LECTURE 22: ENVIRONMENTALISM  AND ITS DISCONTENTS II

The Critique from the Right:

Nixon Presidency:  Witnesses the signing of the National Environmental Policy Act and other pieces of legislation central to modern environmental law as well as Republican disenchantment with environmentalism, which Nixon ultimately comes to deride as part of the "loony left."  One of Nixon's last acts before resigning over Watergate: slash the EPA's budget.

Nixon thus create both modern environmental law and modern anti-environmentalist backlash.  The latter pursued by Ronald Reagan following election in 1980.

Reagan: desire to strip away "over regulation" and facilitate free enterprise.  Although find it impossible to get rid of organizations like EPA, sought to weaken agencies so as to make them less effective.  Effort pivot on regulatory power of federal government.

Reagan appoint three Coloradans suggested by friend, the brewer Joseph Coors:

James Watt--to head Interior Department
Anne Gorsuch--to head EPA
Robert Burford--to head BLM

EPA as case study:

Bureau's budget cut in half; personnel cut by 23%; number of cases brought to court by EPA decline by 50%.  Hamstrung by 1981 executive order by Reagan that all new regulations be submitted to Office of Management and Budget for cost-benefit analysis.

Gorsuch appoint to office many people from very industries that supposed to be overseeing.  Result: sweetheart deals; after three years of Reagan presidency, over 20 senior EPA employees removed for apparent ethical lapses or conflicts of interest.  Most prominent: Anne Gorsuch after Times Beach scandal and withholding of documents to Congress.
 

The Critique from the Right?

Wise Use movement.  Take name from Gifford Pinchot: "Conservation means the wise use of the earth and its resources for the lasting good of men."  Leader: Ron Arnold, currently at Center for Defense of Free Enterprise.

Key tenets:

"Takings": government regulation constitutes "taking" of private property

County supremacy: local county natural unit of democracy
 

Is Wise Use grass roots or Astroturf?

Industry support in 1990s for groups such as Workers of Oregon Development (WOOD) and Protect Industries Now Endangered (PINE).

Final question conflicts this lecture and last lecture brings to surface: who do we trust to make responsible decisions about the environment?  People in localities most affected or trained environmental experts?