Environmental Politics and Policy / Edition 8

by Walter A. Rosenbaum

Overview

Available this summer in its eighth edition, Rosenbaum’s classic, comprehensive text once more provides definitive coverage of environmental politics and policy, lively case material, and a balanced assessment of current environmental issues.

Notable revisions include:
• A completely revamped energy chapter covering conventional energy policy as well as a comparative examination of alternatives to current energy production.
• Expanded discussion of current U.S. climate change policy with attention to the role of the states, the impact of global environmental politics, and emerging technologies on policy alternatives.
• Analysis of the Obama administration’s energy agenda and its profound differences from Bush administration policies and the practical difficulties of creating an effective political coalition in support of the new policy agenda.
• Greater emphasis on executive-congressional relations in the policy-making cycle.
• Examination of changes in the environmental movement, with particular attention to newly emerging cleavages over energy and climate issues.
• A thorough updating of all policy chapters, including an examination of such topics as “mountain top removal,” the emergence of Bisphenol A as an endocrine disruptor issue, and the “new NIMBYism.”

New and revised tables, figures, and other data illustrate key environmental information while a new, detailed timeline frames the initial chapter’s historical narrative of evolving environmental policy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781604266078
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	08/05/2010
Edition description:	8th Edition
Pages:	422
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Walter A. Rosenbaum is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Florida and director emeritus of the University of Florida’s Bob Graham Center for Public Service. His recent activities include an analysis of the EPA’s capacity for climate change regulation, prepared for the Brookings Institution; an examination of the data requirements for a new Federal Environmental Legacy Act; preparation of an energy policy text for CQ Press; and an analysis of U.S.energy governance for MIT Press. He has also served as a staff member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and an adjunct professor in the School of Public Health, Tulane University Medical College. In addition to his teaching and research, he has been a consultant to the EPA, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the South Florida Ecosystem (Everglades) Restoration Project. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal for Environmental Studies and Sciences.

Table of Contents

Tables, Figures, and Boxes     ix
Preface     xi
After Earth Day: American Environmentalism in Transformation     1
A Texas Bet with Global Stakes     2
From Greenhouse to White House to State House     4
The Environmental Legacy     5
The Political Legacy: From Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush     7
Ongoing Challenges: Present and Future     10
Plan for the Book     21
Conclusion     24
Suggested Readings     25
Notes     25
Making Policy: The Process     27
The White House and the Greenhouse     28
The Policy Cycle     31
Constitutional Constraints     34
Incrementalism     36
Interest-Group Liberalism     37
Organized Environmentalism     40
Environmentalism and Its Critics     49
The Public and Environmentalism     52
The Special Place of Science in Policy Making     57
Conclusion     61
Suggested Readings     61
Notes     62
Making Policy: Institutions and Politics     65
The Presidency     68
Congress: Too Much Check, Too Little Balance     74
The Bureaucracy: Power through Implementation     82
The Courts: The Role of Appraisal     97
The Political Environment of Environmental Policy Making     101
Conclusion     109
Suggested Readings     110
Notes     110
Common Policy Challenges: Risk Assessment and Environmental Justice     114
A Toxic Nightmare from Toyland?     115
Risk Assessment and the Limits of Science     118
What Risks Are Acceptable?     125
Risk and Discrimination: The Problem of Environmental Justice     131
Conclusion     138
Suggested Readings     140
Notes     140
More Choice: The Battle over Regulatory Economics     143
The Benefit-Cost Debate     144
Regulation Strategies: Command and Control vs. the Marketplace     158
Conclusion     170
Suggested Readings     171
Notes     171
Command and Control in Action: Air and Water Pollution Regulation     174
The Political Anatomy of Command-and-Control Regulation     175
Regulating Air Quality     180
Regulating Water Quality     196
Conclusion      213
Suggested Readings     214
Notes     214
A Regulatory Thicket: Toxic and Hazardous Substances     217
An Ambiguous Inheritance     220
The Rush to Regulate     228
Federal Law: Regulation from the Cradle to the Grave?     234
The Regulatory Thicket     240
Conclusion     248
Suggested Readings     249
Notes     249
Energy: Nuclear Dreams, Black Gold, and Vanishing Crude     253
Fossil Fuels and Public Apathy: A Perilous Combination     255
Nuclear Twilight or Second Dawn?     260
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the Middle     271
Stubborn Hope: Breakthrough Technology, the White House, and the Greenhouse     273
The Cold War's Wasteland: Nuclear Weapons Facilities     274
Black Gold     279
Conclusion     284
Suggested Readings     286
Notes     286
635 Million Acres of Politics: The Battle for Public Lands     289
ANWR: Public Land Politics at a Boil     290
A History of Contested Access     293
The Public Domain     294
Conflicts over Multiple Use     298
The Pluralistic Politics of the Public Lands     302
The Fate of the Forests     316
How Much Wilderness Is Enough?     325
Conclusion     326
Suggested Readings     327
Notes     327
The United States and Climate Diplomacy: The Emerging Politics of Global Environmentalism     330
Prologue: The Greenhouse Visits the White House     331
Transboundary Environmental Politics     333
Climate Diplomacy: Ozone Politics and the Montreal Protocols     346
Climate Diplomacy: Acid Precipitation     349
Climate Diplomacy: Climate Warming     353
The Emerging Politics of Sustainability     359
Conclusion     365
Suggested Readings     366
Notes     367
List of Abbreviations     371
Index     375

Editorial Reviews

More than an update of the earlier edition--in light of the global changes in the environment over the past four years, Rosenbaum has made substantial revisions and formed new conclusions concerning the environmental crisis. He summarizes major trends in environmental politics over the past 20 years, examines problems of policy implementation, and presents the challenges of the coming decade. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Environmental Politics and Policy is the most engaging book for teaching U.S. Environmental Policy, and the best way to teach the process of making policy.”

Ninian R. Stein

[The text] provides a good overview of domestic environmental policymaking at the federal level. The book fits nicely into my style/format of teaching the course.”

Robert Holahan

Environmental Politics and Policy is well written and accessible for students. The new material on the impact and fallout from the BP oil spill, the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban, as well as further discussion of the legacy of evolving governance after the Kyoto Protocol updates the book well. The historical narrative of evolving environmental policy is also useful. Rosenbaum’s book has been a useful guide into this critical domain over a number of editions, and students will continue to consult it with benefit for their studies.

Richard Kotter

?“Tony Rosenbaum has created a real gem of a text in Environmental Politics and Policy. Over the years, I have come to rely heavily on the text in both my undergraduate and graduate courses. The writing is clear and very accessible even to policy novices, and students find the case study examples particularly useful and engaging. I suggest to my students that the text is scalable–you could skim it and still gain a breadth of understanding about the American policymaking process, or you could slow down and really dig into the details to develop a robust understanding of our complex and dynamic system. This is a text worth spending time with to mine its wealth of information.

Damian C. Adams

I highly recommend Environmental Politics and Policy. I’ve assigned multiple editions in undergraduate and graduate courses in political science, environmental studies, and policy analysis. With each new edition comes thoroughly and thoughtfully updated coverage of critical issues. Timely discussion is devoted to the increasing partisan polarization in Congress and the implications for the environmental agendas of forward-thinking leaders, proponents of alternative energy, and climate change activists.

Bradley Clark

One of the biggest strengths of Environmental Politics and Policy is it manages to fit in plenty of historical examples, statistics, and examples, while seeming to “tell a story.” While relevant data and statistics are provided to substantiate the topics presented and to provide context for them, it does not descend into a boring, dry recount of facts and figures. It manages to clearly explain the topics, while not losing the students’ interest. For example, in the opening chapter, the author manages to slip in facts on fracking and the various constituencies involved, while explaining a localized, current controversy in a way that makes it seem as though he is explaining the plot of a recent movie. I think it is very accessible for students because the way the problems are explained is provided in a humanized and informal way.

Leda Barnett