Nature red in tooth and claw

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• Nature red in tooth and claw

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• Homework 3 Work together. Start now.
• I have a few memos for students in Thurs.
  sections
• Memo 2
• I will handout an assignment but
• You can start thinking about your next topic.

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Announcements, cont.

• Attendance has been very light. This shows in
  the exam scores, sort of.
• Should I activate the Quiz option?
• Todays class
• Exams
• Bureau of Land Management
• Endangered Species Act
• Energy policy (mileage standards)

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Exams

• Here is a rough curve.
• Grade cut-offs are approximate.
• Answer key here.

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• 1. Why were SO2 allowance prices (for allowances
  issued under the Acid Rain Trading Program) so
  much lower than predicted in the early years of
  the Program?
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• There was a lot of innovation in pollution
  abatement. Plants found new ways to reduce SO2
  emissions. (Full points.)
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• 2. Under the Acid Rain Trading Program, plants
  are allowed to emit pollution above their limit
  if they buy allowances from some other plant.
  Discuss this claim briefly.
• Plants do not have a limit under the ARTP.

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Sample exam Q

• Maryland is considering introducing non-native
  oysters into the Bay.
• Under what conditions would a NEPA Environmental
  Impact Statement be required for this action?
• The State of Maryland is paying for the oyster
  restoration.
• But, the rebuilding of reefs was determined to
  require a Section 404 permit. (There was
  controversy over this.)
• If an EIS is required and it finds negative
  environmental effects, then what?

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Bureau of Land Management
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Bureau of Land Management

• Many issues are similar to the Forest Service,
  just a few years later.
• Main Issue Grazing management
• Multiple use mandate came much later

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Bureau of Land Management, cont.

• Grazing Permits The right to graze one
  Animal-Unit-Month on a specified area of public
  land.
• Distributed on an implicit long-term agreement.
• Fees fixed by government, not the market.
• They must be used. (Compare SO2 allowances.)

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Grazing policy

• Rancher complaints
• Risk and Asymmetry
• Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976
• First major update to the BLM
• Forest Service had its update that same year.
• Seemingly small changes in grazing policy

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Bureau of Land Management, cont.

• Sagebrush Rebellion!
• Political movement to reduce Federal control of
  western land.
• Most successful anti-environmentalist movement
  in the U.S.
• Wise Use aka County Rights movement

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Wise Use movement

• Goals
• Privatization and/or Devolution
• Devolution Greater management at the state or
  county level.

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• Recent Actions
• Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (1998)
• BLM may sell public land within a specific
  boundary around Las Vegas, Nevada. (Is this
  privatization or devolution?)
• Revenue
• State of Nevada General Education Fund (5)
• Southern Nevada Water Authority (10)
• Dept of Interior
• Probably more about urban development and money
  than about local control.
• But probably couldnt have happened without
  Sagebrush Rebellion!

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Endangered Species Act of 1973

• Short history
• 1874 Prohibition on hunting buffalo
• 1900 Lacey Act Prohibition on interstate
  poaching.
• 1903 First Wildlife Refuge
• What was the main issue in these laws?
• ESA precursor in 1966.
• Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of
  1971

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Endangered Species Act

• Passed with close to zero opposition.
• Only 4 no votes in the House.
• Unanimous in the Senate.
• No group publicly opposed it.

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• Sec. 2. FINDINGS-.The Congress finds and declares
  that-
• (1) various species of fish, wildlife, and plants
  in the United States have been rendered extinct
  as a consequence of economic growth and
  development untempered by adequate concern and
  conservation
• (2) other species of fish, wildlife, and plants
  have been so depleted in numbers that they are in
  danger of or threatened with extinction
• (3) these species of fish, wildlife, and plants
  are of aesthetic, ecological, educational,
  historical, recreational, and scientific value to
  the Nation and its people
• (b) PURPOSES-.The purposes of this Act are to
  provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which
  endangered species and threatened species depend
  may be conserved, to provide a program for the
  conservation of such endangered species and
  threatened species, and to take such steps as may
  be appropriate to achieve the purposes of the
  treaties and conventions set forth in subsection
  (a) of this section.

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• SEC. 3. For the purposes of this Act-
• (6) The term endangered species means any
  species which is in danger of extinction
  throughout all or a significant portion of its
  range other than a species of the Class Insecta
  determined by the Secretary to constitute a pest
  whose protection under the provisions of this Act
  would present an overwhelming and overriding risk
  to man.
• (14) The term Secretary means, except as
  otherwise herein provided, the Secretary of the
  Interior or the Secretary of Commerce
• (15) The term species includes any subspecies
  of fish or wildlife or plants, and any distinct
  population segment of any species of vertebrate
  fish or wildlife which interbreeds when mature.

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• (18) The term take means to harass, harm,
  pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture,
  or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such
  conduct.
• Note Take will have two meanings in
  endangered species policy.
• Aside This is rule-making language. (But
  its in the law.)

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Endangered Species Act

• What it does
• Listing
• Science is supposed to be the sole criterion for
  determining listing.
• Two categories Threatened endangered.
• Agencies
• Fish Wildlife Service Terrestrial species
• National Marine Fisheries Service (Commerce)
  Marine species

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Endangered Species Act, cont.

• Designation of critical habitat.
• - May consider economic effects.
• Listing triggers duties for Federal agencies.
• Federal actions must protect endangered
  species.
• NEPA!

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The snail darter story

• What is a snail darter?

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SAGA of the Snail Darter

• 1975 FWS lists the Snail Darter.
• Suit to stop construction of the Tellico Dam.
• Tellico Dam had a terrible benefit-cost ratio
  but
• Why didnt the EIS find the Snail Darter?
• 1978 Supreme Court upholds suit.
• "One would be hard pressed to find a statutory
  provision whose terms were any plainer than those
  in section 7 of the Endangered Species Act."

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• Snail Darter, cont.
• 1978 Congress amends ESA almost immediately.
  Creates God Squad.
• God squad A high-ranking committee that can
  grant exemptions to the Endangered Species Act.
• Secretaries of Agriculture, Interior, Army
  EPA Administrator head of Presidents Council of
  Economic Advisors

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Saga, cont.

• God Squad does not exempt snail darter!
• 1979 Legislation to allow completion of the
  dam. (How can they do this? Make sure you
  know.)
• 1980 FWS discovers healthy populations of snail
  darters in other TN rivers.
• 1982 ESA unanimously reauthorized!

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• Some issues so far
• The God Squad has not had a far-reaching effect.
  
• God Squad has heard only 3 exemptions and
  only 1 has gone through.
• Tellico Dam
• Grey Rocks Dam (whooping crane)
• Timber sales (spotted owl.)