Environmenta

l
Policy

- official rules and regulations

concerning the environment that
are adopted, implemented, and
enforced by some government
agency, as well as to general
public
opinion
about
environmental issues.

Examples:
National

level:
Clean Air Act

International

level:
1987 Montreal Protocol
Convention

on International Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES)

The Policy
Cycle
- How policy issues and opinion
make their way onto the stage of
public debate
- Acts to continually define and
refine the public agenda

Identify
problem
Suggest
Changes

Set
agenda

Implement
Policy

Develop
proposals

Enact
law or rule

Build
Support

advantages of seizing the

initiative in issue identification
(1st step) :

often allows a group to define terms

set the agenda
organize stakeholders
choose tactics
aggregate related issues
legitimate or de-legitimate issues and actors

Stakeholders
- develop proposals for preferred policy
options, often in the form of legislative
proposals or administrative rules
Proponents build support through:
- Media campaigns, public education and
personal lobbying of decision makers

Different Routes
Special economic interest groups:
Industry association
Labor unions
Wealthy & powerful individuals
Public interest groups:

Top priority (54%)

Important but
lower priority
(37%)
Not too important
(6%)
Should not be
done (2%)
Don't know (1%)

Political Decision Making

Science-based
Rational

management ideology

choice

Reasons why rational choice doesnt

always work in the public arena:

Many conflicting values & need cant be compared because

they arent comparable or we dont have perfect
information.

There are few generally agreed-upon broad societal goals,

but rather, benefits to specific groups and individuals,
many of which are in conflict.

Policymakers generally arent motivated to make decisions

on the basis of societal goals, but rather to maximize their
own rewards: power, status, money or reelection

Large investments in existing programs and policies create

path dependence and sunken costs that prevent policymakers from considering good alternatives foreclose by previous
decisions.

Uncertainty about the consequences of various policy opinions

compels decision makers to stick as closely as possible to
previous policies to reduce the likelihood of adverse, calamitous,
unanticipated consequences.

Policymakers, even if well meaning, dont have the sufficient

intelligence or adequate data or models to calculate accurate
costs and benefits when large numbers of diverse political,
social, economic and cultural values are at stake.

The segmented nature of policy making in large bureaucracies

makes coordinating decision making difficult.

NEPA and
EIS

National Environmental Policy Act

- Signed into law by: President Nixon in 1970

Does 3 important things:

(1) authorizes the Council on Environmental Quality
(CEQ), the over sight board for general environmental
conditions
(2) directs federal agencies to take environmental
consequences into account in decision making
(3) requires an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
for every major federal project having a significant
impact on the quality of the human environment.

Elements that Every EIS must

contain:
(1)

Purpose and need for the project

(2)

Alternatives to the proposed action

(including taking no action)

(3)

A statement of positive and negative

environmental impacts of the proposed
activities.