Environmental Policy and the Bush Era: The Collision Between the Administrative Presidency and State Experimentation

The Bush administration entered office in 2001 pledging to supportactive collaboration with states in environmental protectionand pursued this approach in some early initiatives and appointments.This emphasis was rapidly abandoned, however, in favor of aneffort to recentralize oversight in a manner consistent withhistoric attempts to establish an administrative presidencymodel. In response, states have demonstrated that they are notprepared to take a back seat to the federal government, probingfor areas to pursue innovative opportunities at the same timethat they challenge any instances of federal overreach or disengagementthat they deem problematic. The result has been a steady increasein intergovernmental conflict from the previous decade.