Political issues are complicated. Despite many attempts by congressman, pundits, and the media to simplify issues, charactizing them in a few elements and factions, politics contain a complicated and diverse set of interests, problems, possibilities, uncertainties, and factions. Environmental politics are no different. However, unlike other political arenas that are largely based on opinions, environmental politics is centered around measurable effects and backed by scientific discovery, prediction, and theory. One might think that this would make it less debatable.This is not the case, however. This merely moves the discussion further into the heat of debate since the various sides purport to have the support of science.
For people who desire to help protect this world, the politics involved may seem frustrating and confusing. Hopefully this series has done something to help appease this confusion and help identify ways you can make a difference. This last article will cover a few more relevant hurdles involved in environmental politics. These are things to view with an eye towards change; coming to understand them as hurdles is the first step towards this kind of change.
In Part 4, I mentioned the importance of committees and subcommittees in the process of developing policy. These committees have incredible influence in deciding the details of a bill (since they are the ones writing it). Because of the limited time in Congress, it is inevitable that much will slip through the cracks, both in changes that will help and hurt envirionmental conservation efforts. This is the nature of pork-barrel motions--the committee members have the power to insert small modifications into a larger bill that they know will be approved. For environmental politics this means that a few relevant politicians are entrusted with a significant portion of the conversation effort. If there are signficant supporters or opposers in the committees responsible for writing and submitting environmentally relevant policy it can change the whole outcome. This must be awknowledged as we fight to protect the environment. While the ultimate vote is up to the whole of Congress, it is the committee members who have the most power.
Most importantly, since bills cannot come to vote until they have been approved by the committee, the committe has the power to destroy opposed legislation by simply ignoring bills they want nothing to do with. This is called being "killed in committee" and it happens quite often. A bill can be forced out of committee through a discharge petition but this rarely occurs because most politicians want to preserve this power.