Robert Turner bturner@skidmore.edu

315 Ladd http://www.skidmore.edu/~bturner

Office Hours MWF 2:30-4pm

or whenever my door is open or by appointment

Environmental Politics and Policy

Government 231

Spring 2009

INTRODUCTION

This course is an introduction to the politics and policy of U.S. environmental policy making. We will examine the nature and scope of environmental, public land, and natural resource problems; contrasting perspectives on their severity and policy implications; the goals and strategies of the environmental movement; scientific, economic, political, and institutional forces that shape policymaking and implementation; approaches to environmental policy analysis; and selected issues in environmental policy both within the U.S. and internationally. The goal is to help you develop a critical understanding of how environmental policy is made and how it can be improved.

READINGS

Walter A. Rosenbaum Environmental Politics & Policy, CQ Press
Norman Vig and Michael Kraft (V&K below), Environmental Policy: New Directions for the Twenty-First Century, CQ Press
Environment Policy Reader

You should complete the assigned reading and assignment before class. Class will consist of lecture, discussion, and some small group activities, in which all students are expected to participate.

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% ()

2. Paper #1 Legislative and Political History 20% (Oct 17)

3. Paper #2 Policy Evaluation 20% (Nov 16)

4. Paper #3 Policy Reform Proposal 20% (Dec 14)

5. Final Exam 25%

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.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Part I: ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS AND POLITICS

Jan 20 Introduction - 5 myths about environmental protection

Rosenbaum, Chapter 1, After Earth Day: American Environmentalism in Transition

Jan 22 The Policy Cycle

Rosenbaum, Chapter 2, The Politics of Environmental Policy

** Judith Layzer, “The Nation Tackles Pollution,” in The Environmental Case p. 25-51

Jan 27 Problem Definition/Framing in Theory

** Deborah Stone Causal Stories and Policy Agendas, PSQ, 1989, 281-300

** Sierra Club, False Advertising, 1-3, Download

** Patrick J. Michaels, Losing It, American Spectator, December 11, 2006, Download.

** Myron Ebell, “Love Global Warming: What's wrong with mild winters, anyway?”

Forbes Dec 8, 2006, Download

Jan 29 Punctuated Equilibrium or Creative Problem Definition in Practice

** 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.

Feb 3 The President

Norman Vig, "Presidential Leadership and the Environment," V&K, 100-123.

Feb 5 Presidential Tools for Influencing the Environment

** Natural Resources Defense Council, Rewriting the Rules: The Bush Administration’s First Term Environmental Record (2005). Download

** Whitman, David, Partly Sunny: Why enviros can’t admit that Bush's Clear Skies initiative isn't half bad. Washington Monthly, Download

For a more in-depth critique of Bush’s environmental policy, see Patrick Parenteau, Anything Industry Wants: Environmental Policy Under Bush II, Download

** Byron Daynes, “Bill Clinton Environmental President,” in Dennis L. Soden, The Environmental Presidency, p. 259-312

Feb 10 Can Congress Save the Environment?

Michael Kraft, "Environmental Policy in Congress," in V&K, 124-48.

** Jonathan Adler, Clean Fuels, Dirty Air, p. 19-45

Feb 12 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, Dirty Water: The Supreme Court takes a long, tall drink from the Clean Water Act, Download.

** D. Lithwick, Benchwarming: The Supreme Court melts down over greenhouse gasses, Download.

Feb 17 Administrative Consequences for the EPA

** J.C.Davies and Jan Mazurek, Pollution Control in the United States: Evaluating the System (1998)

Rosenbaum, Chapter 3, Making Policy: Institutions and Politics

Feb 19 Midterm

Feb 24 Command and Control Regulation

** W. Harrington, Regulating Industrial Water Pollution in the United States, RFF, p. 1-38, Download

** Skim- George J. Stigler, “The Theory of Economic Regulation.” The Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science, 2, 1 (1971): 3-21. Download

Feb 26 A Political View of Command and Control Regulation

**T. Davis, Reforming Permitting, Executive Summary, Resources for the Future, 2001, Download

** A. Marcus, Reinventing Environmental Regulation: Lessons from Project XL, Ch 8 & 10

PAPER #1 LEGISLATIVE AND POLITICAL HISTORY (6-8 PAGES) DUE

March 3 Clean Air and Water Act II: Cost Benefit Analysis

Rosenbaum Chapter 5 More Choice: The Battle over Regulatory Economics, 140-71

***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 Published: March 15, 2004, p. 1-5

March 5 Market Based Incentives-

Myrick Freeman, "Economics, Incentives, and Environmental Policy," in V&K, p. 193-214

** Robert Goodin, Selling Environmental Injustices p. 237-255

Skim, 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

March 7-15 Spring Break! Be Carbon Neutral

March 17 Cap and Trade versus Carbon Tax Debate

http://www.carbontax.org/

http://pewclimate.org/

March 19 Toxic Wastes: Science! Risk Based Analysis Trick or Treat?

Rosenbaum, Ch 7, A Regulatory Thicket, Toxic and Hazardous Substances

** Viscusi and Gayer, Safety at Any Price, Regulation, Fall 2002, 54-63, Download

March 24 Risk Based Analysis

Richard Andrews, "Risk-Based Decision Making," in V&K, ch 10, 223-249

** Roe, David and William Pease (1998), "Toxic Ignorance," The Environmental Forum, May/June, pp.: 24-35. (Reader)

Who are the hazardous polluters in your neighborhood? Go to http://www.scorecard.org/, enter your zip code and print out the results.

March 26 Toxic Wastes– Environmental Justice Debate

Ringquist, Environmental Justice: Normative Concerns, Empirical Evidence, and Government Action, in V&K, 239-264

March 31 Guest Speaker Terence Blanchard

April 2 Environmental Justice Debate

** Robert Bullard, (2005) Environmental justice in the 21^st Century, in The Quest for Environmental Justice: Human Rights and the Politics of Pollution, p. 19-42

** 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

** Foreman Remarks on Environmental Justice US Commission on Civil Rights, Jan 2002 Download

April 3 PAPER #2 POLICY EVALUATION (6-8 PAGES) DUE 4PM

April 7 Public Lands: The Multiple Use Tradition

Rosenbaum, Ch 9, Our 700 Million Acres: The Battle for Public Land

Lowery, A Return to Traditional Priorities in Natural Resource Policies, in V&K, 311-333

April 9 The Battle Over Public Lands: Is Grass Roots Democracy?

** Edward Weber, Bringing Society Back In, Chapters 4 and 8

April 14 The Battle Over Public Lands: Values and the ANWAR debate

** Judith Layzer, Oil Versus Wilderness in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, p. 102-123.

In class debate over oil drilling in ANWAR

April 16 “And now for something completely different” Corporate Environmentalism

** Marc Eisner, From Greed to Green: Corporate Environmentalism and Management p. 1-33

Press and Mazmanian, “The Greening of Industry: Combining Government Regulation and Voluntary Strategies.” In V&K 264-287

April 21 Public Opinion, Environmental Policy, and Environment Thought

** 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, 125-148.

Bosso & Guber, "The Maintaining Presence: Environmental Advocacy and the Permanent Campaign," V&K, 78-99.

April 23 The Environmental Movement- “I’m not dead yet. I’m feeling much better.”

** Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, The Death of Environmentalism: Global warming politics in a post-environmental world, 13 Jan 2005, Download

** James Gustave Speth, Environmental Failure: A Case for a New Green Politics, Yale Environment 360 Oct 20, 2008

** Michael Shellenberger, Towards a New Ecological Majority, Download

** William Greider, Apollo Now, The Nation, Jan 2, 2006, Download

April 28 The New Environmental Movement?

** Robert Duffy, The Green Agenda in American Politics, Chs 4 ,5 ,7 (82-163, 196-210)

SECTION V INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS AND POLICY

April 30 Montreal Protocol and CFCs

Morrisette, P. M. 1989. The evolution of policy responses to stratospheric ozone depletion. Natural Resources Journal 29: 793-820, Download

May 4 Paper #3 Policy Reform Proposal (6-8 pages) Due

Dec 19 Final Exam 6-9pm