• Free Riders = reducing pollution tempts any one person to cheat • Private voluntary efforts are less
effective than mandated efforts • External Cost = harmful impacts
result from market transaction but are borne by people not involved in the transaction
Environmental policy goals = protect resources against the tragedy of the commons and to promote equity by eliminating free riders and addressing external costs
• Environmental laws are challenged, derided, and ignored • Environmental policy involves government regulations
• Businesses and individuals view laws as overly restrictive and unresponsive to human needs
• Most environmental problems are long-term processes • Human behavior is geared toward short-term needs • News media have short attention spans • Politicians act out of their own short-term interest
State and local policies affect environmental issues
• Important environmental policy is also created at the state and local levels
• State laws cannot violate principles of the U.S. Constitution, • If laws conflict, federal laws take precedence • California, New York, and Massachusetts have strong environmental laws • The interior western states put less priority on environmental protection
• Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution • Prohibits denying “equal protection of its laws” • It’s the Constitutional basis for the environmental justice movement
• Fifth Amendment = takings clause • Bans the literal taking of private property • Also bans regulatory take, which deprives a property owner of economic
uses of the property
• There is a sensitive balance between private rights and the public good
• Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) • Conducts and evaluates research • Monitors environmental quality • Sets and enforces standards for pollution levels • Assists states in meeting standards and goals • Educates the public
• Three factors converged to allow major advances in environmental policy in the 1960s and 1970s • Wide evidence of environmental problems • People could visualize policies to deal with problems • The political climate was ripe, with a supportive public
and leaders who were willing to act • In recent years, the political climate has changed
• People felt burdened by environmental regulations • Attempts have been made to roll back or weaken
• International organizations influence the behavior of nations • Providing funding, applying peer pressure,
directing media attention • United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) = helps nations understand and solve environmental problems
• The European Union seeks to promote Europe’s unity and economic and social progress • Can enact binding regulations • Can also issue advisory directives
• Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) = entities that influence international policy • Some do not get politically involved • Others try to shape policy through research,
lobbying or protest • The World Bank = one of the world’s largest
funding sources for development • Dams, irrigation, infrastructure • Funds unsustainable, environmentally
• Effective policy decisions are informed by scientific research
• Sometimes policymakers ignore science • They let political ideology determine policy • Scientists at government agencies have had their work suppressed or
discredited - Their jobs were threatened
When taxpayer-funded research is suppressed or distorted for political ends, everyone loses
• Command-and-control approach: environmental policy sets rules or limits and threatens punishment for violators • Heavy-handed • Alternative approaches involve using economic incentives to encourage
desired outcomes and use market dynamics to meet goals • Most current environmental laws
- Have resulted in safe, healthy, comfortable lives
• Permit trading = government-created market in permits • Businesses buy, sell, trade these permits • Emissions trading system = government-issued permits for an acceptable
amount of pollution and companies buy, sell, or trade these permits with other polluters
• Cap-and-trade system = a party that reduces its pollution levels can sell this credit to other parties
- Pollution is reduced overall, but does increase around polluting plants
• Companies have an economic incentive to reduce emissions
