Background on Environment

Energy
• ANWR: The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a protected area in northern Alaska that contains substantial supplies of oil and gas. Conservatives favor drilling ANWR to extract the oil, while liberals favor maintaining its protected status.
• Deregulation Crisis: California suffered ‘rolling blackouts’ in 2001 due to insufficient energy supplies. California had partially deregulated its energy industry, by freeing retail prices, but maintaining controls on wholesale prices. Conservatives favor full deregulation and/or building more energy supply as a solution; liberals favor conservation and better regulation of energy delivery systems.
• Energy Conservation: Americans are by far the least energy-efficient people in the industrialized world, primarily due to the heavy reliance on personal automobiles. Liberals favor ongoing efforts toward conservation, via more efficient automobiles and appliances, as well as voluntary usage restrictions; the goal is to avoid the need for additional energy imports or oil drilling.
• Alternative Energy: The federal government regularly funds research into solar power, wind power, wave power, biomass power, and other alternative energy sources, but none are competitively priced with gas and oil at the present time. Liberals contend that gas and oil prices are kept artificially low by federal intervention (including military action in the Mideast), which results in policy prescriptions like President Clinton’s proposed ‘BTU Tax’ in the early 1990s, intended to foster alternative energy development.

Global Warming
• Greenhouse gases: Atmospheric gases which keep heat in, like greenhouse glass does. The most common greenhouse gas (GHG) is carbon dioxide (CO2), which comes from burning gasoline, wood, oil, etc. The evidence of rising CO2 levels is undisputed; the political dispute centers on how much of the rise is attributable to human activities versus how much is natural climatic fluctuation.
• Global Warming: Increase in worldwide temperature due to excess emissions of greenhouse gases. A few degrees rise in temperature, in theory, would cause rising sea levels, more extreme weather, and climate change around the world. The evidence of rising temperatures is undisputed; the political dispute centers on and whether it will change the climate and whether we can or should do something about it.
• Climate Change Treaty: The basic international treaty on reducing greenhouse gas emissions was signed by the US and 182 other countries in 1992. It set up a ‘framework’ for later ‘protocols.’ Also known as the Rio Treaty or Greenhouse Gas Treaty.
• Kyoto Protocol: The follow-up to the Climate Change Treaty which sets GHG reduction targets for the US and other developed countries. Completed in 1998, the US has not yet signed (Argentina is the largest economy to have signed). This is politically controversial because it would require the US to cut CO2 emissions, which is potentially costly.
• Effects on the US: A Congressional national assessment on climate change, published in June 2000, predicts:
  • An average temperature rise of 5-10 degrees Fahrenheit, with gentler winters and more summer heat waves.
  • More agricultural production and forest growth due to carbon dioxide fertilization; but loss of coastal wetlands and Alpine meadows.
  • More winter rain, with a 10% increase in overall precipitation, but a 60% increase in the Southwest.
  • More extreme storms and more pollution runoff due to rainstorms.
  • More drought in the Midwest, especially in Kansas and Colorado; and a 5-foot drop in Great Lakes water levels.

Endangered Species
• Endangered Species Act (ESA): 1973 law prohibiting activities that harm endangered plants or animals or their habitats. Which species are threatened & endangered are listed or ‘delisted’ by the Secretaries of Interior & Commerce. The controversy comes from limitations on private property to protect one species.
• Takings: The federal government is allowed to take private property when it serves the public interest (via ‘eminent domain’) but must pay fair market value. When the ESA regulates private property use (such as disallowing development), the value is decreased even though the property is not fully taken. The ‘takings’ controversy concerns how much the government should pay to property owners when their property is only partially taken.

Pollution Control vs. Cost Control
• The Clean Air Act: (CAA) regulates industrial smokestacks and other sources of smog, acid rain, and other air pollutants. The CAA uses numerous market incentives, including ‘pollution permits’ that are traded on open markets, to minimize costs.
• The Clean Water Act: (CWA) regulates ‘point-source’ (sewage pipes) and ‘non-point-source’ (land and road runoff) water pollution. The EPA’s approach since the early 1990s is ‘watershed-based,’ which means cooperating across political boundaries.
• CAFE standard: The ‘Corporate Average Fuel Economy’ requires that all automobile manufacturers maintain an average of 28 miles per gallon (mpg) for all vehicles sold.
• Command-and-control: Standardized regulations with central enforcement (usually by EPA), as opposed to market-based incentives.

Federal Lands
The federal government owns 27% of all US land (more than the combined area of Alaska, Texas, & California).
1. BLM: The Bureau of Land Management owns 270 million acres of cattle grazing land.
2. USFS: The US Forest Service owns 185 million acres of timber land.
3. FWS: The Fish & Wildlife Service owns 90 million acres of waterways and surrounding lands.
4. NPS: The National Park Service owns 75 million acres of national parks and national rivers.
5. States: State and local governments own 200 million acres of land (another 9% of total US land area).

Land Use Buzzwords
• Devolution: Some candidates believe that land use decisions should ‘devolve’ from the federal government to state or local government, to encourage community involvement.
• Wise Use: A code word which means ‘stop federal land use restrictions.’ It comes from the Forest Service’s founding doctrines, which say that wise land use includes commercial use plus recreational use.
• Land Trusts: Privately-held land which has restrictions on development (e.g., wildlife sanctuaries).
• Suburban Sprawl: Uncontrolled development that fosters automobile usage rather than mass transit.
• Urban Redevelopment: Restoring inner-city ‘blighted’ communities via ‘empowerment zones,’ etc.
• Brownfields: Locating industrial development on former waste sites (versus wide-open ‘greenfields’).
• Superfund: EPA cleanup of toxic waste sites.

Amendment V to the US Constitution
...nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.(1791)

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