Environmental Policy Commons^™

Regulation And Business Behavior, Neil Gunningham, Robert Kagan

Robert Kagan

Presents an introduction to various articles and issues discussed in the April 1, 2005 issue of the journal "Law and Policy."

General Deterrence And Corporate Environmental Behavior, Dorothy Thornton, Neil Gunningham, Robert Kagan

Robert Kagan

This research addresses the assumption that“general deterrence” is an important key to enhanced compliance with regulatory laws. Through a survey of 233 firms in several industries in the United States, we sought to answer the following questions: (1) When severe legal penalties are imposed against a violator of environmental laws, do other companies in the same industry actually learn about such“signal cases”? (2) Does knowing about“signal cases” change firms’ compliance-related behavior? It was found that only 42 percent of respondents could identify the“signal case,” but 89 percent could identify some enforcement actions against other firms, and 63 percent of firms …

Food Justice Now!, Mark Vallianatos

Mark Vallianatos

No abstract provided.

The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle For A Livable City, Regina Freer, Robert Gottlieb, Mark Vallianatos, Peter Dreier

Mark Vallianatos

While most historians, journalists, and filmmakers have focused on Los Angeles as a bastion of corporate greed, business boosterism, political corruption, cheap labor, exploited immigrants, and unregulated sprawl, The Next Los Angeles tells a different story: that of the reformers and radicals who have struggled for alternative visions of social and economic justice. In a new preface, the authors reflect on the gathering momentum of L.A.'s progressive movement, including the 2005 landslide victory of Antonio Villaraigosa as mayor.

Farm To School: Strategies For Urban Health, Combatting Sprawl, And Establishing Community Food Systems, Mark Vallianatos, Robert Gottlieb, Margaret Haase

Mark Vallianatos

Farm-to-school is a new, innovative strategy with multiple planning-related objectives. The article evaluates the significance of farm-to-school in relation to improving the health and nutrition of school-age children, particularly low-income youth; strengthening the capacity of local farmers, particularly those engaged in sustainable practices; adding to the toolkit of strategies designed to contain and ultimately reduce sprawl-inducing developments by helping preserve farmland; and helping establish a community food systems approach no longer entirely dependent on the global food system that has come to dominate food growing, processing, distribution, and consumption patterns around the world.

Connecting The Parks To The Community And The Community To The Parks, Andrea Azuma, Robert Gottlieb, Mark Vallianatos, Jessica Gudmundson, Amanda Shaffer, Peter Dreier

Mark Vallianatos

No abstract provided.

Food Justice And Food Retail In Los Angeles, Mark Vallianatos

Mark Vallianatos

No abstract provided.

Thinking Outside The Big Box: Food Access, Labor, Landuse, And The Wal-Mart Way, Mark Vallianatos, Amanda Shaffer, Moira Beery, Robert Gottlieb, Abby Wheatley

Mark Vallianatos

In just four decades, the Wal-Mart Company has transformed the retail sector, infl uenced the way we shop and work and shaped the nation’s rural, suburban and urban communities. Now Wal-Mart Supercenters, vast stores that house full-scale grocery stores within their walls, are beginning to affect the food system. After summarizing Wal-Mart’s labor and land use impacts, this working paper addresses an issue that has received less attention: the implications of the Supercenter model of food retailing on food access. The paper includes an examination of such issues as food selection, pricing and store accessibility, based on a case study …

Healthy School Food Policies: A Checklist, Mark Vallianatos

Mark Vallianatos

No abstract provided.

Fresh From The Farm... And Into The Classroom, Margaret Haase, Andrea Azuma, Robert Gottlieb, Mark Vallianatos

Mark Vallianatos

No abstract provided.

Food Access, Availability, And Affordability In 3 Los Angeles Communities, Project Cafe, 2004-2006, Andrea Azuma, Susan Gilliland, Mark Vallianatos, Robert Gottlieb

Mark Vallianatos

Introduction Racial/ethnic minority communities are at increasingly high risk for chronic diseases related to obesity. Access to stores that sell affordable, nutritious food is a prerequisite for adopting a healthful diet. The objective of this study was to evaluate food access, availability, and affordability in 3 nonoverlapping but similar low-income communities in urban Los Angeles, California. Methods Using a community-based participatory research approach, we trained community members to conduct a food assessment to 1) map the number and type of retail food outlets in a defined area and 2) survey a sample of stores to determine whether they sold selected …

Motivating Management: Corporate Compliance In Environmental Protection, Neil Gunningham, Dorothy Thornton, Robert Kagan

Robert Kagan

Based on interviews with facility managers in the electroplating and chemical industries, this study examines regulated firms’ perceptions of how various instrumental, normative, and social factors motivated their firms’ environmental actions. We found that“implicit general deterrence” (the overall effect of sustained inspection and enforcement activity) was far more important than either specific or general deterrence, and that deterrence in any form was of far greater concern to small and medium-sized enterprises than it was to large ones. Most reputation-sensitive firms in the environmentally sensitive chemical industry chose to go substantially beyond compliance for reasons that related to risk management and …

Connecting Communities And Creating Livable Places: A Policy Agenda For The Arroyo, Mark Vallianatos, Amanda Shaffer

Mark Vallianatos

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Fdi On Co₂ Emissions In Latin America, Luisa Blanco, Fidel Gonzalez, Isabel Ruiz

Luisa Blanco

This paper uses panel Granger causality tests to study the relationship between sector specific FDI and CO2 emissions. Using a sample of 18 Latin American countries for the 1980-2007 period, we find causality running from FDI in polluting intensive industries (“the dirty sector”) to CO2 emissions per capita. This result is robust to controlling for other factors associated with CO2 emissions and using the ratio of CO2 emissions to GDP. For other sectors, we find no robust evidence that FDI causes CO2 emissions.

Beyond Good Deeds: Case Studies And A New Policy Agenda For Corporate Accountability, Michelle Leighton, Naomi Roht-Arriaza, Lyuba Zarsky

Naomi Roht-Arriaza

No abstract provided.

Linking Climate, Human Rights, And Development, Naomi Roht-Arriaza, Lyuba Zarsky

Naomi Roht-Arriaza

Monterey Institute Professor Lyuba Zarsky and Hastings Professor Naomi Roht-Arriaza speak about an investment-led approach to climate resilient development paths.

Who Benefits From Environmental Regulation? Evidence From The Clean Air Act Amendments, Antonio Bento, Matthew Freedman, Corey Lang

Matthew Freedman

Making Sense Of The Front Lines: Environmental Inspectors In Ohio And Wisconsin, Michelle Pautz, Sara Rinfret

Michelle Pautz

Although about 90% of environmental policy is delegated to the states for implementation, the individuals responsible for implementing a majority of that policy are largely understudied. Existing acknowledgment of these regulators typically extends only to the regulatory enforcement strategy their agency employs. Missing in these conversations is a focused study on the regulators themselves and their perceptions of the regulated community that they interact with daily. Understanding these perceptions will provide insights into how regulators approach their interactions and how they ensure regulatory compliance. This paper uses an exploratory case study approach to focus on front-line regulators with the Ohio …

Issues On Voter Participation Among African Americans And Bureaucratic Behavior, Andrew Ewoh, Maruice Mangum

Maruice Mangum

No abstract provided.

Willingness To Pay For Flood And Ecological Risk Reduction In An Urban Watershed, David Clark, Diane Novotny, Robert Griffin, Douglas Booth, Alena Bartosova, M Hutchinson

Robert Griffin

Urban watershed managers frequently must address alternative policy goals; flood control and ecological risk reduction. This study combines hydrologic models of flood control and biotic models of ecologic risk with economic models of willingness-to-pay and psychological models of risk processing and planned behavior to evaluate these two alternative policy objectives. The findings reveal that flood risk exposure, especially for those individuals who would remain outside the 100 year flood plain if the project were enacted, does influence the financial support that local residents would be willing to make to a flood control project. Other important determinants include demographic factors such …

The Administrative Organization Of Sustainability Within Local Government, Rachel Krause, Richard Feiock, Christopher Hawkins

Rachel M. Krause

Administrative structure can shape bureaucratic process, performance, and responsiveness and is a particularly important consideration when new bureaucratic functions and programs are being established. However, the factors that influence the assignment of these functions to specific government agencies or departments are understudied, particularly at the local level. The absence of empirical evidence regarding bureaucratic assignment in local government limits understanding of institutional design and the organizational choices available, particularly as they relate to specific policy areas. As an initial step in developing a theory of agency assignment at the local level, we examine the placement of sustainability programs in 401 …

Wicked Tools: The Value Of Scientific Models For Solving Maine’S Wicked Problems, Tim Waring

Timothy M Waring

“Wicked problems” are urgent, high-stake socioeconomic-environmental challenges that often involve ideological conflict and have no “best solutions.” Using examples from Maine’s Sustainability Solutions Initiative projects, Tim Waring describes how scientific models can be used to address these kinds of problems. When well-constructed and tested models are used to address policy-relevant issues, include input from stakeholders, and integrate social, economic and environmental dynamics, they can become “wicked tools” to address some of society’s biggest challenges.

Equally Unprepared: Assessing The Hurricane Vulnerability Of Undergraduate Students, Jason Simms, Margarethe Kusenbach, Graham Tobin

Jason L Simms

Policy Images, Issue Frames, And Technical Realities: Contrasting Views Of Japan’S Energy Policy Development, Paul Scalise

Paul J. Scalise

No abstract provided.

The Motivations Behind Municipal Climate Engagement: An Empirical Assessment Of How Local Objectives Shape The Production Of A Public Good, Rachel Krause

Rachel M. Krause

Cities engage in greenhouse gas mitigation efforts because of some combination of desires to achieve local co-benefits, respond to the preferences and pressures of influential political actors, and contribute to the public good by minimizing climate change. The relative importance of each motivation is hypothesized to affect the composition and comprehensiveness of subsequent climate initiatives. In some cities, initiatives appear to be ad hoc collections of tangentially related actions, whereas in others they are the result of a strategic planning process. This article uses survey-based data collected from U.S. cities that are explicitly involved in climate-change mitigation efforts and empirically …

The Politics Of Rights-Based Approaches In Conservation, Prakash Kashwan

Prakash Kashwan

Scholars and advocates increasingly favor rights-based approaches over traditional exclusionary policies in conservation. Yet, national and international conservation policies and programs have often led to the exclusion of forest-dependent peoples. This article proposes and tests the hypothesis that the failures of rights-based approaches in conservation can be attributed in significant measure to the political economic interest of the state in the tropics. To this end, the article presents findings from the empirical analysis of the Forest Rights Act of 2006 in India. Two key recommendations emerge from this analysis. One, the proposals for operationalizing rights-based approaches will likely be far …

Verifiable And Non-Verifiable Anonymous Mechanisms For Regulating A Polluting Monopolist, James Prieger, Nicholas Sanders

James E. Prieger

Optimal regulation of a polluting natural monopolist must correct for both external damages and market power to achieve a social optimum. Existing non-Bayesian regulatory methods require knowledge of the demand function, while Bayesian schemes require knowledge of the underlying cost distribution. We introduce mechanisms adapted to use less information. Our Price-based Subsidy (PS) mechanisms give the firm a transfer that matches or approximates the incremental surplus generated each period. The regulator need not observe the abatement activity or know the demand, cost, or damage functions of the firm. All of the mechanisms induce the firm to price at marginal social …

An Assessment Of The Impact That Participation In Local Climate Networks Has On Cities’ Implementation Of Climate, Energy, And Transportation Policies, Rachel Krause

Rachel M. Krause

Much of the attention surrounding local climate protection in the United States is associated with two networks: ICLEI’s Cities for Climate Protection and the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement (MCPA). However, the impact of these networks on member-city actions has not been clearly established. This paper examines whether, and to what extent, participation in climate networks leads to the implementation of GHG-reducing policies, above and beyond what would have been done in their absence. To account for the possibility that cities which join climate networks are systematically different from those that do not and control for self-selection induced …

We Have Never Been Liberal: The Environmentalist Turn To Liberalism And The Possibilities For Social Criticism

John Meyer

Political Decision-Making And The Local Provision Of Public Goods: The Case Of Municipal Climate Protection, Rachel Krause

Rachel M. Krause

The municipal political decision-making dynamic has typically been studied in regard to the provision of locally public goods and services whose benefits, while diffuse, are tied to a particular geography. This research extends current knowledge by empirically examining the local production of a globally public good: climate protection. It utilizes an original nation-wide dataset on the greenhouse gas-reducing activities that have been implemented by city governments in the United States. This data enables the development of a more comprehensive measure of local climate protection than has been used in previous quantitative research. Several theories of local political decision-making are tested …