SPEA 424 Exam 1 with complete verified solutions

Progressive Pioneers (~pre-1910) Social and Political elites; Regional and local issue focus; Divided on preservation v. conservation. Groups: Sierra Club National Audubon Society Preservation Movement: Social and political elites (writers and artists) in mid to late 19th century began to argue that it was necessary to PRESERVE the grand scenery and natural features of the unspoiled western landscape; "romanticization" of nature. Influential thinkers: Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir, (and later Aldo Leopold). Objective is to set aside public land in perpetuity. First national park created: Yosemite National Park (1890) Conservation Movement: An elite movement in the late 19th century that reacted to extensive deforestation by calling for government to use bureaucratic power to MORE SUSTAINABLY manage resources for exploitation. Influential thinkers: Teddy Roosevelt; Gifford Pinchot, John Wesley Powell. Objective is to set aside public land for responsible resource extraction ("sustainable yield"). Forest Reserves Act (1891): 17.5 million acres of forest given protected status; origin of the US National Forest System. Organic Act (1897): created forest reserve systems "to improve and protect the forest within the reservation,... securing favorable conditions of water flows, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the use and necessities of citizens of the United States." Interwar Period (~) Nationalization of issue focus (groups often formed in Washington D.C.; Close alliances with federal government; Foster ethos of outdoor recreation; Aimed to influence from WITHIN government. Groups: National Parks Conservation Association; Izaak Walton League; Wilderness Society; National Wildlife Federation; Ducks Unlimited. Postwar Bridge to Environmentalism (~) Further nationalization of issue focus; Shift to pollution (chemical effects on wildlife); Centralization and professionalization; Aimed to influence from outside government. Groups: Conservation Foundation, Nature Conservancy, Defenders of Wildlife, World Wildlife Fund The Environmental Era (~1968-present) Creation of full-scale policy advocacy organizations; Expansion of dues-paying membership; More legal-scientific focus. More focus on pollution and health risks. Groups: Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Friends of the Earth, League of Conservation Voters, Greenpeace The modern environmental era Shift from conservation to environmental protection in the 1960s and 1970s: Response to large societal changes in mid-20th Century: economic boom, suburbanization, chemical-intensive economy. Air, water, and land pollution come into focus, and particularly their linkage with public health. Environmentalism as a social movement, still led by elites, but with broad support from the mass public. Focusing events 1969: Oil spill in Santa Barbara 1969: Cleveland's Cuyahoga River catches fire (again). First Earth Day April 22, 1970 20 million participants across the country Window of Opportunity Redefinition of problem - from nuisance to public health. Urgency escalated by growing public unease. Receptive and responsive political institutions. Institutional reform and the creation of the EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Created in 1970 by President Nixon as part of an Executive Reorganization plan (not an act of Congress). Prior to the EPA, environmental protection functions scattered throughout federal bureaucracy (e.g., HEW, DOI, USDA). "Small" agency, with big regulatory punch. FY2022 budget: $9.6 billion FY2022 staffing level: About 15,300 employees Reasons for Federal intervention Growing policy demands from public. Widely-held perception that environmental problems were a crisis. Belief that Congress could solve problems through legislation. States commitment to environmental protection was largely inadequate, and varied considerably across the country. States reticent to act due to fears about job loss and harming their economic competitiveness. States unwilling to take on interstate pollution spillovers. Consensus that American industry had the ability to control pollution, but was unwilling to do so unless forced by the federal government. Electoral politics: Republican President Nixon, Democratic Senator Muskie, and others battled to be more "pro-environment." What was the result of federal intervention? National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (1969) Endangered Species Act (ESA)(1973) Clean Air Act (CAA) (1970) Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) (1974) Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) (1970) Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) (1976) Clean Water Act (CWA) (1972) Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) (1976) Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) (1972) Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (1977) Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act (1972) Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) (1980) Air Pollution Problem Statistics: 5th leading cause of death worldwide. Other estimates place deaths from air pollution as high as 7-8 million. In US, about 100,000 people die annually from air pollution (PNAS 2019) 40,000 fatalities from car accidents 33,000 deaths from guns. Economic damages: $886 billion (PNAS 2019) Health Effects of Various Air Pollutants Ground-level ozone Respiratory problems, asthma Particulate matter Eye and throat irritation, bronchitis, lung damage, impaired visibility Carbon monoxide Harms ability of blood to carry oxygen, cardiovascular disruption Sulfur dioxide Respiratory problems; damage to lung tissue Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) Respiratory problems; damage to lung tissue Lead Brain damage, especially in children Asbestos Lung disease and cancer Mercury Brain damage, loss of fine motor and visual spatial skills Benzene Leukemia Vinyl chloride Lung and liver cancer Acute exposures can lead to fatalities, but most health effects are associated with chronic exposure (low concentrations over long periods of time). Important Distinctions to Remember Ambient air quality v. source pollution Stationary sources (e.g., power plants, factories) v. mobile sources (e.g., cars, trucks) New (i.e., post-1970) v. existing sources (i.e. pre-1970) Traditional ("criteria") v. hazardous (toxic) pollutants Air Pollution Control before 1970 Air pollution control mostly in the hands of state and local governments. Federal legislation: 1955 Air Pollution Control Act provided research and technical assistance to state air pollution control programs. 1960 Air Quality Act and 1963 Clean Air Act encouraged states to voluntarily establish standards and to create plans to achieve them. 1965 Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act empowered and later directed federal government to create automobile emissions standards, enforceable, except in California. 1967 Air Quality Act created new federal agency, the National Air Pollution Control Administration (NAPCA) to establish criteria for stationary sources; states then to create plans based on federal criteria. Clean Air Act (1970) Key goal: Protect and enhance the quality of the Nation's air resources so as to promote the public health and welfare and the productive capacity of its population. Complicated law; we will focus on four key parts: National Ambient Air Quality Standards Standards for stationary sources (think power plants, refineries, factories, etc.) Approach to toxic or hazardous air pollutants. Standards for cars and trucks. Clean Air Act - NAAQS Air quality standards: National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS): EPA to set maximum permissible ambient air concentrations for six "criteria" pollutants: CO, Lead, NOx, Ozone, PM10, and SO2. Typically measured as average or maximum over a set period of time. An example, current standard for ozone is 70 parts per billion over 8-hours. "Primary standards" to protect human health; and "Secondary standards," if necessary, to protect public welfare (e.g., aesthetics, damage to buildings, agriculture, forests). Uniform across country, but states can set higher standards. EPA to set at levels that would "provide an adequate margin of safety...to protect human health." Assumes that one can properly identify safe level. Compliance costs cannot be considered. Must be met by 1975. States given job to figure out how to meet standards through State Implementation Plans (SIPs). Failure to comply can result in states losing highway and transportation funding. State Implementation Plans State Implementation Plans -- state plans to achieve NAAQS: Set specific emissions limitations for individual sources; Establish timetables for compliance from these sources; Set up procedures to review new sources; Establish systems to monitor air quality; and Perform enforcement. State must demonstrate that it has statutory and administrative capacity to achieve federal air quality goals. EPA must review and approve state plans. If states fail, EPA can impose a federal implementation plan. NAAQS: Attainment v. Non-Attainment EPA annually determines for each county in the United States if they are achieving NAAQS. Current designations. 1977 amendments to CAA addressed an unanticipated problem, creating "prevention of significant deterioration" program. Sierra Club v. Ruckelshaus (1972): SIPs also had to include measures to prevent the worsening of air quality in areas already meeting NAAQS. New or modified sources had to get a permit, meet strict technology standards set on a source-by-source basis, and get "offsets" from another source. Stricter technology standards for new and existing sources.