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Making EPA Great Again? A Study of how the Politicization of Climate Change Affected the American Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Obama and Trump administrations

Cotton, Carl LU (2021) STVK02 20211
Department of Political Science
Abstract
The politicization of scientific facts, such as climate change, is a highly debated phenomenon in the US. It is well established that climate change is both real, and human-caused. Still, significant parts of the American political community refuse to adhere to this scientific fact. During the Trump administration this resulted in the American Environmental Protection Agency becoming the focal point of this schism between the scientific community, and parts of the political community. To study in which way the agency was affected by the politicization of climate change, the Obama and Trump administrations were compared through a Single-N study with a longitudinal design. The results show that the administrations often adhered to their... (More)
The politicization of scientific facts, such as climate change, is a highly debated phenomenon in the US. It is well established that climate change is both real, and human-caused. Still, significant parts of the American political community refuse to adhere to this scientific fact. During the Trump administration this resulted in the American Environmental Protection Agency becoming the focal point of this schism between the scientific community, and parts of the political community. To study in which way the agency was affected by the politicization of climate change, the Obama and Trump administrations were compared through a Single-N study with a longitudinal design. The results show that the administrations often adhered to their political narrative in their proposed budgets, but that congress often forced both administrations towards a more neutral compromise, in order to receive bipartisan support. The conclusion is that although the actualized budgets changed marginally during both administrations, the politicization of the agency happened through the day-to-day administrative actions and the political narratives pushed through rhetoric, and that this likely resulted in an inefficient agency, with probable issues concerning the working environment. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Cotton, Carl LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK02 20211
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Politicization, Climate Change, Environmental Protection Agency, Principal-Agent Theory, Presidential Administrations
language
English
id
9045076
date added to LUP
2021-07-06 11:37:27
date last changed
2021-07-06 11:37:27
@misc{9045076,
  abstract     = {{The politicization of scientific facts, such as climate change, is a highly debated phenomenon in the US. It is well established that climate change is both real, and human-caused. Still, significant parts of the American political community refuse to adhere to this scientific fact. During the Trump administration this resulted in the American Environmental Protection Agency becoming the focal point of this schism between the scientific community, and parts of the political community. To study in which way the agency was affected by the politicization of climate change, the Obama and Trump administrations were compared through a Single-N study with a longitudinal design. The results show that the administrations often adhered to their political narrative in their proposed budgets, but that congress often forced both administrations towards a more neutral compromise, in order to receive bipartisan support. The conclusion is that although the actualized budgets changed marginally during both administrations, the politicization of the agency happened through the day-to-day administrative actions and the political narratives pushed through rhetoric, and that this likely resulted in an inefficient agency, with probable issues concerning the working environment.}},
  author       = {{Cotton, Carl}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Making EPA Great Again? A Study of how the Politicization of Climate Change Affected the American Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Obama and Trump administrations}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}