Environmental, Health, and Safety Tradeoffs: A Discussion of Policymaking Opportunities and Constraints Page: 2 of 21
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Environmental, Health, and Safety Tradeoffs: A
Discussion of Policymaking Opportunities and
Constraints
Summary
A policymaker making a decision on approving a program may face the
questions, What are the tradeoffs? What alternatives are foregone by committing
resources to that program? This issue has been sharpened in environmental, health,
and safety policy because studies indicate that some programs are more cost-effective
than others, suggesting that redirecting resources from less efficient to more effective
programs would increase overall national economic welfare.
Actually making implied tradeoffs has proved difficult, however. One reason
is continuing controversy over methods for evaluating the risks, costs, and benefits
of alternative programs - leaving uncertainty about exactly what would be gained
and lost in a tradeoff. Other constraints affecting tradeoffs include variations in
regulatory standards among environmental, health, and safety statutes and political
responses to nonquantifiable values such as equity. Legislative efforts to revise the
statutes or to establish more comprehensive reviews of tradeoffs have moved slowly.
Two further factors constrain the ability to make a tradeoff at a particular time
and in a particular institutional context. One consists of institutional structures and
procedures that impose limits on possible ranges of decisions within the legislative
and executive branches. For example, an appropriations subcommittee typically
weighs spending tradeoffs only among programs within its jurisdiction, but not
tradeoffs with programs in the jurisdiction of other subcommittees even if the
programs are related. Similarly, statutes authorizing environmental, health, and
safety regulations may be written by separate committees, leading to variations in
cost-effectiveness standards for protecting the public health and environment.
A second complicating factor occurs when a program's alternative(s) would
require a shift in who can decide on the use of the resources involved, as when a
regulatory program is considered in lieu of a tax-supported program. Deciding to
regulate industrial air pollutants mandates spending by industry and consumers;
choosing not to regulate leaves those monies available to the industry's executives
and consumers, who can invest/spend them according to their own preferences.
Having little control over alternative expenditures, a decisionmaker tends to focus on
each program as self-contained, not to compare options.
The actual tradeoff faced by a legislator or policymaker at a particular time and
place is constrained by institutional structure and rules, and by the fact that most
decisions are up-or-down, not between program options. Many putative tradeoffs
exist only in a theoretical sense: they are tradeoffs not then and there available to that
policymaker. Making environmental, health, and safety tradeoffs on the basis of
cost-benefit analyses implies restructuring decisionmaking processes, but such
restructuring is very difficult in itself, and it is unclear whether the results would
more accurately reflect the informed preferences of the Congress - or the citizenry.This report is unlikely to be updated.
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Blodgett, John E. Environmental, Health, and Safety Tradeoffs: A Discussion of Policymaking Opportunities and Constraints, report, February 27, 2004; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc817952/m1/2/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.