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Energy and Environmental Policy
Leonard Fikes
PLCY 700 – Foundations of Statesmanship and Public Policy
April 17, 2020
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Introduction
Energy and environment are two sectors that influence each other. Energy is a primary
essential for survival and a crucial factor impacting the employment and economic development
of a country. Most of the countries depend on fossil fuel that includes natural gas, oil, and coal,
as the basis of their industrial development. Although electricity is used in some cases, its
generation depends heavily on fossil fuel. Others depend on bioresources to generate energy. The
two forms of energy generation affect the environment. The high energy negative effect on the
environment invokes the need to develop environmental laws that restrict the level of
environmental degradation in energy sourcing. Thus, energy and environmental policies seem to
influence each other in a country. This paper analyzes the two policies challenges and facets and
their competing goals.
Key Facets and Challenges Related to Environmental Policy
Environmental policy is concerned with how to manage the relationship between the
natural environment and humans in a mutually beneficial way. Environmental policy was
initially focused on various activities waste flows, controlling pollution, and restricting habitat
loss. Nevertheless, policymakers have started to integrate the environmental policy with other
policy areas and sectors, especially with an increase in climatic changes in the world. Some of
the environmental policy facets include governing public “bad” and “good” (Benson and Jordan,
2001). According to Benson and Jordan (2001), the cost of environmental degradation is
tolerated by society at large and not just by the polluter. This demonstrates the importance of
environmental policy and the expansion of their scope. In most cases, environmental damage
comes from socially legal activities such as food and energy production. The state is therefore
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frequently forced to police public goods consumption by restricting the damages that a single
section of society can inflict on others. This makes environmental police inherently regulatory.
Some of the challenges experienced in environmental policy are that it has redistributive and
distributive consequences due to its regulatory nature (Benson and Jordan, 2001).
According to Benson and Jordan (2001), regulatory policies create extra conflictual
politics between interest groups and the government, as the state force to assume expensive
abatement measures. Another major challenge is the need for balance. The government must
create a favorable business environment to establish a healthy economy to offer welfare support
and jobs. This means environmental regulations are somehow tethered by government economic
needs as a balance must be maintained. Another challenge is the complex and uncertain nature of
environmental assets. While some can be repaired, others can disappear and collapse never to
resurface (Johnstone, Hascic & Kalamova, 2010). The environmental policy is highly
complicated by this irreversibility, especially when distinguishing it from more simply reviewed
sectors such as social or tax affairs. Irreversibility means that piecemeal policy reactions need to
be substituted for ones that forecast issues and address them analytically. The policy is also
influenced by political border especially where a legal action in one area affect the environment
aspect of others especially in aspects such as the global warming (Johnstone, Hascic &
Kalamova, 2010).
Key Facets and Challenges Related to Energy Policy
In the United States, energy policy centers on three main goals that include guaranteeing
a secure energy supply, minimizing the costs of energy, and safeguarding the environment. About
those objectives, government programs have been created to enhance energy utilization
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efficiency, to enhance the domestic conventional energy production sources, and to create new
energy sources, especially renewable sources (Yacobucci, 2016). One of the main challenges
experienced in the energy policy is the different importance offered to different energy policy
aspects. Some are concerned about the dependence of foreign energy imports especially from the
Persian Gulf, others are concern about overreliance on fossil fuels as the country’s main source
of energy, and its contribution to climatic change and global warming controversy. The lack of
uniformity on the matter of importance in the energy sector and perceiving government
intervention as a necessary evil to some and as a positive intervention in others makes it hard to
reach of point of agreement in the formation of energy policy (Griffin and Steele, 1986). Another
major challenge facing energy policy is sustainability. Most forms of energy used today are
unsustainable, especially with the continuous increase in use and exploitation. This brings a huge
challenge in setting a policy that will enhance sustainability in depleting sources of energy,
especially fossil energy (Yacobucci, 2016).
How Energy and Environment Policy Areas May or May Not have Competing Goals
The main objective of environmental policy is to preserve the environment by preventing
pollution and overexploitation of natural depleting natural resources. One of the depleting natural
resources is fossil fuel sources (Sinha, Shahbaz, and Balsalobre, 2017). Energy is the main
determinant of economic growth and development in a country. Thus, although energy policies
do focus on safeguarding the environment, this does not happen without considering the
economic impact of the same. This results in conflicting goals. Maximizing production and
economic growth goes hand in hand with an increase in the level of pollution, and
overexploitation of fossil energy (Sinha, Shahbaz, and Balsalobre, 2017). This results in two
competing goals where environmental policy focuses on reducing pollution and energy policy
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focus on enhancing economic growth. The two policies can also have shared goals especially
when energy policymakers focus on promoting renewable energy as the main source of energy in
the country. Renewable energy is clean energy, and it thus plays a great role in enhancing the
achievement of the environmental policies in a country (Jacobsson and Lauber, 2006).
Biblical Model of Government and Statesmanship
The biblical model of government and statesmanship in energy and environmental
policies focuses on enhancing social justice. According to Benson and Jordan (2001), the
consequences of environmental degradation are not suffered by the degrader but the poor in
society. This means despite the actor, we all suffer as stated in Isaiah 21: 4-6 that “the earth is
defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the
everlasting covenant. Thus, a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. ….”.
This is also demonstrated in Jeremiah 2: that states “I brought you a fertile land to eat its fruit
and rich product. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable.” This
implies that when people defile the earth, the inhabitant of the earth suffer and the future
generation lack good resources that would enhance their livelihood (Ronan, 2017). The biblical
model encourages the kind of governance that cares about the environment and preserving its
riches for the survival of all. Good statesmanship must be characterized by ensuring policy made
focus on preserving the environment and not destroying it and ensuring the sustainability of
resources, especially energy resources. This should be upheld even when more economic
benefits are realized in the overexploitation of resources than conservation (Ronan, 2017).
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Bibliography
Benson, David and Jordan Andrew. “Environmental Policy: Protection and Regulation.”
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Science 7, (2015): 778-783.
Griffin, James M and Steele B. Henry. Energy Economics and Policy 2nd ed. Cambridge:
Academic Press, 1986.
Jacobsson, Staffan, and Lauber Volkmar.” The Politics and Policy of Energy System
Transformation-Explaining the German Diffusion of Renewable Energy Technology.”
Energy Policy, (2006): 1-35. DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2004.08.029
Johnstone, Nick, Hascic Ivan and Kalamova Margarita. “Environmental Policy Characteristics
and Technological Innovation.” Economia Politica 27, no. 2(2010): 275-299.
Ronan, Marisa. “Religion and the Environment: Twenty-First Century American Evangelicalism
and the Anthropocene.” Humanities 6, no. 92 (2017): 1-15.
Sinha, Avik, Shahbaz Muhammad and Balsalobre Daniel. “Exploring the Relationship between
Energy Usage Segregation and Environmental Degradation in N-11 Countries.” Journal
of Cleaner Production 168, (2017): 1217-1229.
Yacobucci, Brent D. “Energy Policy: 114th Congress Issues.” Congressional Research Services,
(2016): 1-8.
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