ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the administrative response to regulatory drift at the Environmental Protection Agency and the problems this response posed. In 1969, Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act and, over the course of the next decade, it passed the most demanding and costly regulatory statutes in the nation's history. In 1969, Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act, creating the Council on Environmental Quality in the Executive Office of the President and mandating environmental impact statements for major federal acts. Under conditions of growing polarization and gridlock, Congress no longer proved capable of passing laws that could recalibrate regulation. The 1990s would witness the proliferation of voluntary programs and public-private partnerships designed to compensate for the rigidity of traditional regulation, promote innovation, and leverage private sector resources and expertise. Although the myriad climate-related partnership programs and the high levels of participation may have been celebrated by the Bush administration, critics were unimpressed.
