Background on Environment

Environment and Energy
Energy issues have so dominated the 2008 election that all other environmental issues have fallen aside. In fact, the term "environmental issues" in this election cycle has come to mean "energy issues." In this section, we stick to non-energy environmental issues -- see our Energy & Oil section for the energy-based issues.

Endangered Species
• Endangered Species Act (ESA): 1973 law prohibiting activities that harm endangered plants or animals or their habitats. Which species are threatened & endangered are listed or ‘delisted’ by the Secretaries of Interior & Commerce. The controversy comes from limitations on private property to protect one species.
• Takings: The federal government is allowed to take private property when it serves the public interest (via ‘eminent domain’) but must pay fair market value. When the ESA regulates private property use (such as disallowing development), the value is decreased even though the property is not fully taken. The ‘takings’ controversy concerns how much the government should pay to property owners when their property is only partially taken.

Pollution Control vs. Cost Control
• The Clean Air Act: (CAA) regulates industrial smokestacks and other sources of smog, acid rain, and other air pollutants. The CAA uses numerous market incentives, including ‘pollution permits’ that are traded on open markets, to minimize costs.
• The Clean Water Act: (CWA) regulates ‘point-source’ (sewage pipes) and ‘non-point-source’ (land and road runoff) water pollution. The EPA’s approach since the early 1990s is ‘watershed-based,’ which means cooperating across political boundaries.
• CAFE standard: The ‘Corporate Average Fuel Economy’ requires that all automobile manufacturers maintain an average of 28 miles per gallon (mpg) for all vehicles sold.
• Command-and-control: Standardized regulations with central enforcement (usually by EPA), as opposed to market-based incentives.

Federal Lands
The federal government owns 27% of all US land (more than the combined area of Alaska, Texas, & California).
1. BLM: The Bureau of Land Management owns 270 million acres of cattle grazing land.
2. USFS: The US Forest Service owns 185 million acres of timber land.
3. FWS: The Fish & Wildlife Service owns 90 million acres of waterways and surrounding lands.
4. NPS: The National Park Service owns 75 million acres of national parks and national rivers.
5. States: State and local governments own 200 million acres of land (another 9% of total US land area).

Land Use Buzzwords
• Devolution: Some candidates believe that land use decisions should ‘devolve’ from the federal government to state or local government, to encourage community involvement.
• Wise Use: A code word which means ‘stop federal land use restrictions.’ It comes from the Forest Service’s founding doctrines, which say that wise land use includes commercial use plus recreational use.
• Land Trusts: Privately-held land which has restrictions on development (e.g., wildlife sanctuaries).
• Suburban Sprawl: Uncontrolled development that fosters automobile usage rather than mass transit.
• Urban Redevelopment: Restoring inner-city ‘blighted’ communities via ‘empowerment zones,’ etc.
• Brownfields: Locating industrial development on former waste sites (versus wide-open ‘greenfields’).
• Superfund: EPA cleanup of toxic waste sites.

Amendment V to the US Constitution
...nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.(1791)