1. Do Now: Agency Research
Name
Year created
Mission/responsibilities
Important Legislation
EPA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Parks Service, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Department of Agriculture, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy
If time

2. Environmental Policy/Economics
Unit 3: Resource Sustainability

3. history
America has a history of making use of resources: prairies for cropland, cutting down forests, hunting animals
Early leaders like Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir (founder of the Sierra Club)
Lobbied to create Yellowstone in 1872
Lobbied against the creation of the Hetch Hetchy Dam (and lost)
Wide spread crop disasters in the ’30s (poor farming practices)
First Earth Day; EPA created – 1970
Many policies and agencies to manage environmental affairs – previous slide
Pinchot, San Fran very low on water the people REALLY needed it.
EPA – uses regulations and incentives to encourage individuals and businesses to meet standards

4. Environmental impact Statements (EIS)
Most agencies are required to file an EIS for proposed projects or policies that might have a large impact on the environment
i.e. Construction of dams, highways, airports, etc.
Need, Impact, Mitigations
Public can offer feedback – rarely stops, but sometimes changes
1995 – congress passed a law to prevent “unfunded mandates”
Must provide funding for any project that will require more than 50 million dollars to implement

5. Influencing Environmental Policy
Local governments hold meetings – citizens can participate!
Different communities do not coordinate their plans
Hudson River Valley Greenway
Federal government may set minimum standards, but state governments can raise them!
California’s Zero-Emission Vehicle program
Lobbying – organized attempt to influence lawmaking by individuals, environmental, and industry groups
Media, like movies!
What good is not polluting in your community if the neighboring community pollutes?

6. Economics and International Cooperation
Sustainability – the condition in which human society can go on indefinitely and future generations can have a standard of living as high as our own
Globalization – environmental and economic conditions are linked across political borders around the world
Energy and pollution
We have less people living on acute poverty than we did 50 years ago. It was not be “sustainable” to reverse that trend…

7. Important organizations, meetings, and agreements
IUCN (1948) – partnership between states, agencies, and organizations from over 140 countries focusing on conservation (C)
CITES (1973) – classifies endangered and threatened species and monitors their trade (widely popular/successful)
IPCC (1988) – meeting of scientists to study the scientific, social, and economic aspects of anthropogenic climate change
Earth Summit (1992) – first of its kind; drew up Agenda 21, which outlined key policies for sustainable development
Already mentioned/tested on Montreal/Kyoto (we didn’t sign because it allowed developing countries to increase emissions, while developed had to slow their roll…
What can we observe about these dates compared to most that we talked about last class?

8. So how do Economics play a role?

9. Economics and the Environment
Traditional economic systems are viewed as “self-contained,” with little regard to external factors (that might not have true “value”)
Therefore, economists view environmental problems as market failures—the price does not reflect the true cost
i.e. price of gasoline does not reflect the other expenses caused by its use (illnesses from air pollution)

10. Regulations and Incentives
Governments can issue penalties, but also offer incentives (rebates on energy-saving appliances)
Problems with regulations: difficult to enforce, costs are unequally distributed, and they do not control environmental damage
A lot of progress is made by private efforts like the Nature Conservatory which collects donations of money and land
Targeted for preservation?
If not, they trade or sell the land