Fortuitous consequence: The domestic politics of the 1991 Canada-United States agreement on air quality

Journal Article · Thu Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1999 · Policy Studies Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0072.1999.tb01972.x· OSTI ID:20006042

Allison, J E

Following more than a decade of negotiations, the Canada-United States Agreement on Air Quality entered into force on March 13, 1991, with the signatures of then-Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and US President George Bush. Why was it so difficult for Canadian and US negotiators to reach agreement? The author argues that Canadian and US domestic politics were the primary impediments to resolving the US-Canada acid rain dispute. This article thus casts the dispute in terms of a pair of domestic environmental policy problems, whose timely and complementary solution, furthermore, required executive initiative as the handmaiden of ecological crisis. Heightened public concern about the threat of acidic air pollution in Canada prompted Mulroney's efforts to reduce acid rain. In the US, a likewise critical change in the public's perception of air quality as a national emergency created the mass support necessary for Bush's federal acid rain control initiative.

• OSTI ID: 20006042
• Journal Information: Policy Studies Journal, Journal Name: Policy Studies Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 27; ISSN 0190-292X; ISSN PSJOD9
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
AIR QUALITY
ATTITUDES
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
POLITICAL ASPECTS
PUBLIC OPINION