Toward Better Bubbles and Future Lives: A Progressive Response to the Conservative Agenda for Reforming Environmental Law
Gridlock and Its Implications
In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, most of the nation's domestic agenda has receded into the background of the public's attention, eclipsed by news of the war on terrorism, the war's effect on the economy, and—in fits and starts—the corporate scandals typified by the collapse of Enron, Global Crossing, and WorldCom. Environmental policymaking, in its routine form difficult for the popular media to master, sits in the last row of side-lined issues. Only such spectacles as polar bears running from oil rigs nudge these problems into the foreground, and then only temporarily.1
Out of sight, of course, does not mean out of mind. Below the "waterline" of politically visible debate, mid-level bureaucrats, and regulated industries are actively engaged in efforts to change the rules of law and economics that determine whether the government intervenes in pollution-producing commerce. Talk of enacting so-called second generation legislation has subsided to a murmur. But at the administrative level, the debate over how best to streamline the system and eliminate distasteful regulatory requirements proceeds with unchecked vigor and enthusiasm.