Environmental Studies - Fall 1998

Alan Balch, 436 Natural Sciences II, Ext. 2382

Hours: Tu 2-3, W 2-3 in Room 436 Natural Sciences II,

Discussion Sections:

01A: M 8:00-9:10 AM 145 Soc Sci I

01D: M 3:30-4:40 PM 202 Crown

E-mail: alb@cats

Karsten Mueller, 479 Natural Sciences II, Ext. 5036

Hours: T 1:15-2:15, Th 10-11 in Room 479 Natural Sciences II

Discussion Sections:

01C: T 12:00-1:10 PM 132 Merrill

01B: Th 8:30-9:40 AM 323 Kresge

E-mail: karsten@cats

Writing Tutor: Kelly Fitzgerald:

E-mail: keba@cats

Even 30 years after their public emergence nationally, environmental issues remain high on the public policy agenda. Air quality, water quality, hazardous waste management and toxics accidents all demand the attention of national policymakers. Although an unending progression of federal and state laws have been passed in an attempt to control environmental abuses, their implementation has been spotty and threatens to wreak high economic costs.

This course will provide an overview of the critical environmental issues and policies of the United States in the 1990s. We will explore public policy concepts and instruments, and examine in some detail their application to specific environmental issues. Assigned readings will provide the conceptual basis for discussion and research in the course as we focus on the "hands-on" aspects of program implementation.

An entire quarter could well be devoted to air quality, energy, or toxic waste, thus each topic is covered in an introductory fashion. Rather than devote in-depth study to particular environmental problems, the primary objective of the course is to instill an understanding of the broad scope of environmental issues as fascinating, important and difficult public policy dilemmas, and to pull together both theory and practice.

This class is W - coded, and thus writing intensive. Students will be required to write a policy brief in two parts. Due to time constraints, only part I will be re-submitted in revised form. In addition, there will be an in-class midterm and final exam. Class participation is important to the success of a public policy course of this kind. Therefore, participation on the part of each student -- in discussion section as well as in class -- will be specifically encouraged by the instructor. Overall evaluations will thus address student performance on the policy brief, the final exam, and class participation.

Three texts are required for this course and are available at the campus bookstore. In addition there will be required readings from other articles and books. Multiple copies of these readings will be on reserve at McHenry library. The two texts will also be on reserve at McHenry Library.

1. Norman Vig and Michael Kraft, eds. Environmental Policy in the 1990s Third Edition, Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1996.
2. Charles Davis, editor. Western Public Lands and Environmental Politics, Westview Press, 1997.

September 26: Course Introduction

1. INTRODUCTION

REQUIRED READINGS

• September 29: Norman Vig and Michael Kraft, eds., Environmental Policy in the 1990s (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1996), pp. 1-30.
• October 1: Vig and Kraft, Environmental Policy in the 1990s, pp. 31-52.
  • Suggested Readings
    • James Lester, ed., Environmental Politics and Policy: Theories and Evidence (Durham, NC: Duke, 1989), pp. 135-157, 314-330.
    • William Ophuls, Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity Revisited (San Francisco: Freeman, 1992), pp. 189-216.

2. INSTITUTIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY PROCESSES: PART I

REQUIRED READINGS

• October 3: Vig and Kraft, Environmental Policy in the 1990s, pp. 119-142.
• October 6: Vig and Kraft, Environmental Policy in the 1990s, pp. 168-186.
  • Suggested Readings
    • Giandomenico Majone, Evidence, Argument and Persuasion in the Policy Process (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989), pp. 116-144.
    • James Lester, ed., Environmental Politics and Policy: Theories and Evidence , pp. 179-237.
    • Roderick Nash, The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics (Madison: Wisconsin, 1989), Whole book.

3. INSTITUTIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY PROCESSES: PART II

REQUIRED READINGS

• October 8: Vig and Kraft, Environmental Policy in the 1990s, pp. 143-167.
• October 10: Vig and Kraft, Environmental Policy in the 1990s, pp. 187-207.

1-PAGE POLICY TOPIC DUE OCT. 10 AT BEGINNING OF CLASS

REQUIRED READINGS

• October 13 & 15: Vig & Kraft, Environmental Policy in the 1990s, pp. 53-74.
  • Suggested Reading
    • Christopher Stone, Earth and Other Ethics: The Case for Moral Pluralism (NY: Harper and Row, 1987), pp. 3-40.
    • Rik Scarce, Eco-Warriors: Understanding the Radical Environmental Movement, Chicago: Noble Press, 1990.

• October 17: Robert N. Stavins and Bradley W. Whitehead, "Dealing with Pollution: Market-Based incentives for Environmental Protection," Environment, vol. 34, number 7, September 1992.
  • Suggested Readings
    • Herman Daly and John Cobb, For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future (Boston: Beacon, 1989, pp. 1-21.
    • Nash, The Rights of Nature, op.cit., pp. 121-213.
    • Paul Downing, Environmental Economics and Policy Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1984, chapters 2-3.
    • Herman Daly, ed., Economics, Ecology, Ethics: Essays Toward a Steady-State Economy (NY & SF: Freeman, 1980), pp. 100-120, 194-214, & 324-356.
    • William Ophuls, Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity Revisited, op. cit., pp. 217-253.

4. AIR QUALITY

REQUIRED READINGS

• October 20 & 22: Gary C. Bryner, Blue Skies, Green Politics: The Clean Air Act of 1990 (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1993), pp. 79-120.
  • Suggested Readings
    • Eric Mann, L.A.'s Lethal Air: New Strategies for Policy, Organizing, and Action. Los Angeles, CA: Labor/Community Strategy Center, 1991.
    • Matthew Crenson, The Unpolitics of Air Pollution (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1971), pp. 1-34.
    • Bruce Ackerman & William Hassler, Clean Coal/Dirty Air ((New Haven: Yale, 1981), pp. 1-78.
    • South Coast Air Quality Management District, Working Paper No. 1: Marketable Permits Program (May 1991).
    • Bruce Yandle, The Political Limits of Environmental Regulation (New York: Quorum Books, 1989), chapter 4: "The Rise of the Federal Regulator."
    • David Harrison and Albert Nichols, Market-based Approaches to Reduce the Cost of Clean Air in California's South Coast
    • (Prepared by the National Economics Research Associates for the California Council on Environmental and Economic Balance, CCEEB, November 1990).
    • South Coast Air Quality Management District, Summary of 1989 Air Quality Management Plan , Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association, vol. 39.
    • William Ophuls, Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity Revisited, op. cit., pp. 136-144.

5. HAZARDOUS WASTES

REQUIRED READINGS

• October 24: Mazmanian & Morell, Beyond SuperFailure: America's Toxics Policy for the 1990s ,Westview Press, 1992, Chapters 1 - 2.
• October 27: Mazmanian & Morell, Beyond SuperFailure: America's Toxics Policy for the 1990s, Chapter 4.

POLICY BRIEF PART 1 DUE OCT. 27 AT BEGINNING OF CLASS

• Suggested Readings
  • Daniel Mazmanian and David Morell, "The Elusive Pursuit of Toxics Management," The Public Interest, Winter 1988, pp. 81-98.
  • James Lester & Ann Bowman, eds., The Politics of Hazardous Waste Management (Durham, NC: Duke, 1983), pp. 74-176 (case studies in Florida, New York, Texas & California).
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Risk Assessment and Management: Framework for Decision Making (Washington, D.C.: EPA 600/9-85-002, December 1984), pp. 1-35.
  • World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission), Our Common Future (Oxford & NY: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 206-234.
  • Lester, Environmental Politics and Policy, op. cit., pp. 261-286 (article by Rushefesky).
  • Mazmanian and Morell, Beyond SuperFailure, op. cit., Chapter 6.
  • Sheldon Krimsky & Alonzo Plough, Environmental Hazards: Communicating Risks as a Social Process (Dover, MA: Auburn House, 1988, pp. 1-12, 298-307.
  • Paul Slovic, "Perception of Risk," Science, vol. 236, April 17, 1987, pp. 280-285.
  • Milton Russell and Michael Gruber, "Risk Assessment in Environmental Policy Making," Science, vol. 236, April 17, 1987, pp. 286-290.
  • Vig and Kraft, Environmental Policy in the 1990s, op. cit., pp. 209-234 (article by Andrews).

6. POLLUTION PREVENTION AND RECYCLING

REQUIRED READINGS

• October 29: Vig and Kraft, Environmental Policy in the 1990s, pp. 255-277.
• Michael Porter and Claas van der Linde, "Green and Competitive: Ending the Stalemate," Harvard Business Review, September - October 1995, Vol. 73, No. 5, pp. 120-134.
  • Suggested Readings
    • Harry Freeman et al., "Industrial Pollution Prevention: A Critical Review," Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association, vol. 42 number 5, May 1992, pp. 618-656.
    • Keoleian, Gregory and Dan Menerey. 1994. "Sustainable Development by Design: Review of Life Cycle Design and Related Approaches." Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association.. Vol. 44, May; 645-68.
    • Daniel Press, Toxic Releases from Paper made with Recovered Wastepaper versus Virgin Wood Fiber: A Research Note. Environmental Management, Vol. 20, no. 5: 725-730, 1996.

OCTOBER 31: MIDTERM EXAM--TRICK or TREAT?!

7. WATER QUALITY AND SUPPLY

REQUIRED READINGS

• November 3, 5, &7: National Geographic Magazine, Special Edition: Water: The Power, Promise, and Turmoil of North America's Fresh Water. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 1993, especially pp. 38-65.
• Robert W. Adler, Jessica C. Landman, and Diane M. Cameron. 1993. The Clean Water Act: 20 Years Later. Covelo, CA: Island Press, Ch. 2.
  • Suggested Readings
    • Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water . NY: Viking, 1986.
    • Ronald Robie, "The Delta Decisions: The Quiet Revolution in California Water Rights," Pacific Law Journal, Vol. 19 (1988), pp. 1111-1142.
    • Arthur Littleworth, "The Public Trust vs. the Public Interest", Pacific Law Journal, Vol. 19 (1988), pp. 1201-1223.
    • Debra S. Knopman and Richard A. Smith, "Twenty Years of the Clean Water Act: Has U.S. Water Quality Improved?," Environment, vol. 35, number 1, January/February 1993, pp. 17-20 and 34-41.
    • Marcia Steinberg & Michael Schoenleber, "Salinity Control and the Riparian Right", Pacific Law Journal, Vol. 19 (1988), pp. 1143-1164.
    • US vs. State Water Resources Control Board, 182 Cal App. 3d 82; 227 Cal. Rptr. 161 (May 1986) ("Racanelli decision").
    • Fred Powledge, Water: The Nature, Uses and Future of Our Most Precious and Abused Resource (NY: Farrar Strauss Giroux, 1982), pp. 3-95.
    • World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, op.cit.,pp. 261-274.
    • C.B. Yates. Limitations of Sovereign Immunity Under the Clean Water Act -- Empowering States to Confront Federal Polluters. Michigan Law Review, 1991 Oct, v90 n1:183-206.

8. FORESTS, BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY, AND MINING

REQUIRED READINGS

• November 10: Charles Davis, editor. Western Public Lands and Environmental Politics, Westview Press, 1997, pp. 1-44.
• November 12: Davis, editor. Western Public Lands and Environmental Politics, pp. 47-73.
• November 14: Davis, editor. Western Public Lands and Environmental Politics, pp. 172-189.
• November 17: Davis, editor. Western Public Lands and Environmental Politics, pp. 95-121 & 193-202.
  • Suggested Readings
    • Christopher McGrory Klyza, "Ideas, Institutions, and Policy Patterns: Hardrock Mining, Forestry, and Grazing Policy on the United States Public Lands, 1870-1985," Studies in American Political Development, Vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 341-374.
    • Michael Williams, "The Death and Rebirth of the American Forest: Clearing and Reversion in the United States, 1900-1980," in John F. Richards and Richard P. Tucker (eds.), World Deforestation in the Twentieth Century. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1988, pp. 211-229.
    • Daniel J. Rohlf. 1994. Six Biological Reasons why the Endangered Species Act Doesn't Work -- And What to Do About it, in R. Edward Grumbine, (ed.), Environmental Policy and Biodiversity, Covelo, CA, Island Press, pp. 181-200.
    • Michael O'Connell. 1994. Response to "Six Biological Reasons why the Endangered Species Act Doesn't Work -- And What to Do About it", in R. Edward Grumbine, (ed.), Environmental Policy and Biodiversity, Covelo, CA, Island Press, pp. 200-207.
    • Steven Lewis Yaffee. 1994. The Wisdom of the Spotted Owl: Policy Lessons for a New Century, Covelo, CA: Island Press, pp. 155-206.
    • World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, op.cit., pp. 147-167.
    • Entire issue of the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College journal, Environmental Law, volume 24, number 2, 1994.
    • Charles Peters et.al., "Valuation of an Amazonian Rainforest," Nature, Vol. 339, June 29, 1989, pp. 655-656.
    • Richard Tobin, The Expendable Future: US Politics and the Protection of Biological Diversity , Durham, NC: Duke, 1990.
    • Charles C. Mann and Mark L. Plummer, "The High Cost of Biodiversity," Science, vol. 260, June 25, 1993, pp. 1868 -1871.
    • Duane A. Smith. 1987. Mining America: The Industry and the Environment, 1800-1980. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.

9. MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

REQUIRED READINGS

• November 19 & 21: Biliana Cicin-Sain, "California and Ocean Management: Problems and Opportunities," Coastal Management, vol. 18, number 3, 1990, pp. 311-335.
  • Suggested Readings
    • Biliana Cicin-Sain, "Offshore Oil Development in California: Challenges to Governments and to the Public Interest," Public Affairs Report. Bulletin of the Institute of Governmental Studies, vol. 27, February-April 1986, no. 1-2, pp. 1-15.
    • David R. Godschalk, "Implementing Coastal Zone Management: 1972-1990," Coastal Management, vol. 20, number 2, 1992, pp. 93-116.

10. ENERGY POLICY AND ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

REQUIRED READINGS

• November 24 & 26: Davis, editor. Western Public Lands and Environmental Politics, pp. 122-149.
  • Suggested Readings
    • Eric Hirst, "Boosting U.S. Energy Efficiency Through Federal Action," Environment, March 1991, pp. 7-36.
    • David Howard Davis. 1993. Energy Politics. 4th ed. New York : St. Martin's Press, Introduction and Conclusion.
    • Jeremy Leggett, ed., Global Warming: The Greenpeace Report, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
    • Amory Lovins, Soft Energy Paths: Toward a Durable Peace (NY; Harper Colophon, 1979), pp. 3-60, 147-170.
    • Daniel A. Mazmanian, "California Green: Integrated Energy Policy" (draft ms., 1991).
    • Joseph Morone and Edward Woodhouse, The Demise of Nuclear Energy? Lessons for the Democratic Control of Technology (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989).
    • World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, op.cit., pp. 168-205.
    • Nicholas Lenssen, Empowering Development: The New Energy Equation, Washington, DC: The Worldwatch Institute, Worldwatch Paper Number 111, November 1992.

NO CLASS ON NOVEMBER 28: HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

11. ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: MOVEMENTS AND POLICY

REQUIRED READINGS

• December 1: Vig and Kraft, Environmental Policy in the 1990s, pp. 231-254

POLICY BRIEF PART 2 DUE DEC. 1 AT BEGINNING OF CLASS

OPTIONAL REVISED POLICY BRIEF PART 1 DUE DECEMBER 1

• Suggested Readings
  • Barbara Epstein, "Grassroots Environmentalism and Strategies for Social Change, New Political Science, Summer 1995, No. 32, pp. 1-24.
  • R.R. Higgins. "Race and Environmental Equity -- An Overview of the Environmental Justice Issue in the Policy Process." Polity, 1993, Winter, V. 26, N2:281-300.
  • Christopher Stone, Earth and Other Ethics: The Case for Moral Pluralism, op. cit., pp. 41-69.
  • Vig and Kraft, Environmental Policy in the 1990s, op.cit., pp. 235-250 (article by Mazmanian & Morell).
  • Lester & Bowman, The Politics of Hazardous Waste Management, op.cit., pp. 196-211 (article by Hadden et.al.).
  • David Morell & Christopher Magorian, Siting Hazardous Waste Facilities: Local Opposition and the Myth of Preemption, Ballinger, 1982.
  • Christopher Stone, Should Trees Have Standing?: Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects, (Palo Alto, CA: Tioga Publishing Company, 1974, 1988), whole book, including the opinions by the Supreme Court.
  • Andrew Szasz, Eco-Populism: Toxic Waste and the Movement for Environmental Justice, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1994.

12. GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

REQUIRED READINGS

• December 3: Vig and Kraft, Environmental Policy in the 1990s, op.cit., pp. 278-298.
  • Suggested Readings
    • World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, op.cit., pp. 1-23, 44-65, 118-146, 206-234,308-347 .
    • Stone, Earth and Other Ethics, op. cit., pp. 71-109, pp. 111-199.
    • H. Jeffrey Leonard, ed., Divesting Nature's Capital (Holmes & Meier, 1985), pp. 3-20 (article by Leonard & Morell).
    • Frederick Buttel, Ann Hawkins and Alison Power, "From Limits to Growth to Global Change", Global Environmental Change, December 1990, pp., 57-66.
    • David Doniger, "Politics of the Ozone Layer," Issues in Science and Technology, Spring 1988, pp. 86-92.
    • Vig and Kraft, Environmental Policy in the 1990s, op.cit., pp. 349-367 (article by Paehlke).
    • William Ophuls, Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity Revisited, op. cit., pp. 255-278.
    • Vig and Kraft, Environmental Policy in the 1990s, op.cit., pp. 321-364.

13. ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, DEMOCRACY, AND REFORM

REQUIRED READINGS

• December 5: Vig and Kraft, Environmental Policy in the 1990s, pp. 365-389.
  • Suggested Readings
    • Mazmanian & Morell, Beyond SuperFailure, op. cit., Chapter 7.
    • Daniel Press. 1994. Democratic Dilemmas in the Age of Ecology: Trees and Toxics in the American West. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
    • Daniel Press. 1995. "Environmental Regionalism and the Struggle for California," Society and Natural Resources, Volume 8, No. 4.
    • William Ophuls, Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity Revisited, op. cit., pp. 281-316.
    • Mazmanian & Morell, "EPA: Coping with the New Political Economic Order", Environmental Law, 1991.
    • Stone, Earth and Other Ethics, op.cit., pp. 201-260.
    • Morell, "Effective Toxics Management: A Multi-Media Perspective", in Ben Dysart and Marion Clawson, eds., Public Interest in the Use of Private Lands (NY: Praeger, 1989), pp. 27-46.
    • Mazmanian & Morell, Beyond SuperFailure, op.cit., Chapter 8.

FINAL EXAM IS ON WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 8-11 AM

Revised 7/19/04.