Important Environmental Policies; Air and Water

1. Important Environmental Policies; Air and Water

2. Heads Up • Week 9 and 10 ppt are posted • Thursday: Homework Assignment #3 is due • Paper due May 1st

3. Today • Finish up TOC (one more golden balls) and using TOC for “good” • Important environmental policies/actions • (1) NEPA • (2) Establishment of EPA • (3) Clean Air Act of 1970 • (4) Clean Water Act of 1972

4. Looking Ahead • Next week: Agriculture and Food • Week after: Animals

5. Benefits to cooperation and benefits to defect • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qjK3TWZE8

6. Cooperation • Cooperation at the regional level can often take the form of common endeavors leading to common property • There are clear advantages to common property: risk sharing. The example of pools of water under properties defined at the surface is relevant. For each individual owner of the surface properties, digging a well might not be worth it because of the risks associated with the prospect of not finding any water under a particular property • Risk sharing in a common property arrangement tremendously increases the possibility of deriving benefits from digging wells in a coordinated fashion. In fact, the greater the number of participants in the risk sharing operation, the lower the costs associated with the enterprise and thus the higher the benefits for each individual owner: Insurance • Even risk- averse individual owners have an incentive to enter such an insurance scheme, which renders the costs of risk bearing negative

7. 8 “Design Principles” (Ostrom 1990) • Clarify defined boundaries (effective exclusion of external un-entitled parties); • Rules regarding the appropriation and provision of common resources are adapted to local conditions; • Collective-choice arrangements allow most resource appropriators to participate in the decision-making process; • Effective monitoring by monitors who are part of or accountable to the appropriators; • There is a scale of graduated sanctions for resource appropriators who violate community rules; • Mechanisms of conflict resolution are cheap and of easy access; • The self-determination of the community is recognized by higher level authorities • In the case of larger common-pool resources, organizations in the form of multiple layers of nested enterprises, with small local governance at the base

9. Is this a positive application to tragedy of the commons?

10. What is the difference?

11. Air, Water, and the Establishment of Important Environmental Policies

12. “Tragedy” extended to other CPR Switching from talking about the OVERUSE of environmental goods…tothe DISTRIBUTION of environmental bads(i.e. pollution)

13. “Tragedy” extended to other CPR People began to see the “tragedy” taking place An oil slick on the Cuyahoga River - polluted from decades of industrial waste - caught fire on a Sunday morning in June 1969 near the Republic Steel mill, causing about $100,000 worth of damage to two railroad bridges. Initially the fire drew little attention, either locally or nationally. The '69 fire was not even the first time that the river burned. Dating back to the beginning of the twentieth century, the river had caught fire on several other occasions.The picture of the Cuyahoga River on fire that ended up in Time Magazine a month later - a truly arresting image showing flames leaping up from the water, completely engulfing a ship - was actually from a much more serious fire in November 1952. No picture of the '69 river fire is known to exist

14. Setting the Agenda Media coverage an event

15. Setting the Agenda + = Media coverage an event Receptive culture

16. Setting the Agenda + = Media coverage an event Receptive culture Set the agenda for gov’t to act

17. Significant US Environmental Laws

18. Significant US Environmental Laws

19. Important Environmental Policies; Air and Water

20. 1. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

21. 1. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

22. Environmental Impact Statement • Proposal: In this stage, the needs and objectives of a project have been decided, but the project has not been financed. • Categorical Exclusion (CATEX):the government may exempt an agency from the process. The agency can then proceed with the project and skip the remaining steps. • Environmental Assessment (EA): The proposal is analyzed in addition to the local environment with the aim to reduce the negative impacts of the development on the area. • Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI): Occurs when no significant impacts are identified in an EA. A FONSI typically allows the lead agency to proceed without having to complete an EIS.

23. Keystone Pipeline Phase 1: Completed 2010 Phase 2: Completed 2011 Phase 3: (Gulf Extension) opened in January 2014 Phase 4: Pending authorization. Obama rejected it in 2012 partially due to environmentalists and some congressional concerns Pipeline ‘owned’ by Transcanada

24. 2. Establishment of the EPA Charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress. The EPA was proposed by President Richard Nixon and began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon submitted a reorganization plan to Congress and it was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate

25. 2. Establishment of the EPA

26. http://nationalteaparty.blogspot.com/2011/01/epa-is-just-another-way-of-controlling.htmlhttp://nationalteaparty.blogspot.com/2011/01/epa-is-just-another-way-of-controlling.html

27. 3. Clean Air Act of 1970 • The Clean Air Act (CAA) is the comprehensive federal law that regulates air emissions from stationary and mobile sources. Among other things, this law authorizes EPA to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect public health and public welfare and to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants. • One of the goals of the Act was to set and achieve NAAQS in every state by 1975 in order to address the public health and welfare risks posed by certain widespread air pollutants. The setting of these pollutant standards was coupled with directing the states to develop state implementation plans (SIPs), applicable to appropriate industrial sources in the state, in order to achieve these standards. The Act was amended in 1977 and 1990 primarily to set new goals (dates) for achieving attainment of NAAQS since many areas of the country had failed to meet the deadlines.

28. Major Air Pollutants and Their Sources Table 12-1, p. 246

31. Air Pollution Comes from Natural and Human Sources • Primary pollutants • Emitted directly into the air • Secondary pollutants • From reactions of primary pollutants • Air quality improving in developed countries • Less-developed countries face big problems • Indoor pollution: big threat to the poor

32. Sources and Types of Air Pollutants Fig. 12-4, p. 247

33. 12-3 What Is Acid Deposition and Why Is It a Problem? • Concept 12-3 Acid deposition is mainly caused by emissions from coal-burning power plants and motor vehicles, and in some regions it threatens human health, aquatic life and ecosystems, forests, and man-made structures.

34. Acid Deposition Has a Number of Harmful Effects (1) • Human health • Respiratory disorders • Toxins in fish • Release of toxic metals • Aquatic ecosystems affected • Lowers pH and kills organisms

35. Acid Deposition Has a Number of Harmful Effects (2) • Leaching of soil nutrients • Lower crop yields • Forest damage • Damage to buildings, statues, and monuments

36. Perceived Risk and Actual Risk

38. Perceived Risk and Actual Risk

39. Perceived Risk and Actual Risk

40. Perceived Risk and Actual Assessment • http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/20761546/2013/01/29/health-officials-investigate-reports-of-students-getting-mysterious-hiccups

41. Paper Two issues: (1) Finding other sources of peer reviewed information; (2) Finding two cpr and determining how they are managed. Due May 1st(Next Thursday!!!)

42. Name some common pool resources • What are the attributes/characteristics of the resource? • How is it managed (to prevent the TOC)? • Why is it managed this way? • How does this management align with Ostrom or Hardin?

43. Homework

47. Homework • http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/ • ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_Massachusetts

48. Review • Where were we? • During the early 1970s, and late 60s, America made vast improvements in environmental policy (4 things)

49. Natural Capital Degradation: Acid Deposition Fig. 12-5, p. 249

50. Chloroform Para-dichlorobenzene Tetrachloroethylene Source: Chlorine-treated water in hot showers Possible threat: Cancer Source: Air fresheners, mothball crystals Threat: Cancer Source: Dry-cleaning fluid fumes on clothes Threat: Nerve disorders, damage to liver and kidneys, possible cancer Formaldehyde Source: Furniture stuffing, paneling, particleboard, foam insulation Threat: Irritation of eyes, throat, skin, and lungs; nausea; dizziness 1,1,1-Trichloroethane Source: Aerosol sprays Threat: Dizziness, irregular breathing Styrene Nitrogen oxides Source: Carpets, plastic products Threat: Kidney and liver damage Source: Unvented gas stoves and kerosene heaters, woodstoves Threat: Irritated lungs, children's colds, headaches Benzo-α-pyrene Source: Tobacco smoke, woodstoves Threat: Lung cancer Particulates Source: Pollen, pet dander, dust mites, cooking smoke particles Threat: Irritated lungs, asthma attacks, itchy eyes, runny nose, lung disease Radon-222 Source: Radioactive soil and rock surrounding foundation, water supply Threat: Lung cancer Tobacco smoke Source: Cigarettes Threat: Lung cancer, respiratory ailments, heart disease Asbestos Methylene chloride Carbon monoxide Source: Pipe insulation, vinyl ceiling and floor tiles Threat: Lung disease, lung cancer Source: Faulty furnaces, unvented gas stoves and kerosene heaters, woodstoves Threat: Headaches, drowsiness, irregular heartbeat, death Source: Paint strippers and thinners Threat: Nerve disorders, diabetes Fig. 12-8, p. 252