Environmental Regulatory Policy
Course Description
This is a topics course addressing
environmental policy with specific focus on environmental regulation.
The theoretical foundations of the course address regulatory policy
design, policy instruments, regulatory federalism, enforcement and
compliance. These issues are considered with respect to selected
environmental regulatory policies and programs. The emphasis is on
generic issues of policy design and implementation within differing
political environments, rather than conducting applied policy analyses
of current or prospective policies. The course should be of interest
to those with interests in policy design and implementation as well as
to those with topical interests in environmental policy and
management.
The course
is intended to provide:
·
Theoretical perspectives from relevant policy
literature;
·
Exposure to research issues and strategies for studying
policy design and implementation; and
·
Exposure to issues regarding the design and
implementation of social and environmental regulatory policies.
Participants are expected to have grounding in policy processes and be
tolerant of journal articles involving empirical models.
Requirements
Seminar participants will be responsible for a set of written
assignments. These will constitute 80 percent of the final grade as
designated below. An additional 20 percent of the grade will be based
on the quality of class preparation and participation. Class
participants are required as part of their participation to turn in,
via email, short impressions of each week’s readings/case in advance
of class. More details about assignments and participation will be
provided in class. The brief descriptions of assignments are as
follows:
Assignment #1: "Policy Design: Philosophy and Approach"
Due:
October 22nd at class time (Week 4)
Assignment:
Develop an analytic depiction of the design and philosophy of an
environmental regulatory policy of your choice.
Contribution
to final grade: 20% of final grade.
Assignment
#2: "Policy Instruments: Mini-Case Analysis"
Due:
November 6th by 12 noon (Wednesday of Week 6)
Assignment:
Develop a mini-case analysis of the role of a policy instrument that
is an important element of an environmental regulatory policy of
your choice.
Contribution
to final grade: 20% of final grade.
Assignment #3: "Enforcement and
Compliance Issues"
Due:
November 26th at class time (Week 9)
Assignment:
Discuss relevant enforcement and compliance issues for an
environmental regulatory policy of your choice with attention to key
concepts from relevant literature.
Contribution
to final grade: 20% of final grade.
Assignment #4: "Rethinking
Environmental Regulation"
Due:
December 10th at class time (last class session)
Assignment:
Develop a short paper that identifies what you see as a key
aspect of environmental regulation that would benefit from new
insights or additional research. Discuss: (a) what you see as the
conceptual and practical limitations of this aspect of research
about environmental regulation; (b) what the literature says about
these limitations (drawing from the course); and (c) what you see as
fruitful research directions for rethinking this gap.
Contribution
to final grade: 20% of final grade.
Penalties will
be assigned to late papers of .4 reduction for each day that they are
late.
Seminar
Sessions
The course
will be run as a seminar with some twists. For most weeks, the
reading will consist of a set of key articles or book chapters along
with illustrative policies and prior student papers. The articles and
chapters will serve as the backdrop to inform our discussion of the
case examples. Questions for discussion regarding the readings and
the examples will be circulated in advance.
Class
participants will be asked to share in presentation of summarizes of
the readings and to lead in the discussion of the examples. Regular
class attendance is especially important for two reasons. First, the
class only meets once a week. Second, much of the material discussed
in class serves as the key foundation for the written assignments.
Readings
All required readings are from a
coursepak and/or from the course web site. A useful, optional
book for those who want an over view of environmental policy and
regulatory processes in the United States is:
Nancy K. Kubasek and Gary S. Silverman, Environmental Law, 4th
ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2002.
This book
is available at the UW bookstore and should be on reserve at the
Odegaard library. Journal and other material listed in what follows
will be made available for copying or, as indicated, will be posted on
the course web site. These materials will not be on course reserve.
Additional background items listed below reference items that are
useful to pursue if you desire to examine a given topic in more
detail.
SCHEDULE OF CLASS
SESSIONS
Items marked (P)
will be available in a course packet and those marked (CW) are
available for download on the course web site.
PART I. Context and
Conceptual Foundations
Week 1. Course Overview and Policy Perspectives
(October 1st)
>Course Overview
>Case Discussion: Regulatory Unreasonableness? And Reform?
Case: New Source Review [handouts in class]
Additional background:
Kubaske and Silverman, “An Introduction to Environmental Law and
Policy,” Chapter 4 in Environmental Law, 4th ed..,
pp. 107-138.
Week 2. Regulatory Policy Design
(October 8th)
Assignment #1 passed out -- due October 22nd
by 12 noon.
>Thinking about regulatory design
Peter J. May. 2002. “Social Regulation,” in Lester M. Salamon, ed.
The Tools of Government, A Guide to the New Governance. New
York: Oxford University Press, pp. 156-216. [copies to be provided.
Case discussion:
(CW) Animal Feeding Operations --
Pollution Discharge Permits, 18p.
Paper Example:
(CW) “An Analysis of the Pollution
Prevention Act of 1990” Debbie Weinstein class assignment, Autumn
1998, 8p.
Additional background:
Neil Gunningham and Darren Sinclair, “Instruments for Environmental
Protection,” in Gunningham et al. Smart Regulation. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1998: pp. 37-88.
Week 3. Strategic
Regulatory Choices
(October 15th)
>Voluntary regulation, self regulation, and regulation
(P) Kathryn Harrison. 1999. “Talking with the Donkey: Cooperative
Approaches to Environmental Protection,” Journal of Industrial
Ecology 2 (3): 51-72.
(P) Matthew Potoski and Aseem Prakash, “Protecting the Environment:
Voluntary Regulations in Environmental Governance,” Policy
Currents 11 (4): 9-11.
Case discussion:
(CW) “Cooperative Program for
Environmental Compliance – Pork Producers,” EPA materials, 22p.
(P) Responsible Care -- Joseph Rees,
“Development of Communitarian Regulation in the Chemical Industry,”
Law and Policy 19 (October 1997): 477-528.
Additional background:
Neil Gunningham and Joseph Rees. 1997. “Industry Self-Regulation: An
Institutional Perspective,” Law and Policy 19 (October):
363-414.
Andrew King and Michael J. Lenox. 2000. “Industry Self Regulation
without Sanctions: The Chemical Industry’s Responsible Care
Program,” Academy of Management Journal 43 (4): 698-716.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, The Use of
Voluntary Agreements in the United States: An Initial Survey ENV/EPOC/GEEI(98)27,
Paris: OECD, 1998; 39p.
Eric W. Welch, Allan Mazur, and Stuart Bretschneider. 2000. “Voluntary
Behavior by Electric Utilities: Levels of Adoption and Contribution
of the Climate Challenge Program to the Reduction of Carbon Dioxide,”
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 19 (Summer):
408-425.
Part II. Policy Instruments and Policy
Design
Week 4. Policy
Instruments -- Rules and Standards
(October 22nd)
Assignment #1 due at class time.
Assignment #2 passed out -- due November 6th
by 12 noon.
>Rules and Standards – Traditional Regulation
P. May, “Rules: Setting Expectations” and “Standards: Setting
Benchmarks,” pp. 164-166 in “Social Regulation” chapter [see week 1]
Case discussion:
(CW) Rules and standards for NPDES for
animal feeding operations, 6pp.
Paper Example: [updated from printed
syllabus -- moved from week 5]
(CW) “Controlling Volatile Organic
Compounds,” Seema Balwani, Fall 2000, 8pp.
>Rules and Standards – Performance-based Regulation
(P) Cary Coglianese, Jennifer Nash, and Todd Olmstead. 2002.
“Performance and Regulation: A Conceptual Overview,” Cambridge, MA:
Center for Regulation, Kennedy School of Government, 8pp.
Case discussion:
(CW) “Results Based
Forest and Range Practices Regime for
British Columbia,” Discussion Paper, 67pp.
Additional background:
Kubaske and Silverman, “Administrative Law and Its Impact on the
Environment,” (excerpts relating to rule-making), Chapter 3 in
Environmental Law, 4th ed., pp. 75-89.
Week 5. Policy
Instruments -- Information and Rights
(October 29th)
>Information and Rights
(P) Janet A. Weiss. 2002. “Public Information,” in Lester M. Salamon,
ed. The Tools of Government, A Guide to the New Governance.
New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 217-254.
(P) Debora Stone. 1988. “Rights,” in Stone, Policy Paradox and
Political Reason. Boston: Scott, Foresman and Company, pp.
265-289.
Case Discussion:
(CW) The Emergency Planning And Community Right-To-Know Act (SARA
Title III), excerpts, 16pp.
Paper Example: [Item added -- not on
printed syllabus]
(CW) “The Role of Information as a
Policy Instrument,” Jan Zuber, 1997, 8pp.
Additional background:
Eugene Bardach and Robert A. Kagan, "Liability" in Bardach and Kagan,
Going by the Book, The Problem of Regulatory Unreasonableness
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982): 271-299.
Janet A. Weiss and Mary Tschirhart, "Public Information Campaigns as
Policy Instruments," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management
13 (Winter 1994): 82-119.
Week 6. Policy
Instruments -- Economic and Market Incentives
(November 5th)
Assignment #2 due November 6th, 12
noon P. May box (101 Gowen Hall).
(P) Joseph J. Cordes. 2002. “Corrective Taxes, Charges and Tradable
Permits,” in Lester M. Salamon, ed. The Tools of Government, A
Guide to the New Governance. New York: Oxford University Press,
pp. 255-281.
Case discussion:
(CW) Recycling -- Seattle Solid Waste Plan 1998, plus statistics 2000,
18pp.
Paper Example:
(CW) “California’s Renewable Energy
Program,” Jennifer Auletta, Fall 2000, 8pp.
Additional background:
Gary Bryner, New Tools for
Improving Government Regulation: An Assessment of Emissions Trading
and Other Market-Based Regulatory Tools. Grant Report,
Arlington, VA: Pricewaterhouse
Coopers Endowment, October 1999, 32p.
OECD, Economic Instruments for Pollution Control and Natural
Resource Management in OECD Countries, A Survey. Paris: OECD,
September 1999; 115p.
Peter N. Grabosky, “Regulation by Reward: On the Use of Economic
Incentives as Regulatory Instruments,” Law and Policy 17 (July
1995): 257-282.
Part III. Regulatory Enforcement and
Compliance
Week 7. Regulatory
Failures and Enforcement
(November 12th)
Assignment #3
passed out -- due November 26th at class time.
>Regulatory Enforcement – Agency Enforcement Choices and Approaches
(P) Jeremy Firestone. 2002. “Agency Governance and Enforcement: The
Influence of Mission on Environmental Decisionmaking,” Journal of
Policy Analysis and Management 21 (3): 409-426.
(P) Peter J. May and Soeren Winter. 1999. “Regulatory Enforcement and
Compliance: Examining Danish Agro-Environmental Policy,” Journal
of Policy Analysis and Management 18 (4): 625-651.
>Regulatory Enforcement – Inspectors and Enforcement Styles
(P) Peter J. May and Soeren Winter. 2000. “Reconsidering Styles of
Regulatory Enforcement: Patterns in Danish Agro-Environmental
Policy,” Law and Policy 22 (2): 145-173.
(P) Peter J. May and Robert S. Wood. 2003. “At the Regulatory
Frontlines: Inspectors’ Enforcement Styles and Regulatory
Compliance,” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory,
in press.
(P) Robert S. Wood. 2002. “At the Regulatory Frontlines: Positive
versus Negative Explanations for Street-Level Behavior,” paper
presented at the 2002 Meeting of the American Political Science
Association, Boston, August 29 – September 1, 2002.
Case Examples:
(CW) Water Quality Enforcement –
Washington Water Quality Enforcement Review, 1999 (excerpts), 36pp.
Paper Examples:
(CW) “Regulatory Approach: Office
of Pipeline Safety,” Rachel Neville, Fall 2000, 7pp
(CW) “Section 319 of the Clean Water
Act: Analysis of Enforcement and Compliance, Carrie Salters, Fall
2000, 8pp.
Additional background:
Robert A. Kagan, "Regulatory Enforcement," in David H. Rosenbloom and
Richard D. Schwartz, eds. Handbook of Regulation and
Administrative Law (New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc., 1994):
383-422.
Kathryn Harrison, “Is Cooperation the Answer? Canadian Environmental
Enforcement in Comparative Context,” Journal of Policy Analysis
and Management 14 (Spring 1995): 221-244.
Peter J. May and Raymond J Burby, "Making Sense Out of Regulatory
Enforcement," Law and Policy 19 (April 1998): 157-182.
John T. Scholz, "Voluntary Compliance and Regulatory Enforcement,"
Law and Policy 6 (October 1984): 385-405.
Week 8. Regulatory Compliance – Beyond Enforcement
(November 19th)
Assignment #4 passed out -- due December 10th
at class.
>Framing the problem as one of compliance
(P) Soren C. Winter and Peter J. May. 2001. “Motivation for
Compliance with Environmental Regulations,” Journal of Policy
Analysis and Management 20 (4): 675-698.
(P) Peter J. May. 2002. “Compliance Motivations: Affirmative and
Negative Bases,” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Law and
Society Association, Vancouver, BC, June 2002.
Case Example:
Water Quality – Hard versus Soft Paths:
(CW) “Washington Boatyard Permit Requirements,” 25pp.
(P) Peter J. May. 2002. “Regulation and Motivations: Hard versus Soft
Regulatory Paths,” paper presented at the 2002 Meeting of the
American Political Science Association, Boston, August 29 – September
1, 2002.
Additional background:
Fred S. Coombs, "The Bases of Noncompliance with a Policy" Policy
Studies Journal 8 (no. 6, 1980): 885-900.
Joseph F. DiMento, "The Noncompliance Problem," chapter 2 of
Environmental Law and American Business, Dilemmas of Compliance.
New York: Plenum Press, 1986, pp. 19-37.
Margaret Levi, "Creating Compliance" chapter 3 in Levi Of Rule and
Revenue (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988):
48-70.
Paper Examples:
(CW)
“Understanding the Role of Third Party Intermediaries in the Policy
Cycle:
The Need for a More Systematic Framework,” Shane Day, Fall 2002, 11pp.
(CW) “Cooperative
Forms of Policy: A Catch-22,” Carrie Salters, Fall 2002, 6pp.
Part
IV. Considering (selected) Regulatory Reforms
Week 9. From
Regulating Actions to Implementing Performance Systems
(November 26th)
Assignment #3 due at class time.
> Management Systems as Regulatory Foci
(P) Cary Coglianese and David Lazer. 2002. “Management-Based
Regulatory Strategies,” in John D. Donahue and Joseph S. Nye eds.
Market-Based Governance. Washington, DC: Brookings Press, pp.
201-224.
>Environmental Management Systems: Solution or Smokescreen?
(P) Richard Andrews et al. 2001. “Environmental Management Systems:
History, Theory, and Implementation Research,” in Cary Coglianese and
Jennifer Nash, eds. Regulating from the Inside, Can Environmental
Management Systems Achieve Policy Goals? Washington, DC: RFF
Press, pp. 31-60.
Case Discussion: HACCP
(P) Karen L. Hulebak and Wayne Schlosser. 2002. “Hazard Analysis and
Critical Control Point (HACCP) History and Conceptual Overview,”
Risk Analysis 22 93): 547-552.
(CW) HACCP Backgound Summay Sheets – USDA/FSIS, 12pp.
Week 10. The Bigger
Picture
(December 3rd)
>Considering Reforms and Future
Directions
Karl Hausker. 1999. The Convergence of Ideas on Improving the
Environmental Protection System. Washington DC: Center for
Strategic and International Studies.
Peter J. May. 1996. “Rethinking Intergovernmental Environmental
Management,” (pp 1-20) and “Prospects for Cooperative
Intergovernmental Policies,” (pp 196-212) in P. May et al.,
Environmental Management and Governance, London: Routledge Press.
Ragnar E. Lofstedt and David Vogel. 2001. “The Changing Character of
Regulation: A Comparison of Europe and the United States” with
commentary, Risk Analysis 21 (3): 399-416.
Case Disucssion:
Selected Reforms
Week 11. Wrap Up
(December 10th)
Final assignment due December 10th
at class time.
> Discussion of final papers
> Wrap up course |