Department of City and Regional Planning

Department of City and Regional PlanningCP 251–Fall 2008

University of California at Berkeley Professor Jason Corburn

CP 251: URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY & REGULATION

CCN: 13610, 3 UNITS,
TU, TH 9:30 – 11 am, 214B WURSTER,

This course will introduce students in the concepts, methods and processes for identifying, analyzing, and designing processes and policies to address urban environmental issues. The course will review specific tools for measuring urban environmental health hazards and human exposure to pollutants found in the air, water, soil and the built environments of cities. Students will also grapple with political questions of urban environmental governance, such as the appropriate sources of environmental knowledge, the institutions for making decisions, the role of social movements, and the place of urban environmental policy making in the broader spectrum of American, international, and global politics.

This course is designed for students with an interest in professional careers in environmental Planning, management and policy. This course therefore focuses on how environmental policies are designed and implemented, with attention paid to criteria and frameworks for evaluating the success of those policies. Case studies will engage students in hands-on assessments of and decision making processes to improve urban air and water quality, food access, sanitation and solid waste management, energy efficiency, and the connections between land use decisions and environmental health.

At the conclusion of the course, students will:

• have a comprehensive understanding of the range of environmental problems in cities and how they affect human health and regional eco- and social systems;
• be able to develop measurement and intervention approaches to address urban environmental issues;
• understand the current and potential role of local, state and national governmental institutions, community-based organizations, and international agencies in addressing urban environmental issues, and;
• be able to critically engage with the processes of urban environmental planning and management.

Assignments& Grading: (for additional assignment details see handout and bspace)

1)In class and out-of-class exercises20%

1. Details provided in-class

2)Policy memo 25%

1. DUE SEPTEMBER 30th

3)Mid Term Exam25%

1. In-class OCTOBER 16th

4)Final Paper30%

1. Abstract & bibliography DUE NOVEMBER 13th
2. 1 Required Meeting with Jason to discuss paper
3. FINAL PAPER DUE DECEMBER 15th

8/28 – Introduction to Environmental Policy & Regulation and Course

Required Readings:

Disposable Planet? 2002 BBC News Special Investigation into the environment of cities.

Susskind, L. 2000. “Environmental Planning: The Changing Demands of Effective Practice,” In, Rodwin and Sanyal (eds). The Profession of City Planning. Pp.164-168 ONLY.

9/2 – An Urban Environmental Policy Controversy: The Light Brown Apple Moth

Come to class prepared to discuss the controversy over the LBAM spraying.

Required Readings:

Kay, J. 2008. StatePlansBay Area Spraying, SF Chronicle, February 15.

Lynberg, M. 2008. Should the state spray urban areas? – Con. SF Chronicle. April 16.

Kawamura, A.G. 2008. Should the state spray urban areas? – Pro. SF Chronicle, April 16.

CDFA. 2008. Supportive Comments, May 1.

Altieri, m. 2008. Commentary: Apple Moth Pleads Not Guilty. Berkeley Daily Planet, May 1.

Kay, J. State vows to ensure moth spraying is safe, SF Chronicle, June 12.

Kay, J. 2008. Officials call of aerial spray for apple moth, SF Chronicle, Friday, June 20.

9/4 – The History of American Environmentalism& Cities

Required Readings:

Cronon,W. 1995. “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature,” In, Uncommon Ground. New York: Norton. Pp.67-113.

Merchant, C. 2003. Shades of Darkness: Race and Environmental History, Environmental Historyvol. 8, no. 3: 380-394.

Schultz, S.K. and McShane, C. 1978. To Engineer the Metropolis: Sewers, Sanitation and City Planning in late Nineteenth Century America.The Journal of American History, Vol. 65, No. 2, pp. 389-411.

9/9American Environmentalism & Cities II

Required Readings:

Jacobs, J. 1961. Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House. Chapter 5 (“The Uses of Neighborhood Parks”), pp. 89-111.

Carson, R. 1962. Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Chapter 3 (“Elixirs of Death”), pp. 15-37.

Walker, R. A. 2007. “Toxic Landscapes: Beyond Open Space,” In, The Country in the City: The Greening of the San FranciscoBay Area. Seattle: University of Washington Press, pp.205-228.

9/11The Politics of Environmental Policy & Regulation

Required Readings:

Dryzek, J. 1997. Leave it to the Experts: Administrative Rationalism,” In, The Politics of the Earth. London: Oxford. Pp.63-83.

Reich, R. 1988. "Policy Making in a Democracy," in R. Reich, ed. The Power of Public Ideas,Cambridge: Ballinger. Pp. 123-156.

Forester, J. 1989. “What do Planning Analysts Do? Planning and Policy Analysis as Organizing,” In, Planning in the Face of Power.Berkeley: UC Press, pp. 14-24.

Recommended:

Fiorino, D. J. 1995. Making Environmental Policy. Introduction & Chapter 6 "Strategies," pp. 167-201.

9/16Regulating the Environment: The Clean Air Act

Required Readings:

McCarthy, James E.; Parker, Larry B.; Schierow, Linda; and ClaudiaCopeland. (no date). Clean Air Act. From Summaries of EnvironmentalLaws Administered by the EPA, Congressional Research Service ReportRL 30022 (redistributed by the National Library for the Environment).

Layzer, J. 2002. The Nation Tackles Pollution: The Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air and Water Acts, in, The Environmental Case. Congressional Quarterly Press, pp.25-51.

Greenhouse, L. 2006. Justices first brush with global warming. New York Times. November, 30.

Dean, C. 2006. When questions of science come to court room, truth has many faces. New York Times, Dec. 5.

Recommend:

Cole & Grossman 2005, Institutional and TechnologicalConstraints on Environmental Instrument Choice: A Case Studyof the U.S. Clean Air Act. Chapter 10 in Environmental Policymaking: Assessing the Use of Alternative Policy Instruments, edited by Michael T. Hatch (Albany, NY: SUNYPress), pp.225-44.

9/18The National Environmental Policy Act & Environmental Planning

Required Readings:

National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.

Karkanian, B. 2004. Whither NEPA? New YorkUniversity Environmental Law Journal, 12:333-363.

Maantay, J. 2002. Zoning Law, Health and Environmental Justice: What’s the Connection? Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 30(4):572-593.

Recommended:

Andrews, R. Chapter 14: “The Unfinished Business of NationalEnvironmental Policy,” In, Managing the Environment, Managing Ourselves: A history of American Environmental Policy. YaleUniversity Press. pp. 284-316.

9/23Environmental Impact Assessment Exercise

Rapid EIA in-class group exercise:

Using the scenario provided to your group, work together to fill out the Rapid EIA Checklists. Record your results and email them to Jason by 5pm. Designate one person from your group to present a summary of group findings on Thursday, September 25th.

9/25Property Rightsand Environmental Protection

Required readings:

Dolan v. City of Tigard, 512 US 687 (1994). Read the ‘syllabus’ and court opinion; skim dissents by Stevens and Souter.

Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council, Inc., et al. v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency et al., 535 U.S. __ (2002),

9/30Land Use and Neighborhood Environmental Quality

DSNI film

MEMOS DUE

10/2Science, Expertise and Environmental Policy

Required Readings:

S. Jasanoff. 1990. “Peer Review and Regulatory Science.” In, The Fifth Branch: Science Advisors as Policy Makers. Cambridge: Harvard. Pp. 61-83.

Corburn, J. 2005. Street Science; Community Knowledge and Environmental Health Justice. The MIT Press. Introduction, Chapters 1-2. Pp.

W. Clark & Dickson. 2004. Sustainability science: The emerging research program. PNAS, 100(14): 8059-61.

10/7Risk and Precaution

Required Readings:

Andrews, R.N.L. 2000. “Risk-Based Decisionmaking,” In, Vig, N.J.Kraft, M.E. (eds). Environmental Policy (Fourth Edition), pp. 210-231.

Winner, L. 1986. The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1986), Chapter 8, “On Not Hitting the Tar-Baby,” 138-154.

Corburn, J. 2002. Environmental Justice, Local Knowledge, and Risk: The Discourse of a Community Based CumulativeExposure Assessment. Environmental Management, 29, No. 4, pp. 451–466.

Tickner. J. (Ed.) 2003. Precaution, Environmental Science, and Preventive Public Policy. Washington, DC: Island Press.Chapter 2 – Elements of the Precautionary Principle

“European Environmental Rules Propel Change in US,” New York Times, July 6, 2004.

SF Precautionary Principle – Purchasing Ordinance

SF Precaution Purchasing Target Products

10/9Toxics Use Reduction& Life Cycle Analysis

Required Reading:

O'Rourke, D. & Lee E. 2004. Mandatory planning for environmental innovation: Evaluating regulatory mechanisms for toxics use reduction. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 47 (2):181 – 198.

Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) -

West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project. Report from Pacific Institute.

Pacific Institute. 2006. Paying With Our Health: The Real Cost of Freight Transport in California. . ISBN No. 1-893790-14-2.

San Francisco. Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance, #81-07- 106883,

Gorn, D. 2008. San Francisco Plastic Bag Ban Interests Other Cities. NPR.

Film: Blue Vinyl

10/14Life Cycle Analysis Exercise

Required Reading:

In class LCA exercises: Plastic or Paper Bags & Port of Oakland

10/16MID TERM EXAM

10/21Economics and Environmental Regulation

Required Readings:

Porter, T. 1995. Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit ofObjectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press). Ch. 7, “U.S. Army Engineers and the Rise of Cost-Benefit Analysis,” pp. 148-189.

Dryzek, J. 1997. “Leave it to the Market: Economic Rationalism,” In, Politics of the Earth, London: Oxford, pp. 102-119.

M. Sagoff, The Economy of the Earth (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), Chapter 4, “Fragile Prices and Shadow Values,” 74-98.

10/23Markets & Climate Change

Required Readings:

California Air Resources Board, Climate Change Policy and Implementation strategy,

Congressional Budget Office. 2008. Policy Solutions for reducing CO2 Emissions. February.

Wara, M. 2007. Is the Global Carbon Market Working? Nature 445:595-96

Pielke, Jr, R. et al. 2007. Liftingthe taboo on adaptation. Nature 445:597-98.

Rosen-Molina, Mike. 2007. Carbon Credit Report: Can buying carbon credits tooffset the greenhouse gases you spew in daily life really help save us from globalwarming? EastBay Monthly, August 2007.

Lavelle, M. 2008. A Climate Change Proposal With Cash. US News and World report.

10/28Cap and Trade Exercise

Suggested Reading:

Grist, Carbon Trading Artciles,

Exercise: How should regulators control CO2 Emissions?

10/30Environmental Racism & Justice

Required Readings:

Di Chiro, G. Nature as Community. “Nature as Community: The Convergence of Environment and Social Justice,” in W. Cronon (ed). Uncommon Ground, pp. 298-320

Executive Order 12898 – Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations, February 11, 1994, available at:

Pellow, D.N. and Brulle, R.J. (eds). 2005. Power, Justice and the Environment, Cambridge; MIT Press, pp.1-19.

Recommended:

Pastor, M. J. Saad, R. Morello-Frosh. 2007. Still Toxic After All These Years: Air Quality and Environmental Justice in the San FranciscoBay Area. Center for Justice, Tolerance & Community, University of California, Santa Cruz.

NationalCooperativeHighwayResearchProgram. 2004. Effective Methods forEnvironmental JusticeAssessment. Transportation Research Board. Chapter 1. pp. 1-18.

11/4 - Addressing an Urban Environmental Justice Dispute

In class role play. Your group must finish Madrona assignmentoutside of class

11/6 – Civil Rights Law and Environmental Justice

Required Readings:

Weinberg, P. 1999. “Equal Protection,” Chapter 1 in M. Gerrard (ed.) The Law of Environmental Justice, American Bar Association, pp.: 3-22.

Pomar, O. 2002. Fighting for Air. Shelter Force, 126 (Novermber/December).

11/11 – ELECTION DAY - NO CLAS S – Vote

11/13 - EPA and Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE)

Guests: Richard Grow, US EPA, Region IX & Hank Topper

Required Readings:

EPA CARE web site,

Public Administration Association. 2008. Evaluation of US EPA’s CARE program.

11/18 Collaborative & Adaptive Ecosystem Management

Required Readings:

Karkkainen et. al 2000. “After backyard environmentalism” American Behavioral Scientist. Vol. 44 No. 4: 690-709.

Carmen Sirianni, 2006. Can A Federal Regulator Become A Civic Enabler? Watersheds at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” National Civic Review (Fall 2006) (will be available as pdf)

Negotiated Rulemaking, EPAs Negotiated Rule-Making Fact Sheet at:

Suggested Readings:

John T. Woolley and Michael Vincent McGinnis, with Julie Kellner, 2002. “The California Watershed Movement: Science and the Politics of Place,” Natural Resources Journal 42:1 (Winter 2002), 133-83.

11/20Toward Urban Sustainability

Required Readings:

E. Ostrom et.al., 1999. Revisiting the Commons: Local Lessons, Global Challenges, Science 284: 278-282.

Hecht, A.D. and William H. Sanders. 2008. How EPA research, policies, and programs can advance urban sustainability, Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy,

Pellow, D.N. 2008. Response to How EPA research, policies, and programs can advance urban sustainability by Alan D. Hecht & William H. Sanders III, Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy,

PLaNYC 2030. Skim Plan and 2008 progress report,

Chicago: Edens Lost and Found

11/25Urban Food Policy

Guest: Nathan McClintock, Geography Department

Required readings:

Rosenthal, E. 2008. Movable Feast Carries a Pollution Price Tag. New York Times, April 26.

McKie, R. 2008. How the myth of food miles hurts the planet. Guardian.

12/2Regional Environmental Planning: Sprawl and Green Urbanism

Required Readings:

Beatley, T. Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities. Washington: Island Press. Chapter 2, pp. 29-75.

Berg, N. 2007. LEED-ND: Creating A More Complete Vision Of Neighborhood Sustainability

Frumkin, H. 2002. Urban Sprawl and Public Health. Public Health Reports. 117:201-217.

12/4Health Impact Assessment

Required Reading:

Corburn, J & Bhatia, R. 2007. Health Impact Assessment in San Francisco: Incorporating the Social Determinants of Health into Environmental Planning. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management. 50:323-341.

12/9Wrap-Up

CP251: Environmental Planning & Regulation1