The centralisation of environmental regulation has led to inflexibility on America's federal government as it attempts to respond to various problems. This analysis of current policies proposes a restructuring of the environmental regulatory authority to lead to better environmental enforcement.

How should we strike a balance between the benefits of centralized and local governance, and how important is context to selecting the right policy tools? This uniquely broad overview of the field illuminates our understanding of environmental federalism and informs our policy-making future. Professor Kalyani Robbins has brought together an impressive team of leading environmental federalism scholars to provide a collection of chapters, each focused on a different regime. This review of many varied approaches, including substantial theoretical material, culminates in a comparative analysis of environmental federalism and consideration of what each system might learn from the others. The Law and Policy of Environmental Federalism includes clear descriptive portions that make it a valuable teaching resource, as well as original theory and a depth of policy analysis that will benefit scholars of federalism or environmental and natural resources law. The value of its analysis for real-world decision-making will make it a compelling read for practitioners in environmental law or fields concerned with federalism issues, including those in government or NGOs, as well as lobbyists.

Giving particular attention to intergovernmental working relationships, this revised edition of Federalism and Environmental Policy has been significantly updated to reflect the changes that have taken place since the highly praised first edition. Denise Scheberle examines reasons why environmental laws seldom work out exactly as planned. Casting federal-state working relationships as "pulling together," "coming apart," or somewhere in-between, she provides dozens of observations from federal and state officials. This study also suggests that implementation of environmental policy is a story of high stakes politics—a story rich with contextual factors and as fascinating as the time the policy was formulated. As four very different environmental programs unfold—asbestos (updated to include the fallout from the World Trade Center), drinking water, radon, and surface coal mining—Scheberle demonstrates how programs evolve differently, with individual political, economic, logistical, and technical constraints. The policy implementation framework developed for the book provides the lens through which to compare environmental laws. Federalism and Environmental Policy goes beyond the contents of policy to explore the complex web of federal-state working relationships and their effect on the implementation of policy. It is unique in how it portrays the nuts-and-bolts, the extent to which the state and federal offices work together effectively—or not. Examining working relationships within the context of program implementation and across four different environmental programs offers a unique perspective on why environmental laws sometimes go awry.

For over a quarter century, the federal government has been the primary determinant of environmental regulation and policy. The contributors to this volume provide a wide variety of strategies to challenge what they consider to be Washington's unsophisticated, ineffective, and harmful approaches. The original essays demonstrate how states can improve environmental regulations as they apply to land, water, wildlife, and pesticides, and they provide a general framework for how states can regain control of their environmental destiny. Important reading for anyone interested in environmental policy studies.

"The theoretical argument is compelling. Each case study is informed & informative."-Political Science Quarterly.

In Environmental Federalism, Luke Fowler helps to refocus much-needed attention on the role of state governments in environmental policy creation and implementation in the United States. While the national government receives most of the attention when it comes to environmental policy, state governments play a vital role in protecting our natural resources. Legacy problems, like air, water, and land pollution, present one set of challenges for environmental federalism, but new problems emerging as a result of climate change further test the bounds of federal institutions. Examining patterns of pollution and case studies from the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, Fowler explores two questions: has environmental federalism worked in managing legacy environmental problems, and can it work to manage climate change? In order to answer these questions, Fowler extends James Lester’s typology using political incentives and administrative capacities to identify four types of states (progressive, delayers, strugglers, and regressives) and assesses how they are linked to the success of federal environmental programs and conf licts in intergovernmental relations. He then considers what lessons we can learn from these programs and whether those lessons can help us better understand climate policy and multi-level institutions for environmental governance. This timely read will be a valuable contribution to students, researchers, and scholars of political science, public policy, public administration, and environmental studies.

The resurgence of state involvement in policymaking in recent years has renewed a long-standing debate about the most effective role for states within a federal system of government. In The Dimensions of Federalism, William R. Lowry assesses and examines the responsiveness and innovation of state governments in the area of air and water pollution control policies. Building a theoretical model that demonstrates the relationship between state and federal governments, Lowry combines econometric analysis of data on all fifty states with an in-depth study of a leading state in each of four major areas of pollution policy to conclude that state policymakers will often experiment and willingly improve upon federal pollution control standards. But this willingness is tempered, he maintains, both by a fear of losing important constituents to interstate competition and by the difficulty of coordinating efforts and disseminating information without the active involvement of the federal government. Originally published in 1992, this book continues to be pertinent in a political climate that will inevitably see an increased role for states in domestic policymaking. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of American public policy, federalism, and environmental politics and policy.