is the argument in favor of market
incentives instead of direct regulation?
10. What is Goodin’s argument
against market incentives for reducing environmental pollution? Should all
environmental policies pass an "economic efficiency" test?
11. How does the SO2 cap and trade scheme work?
How successful has it been and what are the lessons for other cap and trade
schemes such as mercury or carbon emissions?
Cap and Trade, marginal costs, Banking of SO2
emissions, emissions allowances and the hard cap, Setting cap or emission
levels and timing, Applicability, Allocation of Allowances
Environmental certainty versus cost certainty,
compliance flexibility, point of regulation,
Environmental justice
What is an environmental injustice?
Do Minorities really face greater exposure to environmental risks? Do poor and
minority populations suffer disproportionately from exposure to toxic
materials?
What are the Causes of Environmental Inequity? Can an injustice simply be a
result of "natural processes" (such as land and housing markets)
rather than being intentional?
What does Robert Bullard think the government should do about environmental
justice?
What does Foreman think the government should do about environmental
justice?
How do Bullard and Foreman differ in their definitions of discrimination and
equity?
"multiple, cumulative
and synergistic risk"
Endocrine Disruptors
Discriminatory intent vs. discriminatory outcome
Environmental Justice Perspective on Natural
Disasters
Does race matter when it comes to disaster
impact and relief?
Hurricane Katrina as an
isolated event? Is it just
President Bush’s fault?
Toxic FEMA trailers, Post Katrina Levee Protection, Lead in Soil, Racial Divide in
Disaster Relief, Insurance coverage for rebuilding
Natural disasters as double environmental
justice issues
Corporate Environmentalism
Why do businesses manage pollution/environmental impact beyond existing
governmental regulations?
How firms shift to green production?
Do “green” firms do better than their
competitors?
Are their economic advantages to being green?
What are the implications for public policy?
What are the advantages of corporate
environmentalism? What are its fundamental limits?
Eisner- “genuine
regulatory from should reinforce the trend in corporate environmentalism,
harness the market and industrial association to achieve superior results by
creating a system of government supervised self regulation.”
IDS
Design for the environment, Life cycle
approaches, Environmental management systems (EMS), 3rd party auditing,
American Chemistry Council- Responsible Care versus Sustainable Forestry
Initiative
Life Cycle analysis on Yukon and
Sierra
Examining The Modern
Environmental Movement
Foreman, Bosso, Dowie,
Duffy, Shellenberger and Nordhaus
What are the key tenets of deep ecology and the
key political principles of the Earth First Movement? Do they represent a
viable theoretical or political strategy for the environmental movement?
What does Dowie believe
is wrong with the national environmental groups? Why does he believe local
grassroots initiatives like those related to environmental justice movement are
more effective
What is the central challenge for environmental movements according
to Bosso? How does the salience trap
and the new political landscape for environmental groups shape their strategic
choices?
What would Bosso say to radicals who
say the mainstream environmental groups are addicted to direct mail, being
respectable, and incremental legislative politics?
What is the Reapers (Shellenberger and Nordhaus) critique of the environmental movement? How would
they define environmentalism? What does the fight for CAFÉ standards represent
what is wrong with the mainstream environmental movement? Why do they believe
their solution, the Apollo Project, represents a superior political and
environmental alternative?
What is Duffy’s implicit critique of what the
environmental movement has done wrong? What does Duffy believe environmental
groups should do instead? Do environmental groups risk losing their “special
status” by playing politics?
Who should environmental groups seek to build
coalitions with? What should their message be? How political should
environmental groups be?
Capacity Building Programs
Biodiversity Project
Environmental Leadership Institute
Email Action Alert Systems
List Enhancement Projects
Scorecard.org
Audience Driven Communication strategies
League of Conservation
Voters’ political strategy?
Biocentrism
Group of 10
the New Political landscape
“sue the bastards” strategy
National environmental groups use of direct mail fundraising
influence of foundations
Louis Biggs & Citizens Clearing House for Hazardous waste
Plug the toilet
Environmental justice movement
The Apollo Project; Café Standards,
Environmentalism as if Politics didn’t matter,
“emerging environmental tragedy of unprecedented
proportions.”
Speth- Focus on Technical Policy Fixes, Not politics; Emphasis on being pragmatic
and incrementalist; promoting major lifestyle changes
and challenging the materialistic values that dominate our society; challenge
corporate power, writing a new American story,
Framing, Mobilization, Tactics