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Definition
| The idea that old power plants can become new power plants in the eye of the law if they make enough renovations to their plant, but until then, the old power plants are allowed to emit more pollution than the new plants. This applies to our class because it is an example of a command and control environmental policy, although it just demonstrates how industry is able to get around such a policy because of the poor way it was written by policymakers. |
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Definition
| National Ambient Air Quality Standards set by the EPA under the Clean Air Act that regulate the emission of 6 criteria pollutants. This is important to our class because it was one of the first environmental quality standards that was set and tightly regulated by the government. |
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Definition
| A neighborhood in New York that, after being developed and having a school built on it, was found to be extremely contaminated with hazardous waste, and a massive cleanup ensued. This is central to our class because it was the focusing event that caused the government to create the Superfund and CERCLA, which have changed enviornmental policy by creating a statutory means by which to obtain payment for hazardous waste cleanup. |
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Term
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Definition
| Superfund was the fund created by CERCLA in 1980 to supply money to cleanup hazardous waste sites, and is supposed to be replenished by the parties that caused the hazardous contamination. This is central to our class because it was the first environmental policy created to hold people responsible for hazardous waste contamination and to create a means for the waste to be cleaned up. |
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Definition
| Law that regulates the introduction of chemicals into the stream of commerce for use by people by requiring chemicals to be registered before they can be used in the United States. It it important to this class because it was part of the environmental legislature movement of the 70's that regulated chemicals that are or could be possibly toxic to humans. |
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Definition
| An EPA-made database, established by the Community-Right-to-Know Act, that records all of the releases of chemicals in the United States so that the public can access it to know what kind of chemicals are being released in their area. This is important to our class because it is an example of an environmental policy that utilizes public involvement and education in the control of toxic waste releases. |
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Definition
| When the government forces an industry that creates an environmental problem to come up with a solution by inventing the technology needed to solve it. This pertains to our class because it is an example of a command and control method of policy that is used to control or solve environmental problems. |
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Term
| ID: National Forest Management Act |
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Definition
| An act created in response to a focusing event involving an environmental group suing under the 1897 general management act after finding out the Forest service had been clearing timber in the Monongahela Forest, that permitted clear cutting, embraced multiple use policies, required more public participation, and encompassed a broader range of environmental values for the national forests. This has to do with our class because it represents a new theory on natural resource management that embraced the multiple-use policies of the up and coming environmental movement, and brought to attention the need for new environmental policies, as the almost century-old policies were still in effect. |
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Definition
| The idea that the total cost, in this case the cost to the environment, of a good or service is not fully accounted for in the price of that product. This is central to our class because it is a subject of debate in the environmental movenemnt and in environmental policymaking because making companies internalize those externalities could lead to more money towards cleaning up the environment. |
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Definition
| The practice of purchasing only environmentally-friendly products, and the government promotes this practice by creating green labeling requirements that can only be applied to truly "organic" items. This idea has a lot to do with our class because it is an example of a market-based approach to environmental policy making. |
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Term
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Definition
| Best available control technology is a standard created by the CAA that requires companies to use a certain type of pollution control technology in their factories. This has to do wtih our class because it is an example of command and control environmental policy making in which the government decides how something is to be done and then forces the people to comply. |
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Term
| ID: Ecological Rationality |
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Definition
| Practice, encouraged by NEPA, of thinking differently by considering environmental values and interdisciplinary science. This is important to our class because it represents a new model of scientific environmental management that includes more environmentally-friendly ideas. |
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Term
| ID: non-point sources of pollution |
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Definition
| Sources of pollution that do not come from a pipe or some other obvious, specific source, and that usually comes from agricultural or urban runoff. This is important to our class because it is a major source of pollution that is hard to control and therefore often is not regulated by environmental policy. |
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Definition
| Very vague amendment to Food, Drugs, and Cosmetics act of 1938 that prohibited the addition of any chemical that could induce cancer in man or animals, and thus caused fear over adding any chemicals at all to any foods. This is important to our class because it is an example of how an environmental policy can be vague enough to cause problems and is not always a good idea. |
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Term
| ID: Bureau of land management |
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Definition
| An agency in the Department of Interior that is in charge of the most area of land of any governmental agency, but has the least amount of people working for them. This agency is important to environmental policy because it is an example of a multiple-use agency that provides for the good of the government as well as the good of the public through recreational and conservationist mandates. |
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Definition
| Committee added to the Endangered Species Act that has the authority to consider the costs of listing or protecting a species and to make exceptions in situations where the economic expenses outweigh saving the species. This is important to environmental policy because it is an example of how economic considerations always must be made and often end up outweighing environmental costs. |
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Definition
| A type of fish that became the subject of controversy in the case TVA v. Hill when it was found that the government-built dam on the Little Tennessee River would jeopardize the existence of the fish. This is important to environmental policy because it represents the weight of the endangered species act in industry. |
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Term
| ID: "no take" requirement |
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Definition
| Part of the Endangered Species Act that states that you cannot "take" an endangered species by injuring it, harming it, harming its habitat, etc. It is an influencial clause in the Endangered Species Act and in all of environmental policy because it offers a wide range of protection instead of the vague, politically safe protections that environmental policies tend to make. |
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Term
| ID: Alternatives Assessment |
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Definition
| Alternatives assessment is a broad, public way of thinking and considering options, as it focuses on considering other options than those that already exist. It is an idea that is central to environmental policy because environmental policy in and of itself often requires consideration and development of alternatives because the "old" way of doing things is often very environmentally-unfriendly. |
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Term
| ID: Environmental Impact Statements |
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Definition
| Regulation imposed by NEPA that requires agencies and companies to carefully consider the environmental consequences of their choices and the range of alternatives to their proposed action. This requirement is important to environmental policy because it has forced agencies and companies to look at the alternatives to their actions, which they probably would not have otherwise done, and find an action that is more environmentally sound |
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Term
| ID: Environmental Indulgences |
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Definition
| The idea that green taxes are comparable to religious indulgences because they allow polluters to "sin" against the environment (pollute it) and then just pay money to "forgive" that sin. This idea is central to environmental policy because it is an example of a market-based policy that is commonly used in America today. |
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Term
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Definition
| A part of the "Cap and Trade" program that requires utilities to have 1 emission allowance for every ton of SO2 they emit every year, imposes fines the utilities for every ton they emit for which they do not have an allowance, and allows companies to buy and sell allowances at will. The emissions allowance represents a market-based approach to environmental policy that our country is currently using to regulate pollution emission. |
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Definition
| The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit program controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the United States. It is important to environmental policy because it is an example of command and control approach to policy making that requires polluters to obtain specific permits for the discharge of any pollution and punishes those that fail to comply. |
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Term
| ID: Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 |
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Definition
| Major amendment to the CAA that introduced an Acid Rain program into the act after President Bush (the "environmental president") and Senate Majority Leader Mitchel came into power. This is important to environmental policy because it represents both a command and control approach to policy making that cracked down on acid rain-forming pollutants and it represents the Garbage Can theory of policy making in that the streams of policy all came together to make the acid-rain policy happen. |
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Definition
| Continuous Emissions Monitors that gave 24/7 recording of smokestack output and transmitted that data to the EPA to make sure that every factory did not go over their emissions allowances and punished those companies that did exceed their allowances. This represents a control mechanism that the EPA used to enforce a market-based approach to environmental policymaking, and thus illustrates that a market-based approach still needs some command and control enforcement procedures to work. |
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Term
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Definition
| Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is a cap and trade approach to GHG emissions, functioning in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic US. It is an example of a market-based environmental policy that allows companies to decide how much they want to emit based on how much they're willing to pay to emit, a current favored approach to environmental policymaking. |
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Definition
| Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, established by the Energy Policy Conservation Act of 1975 and enforced by the Department of Transportation, are the average fuel economy of a manufacturer's cars for a given model year and was put into effect to enhance fuel economy in cars. This is an example of a market-based approach to environmental policy making because it encourages companies to make more fuel-efficient cars that are desirable to consumers and imposes fines for companies whose cars fall below the standards for that year. |
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Term
| ID: Alternative fuel standards |
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Definition
| Alternative fuel standards, also known as renewable fuel standards, are regulations that require the nation's fuels to contain a minimum amount of alternative fuel types. It is an example of how policy making in the US is moving toward a "greener" and more sustainable approach. |
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Term
| ID: Renewable Portfolio Standard |
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Definition
| The RPS is a regulation that requires increased use of renewable energy sources to produce energy. It is an example of states governing the move toward greener and more sustainable energy production practices in the US. |
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Term
| ID: Social Benefit Charges |
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Definition
| Energy taxes that are disguised as "social benefit charges" on the utility bills in many states that go toward funding for research on renewable energy. This is an example of how states are now taking charge to move toward greener, more sustainable energy solutions. |
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Definition
| Hot spots are places in the US, especially the midwest, that are adversely affected by the cap and trade program on SO2 emissions because these areas contain "dirtier", older facilities that do not have the technology to cut down on emissions, so they just buy emissions standards from newer, cleaner facilities and thus the concentration of pollutants concentrates in one area of the country. This is an example of one downside to the market-based approach of cap and trade programs that are currently being used in US environmental policy |
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