This book is a concise analysis of three related policy challenges—climate change, energy, and air pollution (with side trips to transportation policy and agriculture policy)—and a frank and realistic assessment of just how difficult it will be to integrate these policy streams into a coherent and functional set of solutions. The enormity of the problem appears to be matched by the improbability of a solution. This mismatch, however, did not deter Bryner and Duffy from cataloguing an impressive array of solutions, ranging from the incremental to fundamental shifts in ethics, which would enhance government's ability to deal with these vexing policy challenges in an integrative fashion.

The thesis of the book is that policy-making in these areas could be dramatically improved if these efforts could be coordinated in a comprehensive and integrative way, but our system of government works against that: “The dilemma is that the interconnectedness of these problems and challenges clashes with the fragmentation of the policy-making process” (pp. 17–18). The difficulties arise for several reasons. The first concerns the relationship between benefits and costs: “Public policies that impose costs on current voters in order to secure benefits for future generations … are notoriously difficult to enact” (p. 51). Another is the rise of hyper-partisanship: “Ideological commitments replaced bipartisanship and consensus” (p. 52). And a third is the nature of markets: “Effective governance is required to rescue capitalism from unsustainable environmental and economic trends but part of the problem with free-market ideology is its commitment to weaken government” (p. 67).

The solutions offered by the authors are, for the most part, incremental steps that take place within existing institutions. They range from administrative law changes, court cases to protect victims of climate change, to strengthening existing laws and politics. Yet even these modest steps seem unlikely except for two areas that Bryner and Duffy explore. The first is energy efficiency: “Improved energy efficiency is the most cost-effective way to deal with all three problems [and it] usually costs less than producing additional electricity” (p. 108). The second is reducing the enormous subsidies that offer perverse incentives to make these problems worse rather than better (pp. 79, 82, 86, 124, 171, 175). For example, they analyze the extensive support programs for agriculture that incentivize harmful practices, unhealthy food, and the waste of resources (pp. 157–59). Another example is fossil fuels: “…industries are insulated and protected from competition, and policies are dominated by subsidies and pork barrel spending that are economically inefficient” (p. 69). Given our federal budget problems, this proposal may actually stand a chance of becoming reality.

Bryner and Duffy also analyze more dramatic policy solutions that, while more difficult to implement, offer much greater promise. They discuss the problems of externalities, and see that as a crucial challenge: “The task of law and policy is to ensure that, as much as possible, true cost prices dominate and accurate information is available because producers also have an incentive to maximize their profits by externalizing as many costs as possible” (p. 186). They also point to past successes as models for dealing with vexing environmental problems, including efforts to reduce acid rain using credit markets, environmental laws passed in the 1970s, and policies promulgated in European countries and the EU. They explore solutions implemented by state and local governments in the absence of action at the federal level, including requirements for utilities to provide a certain percentage of their energy from renewable sources (pp. 53–54, 123–24). They strongly advocate for a carbon tax, but note that “it would be difficult to imagine a more controversial course of action” (p. 90). And taking a larger view, they propose many ideas for both horizontal and vertical integration of governance (pp. 34–39). But at the most fundamental level, they note that significant changes in attitudes, values, and behaviors are essential if we are to deal effectively with these problems: “In the end, this [a policy breakthrough] may require the development of a new public ethic that demands a more cautious, protective stewardship of the earth so that succeeding generations will be able to live in a hospitable world” (p. 79). They add to that the importance of considering issues of environmental justice, social equity, and the disproportional impact environmental problems have on the poor (pp. 11, 183–84, 190–91).

Many books dealing with environmental problems today present the “gloom and doom” perspective. That gap in the literature has been filled, so the best books on the subject are those that focus instead on real solutions; this book meets that criteria. However, the integrative solutions they propose will require “an unprecedented level of coordination and a greater collective commitment to political change than has ever occurred” (p. 8) and require a “massive restructuring of economic life” (p. 54). The authors admit that such change “far outstrips the capacity of our political system” (p. 54) and there are “few signs that such a shift is taking place” (55). Few if any of the policy proposals discussed by Bryner and Duffy will become law until we see fundamental change in our culture, our economy, and our government.