CP6223 - Policy Tools for Environmental Assessment

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	City and Regional Planning Program Course Descriptions
About Us MCRP Program Doctoral Studies Research & Outreach Faculty & Staff CRP Calendar & News Resources for: Graduate Students Undergraduate Students Prospective Students Alumni & Former Students City and Regional Planning Program College of Architecture Georgia Institute of Technology 245 4th St., Rm. 204 Atlanta, GA 30332-0155 Phone: 404.894.2350 Fax: 404.894.1628 Contact CRP Program
	CP6223 - Policy Tools for Environmental Management Course Description Since the late 1960s, environmental policy and management systems have evolved significantly. Legislation of the past 30 years has yielded important improvements in the quality of the environment. At the same time, the costs of compliance are considerable. The direct costs of meeting environmental requirements exceeds $100 billion per year and the indirect costs may be just as great. The rules and regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency arguably affect the American economy more than those of any other federal regulatory agency. Given its wide impact, it should be no surprise that U.S. environmental policy engenders controversy. Many questions arise. Have environmental laws worked effectively to improve the quality of the environment? How can society go about establishing environmental policies and management systems when faced with scientific uncertainties? What is the role and effectiveness of command-and-control regulation? What benefits can be accrued through alternative approaches to managing the environment, particularly market incentives and market-based rights, procedural tools, managerial tools, institutional formation, and capacity-building in the management of environmental quality? Course Objectives to probe the impact of human activity on environmental systems; to explore the various regulatory, managerial, and legal mechanisms available to policy analysts and decision makers; to examine the benefits and costs of these mechanisms as tools for protecting environmental quality. to assess opportunities and constraints to local, regional, state, and federal efforts to better manage environmental systems. Course Themes Determining Environmental Values Characterizing the Environment Characterizing and Integrating the Regulatory and Judicial System Characterizing and Integrating the Economic Setting Characterizing and Integrating the Social and Political Setting Towards More Holistic Environmental Policy Tools Alternative Tools for Protecting Environmental Quality Texts Marian Chertow and Daniel Esty, eds. Thinking Ecologically: The Next Generation of Environmental Policy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997. Ken Sexton, Alfred Marcus, William Easter and Timothy Burkhardt, eds. Better Environmental Decisions: Strategies for Governments, Business, and Communities. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1999. Norman Vig & Michael Kraft, eds. Environmental Policy: New Direction for the Twenty-First Century. Fifth Edition. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2003.
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