Richard Harris
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195373929
- eISBN:
- 9780199852291
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195373929.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Environmentalism, born in the milieu of activism and protest during the 1960s, aimed not only to save the ecosystem but also to open up administrative and policy processes to more democratic impulses ...
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Environmentalism, born in the milieu of activism and protest during the 1960s, aimed not only to save the ecosystem but also to open up administrative and policy processes to more democratic impulses that proved hostile to individualism, liberty, and property rights. For conservatives like Reagan, the fundamental challenge of environmental policy therefore lay not in business complaints about rising compliance costs or economists' concern about market inefficiency, but in its animating ideas and its institutional objectives. It is important to understand that these challenges were born, not of the older conservationist policies that many conservatives could support, but rather of the post-1970 variant of environmental policy that sought to democratize the policy process and supplant individualism and liberty with collectivism and planning. An effective response would require a conservative counterrevolution in the policy process that directly addressed the ideational and institutional bases of environmental policy. That response would flow from the confluence of three distinct streams of conservative thought: libertarianism, traditionalism, and anticommunism. This chapter discusses how the fusion of these distinct elements of postwar conservative thought formed the basis for a vigorous and visceral conservative reaction to environmentalist programs. It then turns to an appraisal of two landmark pieces of environmental legislation of the 1970s — the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) and the Clean Air Amendments Act of 1977 (CAAA) — both of which clearly illustrate the ideational and institutional challenges that environmental policy posed for conservatives.Less
Environmentalism, born in the milieu of activism and protest during the 1960s, aimed not only to save the ecosystem but also to open up administrative and policy processes to more democratic impulses that proved hostile to individualism, liberty, and property rights. For conservatives like Reagan, the fundamental challenge of environmental policy therefore lay not in business complaints about rising compliance costs or economists' concern about market inefficiency, but in its animating ideas and its institutional objectives. It is important to understand that these challenges were born, not of the older conservationist policies that many conservatives could support, but rather of the post-1970 variant of environmental policy that sought to democratize the policy process and supplant individualism and liberty with collectivism and planning. An effective response would require a conservative counterrevolution in the policy process that directly addressed the ideational and institutional bases of environmental policy. That response would flow from the confluence of three distinct streams of conservative thought: libertarianism, traditionalism, and anticommunism. This chapter discusses how the fusion of these distinct elements of postwar conservative thought formed the basis for a vigorous and visceral conservative reaction to environmentalist programs. It then turns to an appraisal of two landmark pieces of environmental legislation of the 1970s — the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) and the Clean Air Amendments Act of 1977 (CAAA) — both of which clearly illustrate the ideational and institutional challenges that environmental policy posed for conservatives.
Shannon Elizabeth Bell
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262034340
- eISBN:
- 9780262333597
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034340.003.0002
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
Chapter 1 begins with a description of the historical roots of exploitation in Central Appalachia, revealing how the economic, political, and social structures of the region have long been influenced ...
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Chapter 1 begins with a description of the historical roots of exploitation in Central Appalachia, revealing how the economic, political, and social structures of the region have long been influenced by its ties with the coal industry. An overview of the declining coal economy and the rise and fall of the union is then discussed, followed by an account of the earliest attempts to end surface mining in the 1960s and 70s. The next section details the myriad environmental injustices that face the coalfield region today, including mountaintop removal mining, flooding, coal waste impoundment breaches, water contamination, coal dust air pollution, and high rates of a number of chronic health conditions, including cancer, heart disease, respiratory conditions, and depression. The final section of this chapter describes the present-day environmental justice movement that is fighting to hold the coal industry accountable for the harms it has brought to the Central Appalachian region. The chapter closes with a reminder of the puzzle that frames this book: given the enormity of the coal industry’s deleterious effects on local communities, why are there such low rates of movement participation at the local level?Less
Chapter 1 begins with a description of the historical roots of exploitation in Central Appalachia, revealing how the economic, political, and social structures of the region have long been influenced by its ties with the coal industry. An overview of the declining coal economy and the rise and fall of the union is then discussed, followed by an account of the earliest attempts to end surface mining in the 1960s and 70s. The next section details the myriad environmental injustices that face the coalfield region today, including mountaintop removal mining, flooding, coal waste impoundment breaches, water contamination, coal dust air pollution, and high rates of a number of chronic health conditions, including cancer, heart disease, respiratory conditions, and depression. The final section of this chapter describes the present-day environmental justice movement that is fighting to hold the coal industry accountable for the harms it has brought to the Central Appalachian region. The chapter closes with a reminder of the puzzle that frames this book: given the enormity of the coal industry’s deleterious effects on local communities, why are there such low rates of movement participation at the local level?
Sean P. Bemis
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262034340
- eISBN:
- 9780262333597
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034340.003.0007
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
Chapter 6 argues that another factor inhibiting the process of consciousness transformation, or cognitive liberation, among local coalfield residents is a lack of knowledge about the extent of the ...
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Chapter 6 argues that another factor inhibiting the process of consciousness transformation, or cognitive liberation, among local coalfield residents is a lack of knowledge about the extent of the coal industry’s activities due to the fact that much of the destruction is not easily seen. The study presented in this chapter uses a geographic information system (GIS) in the top coal-producing county in West Virginia to quantitatively identify how much of the active and recently surface-mined land is visible from the roads in that county. This viewshed analysis reveals that although 47 percent of the total landscape in the county is visible from transportation corridors (including U.S. highways, state highways, and county roads), only 23 percent of the surface-mined land mass is visible from these corridors. Removing the county roads (which are remote and largely depopulated) from the analysis makes the findings even more dramatic: only 4 percent of the total area of surface-mined land in the county is visible from U.S. and state highways. The fact that so much industry activity is out of sight from local residents likely poses another hindrance to social movement recruitment.Less
Chapter 6 argues that another factor inhibiting the process of consciousness transformation, or cognitive liberation, among local coalfield residents is a lack of knowledge about the extent of the coal industry’s activities due to the fact that much of the destruction is not easily seen. The study presented in this chapter uses a geographic information system (GIS) in the top coal-producing county in West Virginia to quantitatively identify how much of the active and recently surface-mined land is visible from the roads in that county. This viewshed analysis reveals that although 47 percent of the total landscape in the county is visible from transportation corridors (including U.S. highways, state highways, and county roads), only 23 percent of the surface-mined land mass is visible from these corridors. Removing the county roads (which are remote and largely depopulated) from the analysis makes the findings even more dramatic: only 4 percent of the total area of surface-mined land in the county is visible from U.S. and state highways. The fact that so much industry activity is out of sight from local residents likely poses another hindrance to social movement recruitment.
