12.1 Introduction

Engineers do not make policies, but they implement them. Policies created by others drive many engineering decisions. Policies that affect combustion engineers come from a variety of agencies and organizations: federal, state, and local governmental laws, ordinances, and regulations; corporate policies driven either by stockholders or by senior executives; and policies of clients. Policies are influenced by a wide variety of organizations within and outside government. In addition to the policy-making organizations themselves, policies are influenced by such groups as the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, other environmental groups, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Edison Electric Institute, labor unions, think tanks (e.g., the Heritage Foundation), research organizations including the National Academy of Sciences and the Electric Power Research Institute, and many others. Policy is made by addressing the conflicts between these interest groups sometimes achieving full compromise and sometimes favoring the politically stronger interest groups.

Most governmental policies are initiated by elected officials, and then the governmental agencies are charged with developing the rules and enforcing them. Elected officials typically provide broad perspectives and directives in legislation; the administrative agencies translate these into specific actions to take, or not to take, and into specific regulatory limits. Policy is then ratified, or modified, through the judicial system.

Most commonly, policy is thought of in terms of environmental policy that dominates the news and many of the engineering design and operations issues. However, policies influenced by governmental directives,...