The new regime for managing US—Mexican water resources

United States-Mexican transboundary water resources management is presently experiencing significant reform resulting from long-term demographic processes in the border region and greater economic integration. The recently concluded North American Free Trade Agreement and supplementary environmental accord modify existing agreements and provide old institution with new mandates. Particularly affected is the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), long the lead agency in binational water management. This essay reviews the development of the new water management regime against the two preceding phases of management reform and considers its implications for improved water management in the border region.     

US strategic minerals: Policy options

The USA is becoming increasingly dependent on key strategic metals (such as chrome, cobalt, manganese and platinum-group metals) from politically unstable regions of the world. This dependence is the result of an inconsistent and fragmented US non-fuel minerals policy. Neglect of the US minerals industry has led to a decline in US mineral production and processing capabilities. Options for a comprehensive US non-fuel minerals policy include increased domestic production; increased substitution and recycling; a domestic stockpiling programme; and diversification of, and ensured access to, foreign sources of supply. These four options are examined and recommendations are made for increased mineral surveys of public lands, a regulatory review, domestic production of strategic minerals, tax incentives, conservation, stockpiling, and a foreign policy that will ensure security of supply.     

Patterns in natural resource policy: The US experience

Institutional arrangements (formal governmental policies) are the key to many resource problems. However, few efforts have been made to explain changes in natural resource policy over time. This paper traces the changing pattern in US resource policy during the 20th century. Trends in natural resource institutions since 1900 are divided into three distinct periods. Each period is characterized in terms of the criteria used to evaluate policy, the management tools used to implement policy, the role of government in resource policy, and distributional issues of the day. The paper ends with speculation about the source of fundamental changes in resource policy and the role of economists in the policy-making process.     

Landowner equity in Papua New Guinea's minerals sector: Review and policy issues

The involvement of local communities as equity holders in major mineral resource developments dates back over a decade in Papua New Guinea. This article reviews the history and result of landowner equity at two of Papua New Guinea's major mines (Porgera and Lihir), with a particular focus on the contribution of these equity holdings to local sustainable development. It is found that while an equity holding can provide significant returns to a local community, it also exposes them to significant financial risk. A second major area of concern is the structures and instruments by which revenues generated from the equity are distributed and utilized within the local community. Further research and policy redirection is required before local equity holding can be viewed as making a significant contribution to local sustainable development.     

A mineral commodity life-cycle?: Relationships between production,price and economic resources

The production, price and economic resources profiles of a number of mineral commodities are examined and consideration is given to the theory that such profiles can be related to one another within the framework of a life-cycle model of development. While the behaviour of some of the commodities examined appears to lend support to the theory, that of others reveals fundamental problems with its underlying assumptions. It is concluded that, while the demand for a mineral commodity in specific uses may indeed manifest cyclical tendencies, as a general behavioural theory and as a basis for resource estimation the life-cycle model applied to minerals is of little value.     

US federal tax policy: The evolution of percentage depletion for minerals

We are often tempted to believe that a nation's resource policy is the result of careful deliberation and conscious design and is articulated in a relatively few statutes. This paper traces the history of percentage depletion in the USA and finds that this particular resource policy has evolved in the absence of a recognizable master plan. Percentage depletion has developed through a continuing political tug-of-war in the US Congress as a seemingly unending array of special interest groups sought and finally gained the prize of percentage depletion for their industry.     

Harnessing community energy: the keys to climate mitigation policy adoption in US municipalities

Many US municipalities are engaged in climate change mitigation planning or efforts to reduce their communities' greenhouse gas emissions. However, most have adopted very few policies to implement their climate change mitigation goals, and many others are not pursuing climate change mitigation at all. This study examines municipalities' approaches to energy and climate issues and identifies the “keys to success” that influence the extent to which they adopt climate change mitigation policies.

Prior researchers have characterised climate change mitigation efforts as an example of multi-level governance, in which policies are formulated through a variety of networks and interactions between government actors and civil society. I find that municipalities that engage community interests and coordinate with neighbouring jurisdictions in their energy and climate planning processes are far more likely to adopt meaningful policies and conclude that such multi-level governance approaches are actually critical to the success of climate change mitigation planning.     

Shifting paths to conservation: policy change discourses and the 2008 US farm bill

From 2004 until 2006, reform of US agricultural subsidy programmes seemed a likely result of pressure from the World Trade Organization. Many groups saw this pressure as an opportunity to ‘green’ farm policy by crafting environmental service payments that could replace crop subsidies. Yet the 2008 US farm bill fell short of such drastic changes. This paper uses discourse analysis to trace the decline of prospects for reform of the farm bill, and a shift to incremental policy making between 2006 and 2008. It finds that, in addition to political and situational factors, striking discursive shifts altered policy debates and outcomes to create particular conservation impacts. It thus argues for broader use of rhetoric theory and discourse analysis to assess environmental policy. Implications for land conservation are presented in the context of interest group tactics.     

Mineral resources appraisal and policy: Controversies,issues and the future

Political-economic events of the 1970s brought mineral resource appraisal to the focus of national policy. Estimates of and methodologies for mineral resources appraisal were scrutinized, revealing deficiencies in method and data and fostering considerable debate about the credibility of estimates and about preferred methodology. Since credibility can be increased through the acquisition of additional geoscience information, questions regarding methodology have more than one formulation and therefore more than one correct solution, depending upon the expected value of additional information and the conditional losses of relevant policy options. When existing information is meagre and the expected value of information is high, the optimum decision may be to defer all policy options until after the acquisition and analysis of- additional information. Decision theory offers an analytical framework that is sufficiently generalized to provide answers for highly varied circumstances of geoscience and resource information and policy issues. Our ability to perform any such analysis is limited by inaccuracies in both geologists' estimates of undiscovered mineral resources, and in economists' calculations of conditional losses of policy options for each of the relevant states of mineral resources.     

Industry Response to the Challenge of Sustainability: The Case of the Canadian Nonferrous Mining Sector

/ The paper investigates how the Canadian nonferrous sector is tackling the challenge of sustainable development. Although there is no consensus as to what sustainable development means in practice for management in the sector, at least three dimensions must be taken into account: (1) metals are recyclable, the availability of this resource is not a concern for the foreseeable future; (2) the need to minimize environmental impacts of metals exploration, extraction, transformation, consumption, and recycling; and (3) production activities should not be socially or culturally disruptive. The nonferrous mining industry faces several environmental problems. Some of the most significant are acid mine drainage, sulfur emissions, recycling, and metals toxicity. The industry has developed a number of responses to address these specific concerns as well as other more general challenges. Six strategies are described and analyzed: (1) research and development, (2) an effort of consensus building among stakeholders known as the Whitehorse Mining Initiative, (3) international networking, (4) active involvement in the development of environmental management standards, (5) management reorganization and (6) voluntary agreements. The importance of external factors in the shaping of corporate environmental management practices is discussed, in particular the role of government. Progress has been achieved in three areas: (1) managerial practices and organization, (2) reducing the impacts of ongoing operations and (3) minimizing future liabilities, but two significant fields of conflict remain, namely mining in wilderness areas and projects on aboriginal lands.KEY WORDS: Canada; Environmental management; Minerals industry; Nonferrous metals; Sustainable development; Whitehorse Mining Initiative     

Challenges to liberalism: The case of Australian energy policy

This paper considers liberal and nationalist economic policy approaches to the ownership and development of Australian energy resources (oil, gas, coal and uranium). In the two decades prior to 1983, Australia pursued economic policies in relation to its energy resources which could broadly be described as ‘nationalist’. Governments of the day intervened in development decisions in an effort to enhance the ‘national interest’. From 1983, along with the deregulation of the Australian economy as a whole, policy relating to energy resources was liberalised. Development of energy reserves henceforth occurred according to the dictates of the market. This paper argues that recent Australian energy policy initiatives reflect an increase in nationalist influences and a retreat from the liberalisation agenda that dominated energy policy making in the 1980s and 1990s. Three examples are discussed where policy has been influenced by a nationalist framework: (1) the domestic gas reservation policy in Western Australia; (2) Australian government efforts to promote a ‘value adding’ nuclear processing industry and (3) Australian Labor Party policy giving preferential financial incentives for gas to liquids projects. The re-emergence of nationalism in Australia is occurring either because policy makers now favour it as a path to energy security or in some cases because they believe that appeals to nationalism will generate political support.     

Eco-Labeling and ISO 14000: An Analysis of US Regulatory Systems and Issues Concerning Adoption of Type II Standards

/ Current private and public regulatory systems may not provide an optimal degree of regulation for labels bearing environmental information, and established institutions may detract from efforts to provide for better environmental management. The advent of ISO 14000 offers new opportunities for making eco-labeling a meaningful tool to encourage environmental stewardship. While new federal legislation offers the best vehicle to introduce these standards into US law, the slow pace of the legislative process may recommend an alternative system. Multinational and civic-minded firms may be expected to employ private programs to nurture benevolent environmental management practices until more definitive governmental institutions can be put in place.KEY WORDS: Eco-labels; Environmental labeling; International standards; ISO 14000     

New view of environmental health: Toward an environmental research policy for international strategies

We are witnessing a growing concern with the global dimension of many environmental issues, reflected in the increase in the number and significance of international environmental organizations. Yet there is no internationally applicable strategy for environmental research which is management oriented. A new type of research policy, which integrates ideas derived from environmental and human ecology, is required in order to deal with cultural and ecological diversity and their interactions as reflected in the ecology of landscapes. The newly defined concept of environmental health is proposed to fill this gap. This concept integrates the latest developments in landscape evolutionary ecology and environmental health, bringing out a conflict between making the environment conducive to human health and increasing the available options for supporting the essential biological and ecological processes of the environment. Lessons derived from the evolution of human environments are used in order to illustrate how health may become un umbrella for developing an environmental research policy, which could also serve as a catalyst for international environmental projects.     

Rethinking the management of transboundary freshwater resources: a critical examination of modern international law and practice

Available freshwater stocks are being depleted and impaired on a widespread basis, with acute shortages an increasingly frequent condition in arid climates. In transboundary basins, water scarcity and pollution compound interstate tension and contribute to human suffering and ecological damage. This article provides theoretical perspectives on shared freshwater disputes and on the evolution of the international law of shared water resources. It argues that the UN Convention on the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (ratified by some countries, but not yet in force) is inadequate as a framework convention in terms of providing general obligations on the future parties or an institutional framework for future action. The paper suggests that three critical concepts be considered in future management of shared water resources: (1) the unitary character of watersheds (where the absence of extra-basin diversions allows); (2) joint or communitarian watershed management; and (3) the relevance of international trade to alleviating regional food stress, resulting from local water scarcity. Finally, it proposes the establishment of an international advisory body on shared water disputes, modelled after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose role is codified in the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.     

Regional resource management techniques: The case of Colorado oil shale development

Regions under stress from rapid development require comprehensive planning and management tools, capable of identifying the pace, location and magnitude of growth and assessing social, economic and environmental impacts. Northwest Colorado, endowed with massive rich deposits of oil shale, went through a boom-bust cycle of growth during the early 1980s as US interest in synthetic fuels peaked and then rapidly declined. An innovative resource information system has been developed which has assisted the region in anticipating growth and modifying its consequences. This article reviews the organization and development of the Colorado Resource Information System (CRIS) and evaluates its role and impact in the decisionmaking process. Experience shows that regions which develop and maintain planning and information tools can have significant influence on economic development.     

The development of first-possession rules in US mining, 1872–1920: theory, evidence, and policy implications

This paper applies a property rights framework to federal mineral lands in the western United States from the enactment of the Mining Law in 1872 until the enactment of the Mineral Leasing Act for fossil fuels in 1920. There are two principal findings. First, the Mining Law appears to have been an effective means for assigning rights to mineral stocks on public lands (at least through 1920). This conclusion is supported by evidence from claim disputes in the West. Second, the impetus for the Mineral Leasing Act did not derive from the different physical characteristics of hardrock minerals and petroleum. The relevance of these conclusions to contemporary mineral policy is also discussed.