MICHAEL P. LAST: Some may think that the question, "environmental compliance: is the system working?" is intended to be theoretical. That is not the case. Our objective is to take a hard and honest look at our regulatory struccture and evaluate how it works and whether the way in which it works optimizes what the system as a whole is hoping to achieve.

Before we can start answering those questions, we must ask the question: What, in fact, is our environmental regulatory system hoping to achieve? And, even before we reach that question, we must ask, why do we care about the environment in the first place? Why are we hoping to achieve anything at all through our environmental regulatory system? Obviously, that question involves us in normative or value-laden issues as compared with strictly "legal" issues. To address this more normative question are three speakers: Patrick Parenteau, Commissioner with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation; David Morell, Vice President, Environmental Affairs, ENSCO Environmental Services, Inc., and John Stokes, Director of The Traking Project.