Environmental Federalism and U.S. Military Installations: A Framework for Compliance.
Abstract
Recent regulatory trends and political decisions have resulted in devolution of environmental regulation responsibility from the federal government to the states. The resulting compliance situation for the military is one of multiple bureaucracies, layered regulations, duplicated reporting requirements, and conflicting mission priorities, all in a "business" in which there is an inherent potential for significant environmental damage. The military official charged with environmental compliance is responding to many masters and pressures. This paper suggests a compliance strategy and organization to respond to environmental devolution and federalism. The context of environmental regulation policy today is incremental (progressing with advances in science and politics through a series of increasingly broad regulatory requirements); fragmented (between pollution mediums-air, water, waste-and between executive agencies, legislative committees, courts, interest groups, and state agencies); and federal (with national, state, and local governments sharing responsibilities for environmental standards and enforcement). Empirical studies of state regulatory policy find that political factors, such as party control of the governorship and the legislature, bureaucratic capability, and recent changes in state population, best explain state actions. Economic factors (state wealth and competition with other states, the economic significance of the polluting industries) are also important influences. Overall, state environmental policy can be explained by the severity of the state's pollution problem, the wealth of the state's population, the partisanship of state politics, and the organizational capacity of the state government.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA365415
Entities
People
- James M. Smith
Organizations
- United States Air Force Academy