This Article represents an anticipatory exercise in analytic environmental law. It is anticipatory in the sense that the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 (hereafter referred to as CZMA) has yet to have an on-the-ground impact on land and water use decisions in the nation's coastal areas. Thus, this Article is designed to facilitate understanding of how that Act will function once the state programs created pursuant to it are implemented, as well as to illustrate the potentials and pitfalls for the states that may lie hidden in its statutory structure.

Because the CZMA contains a number of provisions designed to result in federal accommodation to state interests, it can be viewed as a unique attempt to provide the states with leverage over the activities of federal agencies. Moreover, these provisions represent one of the fundamental incentives offered to the states to implement their CZM plans, which are now in the process of being developed. Consequently, the Article begins with an assessment of the provisions of the Coastal Zone Management Act in general, and proceeds to outline the federal-state coordinative mechanisms of the Act in particular. The heart of these coordinative mechanisms are the federal consistency provisions of §307, and these are analyzed in detail. A section of the Article also explains the exceptions to the consistency provisions written into the Act.