American Environmental Policy Research Articles

Navigating justice: Examining the intersection of procedural and distributive justice in environmental impact assessment in Puerto Rico

Recognizing that centuries of mistreatment of low-income and minority communities by governments and corporations have resulted in widespread exposure to environmental harms, academics and policymakers are seeking ways to improve environmental justice. While it is commonly assumed that improved procedural justice (meaningful participation in decision making) should improve distributive justice (equitable distribution of environmental harms and benefits), empirical evidence of this link is nascent. This paper evaluates whether differing approaches to procedural justice shape recognition of distributive injustices by policymakers, focusing on implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in Puerto Rico. NEPA requires federal agencies to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of projects they implement, fund, or permit; this review commonly includes an assessment of the project's impacts on distributive justice. Drawing on document analysis and interviews with project developers, regulators, and community organizations, we explore how and why four NEPA reviews consider distributional impacts. In all four cases, the community mobilized to voice concerns about the proposed projects' impacts, but the lead agencies and project developers did not always create the space for those voices to collaboratively shape the review. This demonstrates the role of the project developer in how distributive justice considerations are treated, as project leads have discretion on whether and when to provide space for community groups to participate in the process. This research makes two primary contributions. First, by linking features of the decision-making process with environmental justice-related outputs, this research provides practical understanding of ways to support distributive justice and expands knowledge about how participatory governance works within the context of US environmental policy. Second, by studying NEPA's implementation in Puerto Rico, we assess challenges associated with implementing Environmental Impact Assessment in a territorial setting, where the demographics and intensity of environmental problems are distinct from the 'traditional' American context the policies were designed to protect.

Household willingness to pay for various attributes of residential solar panels: Evidence from a discrete choice experiment

The predominant approach in the US environmental policy so far has been to offer financial incentives for renewable energy as a more politically palatable alternative to market based policies. The policies around residential rooftop solar have generally aligned with this approach. However, recent years have witnessed a reversal in the once favorable financial terms for residential solar energy in many states largely due to concerns regarding unfair cost shifting and efficiency. Consequently, solar vendors appear to increasingly hinge their marketing strategies on the narrative of “self-reliance”. A pertinent question is whether there is enough willingness to pay for such non-market, private benefits to sustain the growth of residential solar. To address this, we designed and implemented a discrete choice experiment within a stated preference framework. Respondents were asked to make a choice among different home energy options offering varying financial terms and other attributes such as self-reliance and home battery. Notably, a random subset of the respondents was presented with the net present value (NPV) of the dollar cost of each alternative, while this information was withheld from the rest of the sample. We estimated the utility coefficients through hierarchical Bayes (HB) mixed logit and subsequently derived the marginal willingness to pay (mWTP) for each attribute, along with their individual-level confidence intervals. Our findings indicate substantial heterogeneity in preferences among decision-makers. On average, the willingness to pay for self-reliance falls short of supporting residential solar growth without financial incentives. Furthermore, respondents exposed to NPV information exhibited significantly lower mWTP values, underscoring the potential efficacy of NPV information in improving willingness to pay estimates within investment-oriented settings.

The International Legacy of the United States Endangered Species Act of 1973

December 2023 will mark the 50th anniversary of the passage of the 1973 Endangered Species Act of the United States. This landmark Act by the US Congress was made possible through strong bipartisan political cooperation on environment protection, capping off a string of progressive legislative victories that would set the tone for US environmental policy at local, state, and federal government levels for decades. Beyond its domestic significance, the 1973 Endangered Species Act had a clear and recognizable impact on global environmentalism by influencing and inspiring endangered species legislation in other nations as well as the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity. At the time of its passage, the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) was far and away the most comprehensive piece of legislation ever enacted to halt and reverse rising rates of species extinction and biodiversity loss. Other nations emulated the ESA in past and present endangered species laws and regulations, even as late as 2019, leading to the eventual emergence of a set of global standard practices for species and habitat protections that endure to this day, practices with clear American roots. This study explores the degree to which the past and present endangered species laws of other English-speaking jurisdictions borrowed from or mimicked the US Endangered Species Act in purpose, style, form, and function. Further analysis is undertaken to reveal the extent to which Japan’s own endangered species protection statute is likely influenced by the US ESA. The ESA’s influence on global environmental norms and wildlife protection practices is first explored through the lens of international relations theory, in particular the ‘constructivist’ school of thought that helps explain recognized patterns in global environmental cooperation. The study demonstrates how the 1973 Endangered Species Act essentially became a template for other national and provincial governments to model and even mimic when these governments were designing and enacting their own endangered species management protection programs. Historically, the ESA’s passage and its emulation by other polities are indicative of the degree to which the United States has impacted and continues to greatly impact and influence global wildlife law and policy.

Richard N. L. Andrews. Managing the environment, managing ourselves: a history of American environmental policy, 3rd edition.

Richard N. L. Andrews. Managing the environment, managing ourselves: a history of American environmental policy, 3rd edition.

The Environmental Policy of the USA in the Framework of the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Climate Agreement Before Biden's Administration

Despite different kinds of “habitat” research (Moon, Mars, etc.) has accelerated, the Earth is still actually the only habitat for living creatures. However, due to developments in the last century, our world has faced various environmental problems and dangers like climate change. So, countries carry out national and international efforts to minimize and prevent these hazards. One of the countries that researches these problems is the United States. The fact that the United States, the most powerful actor in the international system, has not shown sufficient interest in environmental and climate change issues and that US domestic policy has largely had an impact on these issues, contributed to preparing this study. The paper used qualitative research design by emphasizing literature study and a descriptive method to measure the trend in perceiving climate change from the perspective of the US policy. So, in this study, the US Environmental Policy will be discussed in the context of the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement before Biden's Administration which resulted in Washington cannot take a clear stance on environmental and climate issues due to dilemmas in leadership change and domestic politics.

Enabling and centering equity and justice in clean energy transition research

Enabling and centering equity and justice in clean energy transition research

The state of environmental justice analyses in NEPA: The case of Arizona

As the unequal impacts of environmental harms and climate change have become apparent, environmental justice (EJ) is an increasingly salient matter in US environmental policy and impact assessments. The EJ impacts of important infrastructural decisions and investments are most often analyzed in environmental impact statements required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)—a globally influential piece of legislation—with significant discretion given to organizations on how to conduct these analyses. There is little systematic understanding of how these analyses are conducted and what the findings of these analyses tend to be. In this paper, we analyze a decade's worth of EJ analyses that appear in environmental impact statements conducted in the state of Arizona in the US as a first attempt to fill this gap in understanding. We find that throughout EJ analyses 11 different demographic indicators, ten different community boundaries, and eight different population thresholds are used with considerable variation to identify EJ communities. The variation in how these criteria are applied points to an inconsistent definition of an EJ community throughout the federal government. Still, analyses consistently do not find negative EJ impacts to be likely. While NEPA has promoted positive environmental outcomes in the past, it may currently be failing to do this for EJ. We highlight possible flaws in EJ analysis methods and shortcomings of the NEPA process itself that may cumulatively obstruct meaningful EJ consideration. With the widespread influence of NEPA on environmental impact assesment approaches globally, our findings raise questions that EJ analyses in environmental impact assesments outside the US could suffer from the same methodological shortcomings we identify.

Issue framing within the climate debate: An analysis of US environmental policy outcomes

AbstractThis paper argues different policy issue framings of climate change—ranging from security to energy, economics, humanitarian response, and health frames—play critical roles in altering policy outcomes. Specifically, we focus on the several windows of opportunity that altered the pathway of the US climate change debates from 1985 to 2017. Progressing from the underpinnings of issue framing literature and public policy discourse, we conduct content analysis of news articles, academic papers, policy documents and other archival evidence, to show why and when environmental framings shift, and to what effect. Our innovative models provide generalization of these trends and their implications for environmental agenda setting, complemented by a qualitative section that contextualizes impact as well as the feedback mechanisms of issue framing on environmental politics in the United States. The findings highlight the need for future case study analysis to trace the causal mechanisms between climate change framings and US policy outcomes.

The Influence of Evangelical Religiosity on Environmentalism

US environmental policy and ecology have become increasingly popular, yet politically polarized in the last 50 years. Despite increases in popularity overall, environmentalism has become and continues to be disregarded, or even opposed, among evangelical Christian groups. Many psychological and sociological factors may explain this link. A study was conducted at a Christian university in South Carolina to determine the contribution of theological, psychological, and political factors related to evangelicalism and their relationship with environmentalism. The results indicate that doctrinal and political ideologies like evangelical doctrine, political conservatism, and eschatological attitudes about the end of the world each are independently related to negative environmental attitudes. These findings indicate that environmental appeals to young evangelicals need to address several unique factors.

The US president Joe Biden’s environment policy: impact on Indonesia sustainable development

This study presents the implementation of the US environmental policy under US President Biden, which applies Washington's zero emissions policy to all countries. It analyzes the implementation of President Biden's environmental policy and how it affects relations between Indonesia and the United States. This study attempts to develop an approach to bilateral cooperation through descriptive analysis and qualitative research by conducting a study of scientific literature and subsequent analysis of the results obtained. This study shows that the environmental policy of the United States under the leadership of J. Biden will affect Indonesia's trade and economic strategies and the national environment after its implementation. Jakarta is seriously engaged in national sustainable development to address the global challenges of climate change.

Economic Geography and Pollution: A Comment on Joseph S. Shapiro’s “Pollution Trends and US Environmental Policy: Lessons from the Past Half Century”

Economic Geography and Pollution: A Comment on Joseph S. Shapiro’s “Pollution Trends and US Environmental Policy: Lessons from the Past Half Century”

Evaluating US Regulations: A Comment on Joseph S. Shapiro’s “Pollution Trends and US Environmental Policy: Lessons from the Past Half Century”

Evaluating US Regulations: A Comment on Joseph S. Shapiro’s “Pollution Trends and US Environmental Policy: Lessons from the Past Half Century”

Evaluating carbon tax policy: A methodological reassessment of a natural experiment

Heralded as the grand experiment in carbon tax policy, the Canadian province of British Columbia was on the forefront of North American environmental policy when it implemented a carbon tax in 2008. Despite being well-lauded in the literature, new data suggests that CO2 emissions and fossil fuel consumption have in fact risen in recent years. We test the effectiveness of the policy change using a synthetic control analysis and find that, contrary to the theoretical intuition about carbon taxation, CO2 emissions and gasoline consumption rose in British Columbia relative to the synthetic control. However, we do find there to be a reduced share of economic activity in the energy industry following the policy change.

US environmental law and policy trends in 2021 and what they might mean for Australia

Throughout 2021, the Biden administration has pursued a series of key climate change and environmental justice initiatives. Given that, historically, American environmental law developments have long been acknowledged as influential for Australia, it is expected that the Biden administration’s initiatives will shape the trajectory of Australian climate change and environmental law in the future. This opinion piece distils the detail of the Biden administration’s actions across the spheres of executive orders, agency appointments, the Glasgow Climate Change Conference (COP26), regulatory measures and law reform to analyse the emerging precedent and prospective implications for Australian law.

Pollution Trends and US Environmental Policy: Lessons from the Past Half Century

This article proposes and evaluates four hypotheses about US pollution and environmental policy over the past half century. First, air and water pollution has declined substantially, although greenhouse gas emissions have not. Second, environmental policy explains a large share of these trends. Third, much of the regulation of air and drinking water pollution has benefits that exceed costs, although the evidence for surface water pollution regulation is less clear. Fourth, while the distribution of pollution across social groups is unequal, market-based environmental policies and command and control policies do not appear to produce systematically different distributions of environmental outcomes. I also discuss recent innovations in methods and data that can be used to evaluate pollution trends and policies, including the increased use of environmental administrative data, statistical benefit–cost comparisons, analysis of previously understudied policies, more sophisticated analyses of pollution transport, micro-macro frameworks, and a focus on the distribution of environmental outcomes.

Campaign Contributions as Crime: The Case of Contribution Influence on US Economic and Environmental Policy

Although the current campaign finance system in the US allows private donations to campaigns, an increasing body of evidence suggests that these contributions influence policy and could potentially lead to social injury. This leads to an important question: Do campaign contributions constitute crime? The present article takes up this question. After an overview of the famous debate between Tappan and Sutherland on the role of social injury in determining whether something is a crime—and a concise summary of different types of political crime (e.g. corruption, bribery, state crime, and state-corporate crime)—an analysis is conducted to assess the connection, if any, between campaign contributions and two types of social injury: economic harm/inequality and environmental harm. Findings from the analysis show that campaign contributions can, indeed, cause social injury. It is therefore concluded that campaign contributions sometimes constitute crime under Sutherland’s framework. Numerous campaign finance reform options are discussed—all with the intent of limiting the social injury created by campaign contributions.

A comparison study on environmental policies for expressway construction projects between China and the US: A tiered analysis approach

The development of expressway construction projects (ECPs) poses overwhelming challenges to the physical environment around the world. The challenges are supposed to be addressed with the enforcement of environmental policies (EPs). In this regard, developed countries have gained rich experience in EP formulation while developing countries are making efforts to improve policy decision-making on environmental sustainability. This study compares ECP-related EPs (EREPs) between China and the US by conducting a historical analysis with materials from 1960 to 2018 and text mining-based evaluation with materials from 2009 to 2019. The comparison results indicate that (1) an EREP framework is composed of two systems, namely outer factors and inner EPs; (2) the upper-level EPs exhibit a periodic and plan-dominating trend in China and an explanatory tendency in the US; (3) Chinese EPs are focused on pollution mitigation, whereas US EPs highlight the impacts on human health; (4) Both attach less importance to environmental protection measures at the project-level EPs. This paper provides a longitudinal comparison and analysis of EREPs in two huge countries, implying that EREPs are a snapshot of national rules and backgrounds. The findings lay a foundation for future research to examine the innovation of environmental policies, especially for those countries with massive expressway construction projects and the related environmental issues.

Nearly Extinct in the Wild: The Vulnerable Transparency of the Endangered Species List

This article reconstructs the Endangered Species Act as a government information statute. That Act makes use of an official list of vulnerable creatures that is used for agency action to save them from extinction. This article argues that the official list of species is not sufficiently accurate or transparent to citizens, so the compilation of that list does not satisfy the public interest goals of American environmental law or government transparency policy.

Which industries benefited from Trump environmental policy news? Evidence from industrial stock market reactions

We investigate whether election of Donald Trump as the president of the United States of America (the US) and subsequent changes in environmental policies and regulations affected any of the 49 different industry sectors in the US. We analyze 19 different events during Trump’s tenure that were mainly rollbacks of previously created regulations and policies. To analyze stock market effects, an event study methodology is used to assess industry reactions. We assume that Trump loosened environmental regulations and policies to strengthen the US economy. Results show that the lax enforcement of environmental regulations and policies was not effective. Only the coal industry can be considered a beneficiary because it experienced repetitive significant positive abnormal returns, whereas other industries experienced mixed or negative reactions or discontinuous positive reactions. Our results contribute to the extant literature on the US environmental policy within the scope of industry.

David Elwood Gushee

David Elwood Gushee, 90, died Dec. 28, 2020, in Atlanta. “Dave Gushee served with distinction in the Korean War, and with DuPont, the American Chemical Society, and the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. He was especially proud of the policy analysis he undertook for the CRS—nonpartisan, fair minded, balanced—and for its impact in shaping US government energy and environmental policy. He was a committed servant of his community, with a special focus on Babe Ruth League baseball, church work, and town planning in Front Royal, Virginia.”—David Paul Gushee, son Most recent title: Senior specialist in environmental policy, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress Education: BS, chemical engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1950 Survivors: Daughters, Alice and Kathryn; son, David; six grandchildren; two great-grandchildren To recognize your late loved one or colleague, submit obituary information at cenm.ag/obits .