Comparing the US & EU

Comparing the US & EU In the field of Environmental Policy

Before we plunge into this, I want to explore something about the relationship between environment and policy • As with all policy, environmental policy has a provenance; • This, as you will discover, is my favorite word, and it is another way of saying history. It is important to know where a policy came from; the process of its creation.

Here are two of the most famous authors of the nineteenth century. Who are they? The were both social commentators, and they wrote novels about some of the worst conditions in which people ever had to live—the industrial cities—far worse than anything in those countries now. First, a couple of questions Charles Dickens Emile Zola (France) But, now that we have the cleanest living conditions ever, we have environmentalists everywhere

Question 1 • And yet, throughout the nineteenth century, there was never any sort of political movement for environmental reform. • Change, when it came, was driven by the need to avoid crisis. For instance if your work force is dying of water-borne pandemics, then employers have to take notice. But, otherwise, nothing. • So, why no environmental movement at that time, and in those places?

2nd Question • In Europe, many countries have “Green Parties.” • In Germany and France they are quite powerful as they may hold the “swing” vote in tight elections. • Why is it that the USA does not have a Green Party of any real substance? Many Green Party members are also vegetarians, and end up looking like this.

The squalor of nineteenth century industrial cities

Provenance of US Env Policy • Epoch 1: Fighting the urban epidemics (water-borne disease) took the form of Public Health. • Parallel to this is the “Wilderness Preservation” • Basically, pollution is the “price you pay for progress”

Epoch 2 is really the Inter-War Years, when people were either on a binge getting rich (20s) or were stone broke and had no time to worry about the environment (back to Zola) • The response was massive “conquest of nature” type public works projects. So, environment still very secondary to development

Epoch 3 is really the War, in which there was really only one priority: to win the War at any cost. • Environmentalism would have been “unpatriotic” • But, a lot of people went to work the land who would normally not have been there, and that built up an appreciation of Nature.

Epoch 4 is the Post-War Boom from about 1950 through the 60s. • Industry unregulated, but consumerism goes through the roof. US came out of the War very prosperous. • Consumerism started to replace saving, and wants started to replace needs. You could never have too much.

But prosperity brought a much more robust Middle Class, better information dispersal (tv), and awareness. • The abuse of the environment was now reaching highly visible and alarming levels.

And so, at the end of the 1960s • The general level of unease, and the perception that industry was run amok, the public was ready. • The “flash point” came with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and. As Prof. Caldwell would say, the item was on the agenda. • And so we got the NEPA, the EPA, the Clean Air Act., etc…

The 1970s • Was mainly devoted to operationalizing the intent of the NEPA, setting standards, building an infrastructure for oversight and management. • However, the operational aspects were left to the States, and they varied enormously in their commitment of resources and their recognition of importance.

The 1980s • As a reaction to the growth of environmental regulation, stricter standards, and the expanding range of regulations, there was a rush of ideregulation • The first Reagan administration tried to undermine and eliminate the EPA. • BIG Mistake. His own voters supported it.

Ms. Gorsuch resigned after just 22 months after being cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to produce the requested documents. A few days before her resignation, she told Attorney General William French Smith, “I am a small fish on the way to the big fry.” Her account of her tenure at EPA was published in the 1986 book, Are You Tough Enough? The book is out of print, but used copies are available for as low as 89 cents at Amazon.com.

Disastrous Move • This is not the first time this has happened. More than 20 years ago, President Reagan appointed Ann Gorsuch to head the EPA with the understanding that she would weaken the newly created agency's ability to oversee industry. As part of that campaign, Gorsuch scattered the staff of the enforcement office among various other programs, virtually eliminating its ability to keep polluters in check. She and her deputies were so ham-handed in their efforts--which led to such embarrassments as the conviction of Rita Lavelle, the head of the hazardous waste program--that the White House bowed to public pressure and unceremoniously dumped her. A period of détente followed. Though resources were never adequate, the Reagan administration--no doubt chilled by the watchful eyes of Democratic committee chairmen--generally seemed to accept that political appointees should not bow to industry requests to call off investigations.

In 1994 the Republicans swept to power and Newt Gingrich drew up what he called the “Contract with America. • This document targeted the EPA as restrictive of the growth of American Industry. Like his predecessors, he failed to understand the voters.

So, what has been the pattern since then? • Focus has been on the energy debate; but is that environmental or strategic or what? • What about the issue of global warming? Why did Europe sign the Kyoto Protocol, and the US not?

Comparing the US & EU