The administration of Ronald Reagan contributed to the Federal ocean policy in the 1980s. There were debates over ocean policy and pollution resulting from the wastes that were released in the oceans by society members. Some were opposed to policy changes. The basis of the arguments is that the oceans could decompose the wastes because of their massive volumes. Generally, the administration of Reagan advocated for the reforms of laws and regulations governing ocean dumping because the benefits resulting from the reformed laws would outweigh old laws’ costs. During this change, analysts believed the United States was making a shift from ocean protection of the 1970s to ocean management of the 1980s. This was seen as a transition from an ocean policy that was strict to a policy that is flexible in management.
Changes in ocean dumping policy
The control of ocean dumping started in the early 1970s, after the passage of several laws on environmental protection. A ban on uncontrolled ocean dumping was announced by President Nixon in 1971. This preceded the establishment of the Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act of 1972. This led to a stricter standard in dumping. The goal of this Act was to reduce and end dumping within 5 years. The permit system was introduced by the Act and the EPA and Corps of engineers regulated it jointly. In 1973, EPA announced its final rules and criteria. The EPA wanted to end harmful ocean dumping even if the dumping could not degrade the marine environment. A policy to end all forms of ocean dumping of sewage sludge was established. However, in 1980, the City of New York applied to continue with dumping sludge but was denied the permit by EPA. The EPA shifted from strict protection of the oceans to a flexible management strategy during the period 1971-1985. The reasons behind this shift include; knowledge on the state of the ocean’s vulnerability to contamination had changed, social cultural attitudes changed in the late 1970s and early 1980s because of the oil embargo and energy dislocations, and the governing coalition changed with the coming into power of Ronald Reagan. The ocean policy change happened as new policy images and changes in political and economic.
The concept of policy termination
Policy termination is the agency termination of basic policy redirections, program eliminations, partial terminations and fiscal retrenchments. This phase of the policy cycle is the most difficult because of the following; policies and agencies have a life of their own with substantial momentum, no incentive to admit past mistakes, political reluctance to termination due to vested interests will fight to keep the program, anti-termination groups mobilize resources to retain the policy, lastly, the costs of termination are high. The following are the reasons that have contributed to a growth in interest in policy termination. Some policies and programmes are seen as not effective or they are no longer needed thus, should be done way with, and a political climate of fiscal retrenchment that began in the late 1970s and early 1980s led to cuts in several programs. Types of termination include functional termination, organizational termination, policy termination and program termination. My position is the change in laws can contribute to better management of the ocean environment especially ending ocean dumping. Therefore I support the EPA strategy for ocean management.