Toward Sustainable Communities: Transition and Transformations in Environmental Policy

This analysis of U.S. environmental policy offers a conceptual frameworkthat serves as a valuable roadmap to the array of laws, programs, and approachesdeveloped over the last four decades. Combining case studies and theoreticaldiscussion, the book views environmental policy in the context of three epochs: therise of command-and-control federal regulation in the 1970s, the

This analysis of U.S. environmental policy offers a conceptual frameworkthat serves as a valuable roadmap to the array of laws, programs, and approachesdeveloped over the last four decades. Combining case studies and theoreticaldiscussion, the book views environmental policy in the context of three epochs: therise of command-and-control federal regulation in the 1970s, the period ofefficiency-based reform efforts that followed, and the more recent trend towardsustainable development and integrated approaches at local and regional levels. Itassesses the strengths and weaknesses of the new approaches and places theseexperiments within the larger framework of an emerging trend toward communitysustainability. Toward Sustainable Communities assesses environmental policysuccesses and failures at the subnational, regional, and state levels and offerseight case studies of policy arenas in which transformations have beenoccurring--from air and water pollution control and state and local climate changepolicy to open space preservation, urban growth, and regional ecosystem management.It discusses the various meanings of sustainability and whether the concept canserve as a foundation for a new era of environmental policy. The second edition hasbeen substantially updated, with five new chapters (including the chapter on climatechange) and all other chapters revised and shortened. It is suitable as a primary orsecondary text for environmental policy courses and as a resource for scholars andpolicymakers.ContributorsElisa Barbour, Michele M. Betsill, Daniel J. Fiorino, MarcGaden, Lamont C. Hempel, Michael E. Kraft, William D. Leach, Mark Lubell, Daniel A.Mazmanian, Nicole Nakagawa, Kent E. Portney, Daniel Press, Paul A. Sabatier, BarryG. Rabe, Michael B. Teitz