Natural Resources and Energy Production – Prof. Melinda Taylor- Summer 2010
6-3-10
Attendance: cannot miss more than 3 days
10% grade = class participation
70% final-open book open note
20% case memo-2-3 pages long, June 21st or 22nd
What is “Natural”?
Continuum-highly manipulative system, urban city system on one end, on the other end-untouched system, e.g. Antarctica
park land-highly manipulated – think central park, less natural then a national forest
point: bring own system of values when evaluate something
every decision made in natural resources context is overlaid by values in a given context
Rocky Mountain Arsenal situation
area just outside of Denver 17k acres of land, military used it to manufacture chemical weapons, after WWII person bought it to test and make pesticides
shell then bought it, and produced pesticides until 1982
crops failing because farmers irrigating with contaminated ground water
clean up began in 1974, federal gov’t stepped in the 1980s as a priority clean up
ongoing clean up, projected to be done in 2011
1986: fish and wildlife service, discovered number of endangered species at site, bald eagles, rare plants, because fence put around area for such a long time, wildlife migrated into it, plants establish itself there, valuable from a habitat perspective
1992 Rocky Mtn Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge Act, once cleanup system is complete will be a refuge, 12,500 acres
surface will have to be turned over to complete clean up, question is if doing that results in destruction of habitat of species that live there
if ground water is useful to some communities, does that make a difference?
questions:
1) moral obligation that humans have to clean up an area because they contaminated it, get back to pristine condition
2) doing that will disturb wildlife, make a difference?
3) if necessary to disturb wildlife, in order to clean drinking water, should we do it anyway?
is arsenal less natural, than undisturbed refuge
natural area or refuge should be a pristine area?
matters what wildlife is there now, not what happened before?
Cronon’s Categories:
1) nature as naive reality
nature is beautiful, nature doesn’t change over time and that is what people value
accurate? most people understand that nature is always changing, changing currents, species evolving
inherently true that nature of a waterfall to always be in a certain type of setting, something immutable about nature but not in a temporal sense
context of oil spill-law applicable to damages, nature of business of deep sea drilling is that will have to deal with spills in the future
species will always need a certain habitat
2) nature as moral imperative
GMOs genetically modified organisms, banned, even though are not detrimental to human health, though could out perform regular species,
deal with whole range of activities other than dealing with protecting a place
3) nature as eden
places that are still relatively untouched, heart of Amazon, leave untouched because what we aspire to have on a larger scale
4) as artifice
do manipulation of natural systems, irrigation, cut down forests to create pastoral settings, parks, golf courses, imposing humans ideas/visions on a landscape
5) as commodity
idea of passenger pigeons destroyed, birds being harvested for feathers alone, sea world, anything less valuable about family going to sea world for vacation rather than going to Colorado, experience and exposure to species in nature
6) nature as demonic other
earthquakes, volcano, things happens, humans don’t have any control over, power of nature, is used against certain activities, e.g. damming up a river, moralistic value
Fire in Nature
yellowstone-reintroduction of wolves to yellowstone, last one shot in 1926, number of elk skyrocketed-manipulated and changed the plant community
1995-at urging of wilderness society, gov’t introduced 14 wolves into yellowstone, brought in from canada, successfully bred and thrived in yellowstone
proposed delisting the wolf from endangered species list, then farmers hunters could shoot wolves, so elk population could increase again, wildlife defenders stopped the delisting
now another conservation organization, called elk foundation, which wants to appeal that decision, wolves reintroduced were stronger than native wolves, gov’t screwed up when introduced “wrong” wolf, ecosystem still changed
does it matter different species of wolf that was introduced?
right for gov’t to value wolf as opposed to the elk?
Bill McKibben p.10
nature has ended, doesn’t exist anymore because has been manipulated
reflects his own values of nature
Fire:
fires occur naturally, rethink fire policy of putting them out, fire should be used as land management technique
Sri Lankan coral reefs
unsustainable harvest, takes decades to grow
subsistence building needs,
moral implications
immoral for people to be harvesting coral, different because of the society, poorer society
gov’t offered for these people to go into farming, most refused
obligations to future generations
moral obligation to protect species/ecosystems apart from any obligation to future generations? American view? fish and coral have own right to exist
Environmental Ethics
Biocentrism (life centered)
deep ecology
everything has rights, even rocks and soil?
land ethic
more prevalent-community of species have a right to exist, humans are not inherently more valuable, harvest for own existence but not to eliminate a species
anthropocentrism (human centered)-our duty to exert dominion over other forms of life, judeo christian view point, life exists to serve us
utilitarianism
Mill- greatest value to greatest number of people
baxter p. 17-argument speaking on behalf of people in general, need to make case to common person that management of resources in a certain way will benefit that certain person, won’t work
people not moved by argument that protect species because they are simply out there, need to say how their own welfare will be changed if species is extinct or goes missing,
economic value
consumable ecosystem goods-fish, cranberries, can be harvested
activities (non-mkt) hiking, water skiing, swimming
existence value/bequest value-value some resources because they exist
value because we want children and their children to see a panda someday
ecosystem services-wetlands-flood control, filtration, pollination
intergenerational equity
6-4-10
Guest Speaker: David Wolfe-Science of Conservation
EDF-Env’t Defense Fund
Ecosystem definition:
components, plants and animals, animals migrating in and out, as well as solar energy, water, nutrients migrating, so components + processes
both pieces and processes must be conserved
food chains:
food pyramid-need lots of plants to support mammals then have predators at top, lose efficiency as go up the pyramid not all energy from plants end up in lions
national heritage programs-do research and monitoring to keep track of endangered species
G1: critically imperiled
G2
G5: Secure
concentration of biodiversity hotspots in SW US, CA aggressive at monitoring species through national heritage program
Examples of Endangered species and conservation status
Bald Eagle
build nests in tall trees near water, but adaptable, range is widespread
biggest threat other than humans is DDT
DDT banned, eagles rebound came off of endangered species list
Woodpecker
habitat-pine trees in SE U.S., logging prevalent, habitat destroyed in late 1800s early 1900s
small home range-territories of a few acres to dozen acres
aggressive conservation, conserving remaining patches of pine habitat
Ocelots-used to prevalent across south TX, now only 60-70 individuals left in wildlife reserve in very small area, because their habitat has become cultivated land or urban areas, instead of the dense thorn scrub that it occupies
getting run over
Golden Cheek Warbler
conservationists in Austin coordinating with conservationists in South America (where their winter habitat) is
Conservation Incentives
technical and financial assistance
regulatory assurances
safe-harbor agreement
between landowner and fish and wildlife service
agreement that says that if LO is willing to do something beneficial for species, create habitat for such an amount of time, LO allowed to take habitat back to starting point conditions after a certain amount of time
build in comfort with LO, while creating benefit for species
most LOs when sign safe harbor, that have no intention to go back to baseline, but like knowing that they can return to baseline if they need to
mitigation banks
LO who has habitat, sells credits to developers who are destroying habitats
Recovery credit systems
offset Ft Hood’s impact on GCWarblers’ habitat
Ft Hood gets credits that it accrues in an account, and if takes action that impacts negatively habitat, then can dip into that account
Ecosystem service payments
compensate LOs for managing in such a way as to provide clean water, carbon sequestration habitat for endangered species and other ecosystem services
Lecture:
Eco. Value of Natural Resources (ctd)
consumable ecosystem goods (timber0
ecosystem services
Hedonic pricing-used to evaluate how much open space adds to real estate value, have real estate next to reserve, lots that overlook it reserve are worth more
replacement costs-of flood control services of LA barrier islands, build bunker instead
wetlands-water filtration system, how much cost to build a water treatment plant
difficult to put a dollar value on ecosystem service
have to go through cost/benefit analysis of proposed regulation or rule
very difficult, but agencies must go through these
Natural Resource Management Challenges
Scarcity
Resource Category
Examples
Primary Mgmt Challenges
Extractive; non-renewable
coal, oil, copper
provide incentives for further development; equitable allocation
Extractive; renewable
fish, timber, soil, ground water
ensure sustainable yield; equitable allocation
E
million acres, create in 1960 by Eisenhower, oil discovered in 1968, debate whether to commence drilling, caribou
oil industry-jobs, revenue, infrastructure created for indigenous people, reduce dependency on foreign oil, = 30 years of imports from Saudi Arabia,
drilling pads are smaller now, won’t impact value of land
opponents to drilling-most env’t groups, eskimo groups
impact is more than oil industry is saying-need infrastructure and roads
drilling areas (though called small) will have significant impact on caribou
having cheap oil reserve will slow technological advances in renewable energy resources, provide only less than 2% of oil consumption, take a decade to bring it online, have more impact with renewable sources
pipeline breaks, oil spills
fragmentation of habitat
pollution from road construction, equipment
uncertainties-pipeline could be beneficial for caribou, people don’t really know how caribou would be affected
don’t know how economically feasible it is to get the oil down to the lower 48 states, transport by sea
how should the uncertainties weigh into the decision:
for opening ANWAR-address problems as we go, adaptively manage, if impacts to caribou, figure it out, make adjustments
opponent of drilling-uncertainties become a key part of the argument
use oil spill in the gulf, very vivid limitation of technology, here is a pristine harsh env’t don’t know how the env’t will be impacted by it
Tools for Managing Natural Resources(5 Ps)
1) prescriptive regulations
command and control
limits on fishing, here is limit, don’t exceed limit, require reports periodically
need effective enforcement
knowledgeable implementing agency that hasn’t been captured by the regulated community
2) property rights
establish property rights, holder will have more incentive to manage resource more efficiently
air and water contact
utilities can emit a certain amount of SO2 and can sell right to pollute to someone else
difficult to establish rights of resources, e.g. migratory birds, who owns them
difficult to allocate the right
main statute debate dealing with climate change, right to emit different greenhouse gases among the utilities and other entities
pay for allocation or give them the allocation, costs would be passed on
3) payments and penalties
subsidies-
encouraged bad natural resource management
swamp buster- fed gov’t pays farmers to allow land to return to swamp/natural state
4) tradable permits
related to property rights, hybrid b/w property rights and prescriptive regulation
gov’t bans a certain activity, e.g. emission SO2, except when have a property right to emit a certain pollutant
result in inequities, rewarding someone who is inefficient in the use of the resource
5) public disclosure
used with success to encourage positive behavior
ex: dolphin friendly tuna label, consumers became concerned about dolphin death and responded positively
EPA, TRI database, env’t group put it on the web, can find industries in a zip code and how much they are emitting
so industries start figuring out a way to reduce their emissions
6-8-10
Administrative Agencies
within the executive branch, can adjudicate disputes between parties (judicial), can issue rules and regulation (legislative), and enforce (executive)
arguments as to whether this is const. under separation of powers
US v. Grimaud
Ranchers challenge USFS’ fee for grazing in national forests
SCOTUS upholds the fee:
impracticable for congress to regulate the details
agencies can carry out these different fxns and not violate separation of powers
p. 213 impractical for congress to figure out every detail itself, fine for congress to delegate to an agency
agency’s discretion limited by statute
limited to terms of the statute, and subject-matter that the agency is charged with regulating
look at enabling statute
Natural Resource Agencies
Dept of Interior
Fish and Wildlife Service
regulates endangered species
