Environmental Policy in the U.S./North Carolina

 

(PLS 505, Dluhy)

 

 

 

Central Principles for Understanding Public Policy in Environmental Area

 

• Negative Externality or spill-over:  Can arise in either the production or consumption of a good or service.  An externality is any valued impact, cost or benefit, resulting from any action that affects someone who did not fully consent to it.  We call this a by-product.  By-products are things like air and water pollution, noisy airports, traffic congestion.  Negative externalities impose costs on residents who are not paid by market for the disadvantages they suffer.  Public Policy tries to get polluters, etc to internalize their externality by regulation and fines, performance standards or by tax strategies.  Voluntary approaches usually do not work.

 

• Free Rider:   If you install an antipollution device and I do not, then I benefit from the cleaner air that you and other responsible citizens produce without having to pay for it.  I am a free rider, I benefit but I do not have to pay.  Public policy wants the free rider to do their fair share—fix their car so it does not pollute, do not litter, do not pollute the streams, etc.  Therefore individual rationality leads to collective irrationality.  You may more to correct the problem than you receive in benefits, since the benefits are free.

 

• The Tragedy of the Commons:  We always want to insure the long term stability of a resource like  public grazing lands or the air.  Unless the same degree of pollution control is required for all companies, the common resources of air, water and soil used by everyone will continue to be degraded. In addition, the products of the company whose officials voluntarilt acted to protect the environment will cost more than those of their polluting competitors—driving the company that acted responsibly out of business.  Therefore if everyone is going to be controlled, the standards will be very low to gain the support of the industry.  There will be little support for stringent standards and no incentives for voluntary compliance.

 

 

North Carolina and other state environmental issues:

 

• Animal wastes (“hog lagoons”)
• Air and water pollution along the Blue Ridge from North and West
• Coastal management, beach erosion, setbacks, buildable sites
• Preservation of natural habitats vs. economic development
• Pesticides
• Urban sprawl, concentration of development, fill in before moving out
• Drainage and flooding, stricter zoning
• Planning requirements (voluntary vs. involuntary) local regional, state
• Open space preservation—ie., Pa. put aside  $650 million for five yrs
• Areas of critical concern—special legislation, Florida and California pioneered
• Integrate land use and transportation planning
• Multi-modal transportation—linkages between modes, BART in San Francisco and Metro in Washington, D.C.

 

 

 

 

National Environmental Issues:

 

• Oil drilling, especially Alaska, Gulf of Mexico, California
• Air and water pollution in urban areas
• Natural wildlife preserves, ie., other candidates for national parks
• Nuclear hazardous waste disposal
• Ozone depletion

 

 

 

Politics and Environmental Policy

 

• Laissez Faire Orientation—“all growth is good growth”, boom towns, resort towns, Gatlinburg, Tenn., Ocean City, MD., Myrtle Beach, S.C., Daytona Beach, Fl., etc., Newark, N.J., Gary, Indiana, Orlando, Fl.
•  Protectionism Orientation—no growth, Carmel, Ca., Coral Gables, Fl., Ponte Vedra, Fl., Figure Eight Island and Bald Head, N.C.
• Controlled Development according to a master plan—Wilmington, N.C. (Annexation), Reston, Va., Columbia, MD.

 

The Environmental Movement and the Future

 

·        Property Rights and Economic development??

·        What are standards, how do you set them??

·        Interest groups are vigilant in the enforcement of federal laws,pro-active