- PUBPOL 519 – Sustainable Energy Systems
- PUBPOL 563 – Politics of Environmental Regulation
- PUBPOL 564 – Government Regulation of Industry and Environment
- PUBPOL 585: Political Environment of Policymaking
- PUBPOL 650 – Introduction to Science and Technology Policy Analysis
- PUBPOL 653 – Global Environmental Governance
- PUBPOL 654 – Science, Technology, and International Affairs
- PUBPOL 655 – Energy in World Politics
- PUBPOL 754 – Research Seminar in Science, Tech and Public Policy
- PUBPOL 764 – Topics in Transportation Policy
PUBPOL 519 – Sustainable Energy Systems
Cross-listed with SNRE 574
Fall 2007
This course examines the production and consumption of energy from a systems perspective. Sustainability challenges and opportunities are explored by addressing global and regional environmental impacts, energy economics, technology options, consumption patterns and energy policy. First, the physics of energy and energy accounting methods are introduced including basic thermodynamic efficiencies and life cycle efficiencies. Next, the current energy system that encompasses resource extraction, conversion processes and end-uses is covered. Topics on the supply side include fossil energy resources and electricity generation from fossil and nuclear fuels. The demand side covers residential and commercial buildings, industrial sector and transportation sectors including conservation and energy efficiency measures.
Responses to current challenges such as declining fossil fuels and climate change are then presented in the core section of the course. The emphasis here is on evaluating the resource potential, energy performance, environmental impacts and energy economics of renewable energy technologies: biofuels, biomass electricity, wind power, photovoltaics, geothermal, and marine energy. Other developments such as unconventional fossil fuels, carbon sequestration, and fuel cell technologies are also critically examined.
The final section of the course reviews the key environmental challenges related to the energy system including climate change and regional and local pollution. Energy and climate policy options needed to transform the current system are then discussed from international and national perspectives. This course combines readings, problem sets, in class discussion, and a term project to develop your skills and expertise in analyzing sustainable energy problems and solutions.
Instructor: Gregory Keoleian
School of Natural Resources and Environment/Co-Director Center for Sustainable Systems
3504 Dana Bldg.
phone: 764-3194
email: gregak@umich.edu
PUBPOL 563 – Politics of Environmental Regulation
Fall 2007
This course will consider the capacity of North American political institutions to shape effective environmental protection policies, devoting primary emphasis to the United States but also examining Canada and Mexico. It will consider all governmental levels but be particularly attentive to the evolving role of American state governments, including questions of cross-border governance and relations between the federal government and non-US authorities. Major topics will include the ongoing evolution of climate change policy, related issues such as renewable energy policy and the development of market-based policies, and regulatory integration integration across environmental media of air, land, and water.
Instructor: Barry Rabe
PUBPOL 564 – Government Regulation of Industry and Environment
Winter 2007
Basic economic principles and methods are used to identify the circumstances in which government intervention can improve industrial efficiency, and to investigate successful and unsuccessful regulatory strategies. The course will cover a range of topics in economic and environmental regulation including natural monopolies, market power and antitrust, market-based environmental policy instruments, and the impact of regulation on technological innovation. Examples will be drawn mainly from electricity and utilities, oil and gas, telecommunications, and transportation industries.
Instructor:
Meredith Fowlie
PUBPOL 585: Political Environment of Policymaking
Fall 2007
This course focuses on the political environment within which policy analysis takes place. In the United States, public policies are formulated and implemented in a political system of widely-shared power by participants with many different, and often conflicting, goals. To be effective, policy analysts and public managers must understand this political system. The goal of this course is to provide the student with some of the background necessary to develop strategies for dealing effectively with the political environment of policy and administration. Most years, two variants of this course are available. The variant offered in the fall semester focuses on various cases in the US domestic policy environment, while the variant offered in Winter semester compares political environments in the US and other countries (and focuses on cases in the area of science & technology policymaking).
Instructor: Ann Lin
PUBPOL 650 – Introduction to Science and Technology Policy Analysis
Fall 2007
As it exposes students to the landscape of science and technology policymaking in the US and abroad, this course introduces theories and methodologies for science and technology policy analysis, with literature drawn from a range of disciplines, including political science, economics, sociology, and history. Students will learn how science and technology policy is made, with specific attention to the roles of government agencies, expert advisory committees, private industry, the courts, and the public. They will also gain tools for science and technology policy analysis, including research funding allocation methods, science and technology assessment, innovation theory, and cost-benefit analysis. The course will also explore how national and international contexts shape science and technology policymaking. This course is designed for graduate students from public policy, public health, law, business, engineering and the social, biological, and physical sciences. No scientific or technical background is necessary.
Instructor:
Paul Erickson
PUBPOL 653 – Global Environmental Governance
Winter 2007
In the past 50 years, states have signed hundreds of international environmental treaties. Prominent among these are the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Paralleling these diplomatic developments, environmental concerns have quickly come to suffuse global-level discussions of poverty, development, and human rights. This course surveys major patterns in global environmental governance over the past several decades, focusing on the interplay between two questions. First, how do we know we have global environmental problems? And secondly, how do we govern ourselves in light of this knowledge? International political cooperation has helped to make global environmental change visible through the development of transnational systems for studying and monitoring the planet. At the same time, scientific understandings of the earth as an integrated environmental system are challenging traditional notions of citizenship, political participation, and regulatory policy. finally, by examining the simultaneous studies of their own choosing, students will sharpen their skills as analysts of international policy.
Instructor:
Paul Erickson
PUBPOL 654 – Science and Technology in International Affairs
Winter 2007
This course examines the many ways in which international affairs is intertwined with science and technology, both in theory and in practice. The course proceeds in three sections. first, by surveying in a cross-cutting manner a variety of issues that include economic competitiveness, development, then environment, terrorism, and trade, students explore themes, concepts, and tools that are arguably central to understanding the dynamics of science and technology in the international arena and in foreign policymaking in particular. The course then focuses on international security affairs, broadly defined. Using a case-study approach, the course selectively compares and analyzes the techno-political assumptions, requirements, and workings of contemporary systems of security, such as international non-proliferation regimes, U.S. theater missile defense, border and export controls, and national intelligence in international organizations. In the course’s last section, students use concepts and tools assessment in one issue area. The course is multidisciplinary in its scope and is designed to engage students who are interested in the management of international affairs and in international relations more broadly. While the course is for graduate students, no particular expertise in either international affairs or science and technology is assumed as a prerequisite.
Instructor: Daniel Plafcan
PUBPOL 655 – Energy in World Politics
Fall 2007
This seminar course explores the development, use, and governance of energy systems throughout the world, focusing on questions of international politics and foreign policymaking in particular. What has shaped the development of national and transnational energy systems? How have energy systems reflected and transformed the power of states and the foreign policymaking of national governments? In a world of multinational firms and global markets, what have "sustainable energy" and "energy security" meant for national governments, communities, and citizens of Africa, East Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North American and South Asia? This course draws upon policy-oriented literature from the social sciences, humanities and engineering as well as from analyses of governmental and nongovernmental organizations to forge an interdisciplinary understanding of world politics. While the course is a seminar intended for graduate students, prior specialized knowledge of energy economics, international affairs, or the science and technology of energy systems is not assumed. PUBPOL 655 is an approved elective for the graduate certificate in Science, Technology, and Public Policy. For more information, see http://stpp.fordschool.umich.edu.
Instructor:
Daniel Plafcan
PUBPOL 754 – Research Seminar in Science, Tech and Public Policy
Winter 2007
The aim of this course is to introduce students to topical issues in science and technology policy. The course will meet weekly for a formal seminar. Those currently in the science policymaking arena as well as experts in applied science policy research will be invited to campus to participate as seminar speakers. By interacting with those active in science policy circles, it is hoped that students will gain a real appreciation for the processes and underpinnings of current national science policy.
The course will be offered as a 1 credit seminar course and as a 3 credit seminar/discussion course. Students enrolled in the 3 credit course will also take part in discussion sessions to follow-up the seminar presentations, as arranged by the instructor. In addition, these students will be expected to write a term paper on one of the issues covered in the seminars and give a brief presentation late in the term.
Students enrolled in the Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) Graduate Certificate Program must take this course for 3 credits.
Instructor: James Dudarstadt
PUBPOL 764 – Topics in Transportation Policy
Fall 2007
Topics will include: Transportation Contribution to Air Pollution; Contribution to Global Warming; Contribution to Oil Uncertainty; Is the Planet Running Out of Oil?; Bridging Fuels?; Traffic CongestionTolls, HOV and HOT Lanes, Van and Car Pooling; Parking — Subsidized, "Free", Mandated; Mass Transit — Bus, Light Rail; Automobile Insurance — Traditional vs. No-Fault or an added Pay-As-You-Go Gasoline Tax; Safety Policies — Mandated Equipment; Safety Policies; Driver Behavior (with respect to Alcohol, Age, Speed); Freight — Trucks vs. Trains; Contributions to Water Pollution — Oil Spills, Ocean Dumping the Waste, Highway Runoff, Leaking Underground Storage Tanks.
Instructor: Richard Porter
