Air pollution and climate change are two of the most pressing issues facing the United States today. Reading this chapter of the CQ Reader, it became more clear the scope of environmental problems, as well as the current policy resolutions aimed at alleviating pollution and climate change. At its core, the main conflict of government environmental regulation, such as President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, boils down to two issues: First, the economic implications surrounding the policy action; Secondly, the increasingly partisan lines along which policy is favored or deplored. The dilemma posed by environmental action debate pits public health and the well-being of the nation’s children against the livelihood of American laborers as well as those in the energy industry. A complex issue, I finished the chapter considering the many angles to my own stance on President Obama’s Plan. Though I ultimately agree more with the points cited in the reader regarding the benefits and necessity of a plan like President Obama’s to prevents deaths and illness, I came away feeling slightly uncomfortable with the approach of our government when it comes to dealing with pressing, life-altering policy questions such as those related to the environment.
Probably the most surprising information in the chapter was the discussion of the imperfect implementation of policy deviant from electrical energy. There were two examples in particular that highlighted the inefficiency of “advanced” energy. In Arizona, grid problems caused there to be too much solar energy, meaning that utility companies lost major revenue, despite the fact that they provided a service to homeowners on cloudy days when they needed to use the electrical grid. Two energy experts in the chapter agreed that a situation like that, wherein homeowners did not owe money for use of utilities, mandates that new structures be developed; however, expert Hebner believes that these problems can be solved only with money to improve energy storage and to update grids. Considering the contention surrounding a de-facto shift away from electrical energy in the country, it seems unlikely to me that more money will be invested in the near future into advanced energy storage facilities, such as the one in Canada. In fact, it was mentioned that there was a facility built in Texas, now stalled due to domestic political pressures and concerns over profitability. The second example was that of Germany, who has implemented the most ambitious plan out of all of the EU member countries. Though advocates hail it as an achievement for business and for the people, opponents see faults with the plan, namely that cities are producing green energy that no one needs, but are entitled to sell it, leaving consumers to pay around double, over the next ten years, what they were paying for non-green forms of energy. This is another striking example of implementation and regulation gone wrong, as the policies are certainly aimed at helping the environment and citizens of certain countries, but industry or consumers themselves can be impacted negatively by yet-to-be perfected policy implementation.
Another interesting aspect of the chapter was the timeline provided of environmental policy changes through the years. What stuck out most to me was the dates of policy initiatives, as well as the commentary provided on the actions of some administrations to combat pollution and climate change. It seems to me that environmental action has grown as a partisan policy issue since the days of Republican President Ronald Reagan. As mentioned, his administration took no action against acid rain, and for the most part, it seems that the parties today have fallen in line with the position of leadership for or against action. Indeed, the environment was predicted to be a main issue of the Election of 2016, and hindsight now proves that prediction painfully true. It is immensely troubling, though not surprising, that such important issues as the future of the planet have fallen to bipartisan bickering; however, though I firmly support action to protect the environment and the health of the public, I can understand the pushback against recent policy introductions. Statistics provided within the chapter point to the conclusion that industry itself blows out of proportion the costs they will incur due to policy changes, but I think it is important also to look at individual people impacted by the policies, such as the unemployed Kentucky man who lost his job as a coal miner, featured in a photo near the end of the chapter. If anything, this chapter tells us that the issue is not black and white as some may suppose, but rather an incredibly complex policy question facing the country, as well as the City of New York.
Implementation is the missing piece of many policy discussions. It doesn’t matter what the law (or policy) says. What matters is what is implemented.