UNITED-STATES ENVIRONMENTAL-POLICY - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

This essay examines the evolution of the EPA and federal environmental policy. It has three objectives: first, to characterize United States environmental regulation and identify key themes in the regulatory process; second, to examine the role of the Bush presidency in affecting environmental policy; and third, to suggest where federal environmental regulation is headed. The intent here is not to provide a scorecard on successes and failures in environmental policy, but rather to highlight the nature of the forces that have affected and will continue to affect the broad outlines of environmental policy.