[CPEO-MEF] Building Environmental Policy Bridges

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

[Please excuse the duplicate posting. - LS]

Building Environmental Policy Bridges
An Open Letter to the Presidential Candidates

Lenny Siegel
July, 2008

The last several years have been marked by a decline in the federal 
government's commitment to environmental protection and equally 
important, a hardening of the battle lines between environmental 
advocates and those responsible for pollution and other forms of 
environmental degradation. The inauguration of a new administration in 
2009 presents an opportunity, not only to strengthen regulation and 
allocate sufficient funds to environmental programs, but also to change 
the way environmental disputes are resolved.

Both major presidential candidates tout their ability to create 
bi-partisan legislative coalitions. Indeed, the U.S. Senate's tradition 
of cooperating with colleagues on one issue while fighting on another is 
admirable. But I'm talking about something deeper in the halls of 
government, the use of multi-stakeholder dialogues to develop win-win 
solutions to difficult, often technical environmental problems.

A multi-stakeholder dialogue is a committee, usually advisory in its 
mission, which brings together multiple perspectives and interest 
groups, in and out of government, to address specific problems. Over the 
last three administrations I have participated in several such groups. I 
discuss below three of my most successful dialogues as the basis for the 
problem-solving model I recommend to the new administration.

Multi-stakeholder dialogues don't always work. Some disputes are too 
entrenched to solve cooperatively. Other policies are so overarching 
that they belong, from the start, in the hands of elected officials. But 
when they work, the dialogues not only establish better policies, but 
they spread knowledge and build the interpersonal relationships 
necessary to implement their findings and address other environmental 
challenges as they arise.

...

To download the full, three-page formatted letter, go to
http://www.cpeo.org/pubs/Bridges.pdf

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


_______________________________________________
Military mailing list
Military@lists.cpeo.org
http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/military-cpeo.org