Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Weaponizing The Epa: Presidential Control And Wicked Problems, Craig A. Jones

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In its broadest sense, presidential control encompasses all the actions, in both word and deed, whereby presidents “go it alone” to adopt policies in the absence of congressional will to do so, and sometimes directly contrary to it. This dissertation studies how President Obama used rhetorical and administrative tools of presidential control to address the “wicked problem” of climate change. The “administrative presidency” and the “rhetorical presidency” are familiar political science terms, but in the case of climate change policy, they appear to be moving policymaking in a new and perhaps profound direction, which this study refers to as “post-deliberative …

Second‐Order Devolution Or Local Activism?: Local Air Agencies Revisited, Luke Fowler, Bryant Jones

Public Policy and Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

In response to calls from previous scholarship for further bottom-up examination of local government roles in environmental policy, the authors revisit local air agencies to examine two separate phenomena occurring in environmental federalism: one from the top-down (second- order devolution) and one from the bottom-up (local activism). Using survey data from local air agencies on devolved authorities to set air quality standards and to enforce federal and/or state standards, the authors identify three different types of local agencies: state administrative sub- units (only enforcement authority), fully devolved agencies (authority to both set and enforce standards), and activist agencies (neither authority). …

Nonrandom Territory Occupancy By Nesting Gyrfalcons (Falco Rusticolus), David L. Anderson, Peter J. Bente, Travis L. Booms, Leah Dunn, Christopher J.W. Mcclure

Public Policy and Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

We know little regarding how specific aspects of habitat influence spatial variation in site occupancy by Arctic wildlife, yet this information is fundamental to effective conservation. To address this information gap, we assessed occupancy of 84 Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus Linnaeus, 1758) breeding territories observed annually between 2004 and 2013 in western Alaska. In line with the theory of population regulation by site dependence, we asked whether Gyrfalcons exhibited a nonrandom pattern of site selection and if heterogeneous landscape attributes correlated with observed occupancy patterns. We characterized high- and low-occupancy breeding territories as those occupied more or less often than …

The Trump Administration Is Scrapping A Collaborative Sage Grouse Protection Plan To Expand Oil And Gas Drilling, John Freemuth

Public Policy and Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Trump administration has released plans to open up nine million acres of sage grouse habitat in six western states to oil and gas drilling. This initiative dramatically cuts back an elaborate plan developed under the Obama administration to steer energy development away from sage grouse habitat. Predictably, environmentalists oppose it and the energy industry supports it.

The Sage Grouse Isn’T Just A Bird – It’S A Proxy For Control Of Western Lands, John Freemuth

Public Policy and Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Trump administration is clashing with conservation groups and others over protection for the greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), a bird widely known for its dramatic mating displays. The grouse is found across sagebrush country from the Rocky Mountains on the east to the Sierra and Cascade mountain ranges on the west.

Idaho's Water: Supply And Quality In A Time Of Growth, Kendra Kaiser, John Freemuth

Andrus Center for Public Policy Publications and Presentations

• While the Treasure Valley is water rich, the East Snake River Plain has used collaborative governance to curb decreasing aquifer levels. Collaborative governance allows all stakeholders a seat at the table, supporting the development and involvement of these groups could be a useful mechanism for representing the perspectives and interests of all Idahoans.
• Water supply might change in the future, particularly the timing of peak streamflow. This has major implications for irrigation in the valley.
• We do not currently have enough data and information to confidently determine how growth of the urban area and loss of agricultural land will impact …

When Need Meets Opportunity: Expanding Local Air Networks, Luke Fowler

Public Policy and Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

Though the Clean Air Act (CAA) relies on a traditional inter-government partnership, new initiatives from local governments that fall outside of the conventional implementation strategy have created a unique public service delivery network by adding layers to the implementation scheme. Using both logistic and multinomial logistic models and a dataset of 497 Metropolitan (MSA) and Micropolitian (µSA) areas, this research tests a model of network membership for local governments based on internal organizational and external network factors. Findings indicate policy problems, perceptions of resource availability, network density and structure, and socio-economic and political factors affect local initiative to expand networks.

Can Ryan Zinke Balance Conservation And Development As Interior Secretary?, John Freemuth, Mackenzie Case

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana to head the Department of the Interior follows a tradition of offering this position to westerners. The agency has jurisdiction over a significant portion of federal public lands in western states, including national parks, national wildlife refuges, some forests administered by the Bureau of Land Management and others.

The Twisted Roots Of U.S. Land Policy In The West, John Freemuth

Public Policy and Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

The seizure of a Malheur National Wildlife Refuge building in southeastern Oregon by armed and self-styled “constitutionalists” was disturbing. To many it is viewed as a dangerous escalation in a long, admittedly heated and passionate but rarely violent, discussion of federal or public land management in the western United States.

Corporate Ventriloquism: Corporate Advocacy, The Coal Industry, And The Appropriation Of Voice, Peter K. Bsumek, Jen Schneider, Steve Schwarze, Jennifer Peeples

Jen Schneider

In the second decade of the 21st century, the U.S. coal industry is facing unprecedented challenges. While for many years coal provided nearly half of the U.S. electricity, in the spring of 2012 that share dropped to below 40% and is expected to continue falling (Energy Information Administration, 2012).¹ Coal production is increasing not in Appalachia, the primary U.S. source for coal historically, but in Wyoming's Powder River Basin (Goodell, 2006). Market competition from the natural gas industry combined with well organized climate and anti-nountaintop removal (MTR) campagins have significantly curtailed the production of new coal-fired power plants in …

Policy Pathways, Policy Networks, And Citizen Deliberation: Disseminating The Results Of World Wide Views On Global Warming In The Usa, Jason Delborne, Jen Schneider, Ravtosh Bal, Susan Cozzens, Richard Worthington

Jen Schneider

Leading a coalition spanning 38 countries, the Danish Board of Technology organized World Wide Views on Global Warming (WWViews) on September 26, 2009. WWViews represented a pioneering effort to hold simultaneous citizen deliberations focusing on questions of climate change policy addressed at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) in December 2009. Sponsors and organizers envisioned WWViews as a means to affect the COP15 negotations, and the project included numerous strategies to influence policy-making. This paper examines the success of such strategies in the USA through the lens of 'policy pathways,' routes of influence to affect the behavior of policy-makers and …