1. Environmental Science Inquiry and Applications Cunningham • Cunningham
Principles of
Environmental Science
Inquiry and Applications
Third Edition
Cunningham • Cunningham
Chapter 15 Lecture Outlines*
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2. Environmental Science and Policy
Chapter 15

3. Outline:
Decision Making
Environmental Policy Cycle
NEPA and EIS
Environmental Law
Statutory Law
Case Law
Administrative Law
International Treaties
Dispute Resolution
Collective Action

4. DECISIONS IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD
Adaptive Management
A solutions approach designed to test clearly formulated hypotheses about the actions being taken.
Learning by doing.
Polices are designed at the outset to utilize scientific principles to examine alternative and assess outcomes.

5. Wicked Problems
Environmental problems tend to be intractable because they are nested within sets of interlocking issues.
Often poor match between bearers of costs and bearers of benefits.
No value-free objective answers.
Best approach is often consensus building.

6. Environmental Decision Making

7. Precautionary Principle
Four basic tenets:
People have a duty to take anticipatory steps to prevent harm.
Burden of proof with new technologies lies with its proponents.
Full range of alternatives must be examined before using a new technology.
Decision must be open, informed, and democratic.

8. ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION ACT 1990
Broad Goals: Improve understanding among the general public of natural and built environments and the relationships between humans and their environment. Encourage post-secondary students to pursue environmental careers. 22. As we have seen the # of students prepared for enviro jobs to be decreasing.
23. Encourages citizen science: community involvement.

9. Environmental Literacy:
24. understanding basic ecological principles & the ways society affects or responds to environmental conditions. (like understanding what you read in the paper)
Environmental Policy - Official rules and regulations concerning the environment that are adopted, implemented, and enforced by a governmental agency.
Also encompasses public opinion.

10. Environmental Policy

11. The Policy Cycle
Acts to continually define and refine the public agenda.
One big obstacle is getting a problem noticed in the age of ever-increasing volume and tenor of shocking news.
Does rhetoric help or harm?

12. The Policy Cycle

13. Political Decision Making
Politics as Power
Politics is a struggle among competing interest groups as they strive to shape public policy to suit their own agendas.
Rational Choice
In choosing between policy alternatives, preference should be given to those with the greatest cumulative welfare and the least negative impacts.

14. Arguments Against Rational Choice
Conflicting views are not comparable.
Few agreed-upon broad social goals.
Policymakers not motivated by societal goals.
Large investments create path dependence.
Uncertainty drives policymakers toward past.
Costs and benefits difficult to calculate.
Segmented nature of large bureaucracies.

15. NEPA
National Environmental Policy Act (1970)
Authorizes Council on Environmental Quality as the oversight board.
Directs federal agencies to take environmental consequences into account during decision making.
Requires an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for every federal project having significant environmental impact.

16. EIS
Every EIS must contain:
Purpose and need for project.
Alternative to proposed action.
Statement of positive and negative impacts of the proposed activities.

17. ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
Statutory Law: The Legislative Branch
Federal laws (statutes) are enacted by Congress and signed by the President.
After introduction, each bill is referred to a committee or sub-committee for hearings and debate.
Language is modified, multiple bills may be combined, and overall bill is passed on to full committee.

18. Amendments proposed at each stage.
Legislative Branch
A bill succeeding in full committee is reported to full House or Senate for a floor debate.25. A bill needs to be sponored by a legislator.
Amendments proposed at each stage.
26. Field hearings: when the public has an opportunity to give testimony for a bill
House and Senate versions are often different, and must be sent to conference committee to meld differences.
Bill goes back to House and Senate for confirmation.
Passed on to President for signature.

19. If veto,
27. a bill can still become a law if 2/3 House & Senate vote to override the veto.

20. Case law: The Judicial Branch
Establishes environmental law by ruling on constitutionality of statutes and interpreting their meaning. 28. It is often more effective to SUE the government for NOT enforcing laws than it is to sue the company at fault.
First must be determined if participants have a right to initiate an action.
Legal Standing

21. Case law: The Judicial Branch Cont’d
Criminal Law - Derives from federal and state statues that prohibit wrongs against the state or society.
Charges always initiated by a government prosecutor.
Guilt or innocence of defendant determined by a jury of peers.
29. For example, when a President of a company is in prison for knowingly contaminating the water supply.

22. Case law: The Judicial Branch Cont’d
Civil Law - Defined by a body of laws regulating relations between individuals or corporations.30. Fines only, no time served.
Burden of proof lies with prosecution.
Guilt or innocence based on whether the defendant could reasonably have anticipated and avoided the offense.
Purpose of civil suit may be an injunction from the actions of an individual or corporation. 31. more effective to sue GOV

23. SLAPP
Strategic Lawsuits Against Political Participation - Practice of suing citizens who criticize businesses or government agencies over environmental issues.
Legal defense costs can be exorbitant.

24. Administrative Law: The Executive Branch
More than 100 federal agencies have environmental oversight.
Federal agencies often delegate power to a matching state agency to decentralize authority.

25. The Executive Branch

26. Regulatory Agencies
EPA - Primary agency with responsibility for protecting environmental quality.
Cabinet-level department.
32. Increases our # of jobs because labor is substituted for natural resources.
Department of Interior (Natural Resources)
National Park Service
Bureau of Land Management
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

27. Regulatory Agencies Cont’d
Department of Agriculture
U.S. Forest Service
Department of Labor
Occupational Health and Safety Agency (OSHA)
Revolving door with workers moving back and forth between industry and government.

28. INTERNATIONAL TREATIES AND CONVENTIONS
Over past 25 years, more than 170 environmental treaties and conventions have been negotiated.
Unfortunately many of these are vague.
33. Usually negotiated by a panel of experts, NOT nations.
Most nations unwilling to give up sovereignty.
International court has no enforcement powers.

29. DISPUTE RESOLUTION
Arbitration is a formal dispute resolution, based in a trial-like setting.
Arbitrator takes a more active role than a judge, and is not constrained by precedent.
Useful when winning an entire case might be difficult.
Does not create legally-binding precedent.
Less opportunity to appeal.

30. Mediation
Mediation is a process in which disputants are encouraged to come up with a solution on their own.
Useful in complex issues with multiple stakeholders with different interests.

31. Collaborative Approaches to Planning
Community-Based Planning - Incorporates holistic, adaptive, pluralistic approaches.
Collaborative Approaches - Working with local communities to gain traditional knowledge and gain local acceptance of management plans.
Especially important in nonlinear, nonequilibrium problems.

32. COLLECTIVE ACTION
Student Environmental Groups
Student Environmental Action Coalition
Public Interest Research Groups
Mainline Environmental Organization
National Wildlife Federation
Sierra Club
Radical Environmental Groups
Earth First
Sea Shepherd
International Nongovernmental Organizations

33. Summary:
Decision Making
Environmental Policy Cycle
NEPA and EIS
Environmental Law
Statutory Law
Case Law
Administrative Law
International Treaties
Dispute Resolution
Collective Action