Symposium: Policy Conundrums

CONSERVATION ETHICS Becky Norton Dunlop want to describe five principles that guided my aclions as Secretary of Natural Resources lk~r the Commonwealth of Virginia fl'om 1994 through 1998. I will offer some updated principles for an "'American Conservalion I'~thic."/Finally. I will discuss some of the current environmental issues we face and how some of these principles are being, or could be, applied. In Virginia. in 199.3, a youn,, man named Gcorec Allen was elected Governor of the (7olnmonwealth in what was an upset victory, defeating a popular incumbent Attorney General. Allen had rt,n as a Jeffersonian. He had served in the llouse of l)elegates and held the seat lhaI had once been held by Thomas Jefferson and he agreed with the ideas and principles of Jefferson. He laid out a pretty clear vision of where he wanled to take tile state in a number of policy afcas. His vision was to reassert economic growth in Virginia, reinvigorating a state whose economy had been stagnant l'~wfour years. He wanted to generate economic growth and activity so that more Virginians who wanted to work could have jobs. incomes could be increased. and family security could benefit. He also made it clear that he valued the natural r e s o u r c e s o f the Connnonwealth but not at the expense of people, their property, and their jobs. The George Allen who was elected governor of the Commonwealth was the son of the fanlous football coach George Allen. Governor Allen had learned from a great coach how to put together a good game plan, execute it, and bring home the victory. It was lay good fortune that he selected ine to serve as Secretary of Natural Resources arid manage the environmental portfolio for the Commonwealth of Virginia. My approach to this task was based on deeply held beliefs. I was then, and am now, a philosophical conservative. Friedrich Hayek. Adam Smith, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson--these are among the people that I have looked to in developing my philosophical underpinnings. I also have a Christian worldview: I have a strong belief that we have a responsibility on this earth to be stewards of a creation created by God. Further-

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more, i am "'results-oriented'" and I believe that environmental policy should be based on sound science. In short, I care about our natural surroundings and I have great respect and affection for people.

Managing Natural Resources at the State Level Early in my term in office, I gave a major speech because 1 wanted all the people in tile (?ommonwealth to know tile principles that would guide me and my agencies for the four years that we would be in office. The following five principles proved to be quite effective: 9

People are our most important natural resource

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Pe,'sonnel are policy

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Economic growth and environmental improveincnls :ire mutually dependent

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Natural resources are inherently dynamic and resilient and respond to sound conservation practices

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I-xcessive federal mandates and ,cgt, lations are injurious to the environment.

P r i , c i p l e N u m b e r 1: "Pe,q~le are o u r m o s t

il/I])OIT~llll II~llllFol I'e'SOtlI'{'U" Why should we care about environmental improvements? In essence, we care about the environment because we care about people and their health. Much to my surprise, this proved to be a controversial proposition. It actually is the dividing line in the environmental debate. If you think people arc important. wduable, and precious, you are on one side of lhc debate. If, on the other hand, you think people arc a blight on the planet, you arc on the other side. It's a very clear divide. Human ingent, ity, the natural resourcefulncss of people, was the basis for our policies in the Allen Adluinistration. President Ronald Reagan once said that if everyone just lived by the golden r u l e - - d o u n l o others, as you

C O N S E R V A T I O N Ii'IHICS

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would have others do unto y o u - - w e wouldn't need all these laws and regulations. That's pretty good environmental policy. If I don't want others to pollute my air, water, and property, then I ought not to pollute their space, either. Prim'iple Number 2: "Persomwl are p o l i o ' " When I said ill a speech that "'personnel arc policy." a couple of bureaucrats looked :it each other and seemed to say with lheir looks, "'Is she going to fire us all?'" Wha! I intended to communicate was that our administration was looking for people to work with us who were problem solvers, those who had a "can-do'" attitude. I said repeatedly that we were going to make use of all the diverse talents that we had in the Comn]onwealtla. We sent the message throughoul our bureaucracies that we wanted public serwmts to serve lhe people: To help citizens understand environnlental laws, and how to come into compliance with the laws so thal our environment would benefit. We did not want slate employees to be engaged in "'gotcha politics." Fnrthermore, we were going to work with people at :ill levels of g o v e r n m e n t - - t h e federal government, olher state agencies, and local government. ! met with more wastewater OpCl'UlOl'S (aka sewage treatment phiut nlanagers) than I ever thought existed. These people are on the fronl lines of environnlental protection for our water supply. For the most part, they are local governmcnt employees. I said that we also were going to look to acadenlia. We were going to find scientists who taughl ill Virginia's colleges and universities who could help ensure that we based our public policy on the best science awiilablc to tim. We also e n g a g e d high school and j u n i o r high school science teachers all over the ( ) o m m o n w e a l t h to involve their sttidents in water quality testing. We often provided them with the test kits. We told them, "'If you can teach your sttidents to test the water quality in your local creek, the slate will not have to send a state enaployee out to do it, and you will know exactly what the water quality is in your local section of the S ll'e~.tnl."

Finally, I made it clear that we wouhl look for people in the private sector to help us with natural resource issues. There are many people in the NGO COmlnunity (non- governmental organizations) who care about the environntent and Wahl Io improve it. We certainly wanled to include iheln, but we also wanted to int.'hide people in businesses in Virginia who cared deeply about tim condition of the air, water, huM, and the wildlife of the Commonwealth. We inw~lved students, scouting organizations, and private conservation g r o u p s such as Quail Unlintited, The Wild Turkey Federation, Vir-

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SOCIETY' 9 MARCH/APRIl. 2006

ginia Deer Hunters, and The Elk Foundation (they wanted to bring Elk to Virginia). Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs, Junior Achievement, and a host of other service organizations took part. As Alexis tie Tocqueville discussed in l ) e m o c r a c v in America, these groups formed because they had a common purpose and they wanled to work together to improve their community. When we said "Personnel is policy," we were talkin,, about including all of the people in Virginia that cared about lhe quality and condition [if our environment in setting policy for the stale. I>rin<'il)h, Nmnber 3: "E<'
tives of all of the entities that contributed to the Chesapeake Bay came together to form a Bay Commission. In essence, ju,'isdictions or major pollution sources said, "'We will take upon ourselves specific responsibilities in our own states to do things that improve the water that flows into the Chesapeake Bay." Over the course of time, the quality and condilion of the Chesapeake Bay improved. It demonstrated its resiliency. Something comparable to this has happened in nearly every region of the country. It has happened in the Great l.akes. I suspect there arc also comparable examples in the Missouri and Mississippi Rive, watersheds. Natural resources me dynamic and resilient and responsive to sound conservation management. Wildlife and foresls also exhibit this inherent resiliency. In the early days of the Virginia Comnlonwcalth. the vast majority of its trees were CUt down. They were logged for fuel, for roads and bridges, and to build houses. The COlnmOnwcalth was essentially denuded. Ibday. if you fly over the Virginia countryside, you can hardly believe that happened. We have robust healthy forests covering much of the state. Bluebi,-ds and wild turkeys that were once driven to the brink of extinction now fh)urish. In both instances a small group of people formed a private organization to save these beloved creatures. The Bhlebird Society members buih. or had buih, bluebird boxes with entry holes big enough for the bluebirds but not Mg enough for predators. As they put tip these boxes on trees and ferice posts across the slate, the bluebird populalioil re-

bot,,ltled. It did not take a governnlenl law or regulation. it took caring stewards of the environment. The resurgence of wild turkeys is due. in large measure. to The Wild Turkey Federation. This priva.ie organization works fill over this country to prolnOte wild turkey habitat. Why does it do this'? Because the only way you can be sure you arc going to gel a turkey when you go hunting is if you have a robust wild turkey population.

Principle Nmnher 5: "Lvces.sive.f'ederal mandates and re,gulalions are injuriou.v to the environment" Tiffs principle came into play my first day in office. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) had dictated to Virginia that it would have to put "'test-only'" garages for autolnobile emissions testing in place in northern Virginia. Previously. drivers could take their cars to service s t a t i o n s to have their emissions tested. If the car failed the test, the garage could make the needed repairs on the spot. Now the EPA was saying, "'That's not good enough because service station owners can't be trusted." (That's what they told me.) They wanted Virginia to build sepa-

rate garages and require 1.2 million of its citizens to have their auto emissions tested there. If they failed the test, the owners would have to drive across northern Virginia ill their polluting cars to a garage that could fix the problem. Then the owner would have to drive all the way back to the testing facility and have the car retested. If it failed again, they would have to repeat this process. If repairs exceeded a certain amount, then the owner no longer needed to altempl to fix the problem" lhei, car could just continue to pollute. Now how stupid is thaf? Governor George Allen said, "'We arc not going to do this. This is not good for the environment and it's not good for the people. We need to put laws ill place that are logical, and that will work for the people as well as the environment." We agreed that federal law required us to raichel up the emissions testing because we had an air quality problem. but we wanted our service stations to be able to put the eqttiprnenl in lheir own garages and do the testing there. The EPA said, "'No." Well. lhis battle went on for some time. We had press conferences and negotiating rneetings. Our I.Jnited Slates senalors even brought us together up on Capitol l lill to see if we could work it OUl. But we just were v e u stubborn about our desire Io solve this problem Virginia's way. Finally, the EPA said, "'Either you do it our way or we arc going to cut off you highway money." What happens if you cut off highway money? You ,,et nlore trafl+ic ctlnEeslion alld CO,lEestio,i causes ,llO,e air pollution. And so. here we were with an air pt)llulion problem. I-PA was imposing a bad program on the state and then said if we didn't accept its bad prognml it would cut off our highway money, producing more congestion and more air pollution. We fought and fought, until the EPA had an epiphany as a result of the 1994 congressional election. Within a ,no,lth of the Republicans winning a majority in the House of Representatives. we had a call from EPA administrator Carol Browner's office saying that we could do our own emissions testing pl'ogram. Air quality in Northern Virginia improved and we moved into an "attainment status"---the air quality in Northern Virginia improved measurably. Our s t e w a r d s h i p of Virginia's natural resources proved to be successful inemploying these principles as did George Allen's economic agenda. These experiences provided the basis lny book. Ch,arinv the Air: lh,w the

Pecwle qf Vi#i~inia hnproved the Air and Water Despite the EI'A. I got the name for the book l:ronl the title of a feature article in the Richmond "lTmes Di.v~atch. The article reported on the results of a scientil]c study of environ-

('ONSI']R VA'IION I!I'HI('S

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mental trends in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a study that showed that the environment had been degrading until 1994 and then it began improving. I state in the book, and I repeat that the Allen administration cannot, and does not, take all the credit for the environmental improvements that happened starting in 1994. But radical environmentalists assert that, if" you have economic growth, you will degrade the environment. We had record economic growth and the environment actually improved. In short, the five principles I outlined do work. Conservation Principles i would like to add five new principles to the original five that I developed as Secretary of Natural Resources in Virginia. These propositions a,'e important to understand and ponder as we face new environmental challenges. They provide a basis for what I term an "'American Conservation F.thic.'" "'Our q[~rts to control and remediate i~olhttion .should achieve real environmental benqfits" It certainly seems logical that we should expect a cleauer envil'OUlllent as a rt2su][ of goverunleut efforts. it is surprising, however, how much money flows through lhe EPA. the Inlerior Department, the Corps of Engineers, and the l)epartment of Energy that does more to maintain the bureaucracy thzul to ilnprove tile environment. The point is that the American people have a right to know how their tax dollars are spent and how these expenditures improve the environment. 1 told my state employees who had plans for how to spend ta• money or their time on environmental projects that I wanted to know in black and white just how much each activity was going to reduce the negative ilnpacts of pollution on air quality, water quality, or the land. I wanted to be able to talk about measurabh" resttlts, not just meetings attended. The result of emphasizing real benefits was fewer meetings attended and more specific plans with measurable outcomes - h o w farmers in valley W with X number of acres on the creek bank would see a reduction of Y pollutants to the creek if we planted Z number and types of trees or grasses and how much lhe water quality of the creek would improve. All of the employees and citizens that we were dealing with unttm'stood that we wanted to use tax monies in ways that produced real environmental improvements. "The learning curve is green" "The learning curve is green" is shorthand for saying we are getting much better at using technology to locate, extract, and use natural resources. Take a tree,

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SO('ItqTY* 9 MAR('H/APRII. 2006

tot instance. Lumber mills used to remove the bark and a good portion of the tree with it and simply dispose of it as waste. Sawdust would be left in piles or possibly burned. Now every scrap of that tree is used. If it's not used in a long piece of lumber, it's used in plywood or laminate, or it's chipped and then glued together to make particleboard. Even sawdust has become a resource that is incorporated into p,'oducts. The lea,ning curve is green. Tim aluminum beverage can is another example of better resource utilization thanks to better technology. Thirty years ago, an empty soda can was difficult to dent by squeezing it. But the old tin call was replaced by a h u n i n u m - - a n d less and less aluminum over the years. Now you could not only crush it. you actually could rip it in two. Free market pressures to reduce costs drove can makers to develop better use of mineral resources. Technology and market forces reduce waste the lea, nlng curve is green. I:armcrs today get a much greater yield on each ac,e of land even with lower inputs of fertilizer. They do a better job of figuring out how little fertilizer can be put on tile land to have a maximum yield. This reduces the farnmr's costs and reduces possible water quality damage from fertilizer run off. hnproving agricultural yields also means that there is more land left over for wildlife. You don't have to cut down so many trees to grow more crops. The highest wflued use of erosion-sensitive lauds becomes foresthmd rather than farmland when better-suited plots yield more crops. "Natural resources .~hould he managed on a .sile- and situation-.Vwcific basi.s" Every corner of Virginia is different. We have mountains, valleys, rivers, and seashores. In every part of America we have different situations and we should not have Washington, D.C. decreeing a one-size-fitsall mandate for environmental policy. We need to be devolving tile management of our resources to the lowest level possible to be certain that solutions are focused on site- and situation-specific circumstances. "Sciem'e should be employed as a tool to guide public poliey '" Who could disagree with the principle of using the best science to guide public policy? It is great fun to make speeches about this bul there are many environmental policies in this cotmtry that are not based on science. If you hold public office as I did. you find thai al times you may have two scientists come into your o f rice to discuss an issue, and both have differing scien-

tific evidence and viewpoints. Elected officials, like Governor George Allen and his agent Becky Norton Dunlop, for example, have the responsibility to make a decision about public policy based on one of these scientific arguments. In other words, public officials should not listen to scientists and then make a decision that ignores the best science. Unfortunately. during the 1990s, the EPA did too much of that.

Hence, there are two sides to that coin of sending more "responsibility to the states." We need to keep working to make certain that Congress takes action to return not only more enforcement responsibility but also more program authority to the states. Another positive development is that we have a Secretary of Interior who is highly colnmitted to citizen stewardship, as is the President of the United States. Secretary of Interior Gale Norton travels from one end

"'tinviro#tmental policies that emanate,l)'om liberty are the most ,succes.~;f)d" We have environmental challenges in the United States of Anlerica and I might not think that what they do in Washington, I).C. is always the best al)proach. I mighl prefer that decision-making be done in Missouri or Virginia. In totalitarian countries, however. I couldn't even express my views. In totalitarian countries like the former Soviet tgnion,

of the country to the other looking for people who are doing positive things for the environlnenl. She then raises their stories to a high profile so others can letuTl

they had constitutional provisions that said polhltion was unlawful. But the conlnlunisl party controlled the governniont, which isstled the permits, and controlled the industries that received the perlnits. They conlrolled the en forccmeni of their en vironmental sttitutes, as well.

As a result, the most polhited spots in the world are ill the ft)rnler Soviet Union. We don'l know the extent of environmenlal problonas in China today because its government is secretive about such information. In a free society, we can discuss our problenls" we can identify our problen>: and wc can debate our probloins. We also have extremely bright people who are constantly thinking aboul how It) solve our problems. l:urthernlore, in a private eute,prise econon)y, problena-solving companies and individuals tire rewarded in a tangible way for their solutions. What are some of the environnmntal challen,,es that we are lookin-= at today and what (It) we see happening in Washington D.C.? ()no of the good things is thai the EPA has devolved more aulhorily to the states on environnmntal issues. They have recognized the fact thal there is no "'race to the bottom" of the environmental barrel in the states. In every stare, people want to have clean air and clean water. Thus, the EPA has turned over increasin<,,~, amounts of authority to state officials. There is anolher side it) the devolution coin. however. ()ftentimes, the EPA is simply making state officials administralive agents of the federal government. The job of state environnlenlal officials is to look out for their own citizens, to iinprove the quality of the environment for their particular state or locality. You don't want thein to become the agent of some ()thor entity that has a point of view with which they disagree.

by exanlple. There also is a new emphasis at the federal level on ways Io facilitate states working together. For exanlple. the Corps of l']ngineers is attompling to promote co)operation on water fh)ws in the Missouri River. llusinesses use the Missouri River; wildlife depends on the Miss()uri: and recreationalists use the river. Not surprisingly, these various rises Solnetilnes conflict. lxikes in North Dakota and South Dakota were built

to prevent l]ooding anti to control water flow into the Missouri River. Well, what happens when yell build a nice lake? People build houses around the hike and they want to go waterskiing and fishing. When you lower the lake's level to iilaintain river levels for barge traffic in the summer, homeowners and businesses tied to tourisln Lit these inq~oundmenls I)ecoine unhappy a n d c t ) n l -

plain Io their elected ropresenlalivos. The Corps of I{ngineers tackled the Miss()uri river nl;.isier plan ancl for the first time in ninny years brought all of these parties together to conic up with an agreci)leilt tin how to manage the water in the river--which is a good thing

for the loderal govornnlent to tit). The Corps is aiteinptii'lg a sin'lilar inoeling of the minds in I:h)rida with respect to the Everglades. It is trying to work with the st(lie and with local conlnlunities to devise pieces of the plan for each community so that people can participate in the restoration of the river system that contributes to the Everglades. The fedenil government's facilitating and providing good science and good analysis is intich belier than en~aging in nlandales.

l.egislative

hnprovements What can Congress tit) to deal more effectively with

SOllle of the rcnlaining environnlental challenges? To begin with. ())ngl'ess needs it) Itlrn even nlore titllhority over it) the states as they begin revising the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Clean Air Act. Congressmen and women should look fo," w'ays to give slates incentives to be excellent and wise mantigers of our natural resources.

C()NSERVATI()N ETIIICS

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O n e particular piece o f legislation o f note could

improve A m e r i c a ' s access to its own oil r e s o u r c e s - Seacor. The idea o f Seacor is to give coastal states the authority to approve off-shore drilling out to the 200mile limil, which is the point where America has control of the ocean and ocean bottom. There are enough oil and gas resources in that area o f the United States to make America energy independent. We have improved and sophisticated ways of extracting oil and gas from clwirtmmentally sensitive areas in cost-effective ways. The goal of this legislation is to pass on royallies from oil and gas production to the states to be invested in environmelatal ilnprovements. It could pay the bill for lhe Everglades restoi'ation plan, tkw example. Of course, a portion o f the revenue generated needs to c o m e to inland states, as well, because o f f s h o r e resources within the 200-mile limit belong to all Ainericans. Seacor is an innovative way of thinking. It uses the best new technologies available today. It ensures thal the states are overseeing the explol'atiola so they can bc satisfied lhal it is being done in a manner that is compatible with the desires of lheir citizens. A portion of the value of the extracted resources then can be used to ilnprovc the envilonlnent of each slale as its representatives see fit. hi closiilg, l would like to mention a report thai the Anlerican Enlerprise hlslilute and the Pacific Research Institute pul-qish animally, The Imh'.t o f lx'adiHg Em'iro#lnleHtal hldicators. The inost recent iudex was released in late April 2005. The report catalogs coi~tintting improvements iit envir(minei]lal quality in the United States. If you take the time to look it over, you will be impressed with the progress shown. Hopefully, you also will be inspired to do more to make certain that America continues to enjoy econolnic growth and e13vironmental improvemclatS.

Julian L. Simon

The United States leads the rest o f the world economically and environmentally. We offer opportunities for the rest of the world. We have demonstated that a weallhier society is a heahhier s o e i e t y - - a society that is good for the elwironment and g o o d for the people. We should be upbeat, but we should also look for ways to continue tiffs record of e c o n o m i c growth and environmental improvement. I11 my view, this can best be accomplished by leaving envirolmmntal policy to the states and to the people.

SU(;(;ESTEI) FUR77tI-:R READING Bray. Thomas J. 2005. Soaring lligh: New Strategies f o r Enviromnental Giving. Washington I).C.: The Philanthrof)y Roundtable. Dunlop. Becky Norton. 2000. ('/earing the Air: I h m the Pe~qde r~/ VilT,,inia Imlnoved tlw State ~ Air aml Water Despite the I-PA. Arlington, VA: Alexis de Tocqueville Institt,tion. t layward, Steven R. 2005. Imh'x of Leading Enviromm'ntal Imlicalors. San Francisco: Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. and Washington. I).('.: The Alncrican Enterprise Institute for PuMic Policy Resea,ch. "'Private I.,md (7onse1vatiorl.'" 2004. Natural Re~ourr ,lr,urhal 44 (2). Sca,lett. l.ynn. 2004. "'Citizen Stewardship and the Environment." Society 41 (6): 7-11. lleckv Norton l)tmlol~ is vice pre.~idenr,flu" e.ttelVltll relalions at The fh,ritage l"otmdation in Wa.~hin~trm, 1).('. lhi~ rtTort is aH edited trrmscriln r?/ her April 20, 2005 l(commtic Policy l.ecttu'e at Limlemrood Unil'ersitv in St. Charle,s. Mis.vmtri. The lecture wa.s co-hosted I~v the Institlile .fi)r Study o1 [:('(,nonli('.s (lilt/ thd Environment a m / t h e Ikivi.sion of Management.

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SOCIETY

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transaction Publisher of Record in International Social Science Rutgers--The State University of New Jersey Department BKAD06 0005 35 Berrue Circle Piscataway. NJ 08854-8042 ........