To insulate funds from Congress, I look to the federal reserve boards as a model. These boards do not depend on Congressional appropriations and their members are appointed for nine-year terms so that, once appointed, they are not beholden to the president. This makes them the most politically independent arm of the federal government. As with rule 2, this seems obvious. But the Endangered Species Act debate has become so polarized that few people are searching for win-win solutions.
Polarization is such a powerful organizing tool that few organizations can resist using it.
Today, polarization has convinced many people that environmental problems result from enemies of the environment. Win-win solutions work by coordinating incentives so that people will work together rather than against one another. These rules suggest that something more is needed than mere revisions of the Endangered Species Act. Instead, we need a new philosophy of government, and of public resource management in particular. When the first Earth Day took place twenty-five years ago, most Americans still believed that the federal government could solve problems like racism and pollution.