PS 3480, Environmental Politics, September 24, 2012

 

 

 

Current events

 

 

Exam 1: Wednesday

 

 

The Government Institutions that Make Environmental Policy

1. Congress

  

2. The President:

 All presidents want to be associated with support for the environment

. 

The President has much influence over environmental policy through

    a. the agenda

    b. appointments

    c. budget priorities

    d. legislative initiatives

    e. executive orders

    f. agency oversight

    g. international agreements 

 

Three Types of Presidential Priorities for the Environment since the 1970s

i) Republicans who make selective expansion in environmental policy
    (Nixon, George HW Bush, #41)

ii) Democrats who try to expand environmental protection incrementally   
    (Carter, Clinton)

iii). Republicans who seek to roll back some environmental regulations that they believe impede prosperity
    (Reagan, George W. Bush)

    

3. The Executive Branch & Bureaucracy

Key Federal Agencies that Manage U.S. Environmental Policy

 

Established when the Dominant Social Paradigm was unchallenged

The General Land Office (1812, now part of the Bureau of Land Management)

 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (est. 1824)  [Now part of Department of Defense]
  Task: control and channel rivers, improve harbors

 U.S. Department of the Interior (1849)
  Distribute and ensure the use of public lands

 U.S. Department of Agriculture (1889)
  To represent the interests of farmers

 

Era of Conservation

 The U.S. Forest Service (1905)   [Part of Department of the Agriculture]
  Manages national forests and grasslands

 The National Park Service (1916)  [Part of Department of the Interior]

“The fundamental purpose of these parks … is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife herein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such a manner and by such means as will leave them uepaired for the employment of future generations.”

 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (1940)     [Part of Department of the Interior]
  regulates stocks of fish and wildlife and their habitats

 The Bureau of Land Management (1946)      [Part of Department of the Interior]
  Manages public lands, mainly in the west; manages oil and gas, mineral,
  timber, and rangeland resources

 

 Era of Environmentalism

 Environmental Protection Agency (1970)

Some other departments involved
 Department of Transportation (hazardous materials shipments)
 Department of Energy (electricity, hydroelectricity, nuclear power)
 Department of Health and Human Services (food safety, drug safety)
 Department of Labor (occupational and mine safety and health)
 Department of Commerce (standards of safety and environ. quality)
 Department of State (international environmental agreements)
 

4. The Courts

 

    A more national, long-term perspective than Congress or the president
 
    Responds to disputes – does not initiate policy
 
    Court decisions sometimes turn on technicalities like “standing”
•

    Court decisions can have far-reaching consequences

 

 

How Does the United States Govern Its Land?

1. How Americans altered their landscape

 

 

    Land and economic growth

 

   

 

    How the U.S. government took control of most of the nation's land

    

 

 

    The Homestead Act

 

 

 

    The Pacific Railroad Act

 

   

 

2. How Chicago altered the landscape of the American Midwest

 

 

    Location, Location, Location

 

 

    Grain Production and the Transformation of the Prairie

 

 

 

    Timber Production and the Transformation of the Forests

 

 

 

    Cattle, Hogs, and Mass Production

 

 

 

    The Transformation of Rural Life