A Primer On Environmental Policy Design

Discusses how the needs of the individual must be balanced with socially desirable ecological goals if the environment is to be protected.

This volume presents six new papers on environmental and energy economics and policy in the United States. Rebecca Davis, J. Scott Holladay, and Charles Sims analyze recent trends in and forecasts of coal-fired power plant retirements with and without new climate policy. Severin Borenstein and James Bushnell examine the efficiency of pricing for electricity, natural gas, and gasoline. James Archsmith, Erich Muehlegger, and David Rapson provide a prospective analysis of future pathways for electric vehicle adoption. Kenneth Gillingham considers the consequences of such pathways for the design of fuel vehicle economy standards. Frank Wolak investigates the long-term resource adequacy in wholesale electricity markets with significant intermittent renewables. Finally, Barbara Annicchiarico, Stefano Carattini, Carolyn Fischer, and Garth Heutel review the state of research on the interactions between business cycles and environmental policy.

The Policy Design Primer is a concise and practical introduction to the principles and elements of policy design in contemporary governance. Guiding students through the study of the instruments used by governments in carrying out their tasks, adapting to, and altering their environments, this book: Examines the range of substantive and procedural policy instruments that together comprise the toolbox from which governments select specific tools expected to resolve policy problems, Considers the principles behind the selection and use of specific types of instruments in contemporary government, Addresses the issues of instrument mixes and their (re)design in a discussion of the future research agenda of policy design and Discusses several current trends in instrument use often linked to factors such as globalization and the increasingly networked nature of modern society. This readily digestible and informative book provides a comprehensive overview of this essential component of modern governance, featuring helpful definitions of key concepts and further reading. This book is essential reading for all students of public policy, administration and management as well as more broadly for relevant courses in health, social welfare, environment, development and local government, in addition to those managers and practitioners involved in Executive Education and policy design work on the ground.

This text provides the means by which both students and professionals can fully and systematically understand the inherent policy arguments behind the law and the foundational normative principles that inform those arguments. Examining both economic and ecosystem values, it is meant as a supplementary text for all those applying critical reason to environmental law. This small self-study book enriches one's ability to analyze the law as it is, while providing the tools and skill set to design alternatives for change.

1. ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ANALYSIS: WHAT AND WHY? Why environmental policy analysis? Environmental issues are growing in visibility in local, national, and world arenas, as a myriad of human activities leads to increased impacts on the natural world. Issues such as climate change, endangered species, wilderness protection, and energy use are regularly on the front pages of newspapers. Governments at all levels are struggling with how to address these issues. Environmental policy analysis is intended to present the environmental and social impacts of policies, in the hope that better decisions will result when people have better information on which to base those decisions. Conducting environmental policy analysis requires people who understand what it is and how to do it. Interpreting it also requires those skills. We hope that this book will increase the abilities, both of analysts and of decision-makers, to understand and interpret the impacts of environmental policies. Policy analysis books almost invariably begin by pointing out that policy analysis can take many forms. This book is no different. As you will see in Chapter 1, we consider policy analysis to be information provided for the policy process. That information can take many forms, from sophisticated empirical analysis to general theoretical results, from summary statistics to game theoretic strategies.

This comprehensive overview of US environmental regulation?from the inception of the EPA through the current Bush administration?goes beyond traditional texts to consider alternatives to the existing regulatory regime, as well as the challenges posed by the global nature of environmental issues.Thoughtful and even-handed, Governing the Environment covers the full range of topics relevant to our understanding of current environmental policy. Clear, concise chapters move from the context of environmental policy to regulatory design, reform efforts, and notable private-sector innovations.In the process, the author argues that we?ve taken conventional environmental regulation as far as we can go?that we need to look for alternative ways of governing the environment, involving corporations that have expertise in the areas of technology, products, and markets. But, he cautions, there must be a careful integration of private-sector initiatives and public regulation.A notable feature of the text is an examination of the difficulties inherent in managing global environmental problems. Exploring recent efforts toward global environmental governance in the face of competing economic demands, the final section considers the ways in which a system of governance might compensate for the lack of effective international regulatory institutions.Marc Allen Eisner is Henry Merritt Wriston Chair of Public Policy in the Government Department at Wesleyan University. His publications include Antitrust and the Triumph of Economics and Contemporary Regulatory Policy, 2nd Edition.Contents: Environmental Protection and Governance: An Introduction. Environmental Policy and Politics. A Primer on Environmental Protection. The Environmental Policy Subsystem. The Evolution of Regulatory Design and Reform. Regulatory Design and Performance. Regulatory Reform or Reversal. Reinventing Regulation: Flexibility in an Iron Cage. Voluntarism and the End of Reform. The Emerging System of Green Governance. From Greed to Green: Corporate Environmentalism and Management. Green by Association: Code- and Standards-Based Self-Regulation. Public-Private Hybrids and Environmental Governance. Regulating the Global Commons from the Bottom Up. Beyond the Tragedy of the Global Commons. From Montreal to Kyoto. Sustainable Development: Managing the Unmanageable. Conclusion. Green Governance and the Future of Environmental Protection.

The first edition of this pragmatic course text emphasized the policy value of a "big picture" approach to the ethical, political, technological, scientific, economic, and management aspects of environmental issues. The text then applied this approach to real-world case examples involving leaks in underground storage tanks, toxic waste cleanup, and the effects of global climate change. This second edition demonstrates the ongoing effectiveness of the book's framework in generating meaningful action and policy solutions to current environmental issues. The text adds case examples concerning congestion taxes, e-waste, hydrofracking, and recent developments in global climate change, updating references and other materials throughout and incorporating the political and policy changes of the Obama administration's first term and developments in national and global environmental issues.

Fully revised for a second edition, this essential guide provides a concise and accessible overview of the public policy process: agenda-setting, policy formulation, decision-making, implementation, and evaluation. The book provides an introduction to the key policy functions, the challenges they entail, and how the challenges may be addressed by policy actors. Written from a comparative perspective, the authors include examples from a diverse range of countries at different stages of development, highlighting key principles and practices through which policy actors can effectively manage their policy processes and outcomes. Key features of the second edition: fully updated and revised content throughout; expanded references and further reading; more guidance towards understanding the key concepts in public policy. This important tool offers students of public policy and policy practitioners guidance on how to make, implement, and evaluate public policies in ways that improve citizens' lives.

'Environmental Policy' clearly explains how the social sciences relate to environmental policy-making and how they can be used to achieve policies for a sustainable future.