I have been involved in two of the experimental U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory negotiations. The first had to do with setting penalties for the truck makers who make engines that do not meet standards. The second, in which I am still participating, involves drawing up a standard for new woodstoves. I have also been involved in traditional settlement discussions in the context of lawsuits, several of which have been successful, and a couple of which are still in the works.

I would like to turn to the two regulatory negotiations in EPA's Regulatory Negotiation Pilot Project. Initially, we reacted to emergence of this project with a cry of: Oh, no. Here comes another "bubble" concept, another regulatory reform that is being pushed by an office with a bureaucratic mandate to produce a result regardless of what it runs over on the way. God forbid that it should pick up steam.