EPA Green Book, Part 3

[In this series I examine in depth the Green Book Sustainability and the U.S. EPA, commissioned by the EPA from a committee of the National Academy of Sciences.]

If you, Dear Reader, undertake any part of the Green Book itself, you should, of course, read the Summary.  In six pages it helpfully explains, in fairly clear bureaucrat/scientist language, what the book is about and what role the Academy urges for "sustainability" at the EPA.

The Academy claims that the exercise was not to "address laws pertaining to the EPA" (p. 3).  However, the next sentence reads as follows,

"The committee did, however, examine the benefits, where EPA has statutory and discretion in regulatory and nonregulatory programs, of building sustainability into its administration of these statutes."

But, please, you are not supposed to misinterpret that clear sentence as any sort of "power grab." 

"Sustainability," you see, "is our true north," as the Green Book quotes an agency official.  The committee merely wishes to help EPA "institutionalize sustainability" (p. 2).

You may be tempted to think of "sustainability" as ensuring that future human generations have a quality environment to sustain life.  Or, perhaps, you just associate the idea with the fight against global warming.  It is so much broader than that, according to the committee (p. 2), as it will help tackle "the complex problems,"

"including population growth, the widening gaps between the rich and the poor, depletion of finite natural resources, biodiversity loss, climate change, and the disruption of nutrient cycles."

Keep in mind that--although the word "sustainable" does appear in EPA's mission statement--the words "population," "rich," and "poor" do not.

The Academy urges the EPA to engage with a wide range of stakeholders (p. 5) including the following,

"state regulators, local officials, industry, academia, community and advocacy groups, and the international community."  Voters, citizens, Congress, (or any elected official), business, and the media, need not apply.