Superfund and the challenge of regulatory reform /
First Statement of Responsibility
Robert T. Nakamura, Thomas W. Church.
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Washington, D.C. :
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Brookings Institution Press,
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
[2003]
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
c2003
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
xiii, 141 pages ;
Dimensions
24 cm
INTERNAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES/INDEXES NOTE
Text of Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [109]-134) and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
Preface -- Regulation, coercion, and popular support -- Regulation and its critics -- "Regulatory craft" and regulatory reform -- The essential Superfund -- Reforming Superfund -- Succeeding at regulatory reform -- Taming regulation -- Notes -- Index.
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Despite three decades of vigorous efforts at deregulation across the government, regulation remains ubiquitous. It also continues to be unpopular because it forces individuals and businesses to do things -- frequently costly and unpleasant things -- that they don't want to do. If regulatory programs are to survive and remain effective, the challenge posed by their endemic unpopularity and political vulnerability must be met. Unlike much of the existing literature on regulation, Taming Regulation begins with the assumption that the government's capacity to utilize regulation as a policy tool is vital. The book examines the questions of how to make the inherently coercive aspects of regulation more politically acceptable in the present antiregulatory environment and how the legal and administrative challenges of reform in ongoing regulatory programs might best be approached. The authors explore these issues through a case study of administrative reform in the Superfund program. Chartered with an ambitious mission to clean up the nation's hazardous waste sites, Superfund was from its inception a uniquely aggressive and unpopular program. Yet despite the election in 1994 of a Republican Congress committed to fundamental changes in environmental regulation, the Superfund program weathered the storm and remains intact today. The authors credit this political and programmatic success to a series of artfully designed and orchestrated internal reforms that softened Superfund's implementation, thus increasing its political support while retaining its potent coercive tools. Taming Regulation provides a cautionary discussion of both the necessity and the difficulty of regulatory reform. It isessential reading for students of regulation and environmental policy, for practitioners contemplating reform of ongoing regulatory programs, and for those interested in the checkered history of Superfund.
TOPICAL NAME USED AS SUBJECT
Hazardous wastes-- Law and legislation-- United States.