Public policy is an important aspect of this country because it determines which issues are

focused on. Learning to write public policy is very important because a badly written policy can

negatively affect whatever the subject of the policy is. In addition, writing environmental public

policy is even more important because it affects the future of the planet and possibly the future of

all life on earth. In this article, I will discuss how to write public policy, the unique

characteristics of environmental policy, and the difficulties in writing environmental public

policy, as well as outline some examples of environmental policies in effect.

Everything has to be short and snappy when writing for the public, according to Mike Rose.

Knowing that not everyone will be interested in everything you write, it cannot be too long or

boring. In addition, writers cannot assume that their audience knows anything, so the use of

difficult words will surely lose the interest of the audience (Rose 285-86). Once a clear

understanding of how to write in a public atmosphere has been achieved, students have a good

base for writing public policy. It is important to note that there are three main parts to consider

when writing public policy: the problem, the policy, and the players. The problem is usually a

nationwide issue that affects many people, moreover, it is something that needs to be done. The

policy aspect contains many different parts in itself, but it is simply an action set forth by

congress to help solve the problem. The last main part in public policy is the players. I will

discuss those in further detail in a few paragraphs, but for now, they are described as the

influential participants, whether it be legislators, lobbying groups, or the president himself. For

example, in the case of health care, many Americans are unable to afford health care, this is a

problem. The Clinton administration sought to give all Americans health care by expanding
coverage to uninsured people and reducing the money spent on health care. They enforced a cap

on health fees to reduce costs and the federal administrators set standards for care and ensured

that all institutions upheld these responsibilities. That is a policy. Lastly, the players consisted of

members of Congress proposing ideas, lobbyists making their ideas and opinions on the matter

very clear and trying to influence Congress (Smith 2).

Furthermore, the key to creating a successful policy, according to Smith, is communication.

Communication allows information to be easily transferred and makes action happen. Problems

could not be solved if no one communicated that there was a problem. Additionally, policies

could not be proposed to solve that problem unless communicated to the players involved.

Now that a short synopsis of public policy has been communicated, we can begin to look at

characteristics unique to environmental policy. Environmental policy takes mundane public

policy and adds some deeply complicated steps including the morality concept, a skewed view of

total welfare, and a lack of voice by the environment itself.

Many of the problems surrounding the creation of environmental policy involves the players,

mentioned as one of the three main parts of creating public policy. Elected officials in charge of

creating environmental policy are part of a group of elites whose views are not always the best

for the environment. Public policies are usually deeply flawed because the elites are unable to

create a valuable compromise between conflicting views (Gonzalez). Many of the issues lay

within an attempt to create a happy medium between economic growth and preserving the

environment, but many environmental needs are not met because doing so would not cause any
economic gains.The Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1970 to provide a

government agency specifically for giving a voice to the environment. While much of their

everyday work consists of regulating policy, the EPA has taken enormous steps to eliminate

economically-biased influences concerning making new laws protecting the environment. They

have created subsidized loans for companies in order to help them cover costs of adapting new

environmentally friendly factories. Despite this, the EPA is not at liberty to regulate pollution

from nonpoint sources. This means that pollution to waterways from farm runoff cannot be

documented. Due to this, it is hard to track down or blame individuals for the increase in

pollution. In addition, according to ONeill et al., inflicting pain on the environment is faultless.

Due to the fact that everyone contributes to the degradation of the environment, though not

always in equal amounts, no single person, or group of people, can be held accountable (212-13).

From this reason, policy makers are even less likely be pass laws and policies towards the

environment because they know that they themselves cannot be responsible, so they dont want

to waste their time.

To oppose the corrupt policymakers and make their voices heard, some authors created a genre

unique to writing about environmental issues. Many of these authors have no influence in the

policy making process, but are doing anything they can to make their views heard by officials.

This genre has almost always been around, but emerged with great popularity with Rachel

Carsons Silent Spring in 1962. Writing about the environment ranges on a great scale from

poems about the beauty of nature to advocating directly for reform.

Adding the environmental aspect to public policy introduces a morality side that is not seen in

other policies. Some species and areas of nature will be compromised to help the human race, but

many argue that we as humans have an obligation to protect the natural world and all that exists

within it to the best of our ability. To elaborate, the rainforests have been facing a devastating

amount of deforestation which has led to a severe amount of consequences. The trees have been

cleared to create farmland, crops from which help feed locals and others who cant afford

commercially grown items. Timber from the harvested trees is used to build all kinds of things

from housing to tools used to harvest crops grown in the fields. Additionally, much of the

worlds medicine is created using plants and herbs found only in the rainforests. However, the

Amazon rainforest alone produces over 20% of the worlds oxygen and losing that would cause

obvious problems. As you can see, the vastly disappearing rainforests is very controversial and

creating a public policy concerning the situation would be very difficult to maneuver and get

people to agree on the correct course of action. Stopping the deforestation would cause economic

havoc on the timber companies and stop a whole population of people from having access to

affordable food. However, the millions of species of animals that live in those forests would

never be in danger of losing their home, and the oxygen content of the world would not be

threatened. One must also notice that the animals losing their habitat have no voice in the policy

making process. They cannot stand up and fight for their habitat to be protected. This leads back

to the morality concept pertaining to animals: do they have a right to live in their habitat that, if

ruined, could benefit humanity? Due to its seemingly lacking influence in the public sphere,

environmentalists are forced to find any argument possible to fight for the wellbeing of the

environment.
Another difficulty faced by policy makers concerns the future of created policies and their

revisions. There are even times after a policy has been enacted and is looked at for revision

because it conflicts with an economic goal. For example, in 1977 the Endangered Species Act

was called into question when an endangered snail darter would risk the Tennessee Valley

Authority to abandon a very expensive dam project (Klyza 1). Building a dam can cause many

positive consequences, but in this case, it would directly cause the extinction of an endangered

species. A snail darter is just a small fish that doesnt . Due to the controversy of this case, the

snail darter became an icon for the Endangered Species Act.

However hard creating environmental policy may be, there are many advantages to and positive

outcomes that arise from a successful policy. Klyza and Sousa outline the golden era of

environmental policy making and the positive effects it had on society and the environment.

Between 1964 and 1980, 22 major pieces of environmental policy were placed into law. Most

dealt with improving air and water quality, and beginning the process to make factories and

utility plants environmentally friendly. However, the policy bliss quickly came to an end as

problems began to rise pertaining to costs to keep up the acts.