Introduction

The laws of the United States that George W. Bush agreed on January 20, 2001, to see faithfully executed included the environmental laws. Although the record of Governor Bush offered very little evidence to suggest that faithful execution of the environmental laws would be a high priority for President Bush, many statements of candidate Bush uttered in the heat of a closely contested election campaign led optimists to conclude that the next Bush Administration would be at least as "environment friendly" as that of President George H.W. Bush. As the Administration moves halfway through its second year, however, a more pessimistic view seemsappropriate. Although it is difficult to fault the new Administration for not doing more to protect the environment during a year in which terrorism dominated the domestic and the foreign policy agenda, the Administration sent out powerful signals prior to September 11 that it did not have a proactive environmental agenda in mind and that environmental preservation and enhancement play second fiddle to energy development and economic growth. Important Administration initiatives undertaken recently strongly indicate that the Bush Administration may be implementing an environmental agenda that is more reminiscent of the Reagan Administration than the more environmentally benign Administration of his father.

While events unrelated to the environment ensured that the Administration's first year would be an unforgettable one, at least six important themes are discernable in its nascent efforts to implement the nation's environmental laws. After an initial period of preoccupation with what turned out to be a fairly small number of "midnight regulations" left in the wake of the Clinton Administration, the Bush Administration turned to its own agenda. It soon became clear that the Administration was an ambivalent steward of common resources and a reluctant regulator of private polluting activities. It ensured that the environmental agencies would not get too aggressive by assigning a tighter oversight role to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and by allowing states greater flexibility in managing delegated environmental programs. All of this occurred under a curtain of greater governmental secrecy that dropped soon after September 11. This Dialogue will examine these themes in a broader effort to place the Bush Administration's freshman year environmental record in historical perspective.