Search

I. INTRODUCTION II. WHAT'S NEW ABOUT "SUSTAINABILITY"? III. REGULATING FOR SUSTAINABILITY A. Mandating Sustainability B. Enabling Sustainability IV. INTEGRATING REGULATION AND SUSTAINABILITY: THE EXPERIENCE SO FAR A. Environmental Standard 1. [...], In 2011, the National Academy of Sciences recommended that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) consider sustainability in its actions and decisions, and the Agency is now taking steps to do so. However, this is harder than it might seem, particularly for the regulatory programs that are EPA's core line of work. While voluntary programs promoting energy efficiency or pollution prevention fit comfortably with such a goal, the relationship between regulation and sustainability is more complex. If anything, experience suggests that there are tensions between them. Sustainability initiatives tend to be characterized by innovation, adaptability, continuous change, and systemic thinking, and these are not always easy to harmonize with a statutorily driven, top-down regulatory system addressing specific issues in a narrowly-targeted way. This Essay analyzes the challenges of using regulatory programs to promote sustainability, looking at how regulatory programs have dealt with those challenges in the past--sometimes successfully and sometimes less so. It concludes that advancing sustainability is not always a natural role for environmental regulatory programs; 'win-win' opportunities in a regulatory setting may be the exception rather than the rule. However, it also concludes that, based on the Agency's past history, opportunities can be found and EPA should look for ways to take advantage of them where it can. This can be done in part by establishing new requirements, but more often by enabling, facilitating, and incentivizing the initiatives undertaken by others. Sometimes this can be done by writing rules in ways that permit or even encourage innovation; in other cases it requires case by case tailoring. The challenges are real, but at a minimum the opportunities should not be overlooked, and should be affirmatively sought out by the Agency and its stakeholders.

B. Agencies Avoid Making Regulatory Decisions That Would Create Severe Social or Economic Dislocation EPA has a history of attempting to avoid the imposition of strict regulations that would lead [...]

I. INTRODUCTION II. A SUMMARY OF QUESTIONABLE EPA TREATMENTS III. EIGHT LAWS OF ADMINISTRATIVE BEHAVIOR AND CLIMATE CHANGE A. In Conflicts Between Political Considerations and Technocratic Requirements, Politics Usually Prevails [...], This Article criticizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) climate change regulations and policies, arguing that EPA has failed to control the dangerous level of greenhouse gas discharges that have been causing the steady growth of global warming and climate change. Unlike other critiques of EPA climate change efforts, this Article focuses on the administrative incentives and disincentives shaping EPA's inadequate regulatory performance. The relevant disincentives include insufficient budgets and personnel, exposure to constant criticism from affected parties, especially congressional criticisms arising from the lobbying efforts of wealthy fossil fuel industries, the inability to resolve many scientific and economic uncertainties, and the continuing absence of widespread public support. This Article contends that adopting, revising, or extending ambitious climate change laws and regulations will never succeed in overcoming climate change hazards as long as EPA and other environmental protection, health, and safety agencies lack essential public backing, financial support, and positive professional and personnel incentives.

I. INTRODUCTION II. THE CONCEPT OF ENVIRONMENTAL INNOVATION III. STREAMS OF ENVIRONMENTAL INNOVATION A. Emissions Trading B. Program Integration C. Risk-Based Planning D. Regulatory Flexibility E. Partnerships and Voluntary Programs [...], The dynamic and rapidly changing field of the environment presents many examples of policy innovation. These various efforts may be organized in streams of environmental policy innovation. Of the many such innovation streams undertaken by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in recent decades, five are examined and compared on the basis of the perceived deficiency that led to the policy change, their design and applications, the conceptual basis for the innovation, and the durability of the change. The five innovation streams are emissions trading, program integration, risk-based planning, regulatory and permitting flexibility, and voluntary programs. Among the factors that may be associated with the more durable innovations are consensus on a need for change; demonstrable, near-term gains in economic efficiency and environmental effectiveness, rather than in institutional capacity; and a strong theoretical and statutory foundation. The difficulty of meeting these conditions explains, at least in part, why innovation in environmental policy has been so challenging over the years.

Unless, perhaps, someone in our family has a dust allergy, most of us probably don't think much about dust. And if we do, we probably think about the dust on [...]

Thank you, Bill Chameides. I will tell you how I'm going to spend my birthday: I'm going to testify in the morning before Senator Bingaman and the Senate Committee on [...]