GO 231 Final Exam
Study Questions
Spring 2009
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The final exam is on Monday, May 4 from 9-12 am. 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.
IDs I will select 10
terms or short questions from the readings.
You must answer 5. 5% each
-define the term and what the significance of the concept is for
environmental policy
Essay Questions I will
select 3; 25% each
Key Concepts
In writing the exam, I first write the below list of Key Concepts 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.
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, 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,
Weyerhaeuser, Flint River plant
Merck Stonewall Plant,
--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,
Toxic Waste Policy
Why is “Toxic and hazardous substance regulation is the most
difficult, least satisfactory domain of contemporary environmental policy
making.” (Rosenbaum, p. 248)
Why is EPA turning to risk-based decision making?
What is risk assessment and how is it performed? What role do values play?
What are the positive and negative aspects of risk assessment?
How valuable is the information provided by risk analysis for policymakers?
Is risk analysis an objective or scientific basis for environmental decisions?
Why does Andrews believe that risk assessment has become the dominant
analytical decision making tool at the EPA?
What do Roe and Pease think of our current system of risk assessment?
What specific alternatives do they think the federal government should consider
in lieu of risk assessment?
When do Viscusi and Gayer believe the government
should regulate risk? Should it seek to remove all risk? What does their cost
per life saved analysis suggest? What evidence do they present about whether
regulation saves lives? Why do they believe it doesn’t?
-risk-risk, California Prop 65,
Environmental justice
Rosenbaum, Evan Ringquist, Foreman, Bullard,
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?
Does President Clinton's 1994 executive order provide sufficient guarantees of
environmental justice?
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
Chemophobia
TSCA
RCRA
Superfund
Food Quality Protection Act
Toxics Release Inventory
Discriminatory intent vs. discriminatory outcome
Environmental Justice
Perspective on Natural Disasters
Does race matter when it comes to disaster 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
Public Lands: Accommodating Multiple Use
What are the different types of public lands and what are
the implications for how are they managed by different federal agencies?
What is the multiple use doctrine? How useful is the policy in providing guidance
to public lands agencies?
How and why has federal forest policy been transformed? What are the
implications of this transformation for other public lands?
Should the federal government allow drilling for oil in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) under the multiple use doctrine? What are the economic, environmental, and energy implications of drilling or not
drilling? Who is right? Is there a feasible compromise position?
Bureau of Land Management
National Forest Service
National Wilderness Preservation System
Multiple Use doctrine
Solution Professionalization/expertise
BLM vs. FS
Who decides- President or congress, Federal government or states
What are the criticisms of existing land use policies?
-efficiency, efficacy
Privatization
Devolution
Ecosystem Management
Sustainability
Grassroots environmental management
Why has GREM emerged?
What are the defining features of GREM?
What does the Applegate Valley Partnership suggest about whether GREM can improve democratic accountability and environmental performance?
What are the limits of network or place based solutions to public land management?
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?
IDS
Design for the environment, Life cycle approaches, Environmental
management systems (
Life Cycle analysis on
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?
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,