Climate Politics: Environmentalists Need to Think Globally, But Act Locally

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Byย Nives Dolsakย and Aseem Prakash,ย University ofย Washington

As President Trump pivots from a failed attempt to overhaul health care to new orders rolling back controls on carbon pollution, environmentalists are preparing for an intense fight. We study environmental politics, and believe the health care debate holds an important lesson for green advocates: Policies that create concrete benefits for specific constituencies areย hard to discontinue.

Opinion pollsย and hostile audiences at Republican legislatorsโ€™ย town hall meetingsย show that the Affordable Care Act won public support by extending health insurance to the uninsured. And this constituency is not shy about defending itsย gains.

The same lesson can be applied to environmental issues. In our view, environmentalists need toย defend environmental regulationsย by emphasizing their concrete benefits for well-defined constituencies, andย mobilize those groupsย to protect theirย gains.

Environmentalists should continue making broad, long-term arguments about addressing climate change. After all,ย there is an important political constituencyย that views climate change as the defining challenge for humanity andย favors active advocacy on climate issues. At the same time, however, they need to find more ways to talk about local jobs and benefits from climate action so they canย build constituencies that include both greens and workers.

Pork-barrelย Environmentalism?

Americans have a love-hate relationship withย pork-barrel politics. Reformersย decry it, but many legislators boast about theย goodies they bring home. As former Texas Senatorย Phil Grammย once famously crowed, โ€œIโ€™m carrying so much pork, Iโ€™m beginning to get trichinosis.โ€ And pragmatists assert that in moderate quantities,ย pork helps deals get made.

Classic studies of the politics of regulation by scholars such asย Theodore Lowiย andย James Q. Wilsonย show that when benefits from a regulation are diffused across many people or large areas and costs are concentrated on specific constituencies, we can expect political resistance to the regulation. Groups who stand to lose have strong incentives to oppose it, while those who benefit form a more amorphous constituency that is harder toย mobilize.

We can see this dynamic in climate change debates. President Trump and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt contend that undoing carbon pollution controlsย will promote job growth. Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America,ย arguesย that the Obama administrationโ€™s Clean Power Plan will destroy coal jobs and communities, and that โ€œgreen jobsโ€ in clean energy industries are unlikely to be located in coalย country.

Climate change can beย framed in many ways, and there has been much discussion about which approachesย best engage the public. Environmental advocates can do a better job of emphasizing how climate regulations produce local benefits along with globalย benefits.

One promising initiative, theย BlueGreen Alliance, is a coalition of major labor unions and environmental organizations. Before President Trumpโ€™s recent visit to Michigan, the alliance releasedย dataย showing that nearly 70,000 workers in well over 200 factories and engineering facilities in Michigan alone were producing technologies that helped vehicle manufacturers meet current fuel efficiency standards. Regulations can be job creators, but this truth needs to be toldย effectively.

Pipelines: Local Jobs or Global Environmentalย Protection

President Trumpโ€™s approval of theย Keystone XLย andย Dakota Accessย pipelines demonstrates the difficulty of fighting locally beneficial programs with globalย arguments.

Environmentalists argue, correctly, that both pipelines are part of the infrastructure that supports the fossil fuel economy. For example, byย some estimatesย the KXL pipeline could increase global carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 110 million tons annually by making possible increased oil production from Canadian tarย sands.

However, both theย AFLCIOย and theย Teamstersย support the projects. They believe pipelines create jobs, although there isย broad disagreementย over how many jobs they generate over what timeย period.

By endorsing both pipelines, Trump is probably seeking to consolidate his support among midwestern working-class voters who believe,ย rightly or wrongly, that urbanย environmental elitesย are imposing job-killing regulations. But these pipelines also impose local costs, which have spurredย Native Americanย protests against DAPL and opposition to KXL fromย farmers, ranchers and citizens in Nebraska.

Local protests have not changed the Trump administrationโ€™s political calculus on DAPL or KXL, which is why opponents in both cases are turning to the courts. But in other instances environmental groups have successfully mobilized communities by highlighting localย issues.

Conserving Utahโ€™s Publicย Lands

Federal control of public lands is a sore issue for Republicans,ย particularly in western states. Utah offers a fascinating example. State politicians want toย reverse President Obamaโ€™s designationย of the Bears Ears National Monument and reduce the amount of land included in theย Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument. But conservationists successfully blocked recent efforts byย allyingย with the outdoor recreationย industry.

Byย some estimatesย Utahโ€™s outdoor recreation industry employs 122,000 people and brings US$12 billion into the state each year. Utah hosts the biannualย Outdoor Retailer trade show, which brings aboutย $45 millionย in annual directย spending.

In response to Utah officialsโ€™ efforts to roll back federal land protection, the outdoor retail industry has announced that it will move the prestigious trade show to another state after its contract with Salt Lake City expires in 2018.ย Patagoniaย is boycotting the 2017 summer show and asking supporters to contact Utah politicians and urge them to keep โ€œpublic lands in public hands.โ€ Theย bicycle industryย is also planning to move its annual trade show to a location outsideย Utah.

Governor Gary Herbert has reacted by offering toย negotiateย with the industry. U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz introduced a bill in January that called for selling off more than three million acres of federal land in Utah, butย withdrewย it after massive protests from hunters, anglers and outdoor enthusiasts. Hunters and gun owners are important constituents for Chaffetz and other conservative Republicanย politicians.

Renewable Energy Means High-techย Jobs

Environmentalists also successfully localized green regulations in Ohio, where Republican Governor John Kasichย vetoed a billย in December 2016 that would have made the stateโ€™s renewable electricity targets voluntary instead of mandatory for twoย years.

As a politician with presidential ambitions who claims credit for his stateโ€™s economic success, Kasich knows that several high-tech companies in Ohio have committed to switching to renewable energy. As one example, Amazon isย investing in local wind farmsย to power itsย energy-intensive data servers, in response toย criticism from environmental groups.

Ohio froze its renewable energy standards for two years in 2014 after utilities and some large power customersย arguedย that they were becoming expensive to meet. But when the legislature passed a bill in 2016 that extended the freeze for two more years, aย coalition of renewable energy companies and environmental groups ย mobilized against it. In his veto message, Kasich noted that the measure might antagonize โ€œcompanies poised to create many jobs in Ohio in the coming years, such as high-technology firms.โ€

In sum, environmental regulations have a better chance of surviving if there are mobilized constituencies willing to defend them. And in the longer term, a local and job-oriented focus could expand the blue-green alliance and move the working class closer to the environmentalย agenda.

Nives Dolsakย isย Professor of Environmental Policy at theย University of Washington.ย Aseem Prakashย isย Walker Family Professor and Founding Director of theย Center for Environmental Politics at theย University of Washington.ย This article was originally published onย The Conversation. Read theย original article.ย The Conversation

Main image: The 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah protects one of most significant cultural landscapes in the United States, with thousands of archaeological sites and important areas of spiritual significance.ย Credit:ย Bob Wick, U.S. Bureau of Land Managament, publicย domain

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