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ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS AND CASE STUDIES: Next-Generation Environmental Policy and the Implications for Environmental Inspectors: Are Fears of Regulatory Capture Warranted?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2010

Michelle C. Pautz
Michelle C. Pautz*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio
*
Michelle C. Pautz, Department of Political Science, University of Dayton, 300 College Park, Dayton, OH, 45469-1425; (phone) 937-229-3651; (fax) 937-229-1400; (e-mail) [email protected]
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Abstract

With renewed emphasis on environmental protection and growing scholarly consensus on the need to move beyond the traditional command-and-control approach to environmental regulation, the “window” may be opening for significant changes in environmental policy in the United States. Much of the dialogue focuses on next-generation environmental policies that are cooperative instead of confrontational, comprehensive rather than fragmented, and flexible instead of rigid. This pending transition invariably raises questions about regulatory enforcement and, most notably, fears of regulatory capture. Accordingly, this article explores the discussion of next-generation environmental policies and their implications for environmental inspectors in the context of regulatory enforcement. The transition to next-generation policies is likely to have significant impacts on inspectors; however, I argue that concerns of regulatory capture are overstated, based on a survey of existing research on regulatory enforcement.

Environmental Practice 12:247–259 (2010)

Type
Features
Information
Environmental Practice , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , September 2010 , pp. 247 - 259
Copyright
Copyright © National Association of Environmental Professionals 2010

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