Public Policy Commons^™

Planetizen Blog Posts- First Half Of 2019, Michael Lewyn

Michael E Lewyn

Environmental Advocacy: Insights From East Asia, Mary Alice Haddad

Mary Alice Haddad

The Evolution Of A Volunteer Lake Protection Program, Maggie Shannon, Alexa A.E. Junker, Philip J. Nyhus, Cathy R. Bevier, Russell Cole

Philip J. Nyhus

No abstract provided.

Global Climate Policy Will Have Net Benefits Larger Than Anyone Thinks (And Welfare Gains, Strangely, Are Likely To Be Much Larger Yet), Philip E. Graves

PHILIP E GRAVES

As with other public goods lacking strong special interest support, global climate policy suffers from two serious theoretical flaws. The first is failure to endogenize the labor-leisure decision when conducting benefit-cost analysis. Recognition that income generated will not remain the same pre-and-post policy results in downward bias in benefit estimation. Much more importantly, there will generally be free riding in input markets in addition to the well-known output demand revelation problem. Since even households with very high marginal values cannot individually increment public goods, too little income will be generated and too much of the income that is generated will …

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.

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 …

Global Trade Impacts: Addressing The Health, Social And Environmental Consequences Of Moving International Freight Through Our Communities, Martha Matsuoka, Andrea Hricko, Robert Gottlieb, Juan Delara

Martha Matsuoka

As ports and goods movement activity expands throughout the United States, a major challenge is how to make the adverse impacts of freight transportation a more central part of economic development, policy and planning discussions and transportation decision making. In 2009, faculty and staff from the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute of Occidental College and from the environmental health sciences and regional equity programs of the University of Southern California (USC) began a study of this evolving global trade and freight transportation system, focusing on areas in the United States where the system is expanding and where community, labor and …

Increasing Environmental Performance In A Context Of Low Governmental Enforcement: Evidence From China, Mary Alice Haddad

Mary Alice Haddad

Economics-Based Environmentalism In The Fourth Generation Of Environmental Law, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Environmental protection and economic concerns are not mutually exclusive. This article explores some of the issues of economic analysis that might arise as we approach the fourth generation of environmental law. It explains ways that economic analysis can be employed to generate the best environmental rules, including measures under what this article terms as "economics-based environmentalism." Economics-based environmentalism contends that the advantages of using economic principles within a “polycentric toolbox” of environmental law come from the benefits available in private ordering, markets, property rights, liability regimes and incentives structures that will better protect the environment than alternatives like state-based interventionist, …

Research Translation: Informing Evidence-Based Policies, Anna G. Hoover

Anna G. Hoover

This presentation describes the need for evidence-based policy, outlines strategies for researchers and communities to inform various policy stages, and provides a case study example of research generated specifically to inform policy implementation.

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 …

Global Cities Are Coastal Cities Too: Paradox In Sustainability?, Herman L. Boschken

Herman L. Boschken

Worldwide, most global cities are located in coastal zones, but a paradox of sustainability is especially striking for American global cities. This article examines such paradox drawn between globalization-induced development and coastal ecosystems. It focuses on two developmental components found principally in global cities: (1) the agglomeration of foreign waterborne commerce and global business services and (2) the accelerated activity and mobility habits of a global professional class. Despite formidable gaps in research, some anecdotal evidence suggests unique hazards exist for the coastal ecology as globalization pressures expand a global city’s urban footprint.

Can We Actually Calculate The Social Cost Of Carbon?, Kyle Mckay

Kyle McKay

Social cost of carbon calculations poorly integrate the risk of worse-case scenarios and their impact on social equity, primarily due to the fundamental limitations of cost-benefit analysis. Continued use of the social cost of carbon is preferable to policy that assumes no social cost to carbon emissions, but risks overconfidence in modeling and political clashes around insufficiently important regulatory changes that could impair necessary larger scale policy changes.

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 …

Utility-Scale Solar Pv Development In The Six Southwestern States, Yao Yin

Yao Yin

No abstract provided.

Sheldon Kamienieck Cv, Sheldon Kamieniecki

Sheldon Kamieniecki

No abstract provided.

Public Policy Frameworks In Environmental Settings: An Argument For New Policy Frameworks To Support New Policy Directions, Chad J. Mcguire

Chad J McGuire

The Alternative Forms Of Dispute Settlement And The Essential Difference Between These And Arbitration, Michael Diathesopoulos

Michael Diathesopoulos

The paper examines the characteristics of some common alternative forms of dispute settlement and their key differences from arbitration regarding their nature and scope. Its purpose is to explore each mechanism's suitability for specific types of disputes.

A Socio-Political Analysis Of Policies And Incentives Applicable To Community Wind In Oregon, Yao Yin

Yao Yin

As a new type of ownership structure, community owned wind projects are becoming more and more important in today's wind energy generation in the U.S. Unlike traditional large wind farms, community wind features local ownership and small-scale generation capacity. The goal of this paper is to identify policies, incentives, and regulations in place that are applicable to community wind projects in Oregon by interviewing project representatives and governmental officials and to depict the Oregon context from strategic, tactical, and operational perspectives for researchers, farmers, private businesses, government entities, and others who are interested in learning about the community wind in …

Regulatory Takings Claims And Coastal Management Of Sea Level Rise: Remembering Governments Are More Than Regulators, Chad J. Mcguire

Chad J McGuire

The Role Of Boundary Organisations In The Social Status Of Climate Change Knowledge, Robert Hoppe, Anne Wesselink, Rose Cairns

Robert Hoppe

A plethora of institutional forms has emerged whose remit is to link climate change science to policy-making. These can be understood as boundary organisations where science and politics meet and intertwine. This article examines the role of boundary organisations in the production and social status of climate change knowledge. A multi-level conceptual model is outlined which demonstrates how context is crucial to understanding the operation and impact of boundary organisations. The framework is applied to analyse climate governance boundary arrangements at the international level and a number of national contexts. In the framing years of the global climate change issue, …

Benefit-Cost Analysis Of Enviromental Projects: A Plethora Of Biases Understating Net Benefits, Philip E. Graves

PHILIP E GRAVES

There are many reasons to suspect that benefit-cost analysis applied to environmental policies will result in policy decisions that will reject those environmental policies. The important question, of course, is whether those rejections are based on proper science. The present paper explores sources of bias in the methods used to evaluate environmental policy in the United States, although most of the arguments translate immediately to decision-making in other countries. There are some “big picture” considerations that have gone unrecognized, and there are numerous more minor, yet cumulatively important, technical details that point to potentially large biases against acceptance on benefit-cost …

Implementing Environmental Justice In Appalachia: The Social And Cultural Context Of Mountaintop Removal Mining As Seen Through The Lenses Of Law And Documentaries, Evan Barret Smith

Evan Barret Smith

Mountaintop removal is a form of mining that has major effects on the ecology and people of central Appalachia. The practice has been gaining increasing attention from the EPA and popular cultural sources as an environmental justice issue. Recent decisions by the EPA incorporate an environmental justice analysis as contextualization, but the perspective provided is problematic. This Article compares the way that the social and cultural context of mountaintop removal has been framed in judicial opinions and EPA documents to understand how legal documents understand and perpetuate the conflicts related to mountaintop removal. To further widen the lens, seven documentary …

Systems Thinking Applied To U.S. Federal Fisheries Management, Chad J. Mcguire, Bradley P. Harris

Chad J McGuire

Coastal Planning, Federal Consistency, And Climate Change: A Recent Divergence Of Federal And State Interests, Chad J. Mcguire

Chad J McGuire

Climate Adaptation And The Fifth Amendment Of The U.S. Constitution: A Regulatory Takings Analysis Of Adaptation Strategies In Coastal Development With Application To Connecticut’S Coastal Management Regime, Chad J. Mcguire, Jason Hill

Chad J McGuire

Unanswered Questions Of A Minority People In International Law: A Comparative Study Between Southern Cameroons & South Sudan, Bernard Sama Mr

Bernard Sama

The month July of 2011 marked the birth of another nation in the World. The distressful journey of a minority people under the watchful eyes of the international community finally paid off with a new nation called the South Sudan . As I watched the South Sudanese celebrate independence on 9 July 2011, I was filled with joy as though they have finally landed. On a promising note, I read the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon saying “[t]ogether, we welcome the Republic of South Sudan to the community of nations. Together, we affirm our commitment to helping it meet its …

Ownership Unbundling In European Energy Market & Legal Problems Under Eu Law, Michael Diathesopoulos

Michael Diathesopoulos

In this paper we will examine the issue of ownership unbundling and forced divestiture remedies imposed in a series of recent competition law cases of the energy market - examined in other papers - in relation to the possible existence of a series of legal obstacles. These energy market decisions belong to a group of antitrust cases in which a structural divestiture remedy has been imposed under the provisions of Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003. This divestiture refers to transmission networks and to generation capacity and is meant to lead to severe structural changes, which are compatible with the findings …

A Framework For Analyzing Information Flows In Public Policy Decision-Making: A Move Towards Building Sustainable Policy Instruments, Chad J. Mcguire

Chad J McGuire

A Review Of Amendment 16 To The Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan, Jonathon N. Feinberg, Chad J. Mcguire

Chad J McGuire