Environmental Heat Policy Brief - Essay Example

This can be primarily attributed to the widespread impacts it has on the global environmental efforts, the economy and even to the household. Moreover there are a horde of stakeholders involved, each with his/her vested interest. Founding a common ground is impossible due to differences in interests from the stakeholders. To begin with, any policy has the potential to impact negatively on the cost of energy, which shall be automatically unacceptable and unpopular to the citizens. According to the documentary Heat by Martin Smith, the cost of capturing and storage of carbon dioxide alone would increase the cost of energy by 20-30%.

Consequently, the energy policy indeed touches and impacts directly on every American, therefore, the public at large is interested in the debate. Secondly, there are several stakeholders with vested interests they are keen to protect. Greatest of them all is the automakers who have aggressively lobbied to prevent congress from enacting tough laws to regulate fuel economy standards. To do so, they have sought the services lawmakers such as Dingell beholden to cooperate agenda, to advance and protect their interest.

The documentary provides an attempt by the State of California to seek the consent of EPA to enact stricter fuel economy standards than the federal government. . An example is given of the Exxon Mobil which invested over $ 4billion and raked in $ 40billion in profits in the year 2007. Consequently given the figures involved, policies that affect such ventures are bound to elicit extensive and unending debate. Fourthly, different states have different agenda and interest. Detroit for instance has resisted any attempts to raise fuel economy standards for more than 32 years.

This is unlike California that has been at the forefront to raise the same. Consequently, efforts by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to raise it attracted wrath from Detroit and was dubbed enemy number one. Lastly, it is due to the impact the energy sector plays towards the emissions of greenhouse gases which have attracted the global attention. Indeed, it is the major sources of energy such as oil and coal that contribute the greatest to global carbon dioxide emission. Therefore, any policy has to be in line with the global objective or reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

As highlighted above, the key players in this policy area are diverse, first it is the automakers whose cars consume a lot of energy in the form of fuels and cause a lot of emissions more than Europe, Japan, India and Asia combined. Others include the oil sectors players such as big oil companies who invest a lot of money to explore and exploit oil. Their main source of revenue is carbon and therefore they are involved a lot in the policy making. The politicians also play a vital role in this policy area, ranging from the executive, senators and state governors.

For example, the Automakers employ the help of Dingell, a senator, to lobby against any fuel restriction laws. Another example highlighted in the documentary involving an active white house