Second Thoughts

I went ahead and wrote up a proposal for my project, using option 3 (the haze from coal plants and how to control it).  I have that class tomorrow, and presumably will have to turn the proposal in then, and I guess it’s good enough for that.  We haven’t gotten a whole lot of specific guidance about how to write this thing, so I’m not sure I did it quite right, but I’m sure it’ll be fine.

I’m still thinking the topic is good, but it has one serious disadvantage compared to the other two, which present clear-cut yes/no options for policymakers.  Whether or not to allow something a company is asking to do is about as straightforward as policy questions get.  This topic is a bit more nebulous, though, and the real question is which of several possible mitigation strategies is most worthwhile for the EPA to pursue, given all the relevant factors which I need to discuss in later stages of the project.  I don’t think this is necessarily a big problem, but the proposal seems a little vague since I haven’t yet read through the ANPR and other sources to see what the specific options actually are.  I’ll do that at some point, of course, and I will then be able to reformulate the question more precisely.