Bob Turner
Associate Professor bturner@skidmore.edu
310 Ladd http://www.skidmore.edu/~bturner
Office Hours T-R 2-4pm M 2-3:30;
whenever my door is open or by appointment
Environmental Politics and Policy
GO 231
Spring 2013
INTRODUCTION
This course is a broad overview of the politics and policy of U.S. environmental policy making. Participants will gain an understanding of how environmental issues arrive on the public agenda, the role of political institutions in making environmental policy, the economic, political, and institutional forces that shape policymaking, competing approaches to environmental policy analysis, and the goals and strategies of the environmental movement. The goal of the class is to help you develop a critical understanding of how environmental policy is made and how it can be improved.
READINGS
All of the readings are in the GO 231 Environment Policy Reader which will be provided in class. You should complete the assigned reading and assignment before class. Class will consist of lecture, discussion, and some small group activities. All students are expected to participate, preferably not at the same time.
REQUIREMENTS & GRADING
As befitting your status at one of the “New Ivies”, I have high expectations of student performance. Grades will be determined by student performance on all of the following:
1. Midterm 15% (Feb 28)
2. Paper #1 Legislative and Political History 20% (Feb 22)
3. Paper #2 Policy Evaluation 20% (Mar 29)
4. Paper #3 Policy Reform Proposal 20% (Dec 9)
5. Final Exam 25% (Dec 15)
All students should familiarize themselves with the college’s policy on Academic Misconduct and abide by the provisions of the Honor Code. If you need any academic accommodations, please be sure that you have made your requests for such accommodations to Meg Hegener.
COURSE ABSENCES
A well functioning class that promotes learning requires good attendance. You are allowed two personal days (absences), after that I will deduct 2.5% from your final grade. For example, you receive a 90%, but have missed four classes; your final grade is an 85%. You have an unlimited number of excused absences for illnesses, family crises, etc, though they count against your two absences. For each of these absences, you must provide written excuse from the Dean of Students’ office.
A FINAL WORD
If you are not able to arrive before the beginning of the period, regularly do the readings, or meet the due dates for assignments, I encourage you to reconsider your decision to take the class.
COURSE SCHEDULE
Jan 22 Introduction
Part I: AGENDA SETTING
Jan 24 Agenda Setting, the Issue Attention Cycle, and Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Theory
** Judith Layzer, “The Nation Tackles Pollution,” in The Environmental Case p. 25-51
** Anthony Downs, Up and Down with Ecology—the Issue Attention Cycle, The Public Interest, p. 38-50
**Sarah Pralle, Agenda-setting and climate change, Environmental Politics, Volume 18, Issue 5 Sep 2009, p. 781 - 799
** Google and read about “Climate Gate”
Jan 29 Problem Definition/Framing in Theory and Practice
** Deborah Stone Causal Stories and Policy Agendas, Political Science Quarterly, 1989, 281-300
** Sierra Club, False Advertising, 1-3
** Patrick J. Michaels, Losing It, American Spectator, December 11, 2006
** Myron Ebell, “Love Global Warming: What's wrong with mild winters, anyway?” Forbes Dec 8, 2006,
-watch Coca-Cola obesity ad http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/14/health/coke-obesity/index.html
Jan 31 Punctuated Equilibrium or Creative Problem Definition
** Ingram, Helen and Leah Fraser, Path Dependency and Adroit Innovation: The Case of California Water, in Punctuated Equilibrium and the Dynamics of US Environmental Policy, 78-109
** Selection of environmental policy area for research project due **
Section II POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS, ALTERNATIVE PATHWAYS
Feb 5 Understanding Gridlock
**McGrory Klyza and Sousa, Creating the Current Institutional Landscape of Environmental Policy-Making, in American Environmental Policy, 1990-2006, Beyond Gridlock. p. 19-46
**Eugene B. Skolnikoff; The Policy Gridlock On Global Warming. Foreign Policy; Summer 1990,
Optional: Jane May, Covert Operations: The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama. New Yorker,
Aug 30, 2010. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer
Feb 7 The President- Assessing the Obama Record
**McGrory Klyza and Sousa, Executive Policy-Making through Statutory Discretion and Rulemaking; New Source Review, in American Environmental Policy, 1990-2006, Beyond Gridlock. p. 99-109, 135-152
** Natural Resources Defense Council, Rewriting the Rules: The Bush Administration’s First Term Environmental Record (2005). Download
**Yale Environment 360 Forum: Assessing Obama’s Record on the Environment
** Activists frustrated at Obama’s environmental record, Christian Science Monitor
Feb 12 Presidential Tools for Influencing the Environment- presentations on Obama's alternative pathways
Constitution, smonstitution – We don’t need no stinking Congress- say the enviros- http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/25/16698332-environmental-groups-urge-obama-to-take-executive-action-combating-climate-change?lite and Al, “I am richer than Mitt Romney” Gore- http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/03/gore-urges-obama-to-move-boldly-but-avoid-congress-on-climate-change/
Mini Case Studies on how Obama is trying to “save the planet” from global warming
--How Obama is promoting solar and wind power – google- obama solar power public land ; obama offshore wind power
-How Obama is reducing carbon emissions from cars- google obama car fuel efficiency
--How Obama is killing coal- google- obama coal mining regulations
-Can Obama regulate coal emissions?
See http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/25/16698332-environmental-groups-urge-obama-to-take-executive-action-combating-climate-change?lite
** Bibliography for first paper due **
Feb 14 Happy Valentines Day- Does Congress Care About the Environment?
**The Political Scene, “As the World Burns,” The New Yorker, October 11, 2010, p. 70, http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/11/101011fa_fact_lizza
** Daniel J. Weiss, Anatomy of a Senate Climate Bill Death, Center for American Progress, October 12, 2010 http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2010/10/12/8569/anatomy-of-a-senate-climate-bill-death/
** John M. Broader, With Something for Everyone, Climate Bill Passed, July 1, 2009, New York Times
** Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Climate Debate in Congress, http://www.pewclimate.org
Feeling very ambitious- see Theda Skocpol's 196 page report: "Naming the Problem: What It Will Take to Counter Extremism and Engage Americans in the Fight Against Global Warming." (http://s.tt/1yyKD)
Examples of Riders/Budget Politics- http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/fbeinecke/gop_lawmakers_hold_spending_an.html
**David Roberts, THE BIG MURKOWSKI; Hanging EPA regulations around Democrats’ necks, 20 Jan 2010, Grist.org
Feb 19 The Courts: “It is not the stratosphere. It's the troposphere.”
Rosemary O’Leary, "Environmental Policy in the Courts," in V&K, 148-69
** D. Lithwick, Benchwarming: The Supreme Court melts down over greenhouse gasses, Download.
** Roberts dissent, MASSACHUSETTS, et al., PETITIONERS v. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY et al.
Ambitious? read MASSACHUSETTS, et al., PETITIONERS v. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY et al. and Scalia dissent
**McGrory Klyza and Sousa, From Who Has Standing?” to “Who is Left Standing?” section on Land Use in the Southwest – focus on the Pygmy OWLs!
**Introductory paragraph with Thesis due**
** Schedule may change if we can a guest speaker in here.
Feb 21 The States: Saviors, Shirkers or Somewhere in between?
**Barry Rabe “States on Steroids: The Intergovernmental Odyssey of American Climate Policy,” Review of
Policy Research, vol. 25, no. 2 (2008): 105-128
**Barry Rabe, Race to the Top: The Expanding Role of U.S State Renewable Portfolio Standards, Sustainable Development Law and Policy,
**Jan Ellen Spiegel, Connecticut Mulls Rollback on Clean Energy, New York Times April 8, 2010
**Christa Marshal, Will the Midwest Turn Its Back on Addressing Climate Change?, New York Times, June 4, 2010
**Christa Marshal, Governor Takes N.J. Out of Cap-And-Trade System, New York Times, May 27, 2011
Feb 22, Friday PAPER #1 Political analysis of environmental legislation due (6-8 PAGES)
Feb 26 Political Institutions Catch-Up Day
Feb 28 Midterm
Section III Environmental Policy
March 5 Command and Control Regulation
** W. Harrington, Regulating Industrial Water Pollution in the United States, RFF, p. 1-38, Download
March 7 Can Government Regulate Smarter? Permitting and Project XL
**T. Davis, Reforming Permitting, Executive Summary, Resources for the Future, 2001, Download
** A. Marcus, Reinventing Environmental Regulation: Lessons from Project XL, Ch 8 & 10
--Peruse Obama’s EPA approach to regulation- Improving Our Regulations: Final Plan for Periodic Retrospective Reviews
of Existing Regulations http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/other/2011-regulatory-action-plans/environmentalprotectionagencyregulatoryreformplanaugust2011.pdf
March 12-14 Spring Break, Be Carbon Neutral, Research Global Warming
March 19 Can or Will Corporations Go Green?
** Esty and Winston, Green to Gold, ch 3, Who's Behind the Green Wave 65-99
** Marc Eisner, From Greed to Green: Corporate Environmentalism and Management p. 1-33
March 20 Spring Equinox
March 21 Towards A New Environmental Regulation?
** Marc Allen Eisner, Corporate Environmentalism, Regulatory Reform, and Industry Self-Regulation: Toward Genuine Regulatory Reinvention in the United States, Governance, Volume 17, Issue 2, pages 145–167, April 2004
** Bibliography for Science Paper due **
March 26 Clean Air and Water Act II: Cost Benefit Analysis and Market Mechanisms
Sheila Olmstead, Applying Market Principles to Environmental Policy" in V&K
**Cary Coglianese and Gary E. Marchant, “The EPA’s Risky Reasoning.” Regulation, 27, 2 (2004): 16-22. Download
Cass R. Sunstein (Obama’s new regulatory czar), Your Money or Your Life, The New Republic, March 15, 2004, p. 1-5
March 28 Cap and Trade versus Carbon Tax Debate
Ellerman and Harrison, Emissions Trading in the US, Experience, Lessons and Considerations for Greenhouse Gases. Pew Center on Global Climate Change, May 2003 http://www.pewclimate.org/docUploads/emissions_trading.pdf
http://www.carbontax.org/
http://pewclimate.org/
**Putting a Price on Carbon: An Emissions Cap or a Tax? Yale Environment 360, May 2009, http://www.e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2148
** Robert Goodin, Selling Environmental Injustices p. 237-255
March 29 PAPER #2 POLICY EVALUATION (6-8 PAGES) DUE 4PM
April 2 Environmental Justice Debate: Round I
** Robert Bullard, (2005) Environmental Justice in the 21st Century, http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/ejinthe21century.htm
** Christopher H. Foreman, Jr, The Clash of Purposes: Environmental Justice and Risk Assessment, Inside Washington's Risk Policy Report 5 (March 20, 1998):34-37, Download
** Christopher H. Foreman, Jr., A Winning Hand? The Uncertain Future of Environmental Justice, Spring 1996 Vol. 14 No. 2, p 22-25 1996 The Brookings Institution. Download
** Foreman Remarks on Environmental Justice US Commission on Civil Rights, Jan 2002 Download
Peruse http://www.dscej.org/ and ) http://www.ejrc.cau.edu
April 4 Is Hurricane Katrina an Environmental Justice Issue? : Round 2
**Robert D. Bullard, Differential Vulnerabilities: Environmental and Economic Inequality and Government Response to Unnatural Disasters, Social Research International Quarterly Journal November 2007.
**Robert Bullard and Beverly Wright, The Power of Race and Place: How and why the predominantly black areas of the Gulf Coast are still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina, The American Prospect, February 23, 2009
**Robert Bullard, Let Them Eat Dirt (1-6) http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/Let_Them_Eat_Dirt.pdf
**Marc Kaufman, FEMA Flip-Flops Again on Trailers, Washington Post
Peruse the Environmental Justice Resource Center, Katrina Update http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/Katrinaupdate.html
Social Science Research Council’s Katrina Research Hub: http://katrinaresearchhub.ssrc.org/
April 9 Policy Catch-up Day
Section IV Environmental Movement
April 11 Critics, Radicals, Reapers and Apostates
** David Foreman, Putting the Earth First, p. 358-364
** M. Dowie, Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at the Close of the Twentieth Century (MIT Press, 1995), 29-49.
** James Gustave Speth, Environmental Failure: A Case for a New Green Politics, Yale Environment 360 Oct 20, 2008
** Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, The Death of Environmentalism: Global warming politics in a post-environmental world, 13 Jan 2005, Download
April 16 The Failure of "the Polite Revolution" Strategy
Petra Bartosiewicz and Marissa Miley, The Too Polite Revolution: Why the Recent Campaign to Pass Comprehensive Climate Legislation in the US Failed, 1-96.
April 23 The Environmental Movement- “I’m not dead yet. I’m feeling much better.”
** Christopher Bosso, Environmental Inc. From Grassroots to Beltway; p. 48-118.
April 25 The New Environmental Movement?
** Robert Duffy, The Green Agenda in American Politics, Chs 4 ,5 ,7 (82-163, 196-210)
April 30 Conclusion- Green Drift?
**Christopher Mcgrory Klyza and David Sousa, Beyond Gridlock: Green Drift in American Environmental Policymaking , Political Science Quarterly Volume 125 Number 3 2010
Paper #3 Policy Reform Proposal (6-8 pages) Due May 2nd, my birthday