How organized resistance to new fossil fuel infrastructure became a political force, and how this might affect the transition to renewable energy. Organized resistance to new fossil fuel infrastructure, particularly conflicts over pipelines, has become a formidable political force in North America. In this book, George Hoberg examines whether such place-based environmental movements are effective ways of promoting climate action, if they might inadvertently feed resistance to the development of renewable energy infrastructure, and what other, more innovative processes of decision-making would encourage the acceptance of clean energy systems. Focusing on a series of conflicts over new oil sands pipelines, Hoberg investigates activists' strategy of blocking fossil fuel infrastructure, often in alliance with Indigenous groups, and examines the political and environmental outcomes of these actions. After discussing the oil sands policy regime and the relevant political institutions in Canada and the United States, Hoberg analyzes in detail four anti-pipeline campaigns, examining the controversies over the Keystone XL, the most well-known of these movements and the first one to use infrastructure resistance as a core strategy; the Northern Gateway pipeline; the Trans Mountain pipeline; and the Energy East pipeline. He then considers the "resistance dilemma"- the potential of place-based activism to threaten the much-needed transition to renewable energy. He examines several episodes of resistance to clean energy infrastructure in eastern Canada and the United States. Finally, Hoberg describes some innovative processes of energy decision-making, including strategic environment assessment, and cumulative impact assessment, looking at cases in British Columbia and Lower Alberta.

The Resistance Dilemma: Place-Based Movements and the Climate Crisis (American and Comparative Environmental Policy)

Politics & Social Sciences

Hoberg, George

Social Sciences

The MIT Press

Vast changes in U.S. environmental policy from the New Deal through the Reagan administration have occurred that shed light on the nature of the American regulatory state. This book focuses on the sweeping transformation of regulatory policymaking that took place around 1970. The rise of social regulation and the advent of public interest movement during the 1960s and 1970s led to a significant change in policy outcomes, as the influence of governmental actors and political activists increased at the expense of business. By homing in on two specific areas, pesticide regulation and air pollution control, this study attempts to describe and explain these changes.
This book is distinguished by its explanation of the transformation to the new system, its understanding of the way the new regulatory arrangements affect policy outcomes, and, most important, its explicit consideration of recent controversies in empirical political theory. The results provide an assessment of both the strengths and the weaknesses of the new institutionalism as a theoretical approach to studying domestic public policy in the United States. The regime framework developed here is designed to emphasize the multiplicity of forces behind public policy. This volume will be of interest to students of the American policy process, environmental policy and regulation, and theories of the American state, in academia, government, and the environmental policy community.

Pluralism By Design: Environmental Policy and the American Regulatory State

Science & Math

Earth Sciences

Praeger

Risk, Science, and Politics: Regulating Toxic Substances in Canada and the United States

Paying particular attention to how politicians and bureaucrats in the two countries deal with the scientific uncertainty that pervades environmental decision making, Harrison and Hoberg analyse case studies of seven controversial substances suspected of causing cancer in humans: the pesticides Alar and alachlor, urea-formaldehyde foam insulation, radon gas, dioxin, saccharin, and asbestos. They weigh the strengths and weaknesses of each country's approach according to five criteria: stringency and timeliness of the regulatory decision, balancing of risks and benefits by decision makers, opportunities for public participation, and the interpretation of science in regulatory decision making. The Canadian approach is exemplified by closed decision making, case-by-case review that relies heavily on expert judgement, and limited public debate about the scientific basis of regulatory decisions. In contrast, regulatory science in the United States is characterized by publication of lengthy rationales for regulatory decisions, reliance on standardized procedures for risk assessment, and controversy surrounding the interpretation of scientific evidence.

HARRISON, KATHRYN

Politics & Government

Carleton University Press

McGill-Queen's University Press

Degrees of Freedom: Canada and the United States in a Changing World

Business & Money

Banting, Keith G.

Economics

The book's primary aim is to determine whether Canada and the United States have become more similar as their economies have become more integrated and their societies more diverse. The authors conclude that, although powerful economic and social pressures clearly constrain national governments and lead to convergence in some areas, distinctive cultural and political processes preserve room for distinctive national responses to important problems of the late twentieth century. Authors include Keith Banting, Paul Boothe (University of Alberta), Marsha Chandler (University of Toronto), George Hoberg, Robert Howse (University of Toronto), Christopher Manfredi (McGill University), George Perlin (Queen's University), Douglas Purvis (Queen's University), Richard Simeon, and Elaine Willis (consultant, Toronto).

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