Identify at least two ways in which energy and environmental policies are interrelated. Do you believe that the American policymaking process does a good job of coordinating actions in these two policy areas? Be sure to justify your answer.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Students may identify any of the following: (1) Failure to address the energy problem by exploring nontraditional sources of energy or by engaging in extensive conservation efforts will exacerbate the environmental problem; (2) both energy and the environment have a large technical and scientific element, and governments have at times required the development of new technologies to meet environmental constraints; (3) some regulations issued by the EPA to reduce pollution have required using more energy than would otherwise be used; (4) both energy and environmental policy are closely linked with the economy; (5) the two policy areas also have global considerations in common, for example, that pollution is no longer only a national concern and the ramifications of the overwhelming U.S. demand on energy, particularly oil. Students can point to examples of the high consumption of energy producing huge quantities of pollution; periodic shortages and high prices of oil and natural gas placing pressure on industries to burn cheaper coal, which also creates high levels of pollution. Each of these examples supports the need to coordinate energy and environmental policy. Overall, the patterns of policymaking make change in levels of coordination difficult.