ABSTRACT
The brief examination of the contrasting responses to the ambient air pollution and medical wastes issues in this chapter show, the degree to which Congress factors such considerations into environmental legislation is both a product of the time in which the law is drafts and the degree of contentiousness over the policy issue. The factors largely responsible for the meager implementation results of the laws to date are the nature of the statutes themselves and the problem of scientific uncertainty. The characteristics are problematic for Congress as it attempts to initiate a new, major policy or to re– direct an existing law. Action–forcing, the main innovative mechanism of environmental laws, is designs to ensure effective agency action and speedy implementation. The two basic variations of action-forcing are: technology–forcing and agency–forcing. The process has encourages use within the Agency of scientists, science, and technical information as buffers in the policy making process.
