Concepts
Groups of individuals working towards shared policy goals without election to public office.
Interest Groups/Advocacy Organizations (Layzer)
Renowned conservationist and first chief of the US Forest Service.
Gifford Pinchot (Layzer/Nash)
Authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the discharge of pollutants into waterways of the US.
Clean Water Act (Layzer)
Authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the production of six criteria air pollutants.
Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 (Layzer)
View the environment as dense with intrinsic, spiritual value.
Preservationists (Layzer)
A strategic simplification of reality which 1) translates scientific explanations into stories of cause and effect, 2) shifts attention to specific costs/benefits, and 3) dramatizes the risks of (in)action.
Problem Definition (Layzer)
"These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the Mountain, lift them up to the Almighty Dollar." Who said this, and what was there title at the time?
John Muir, President of the Sierra Club (Layzer/Nash)
Mandated all projects requiring major federal actions to prepare an environmental impact statement that is subjected to public review and comment.
National Environmental Policy Act (Lecture)
Established a SO2 Allowance-Trading Scheme for electricity producers and industrial facilities in the American Midwest.
Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (Layzer)
Advocated for the "prudent" and "efficient" use of natural resources.
Conservationists (Layzer)
Uses economic incentives to reduce the production of negative environmental externalities/expand the production of positive environmental externalities.
Market-based Environmental Policy (Lazyer)
This US President signed into law three cornerstones of American environmental policy: the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970, and the Clean Water Act.
President Nixon (Layzer)
Mandate to increase the generation of electricity from renewable sources.
Renewable Portfolio Standard (Lecture)
Gave the city of San Francisco the right to dam the Hetch Hetchy valley within Yosemite National Park.
The Raker Bill, or H.R. 7207 (Nash/Lecture)
Provides incentives for consumers to purchase/construct distributed energy generation systems.
Net Energy Metering (Lecture)
Examples of this include pollution inversions, the burning of the Cuyahoga River, and the Santa Barbara Oil Spill of 1969.
Focusing Events (Lecture)
Samuel Insull (Stokes)
Sought to establish a cap-and-trade scheme for CO2 emissions in the US.
American Clean Energy and Security Act, or the Waxman-Markey Bill (GH Lecture)
The Rural Electrification Act (Stokes)
Public Utility Commissions (Stokes)
When governmental bodies are heavily influenced by the entities they are meant to regulate; exemplified by "The Bosses of the Senate."
Regulatory Capture (Lecture)
President of ENGO, the Environmental Defense Fund, who worked with the Bush I administration to design the SO2 Allowance-Trading System.
Fred Krupp (Lazyer/Lecture)
Sought to diversify the US electricity sector, promote energy conservation, and disrupt the "utility consensus" by requiring privately-owned utilities to purchase electricity from co-generation/small power production facilities.
Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (Stokes)
Incentivized states to deregulate the electricity sector, e.g., by changing the structure of the retail electricity market.
Energy Policy Act of 1992 (Stokes)
A prominent climate denial organization which many electric utilities participated in via their interest groups, such as the Edison Electric Institute.
Global Climate Coalition (Stokes)