Abstract
Since the time when this chapter was written – some 3 years before publication – the context for US environmental technology policy has been transformed. Three seminal developments stand out: the Administration of President Obama; the economic recession, and consequent government rescue package; and a new commitment in the US to craft climate change policies. What these changes imply is a new mind-set about the connection between the environment and technological change, an enormous increase in environment and energy-related research, and significant movement toward new laws and incentives to attack climate change. Given these developments, the pessimistic tone with which the paper ends needs to be modified to some extent.
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Notes
- 1.
In fact, several other statutes, including those dealing with pesticides, hazardous consumer products, and endangered species, were passed during the 1970s. All of these constitute important elements of environmental policy. They are not included in the discussion here both for reasons of brevity and because technology does not figure nearly so explicitly in their structure as it does in the regulatory areas covered above.
- 2.
It is also interesting to note that the dominant producer, Monsanto, went out of the business entirely, and began a long process of corporate reinvention.
- 3.
This suit, which enlists the northeast states and California, was recently argued in the Supreme Court. The Bush Administration argued that CO2 was not the kind of pollutant envisioned in the CAA and that it cannot take action unless Congress directs it to do so.
- 4.
January 19, 2007.
- 5.
The insurance industry in particular has for some time provided some of the best analysis of the economic risks of climate change, and has been most forceful in its advocacy for new national policies.
References
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Heaton, G.R. (2010). Environmental Technology Policy in the US, from the 1970s into the Twenty-First Century. In: Sumi, A., Fukushi, K., Hiramatsu, A. (eds) Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies for Climate Change. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-99798-6_18
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