Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In addition, people in regulatory agencies work
closely with and often develop friendships with
officials in the industries they are regulating. Some
industries offer regulatory agency employees high-
paying jobs in an attempt to influence their regulatory
decisions. This can lead to a
revolving door,
as
employees move back and forth between industry and
government.
According to social scientists, the development of
public policy in democracies often goes through a
pol-
icy life cycle
consisting of four stages:
recognition, formu-
lation, implementation,
and
control.
Figure 18-19 (p. 428)
illustrates this cycle and shows the general positions of
several major environmental problems in the policy
life cycle in the United States and most other devel-
oped countries.
1969
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
1970
Clean Air Act
1971
Clean Water Act; Coastal Zone Management Act;
Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act;
Marine Mammal Protection Act
1972
1973
Endangered Species Act
1974
Safe Drinking Water Act
1975
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; Toxic Substances
Control Act; National Forest Management Act
Soil and Water Conservation Act; Clean Water Act;
Clean Air Act Amendments
1976
1977
1978
National Energy Act
1979
Mainline and Grassroots
Environmental Groups
Environmental groups monitor environmental
activities, work to pass and strengthen
environmental laws, and work with corporations
to find solutions to environmental problems.
The spearhead of the global conservation and environ-
mental movement consists of more than 100,000 non-
profit NGOs working at the international, national,
state, and local levels—up from about 2,000 such
groups in 1970. The growing influence of these organi-
zations is one of the most important changes related to
environmental decisions and policies.
NGOs range from grassroots groups that have
just a few members to global organizations like the
5-million-member World Wide Fund for Nature,
which has offices in 48 countries. Other international
groups with large memberships include Greenpeace,
the World Wildlife Fund, the Nature Conservancy,
Grameen Bank (see Solutions, p. 423), and Conserva-
tion International.
In the United States, more than 8 million citizens
belong to more than 30,000 NGOs dealing with envi-
ronmental issues. They range from small
grassroots
groups to large heavily
funded
groups, the latter staffed
by expert lawyers, scientists, and economists.
The large groups have become powerful and im-
portant forces within the political system. They have
persuaded Congress to pass and strengthen environ-
mental laws (Figure 18-18) and work to fight off at-
tempts to weaken or repeal such laws.
Some industries and environmental groups are
working together to find solutions to environmental
problems. For example, the Environmental Defense
has worked with McDonald's to redesign its pack-
aging system to eliminate its plastic hamburger con-
tainers, and with General Motors to remove high-
pollution cars from the road.
Superfund (CERCLA); National Energy Act Amendments;
Coastal Zone Management Act Amendments
1980
1981
1982
Endangered Species Act Amendments
1983
Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendment Act (SARA);
Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments
1984
1985
Endangered Species Act Amendments
1986
Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization
1987
Clean Water Act Amendments
1988
Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide
Act Amendments; Endangered Species Act Amendments
1989
1990
Clean Air Act Amendments; Reauthorization of Superfund;
Waste Reduction Act
1991
1992
Energy Policy Act
1993
1994
1995
Endangered Species Act Amendments
1996
Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments
Figure 18-18
Solutions:
some major environmental laws and
their amended versions enacted in the United States since
1969. A more detailed list is found on the website for this
chapter.
The base of the environmental movement in the
United States and throughout the world consists of
thousands of grassroots citizens' groups organized to
improve environmental quality, often at the local level.
According to political analyst Konrad von Moltke,
“There isn't a government in the world that would
