PUAF 740 -- Public Policy and the Environment
Robert H. Nelson
Spring 2006
About 35 years ago, the quality
of the environment became a leading concern of national policy makers in the
Other areas of
The environmental legislation of the past 35 years has had major impacts on American society. It has yielded significant improvements in the quality of the environment. Complying with environment regulation has become an important concern of businesses in many industries. The direct costs of meeting environmental requirements exceed $100 billion per year and the indirect costs may be just as great. The rules and regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency arguably have more impact on the American economy than those of any other federal agency.
Given its wide impacts, it should
be no surprise that
This course will examine these
and other issues in
Themes and issues that will run throughout the course will include:
1. Have environmental laws worked effectively to improve the quality of the environment?
2. How can society go about establishing environmental policies when there are large scientific uncertainties?
3. How useful are concepts and methods such as risk analysis, benefit-cost analysis, cost effectiveness, and others in addressing environmental policy problems?
4. To what degree is the making of environmental policy an exercise in deciding social values, perhaps even dependent on ethical beliefs of a cultural or quasi-religious character?
There will be a mid term and a final exam. Grading will be based on the following considerations and weights:
Mid-term Exam -- 20%
Term Paper -- 25%
Final Exam -- 35%
Class Discussion -- 20%
A term paper (about 15-20 pages double spaced) will be required of each student, analyzing a specific area of environmental controversy (e.g., the regulation of a particular chemical, the recovery plan for a particular species). A one-page proposal for a topic will be due on February 1. Final papers will be due May 10. A first draft of the paper should be turned in by March 29. Based on these drafts, and depending on class size and time available, some papers may be selected for presentation to the class. The instructor will respond with comments on the submitted draft and meetings to discuss the draft papers may be scheduled.
The readings will
come from three books available for purchase at the book store and a diverse
set of articles, government reports, newspaper columns and other materials.
Many of these materials are available on the web. Materials not available on the web will be
provided in a set of copies available in two locations: the
The books to be purchased are:
Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Policy (
James Salzman and Barton H.
Thompson, Environmental Law and Policy
(
Cass R. Sunstein, Risk and Reason: Safety, Law, and the
Environment (
Class Discussion
Class discussion will be an important part of the course. Students should read the assigned readings before class and come prepared to ask questions and discuss them. Each class will begin with presentation of a news item of interest from the previous week. Students will be assigned to specific class days for which they will be responsible for presenting the news item of the week. Following this discussion of current news, the class will explore a policy controversy relating to the syllabus readings assigned for that week. This exploration will include presentation of pros and cons for a particular policy position or action. Individual students will be assigned to develop the pro position and the con position for specific class days. A list of policy issues to be discussed by class date will be distributed separately. In addition, each week a student will present and describe a key reading(s) for that week, including the policy and other issues raised by the reading, and followed by class discussion of the reading. These readings are shown in bold below. In summary, each week there will be:
1. Student presentation of news item.
2. Student presentations of pro and con sides of debate issue.
3. Student presentation and
discussion of key reading(s).
Contacting Me
I can be reached by telephone at my office at 301-405-6345 or at home at 301-656-3339 (I often work at home, so feel free to call there). My email address is nelsonr@umd.edu. Each student is encouraged to set up an appointment in my office (Van Munching, 3131) to discuss their paper topic or any other matters of concern.
SCHEDULE OF CLASSES AND
Background to Environmental Policy
January 25 -- Setting the Stage
Christopher K. Leman and Robert H. Nelson, “Ten Commandments for Policy Economists,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (Fall 1981), pp. 97-117. Available at UMD Library “e-journals.”
Lazarus, pp. 1-42
Salzman and Thompson, pp. 1-75.
Eric T. Freyfogle, “Five Paths of Environmental Scholarship,” University of
February 1 – Lessons Learned
Lazarus, pp. 43-166
William D. Ruckelshaus, "Stopping the
Pendulum," Environmental Forum
(November/December 1995). Available on web (Ruckelshaus -- www.csis.org/e4e/pendulum.html
). William Ruckelshaus is the only person
to have served twice (in the Nixon and
Reagan administrations) as Administrator of EPA.
David W. Orr, “Armageddon Versus
Extinction,” Conservation Biology
(April 2005), 290-292. Available on web
at UMD Library “e-journals.”
Simon N. Stuart, et. al., “Conservation
Theology for Conservation Biologists,” Conservation
Biology (December 2005), pp. 1689-1691.
Available on web at e-journals.
February 8 – “Second-Generation”
Environmental Policy
Government Accountability Office (GAO), 21st Century Challenges: Reexamining the Base of the Federal Government, “Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment Challenges for the 21st Century,” pp. 48-53. Available at Government Accountability web site. (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05325sp.pdf .)
Lazarus, pp. 167-254.
Richard B. Stewart, “A New Generation of
Environmental Regulation?,”
Regulating Air and Water Quality
February 15 -- The Clean Air Act
Salzman and Thompson, pp. 77-102.
“The
Rise and Fall of Transportation Controls,” in R. Shep Melnick, Regulation
and the Courts: The Case of the Clean Air Act (Washington, D.C.: Brookings
Institution, 1983),
“From
the Clean Air Act of 1970 to the 1990 Amendments,” in Gary C. Bryner, Blue Skies, Green Politics: The Clean Air
Act of 1990 and Its Implementation (Washington, D.C.: Congressional
Quarterly Press, 1995),
“Issues
in Formulating Clean Air Policy,” in Bryner, Blue Skies, Green
“Designing
and Implementing Control Strategies Through the SIP Process,” in
February 22 – Rethinking Air Pollution
Policy – Towards More Efficient Regulation
“Implementing
Emission Controls on
“Implementing
Emission Controls on Stationary Sources,” in
Dallas Burtraw and Karen Palmer, The Paparazzi Take a Look at a Living Legend: The SO2 Cap-and-Trade Program for Power Plants in the United States, Discussion Paper 03-15, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC (April 2003), pp. 1-28. Available at RFF web site. (http://www.rff.org/rff/Documents/RFF-DP-03-15.pdf ).
Andrew Aulisi, Alexander E. Farrell,
Jonathan Pershing, Stacy Vandeveer, Greenhouse
Gas Emissions Trading in
March 1 – The Clean Water Act
“Public Health and Urban
Sanitation,” in Richard N. L. Andrews, Managing
the Environment, Managing Ourselves: A History of American Environmental Policy
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999),
Robert McClure, Lisa Stiffler,
and Lise Olsen, “Area’s Defining Waterway is a Cesspool of Pollution,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer (
Salzman and Thompson, pp. 123-147.
Environmental Protection Agency , A Retrospective Assessment of the Costs of the Clean Water Act, 1972 to 1997, Washington, DC, October 2000, “Executive Summary,” pp. ES-1 to ES -6. Available on web at EPA site. (http://yosemite.epa.gov/ee/epa/eermfile.nsf/vwAN/EE-0434-01.pdf/$file/EE-0434-01.pdf ).
Winston Harrington,
Regulating Industrial Water Pollution in
the
David E. Ervin, et. al., "Agriculture and the Environment: A New
Strategic Vision," Environment (July/August
1998), pp. 9-15, 35-39. Available on web
at UMD Library “e-journals”
Howard R. Ernst,
March 8 -- Rethinking Clean Water Policy – New
Policy Instruments
Oliver A. Houck, The
Clean Water Act TMDL Program: Law, Policy and Implementation (
Suzie Greenhalgh and Amanda Sauer, Awakening the Dead Zone: An Investment for Agriculture, Water Quality,
and Climate Change, World Resources Institute Issue Brief (
Policy Analysis Workshop,
James W. Woodworth, Jr., Out
of the Gutter: Reducing Runoff in the District of Columbia (
James Boyd, Water Pollution Taxes: A Good Idea Doomed to
Failure?,” Discussion Paper 03-20, Resources for the Future (
Eric Schiller, "The
March 15 -- Mid Term Exam (first half of class)
March 15 (second half of class) – RCRA and TSCA
Salzman and Thompson, pp. 148-190.
Hillary Sigman, "Hazardous
Waste and Toxic Substance Policies," in Paul R. Portney and Robert N. Stavins,
Public Policies for Environmental
Protection (
Josh
White and Maria Glod, "Cost of Replacing Underground Tanks Sinks Some Gas
Stations,"
March 29 – Superfund and Solid
Wastes
Salzman and Thompson, pp. 197-212.
W. Kip Viscusi and James T.
Hamilton, "Cleaning Up Superfund," The Public Interest , Summer 1996, pp. 52-60. Kip Viscusi is
professor of law and economics at
Sebastian Mallaby, “Saving Statistical Lives,” The
Tammy O. Tengs, et. al., "Five Hundred Life-Saving Interventions and their Cost-Effectiveness," Risk Analysis, No. 3 (1995), pp. 369-384.
Allan Mazur, A Hazardous
Inquiry: The Rashomon Effect at
Eric Lipton, "As Imported
Garbage Piles Up, So Do Worries,"
Daniel K. Benjamin, Eight Great
Myths of Recycling, PERC Policy Series Paper No. PS – 28, (
Sunstein, pp. 10-52.
April 5 -- Issues in Risk Analysis and Management
Allan Mazur, True Warnings and False Alarms: Evaluating Fears about the Health Risks
of Technology (
Richard D. Pollak, “A Cancer Epidemic?: Perception versus Reality,” Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy (Fall 1995), pp. 16-20.
"Testing for Carcinogens with Rodents," editorial in Science (Summer 1990).
Bruce N. Ames and Lois Gold,
Environmental Pollution and Cancer: Some Misconceptions," in Kenneth R.
Foster, David E. Bernstein, and Peter W. Huber, eds., Phantom Risk (MIT Press, 1993), pp. 153-180. Bruce Ames is
Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center at
the
Committee on Comparative Toxicity of Naturally Occurring Carcinogens, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences, Carcinogens and Anticarcinogens in the Human Diet (National Academy Press, 1996), pp. 1-18.
*Sunstein, pp. 99-190.
Managing
April 12 – Changing Social Values in Land
Management: From Progressive Conservationism to Modern Environmentalism
Robert H. Nelson, “Ineffective
Laws and Unexpected Consequences: A Brief Review of
Samuel Hays, Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency: The Progressive Conservation Movement, 1890-1920 (Harvard University Press, 1959), pp. 261-276.
Stephen Fox, The American Conservation Movement: John Muir and his Legacy (University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), pp. 138-147.
Mark Reissner,
Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind (Yale
University Press, 1973), pp. 220-236. Nash’s Wilderness
and the American Mind is the classic history of the American wilderness
movement.
T.H. Watkins, "One Man's Recreation is Another's Desecration," Washington Post (December 13, 1998), Outlook Section, p. C1.
William Cronon, "Getting Back to the Wrong Nature," Utne Reader, May-June 1996, pp. 76-79. William Cronon is professor of environmental studies
at the
Donald Worster, "John Muir
and the Roots of American Environmentalism," in The Wealth of Nature (Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 184-202. John Muir was
the founder of the Sierra Club in 1892 and the leading
April 19 – The Endangered Species Act of 1973
H. Josef Hebert, "Endangered
Species Act: Praised, Despised as Conflicts Go On," The
Brian Czech and Paul R. Krausman,
The Endangered Species Act: History,
Conservation Biology, and Public Policy (
Salzman and Thompson, pp. 254-273.
Ken Alvarez, “The
“All Hell Breaks Loose:
1989-1993,” in Steven Lewis Yaffee, The
Wisdom of the Spotted Owl: Policy Lessons for a New Century (Washington,
DC: Island Press, 1994),
Letter from Ann W.
Richards, Governor of Texas, to Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior,
September 12, 1994, pp. 1-3. Ann Richards was the democratic governor of
Ike Sugg, “Reforming the Endangered Species Act: The Property Rights Perspective,” Statement to the Endangered Species Task Force, representing the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Committee on Resources, U.S. House of Representatives, May 18, 1995, pp. 1-16. Available at CEI web site. (http://www.cei.org/pdf/4360.pdf ).
Michael J. Bean and
David S. Wilcove, “The Private-Land Problem,” Conservation Biology, Vol. 11, No. 1 (February 1997), pp. 1-2. Available on web at UMD Library “e-journals” Michael Bean directs
the wildlife program of Environmental Defense and has long been a leading
figure in U.S. Endangered Species Act policy debates.
John F. Turner and Jason C. Rylander, “The Private Lands Challenge: Integrating
Biodiversity Conservation and Private Property,” in Jason F. Shogren, ed., Private Property and the Endangered Species
Act: Savings Habitats, Protecting Homes (Austin, TX: University of Texas
Press, 1998), pp. 92-133. John Turner is
Assistant Secretary of State for International Environmental Affairs in the
U.S. State Department and was Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (which
administers the ESA) in the first George Bush administration.
April 26 -- Endangered Species – Adaptive Management and Habitat
Management Plans
Donald Ludwig, Marc Mangel, and Brent M. Haddad, “Ecology, Conservation, and Public Policy,” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics (2001), pp. 481-506. Available at e-journals.
Environmental
Defense, Progress on the Back Forty: An
Analysis of Three Incentive-Based Approaches to Endangered Species Conservation
on
Doug Honnold, Jerome A. Jackson, and Suellen Lowry, “Habitat Conservation Plans and the Projection of Habitat: Reply to Bean and Wilcove,” Conservation Biology, Vol. 11, No. 2 (April 1997), pp. 297-299. Available on web at e-journals.
Karin P. Sheldon, “Habitat
Conservation Planning: Addressing the Achilles Heel of the Endangered Species
Act,”
Defenders of Wildlife, Sabotaging the Endangered Species Act (
May 3 --
Roger Sedjo, "
George Hoberg, Science, Politics and U.S. Forest Service law: The Battle over the Forest Service Planning Rule, Discussion Paper 03-19, Resources for the Future , Washington, DC, June 2003, pp. 1-26. Available at RFF web site. (http://www.rff.org/rff/Documents/RFF-DP-03-19.pdf ).
*General Accounting Office, Western National Forests – Catastrophic Wildfire Threaten Resources and
Communities Statement of Barry T.
Hill, Associate Director, Energy, Resources and Science Issues, Report No. GAO/T-RCED-98-273,
“The View from
Sally K. Fairfax, “When An Agency Outlasts
Its Time: A Reflection,” Journal of Forestry (July/August 2005), pp. 264-266).
Second Century:
Options for the
May 10 -- Rangeland
Management
“The Ranchers Code,” in Charles F. Wilkinson, Crossing the Next
Sally K. Fairfax, “Coming of Age in the Bureau of Land Management,” Range
Management in Search of a Gospel,” in
Frank Gregg, “Summary,” in Multiple
Use and Sustained Yield: Changing Philosophies for Federal Land Management,
Proceedings and Summary of a Workshop Convened on March 5 and 6, 1992,
Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives,
Washington, DC (December 1992), pp. 311-314.
Frank Gregg was Director of the U.S. Bureau
of Land Management during the Carter administration.
Edward Abbey, "Even the Bad Guys
Wear White Hats: Cowboys, Ranchers and the Ruin of the West," Harpers
(January 1986), pp. 51-55. Edward Abbey
was an environmental activist and author of Desert
Solitaire, The Monkey Wrench Gang
and other well known works of fiction.
Tom Kenworthy, "Grazing Laws Feed Demise of Rancher's Way of
Life,"
*Robert H. Nelson, "How to Reform Grazing Policy: Creating Forage Rights on Federal Rangelands," Fordham Environmental Law Review (Symposium 1997), pp. 645-690. Available on web at Lexis.
Jacob Goldstein, "Bidding Wars Escalate Over Ranch Land: At Auctions, Environmental Activists Buy Leases on Public Lands to Keep Ranchers From Using the Acreage for Grazing," Christian Science Monitor (January 8, 2002). Available on web at Nexis.