Atrophy or progress? Evaluating the evolution of environmental policy by comparing large scale oil spills in the United States

Many political theorists accept that focusing events effect the cycle of environmental policy change without agreeing on the specifics of how events impact the construction of legislation. Pessimistic theories (consisting of Down’s “Issue Attention Cycle” and
Freudenburg’s “Atrophy of Vigilance”) and optimistic theories (including the
“Punctuated Equilibrium Model” and Busenberg’s “Evolution of Vigilance Model”) offer
opposing views of policy creation. As focusing events, the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater
Horizon oil spills together serve as effective cases for assessing and comparing the
validity of pessimistic and optimistic policy change models. The analysis of each set of
theories adds to the understanding of the construction of environmental and oil spill
policy in the United States. These two major incidents, in Prince William Sound and in
the Gulf of Mexico, when linked provide a long-term, multi-event continuum that more
closely mirrors optimistic crisis-motivated policy change theories.