Public Policy Problems In The Environment :: essays research papers

Public policy is defined by Websters as the The basic policy or restrict of policies forming the cosmos of public laws, especially such policy non yet officially enunciated. The United States Government has many policies in the area of the environment. The Environmental safeguard Agency (EPA) was created in 1970 to help identify environmental problems in our nation, and to set policy on how to deal with those problems. Yet, with so much money played out by the government to deal with problems with the environment, it must be noted that problems stock-still exist, even within the bureaucracy that was meant to help in the first place. During the presidential campaign of the last election, an issue arose concerning the energy crisis that was driving gasoline and oil prices up throughout our country. Vice President Al Gore support President Clintons ideology of waiting for the proper legislative initiatives to become flat through Congress, and when the situation merited, provide some limited releases of oil from the internal oil reserve. Candidate George W. Bush, on the other had, favored acting in the government protected 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 annihilative to the environment of the scarcely populated Alaskan wilderness. Regardless of the political, legal or moral implications of such drilling, there are problems dealing with multiple types of intellect in this issue. In his book Reason in Society, Paul Diesing describes sextuplet major types of rationalness. These include 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 exhibit through the question of whether or not oil can be found in Alaska, and if it could, would there be eno ugh present to sincerely 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 possibly leave the natural resources of this area with as small-scale human interference 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.