Government And Environmental Policy Essay Research Paper

Government And Environmental Policy Essay, Research Paper

Government and Environmental PolicyThe purpose of the United States’ public policy law is to implement restrictions in an effort to solve problems, which can be seen with the Clean Water Act. Public policy has also been employed to reform the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Although the United States government is noble in it’s efforts to preserve the environment throughthese acts, the internal structure of public policy often retards these acts’ effectiveness. This paper will explore the many ways in which factors such as horizontal implementation, divided government, and other forms of public policy affect the environmental legislation involved with the aforementioned acts. The main factors involved with the Endangered Species Act of 1973 involve horizontal implementation structure and divided government. Before one can discuss how these policies affect environmental legislation, a brief description of each must first be lucidly explained. When our government was founded, a system of checks and balances was implemented between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches to ensure that no one part of government gets too much power. Although this limits the power of any one person in government, it often slows own the ability of government because a consensus can be difficult with so many people working together. Another problem is that there are many subgovernments affecting the legislation as well, such as interest groups likethe Sierra Club, Administrative Agents like the Environmental Protection Agency, and Congressional Committees. Because these groups add to the total number of people working on the legislation, the original noble ideology ofmaking policy for the good of the nation is voided. Also because there are so many differences of opinion, fewdrastic changes are made, instead small incremental changes are made which take up lots of time and retard theeffectiveness and enforcement of the legislation. In addition to this chaotic turmoil, four steps must beimplemented in order to pass a bill. These are initiation & definition, formulation & enactment (legitimation),implementation, and evaluation. The most relevant one of these steps is horizontal implementation when one considers the Endangered Species Act andClean Water Act. This policy is the process that puts a law into effect after it has been legitimized. Congress andthe President set up the initial regulation of the law, but the direct responsibility of regulation is turned over tothe states involved. And, of course, workset-like incentives such as taxes, fees, allowances, refunds, and liabilityare used to enforce the laws effectively. Horizontal implementation refers specifically to implementation with the federal government, as opposed to verticalimplementation which is at the state and local levels. There are several specific concerns with horizontalimplementation which include the breakdown of coordination due to the large structure of the federal government,language difficulties, lack of control due to the threat of success by one particular agency, different perspectives,and direct change of intention due to factors such as voter pressure. It’s amazing that in the midst of all this thatanything can be accomplished at all, but thanks to the drive to be re-elected, things have to get done on the federallevel or else the person in question will be renounced from power. So now that a foundation of the processes controlling these acts has been established, the question arises, what exactlyis the Endangered Species Act. As one author puts it, “The Endangered Species Act of 1973, perhaps more than any otherenvironmental law, dares to draw an unwavering line in the path of American progress. It boldly says in essence, ‘Thoushalt not cause any species of plant or animal to go extinct.’ As the rampart transformation of natural America forexurban development, water-division projects, and timber cutting- pushes more and more species to the wall, the act isembroiled in controversy unparalleled since its passage 19 years ago.” (Horton, pg. 68)A few other factors of definition come into play when one considers the intricacies of the Act. An animal isendangered if it is in danger of becoming extinct throughout all or most of it’s natural range in the wild. An animalis threatened if it is very likely to fall into the endangered category in “the foreseeable future”. Endangered specieshave the possibility of generating boundless resources for the human race including medical uses, research purposes, andatmospheric contributions- namely oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis. The act also sets aside land to protectendangered species. For example, many acres of old growth forest have been set aside in an effort to preserve theNorthern spotted owl.So far, the act has been successful in helping to re-establish populations of the Americanalligator, the California condor, the Black-footed ferret, and many species of endangered sea turtles. But hundredsof other species are waiting to be helped by the act, at a prospective cost of $4.6 billion. The reasons for theinefficiency of the act are as numerous as the numbers of threatened & endangered species involved in the controversy. Much of the criticism has been directed toward the Fish and Wildlife Service for not setting up an effective program. “The agency ‘has underestimated the size of the job and been backwar