Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ws8qp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T22:33:53.563Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

13 - Adaptive Environmental Federalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

William W. Buzbee
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
Get access

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Environmental law is not neatly divided between the federal government and the states. The federal government continues to involve itself in highly localized issues with little clear connection to interstate environmental issues or a manifest need for federal uniformity. At the same time, states and local governments, especially recently, are not content to confine their attention to issues of local concern but are developing policies on environmental issues of national and even international importance. Nor do environmental issues “stay” in the control of any particular level of government but rather tend to pass back and forth, much like the proverbial football, between different levels of government.

The current system of environmental federalism is therefore a dynamic one of overlapping federal and state jurisdiction. However, it is threatened by federal legislation and Supreme Court rulings. A wave of preemptive legislation has emerged from Congress in recent years. Numerous bills pending in Congress, for example, would preempt state actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) that contribute to climate change. Similarly, following a long line of cases in which the Supreme Court has preempted a variety of state actions designed to protect the public, the Court recently (2004) preempted state auto-pollution regulations, despite, at best, ambiguous statutory language.

Legal academics are similarly hostile to the dynamism of environmental federalism because it runs contrary to the prevailing view that an optimal level of government exists from which to set environmental policy.

Type
Chapter
Information
Preemption Choice
The Theory, Law, and Reality of Federalism's Core Question
, pp. 277 - 300
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×