Public Policy Problems In The Environment :: essays research papers

Public policy is defined by Websters as the The basic policy or set of policies forming the foundation of public laws, oddly such policy not yet formally enunciated. The United States regimen has many policies in the area of the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was shitd in 1970 to help identify environmental troubles in our nation, and to set policy on how to deal with those problems. Yet, with so much money spent by the politics to deal with problems with the environment, it must be noted that problems still exist, even at heart the bureaucracy that was meant to help in the first place. During the presidential campaign of the become election, an issue arose concerning the energy crisis that was driving gasoline and oil prices up throughout our country. Vice President Al Gore supported President Clintons ideology of waiting for the proper legislative initiatives to pass through Congress, and when the spatial relation merited, provide some limited rele ases of oil from the national oil reserve. candidate George W. Bush, on the other had, favored oil production in the government defend lands of Alaska to find future oil reserves so that America would no longer be so dependent on foreign oil. The problem with Bushs plan, according to Gore, was that this could be devastating to the environment of the only populated Alaskan wilderness. Regardless of the political, legal or moral implications of such drilling, there are problems dealing with multiple types of rationality in this issue. In his book Reason in Society, Paul Diesing describes six major types of rationality. These embarrass technical, economic, social, legal, political and ecological rational. It is easy to comprehend that this environmental issue involves each one of these types of rationality. First of all, the technical rationality is demonstrated through the principal of whether or not oil can be found in Alaska, and if it could, would there be enough present to r eally make a dramatic difference for the consumer? It must also be considered as to how this drilling may effect the environment of this area. Technical rationality also questions whether or not there are ways to drill that can mayhap leave the natural resources of this area with as little human hurly burly as possible. Engineers and scientists can try to come up with ways to create a process with which the area will not be devastated by the involvement with man in those areas.