What should EPA and environmental protection look like in the future? A report issued by American University’s Center for Environmental Policy in December, entitled Moving Forward: Future Directions for EPA and Environmental Protection, provides 6 principal recommendations. The report was written by John Reeder, Executive in Residence at the Center and a 30-year veteran of EPA, based on a conference that was cosponsored last April by AU’s School of Public Affairs (where the Center is housed), its law school and ELI, with a talented and diverse field of speakers including 4 former EPA Administrators. It was also informed by 5 focus group reports prepared by the EPA Alumni Association, which helped organize the conference. At ACOEL’s October meeting, Dan Esty issued a challenge to us to undertake a multi-year project to transform our environmental protection framework from the existing “command and control” regulations to one using primarily market-based incentives. On November 21, I posted a blog article titled Dan Esty’s Challenge to ACOEL: Let’s Do It. I pointed out that 25 years ago a wave of thoughtful studies recommended moving away from command and control regulation towards systems featuring multimedia permitting, ecosystem-wide approaches, financial incentives, marketable pollution rights and other innovations, but that very little had come of these. To view the full article visit JD Supra.
