Environmental Federalism at Decade's End: New Approaches and Strategies

This article examines several recent trends in environmentalpolicy that may have important effects over the next decadeon federal-state relations and on the nation's environmentalquality. It focuses on the Environmental Protection Agency'sefforts to "reinvent" environmental regulation and to encouragecommunity-based environmental protection as a more effectiveand acceptable approach to environmental policy. We considerthe extent to which these new directions are likely to improverelations between the federal government and states, localities,and the private sector, and to achieve desired levels of environmentalprotection in the United States. The new approaches are highlypromising; yet they also face significant barriers to implementation.Congressional reform of the key statutes could lend much-neededsupport to such efforts.     

The Evolving Matrix of Environmental Federalism and Intergovernmental Relationships

Using Daniel Elazar's metaphor of federalism as a matrix, asexpanded by Robert Agranoff, this article explores how stateand national political and administrative actors continue toredefine environmental federalism. The willingness of statesto sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over concernsthat the agency is not protecting the environment illustratesthe political and legal spotlight under which the matrix evolves.Outside the public purview, EPA and state environmental programadministrators attempted to shore up programs rocked by reducedbudgets and shifting priorities, while also adjusting to a newsystem of federal-state partnerships, the National EnvironmentalPerformance Partnership System.