NTRES 4302 - Environmental Policy Processes III

(CU-SBY)

Multi-semester course: Spring. 1 credit. Letter grades only.

Admission by special application process only. Enrollment limited to: juniors or seniors. This is the final course in a multi-term course. Students must complete all 3 courses to receive course credit.

C. Kraft, B. Lauber.

This on-campus and off-campus course sequence focuses on how environmental policy issues move through the federal policy-making process. Students select an environmental policy topic during the fall semester session (NTRES 4300) for analysis during the second part of the course (NTRES 4301). The second session continues course focus on contemporary environmental problems, how they are defined, aggregating interests, agenda-setting, formulating alternative solutions, implementation and evaluation, and roles of lobbyists, advocates, the legislative, executive, judicial branches of government, and other actors. DC activities also include organized meetings with policy makers, advocates and experts as guest panelists. The spring semester session (NTRES 4302) requires presenting an oral policy briefing and writing both short and long policy briefs based on the DC interviews and additional research.

Outcome 1: Students will be able to define what constitutes an environmental policy problem.

Outcome 2: Students will be able to describe the stages of policymaking.

Outcome 3: Students will be able to compare the ways that actors, institutions and constraints interact to influence policymaking.

Outcome 4: Students will analyze specific case studies of environmental policy problems and efforts to address them.

Outcome 5: Students will prepare and use notes from interviews with policymakers to summarize diverse perspectives regarding a contemporary environmental policy problem.

Outcome 6: Students will evaluate, synthesize, and contrast sources of information in preparing an objective environmental policy analysis.