American Environmental Policy ─ Beyond Gridlock

The "golden era" of American environmental lawmaking in the 1960s and 1970ssaw twenty-two pieces of major environmental legislation (including the Clean Air Act, the CleanWater Act, and the Endangered Species Act) passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signedinto law by presidents of both parties. But since then partisanship, the dramatic movement ofRepublicans to the right, and political brinksmanship have led to legislative gridlock onenvironmental issues. In this book, Christopher Klyza and David Sousa argue that the longstandinglegislative stalemate at the national level has forced environmental policymaking onto otherpathways.

Klyza and Sousa identify and analyze five alternative policy paths,which they illustrate with case studies from 1990 to the present: "appropriationspolitics" in Congress; executive authority; the role of the courts; "next-generation"collaborative experiments; and policymaking at the state and local levels. This updated editionfeatures a new chapter discussing environmental policy developments from 2006 to 2012, includingintensifying partisanship on the environment, the failure of Congress to pass climate legislation,the ramifications of Massachusetts v. EPA, and other Obama administration executive actions (some ofwhich have reversed Bush administration executive actions). Yet, they argue, despite legislativegridlock, the legacy of 1960s and 1970s policies has created an enduring "green state"rooted in statutes, bureaucratic routines, and public expectations.

Christopher McGrory Klyza is Robert '35 and Helen '38 Stafford Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies at Middlebury College.