In the preface, Christopher McGrory Klyza and David Sousa declare what they intend to accomplish: “[E]nvironmental policymaking today is vibrant and complex, with a variety of opportunities for action. It is also full of pitfalls and ripe with uncertainty. We take you on a tour of that landscape in this book” (p. xiv). The authors provide an exciting and adventurous tour, exploring many policymaking paths—traditional ones, such as Congress, the president, and the courts; new ones in the form of collaborative governance; and neglected ones, such as the states.
The tour provides a sophisticated analysis of environmental policymaking in the United States by exploring multiple dimensions of each policy pathway using new case studies, which are buttressed by careful analysis of the opportunities and pitfalls afforded by each policymaking path. For instance, the chapter on states' environmental policymaking focuses on innovative policies developed by states, such as promoting investment in green energy sources and encouraging energy efficiency, as well as on highly contested ballot initiatives that seek to establish environmental policies, such as land-use planning initiatives in Oregon. The chapter on the executive branch examines the discretionary authority of the president to protect federal lands from development through the use of the Antiquities Act, as well as the federal agency rulemaking authority to pursue a president's environmental policy agenda. Finally, each chapter explores not only the various powers and authorities exercised by policymakers active in particular policy pathways, but also the relations among policymakers across pathways, such as the interactions between Congress and the president and the interaction of states with courts and federal agencies.
The authors are always careful to point out and examine the limitations and weaknesses of each policymaking path. Legislation may be the gold standard because once a law is passed, it is difficult to overturn—it has staying power—but the accomplishment requires a careful alignment of propitious circumstances. Executive branch rulemaking and executive orders may be more readily accomplished than legislation, but rules and executive orders have less staying power and may be overturned, or at least delayed by the next White House occupant or by a well-devised lawsuit. In sum, this book is no dry litany of how a bill becomes a law, or how special interests dominate policymaking, or how the states are merely an afterthought compared to federal policymaking. The authors capture the full complexity of policymaking in a federal system of government.
Given the richness and complexity of the interwoven policymaking processes presented by the authors, the title American Environmental Policy, 1990–2006 hardly does the book justice. The book does not explore and analyze the major environmental laws and policies of the United States. Rather, it is a book on American environmental policymaking processes. This is a critical distinction. Numerous books detail environmental policies; none details environmental policymaking processes with the sophistication of this book, which fills a significant void in the environmental policy literature.
Nor does the subtitle of the book, Beyond Gridlock, accurately reflect either the authors' argument or the argument supported by the case studies. If the subtitle were to reflect the authors' argument, it would read “Because of Gridlock.” They repeatedly claim that policy actors engage in specific policy actions because of legislative gridlock. For instance, they declare, “It is hardly news that legislative gridlock on public lands issues has led presidents to seek other paths toward their political and policy objectives” (p. 121). Legislative gridlock, however, is too one dimensional and too easily used in an ad hoc manner to capture environmental policymaking in the United States, not to mention the fact that gridlock is descriptively inaccurate. If one assumes that gridlock means Congress will not pass major environmental legislation, then Congress is not gridlocked, as the authors point out up front: “Despite the apparent congressional stalemate on environmental issues, Congress does act on the environment—it passes bills in every session, most of them minor, and it has produced a few important bills since 1990” (p. 48).
In addition, the authors argue that newer forms of policymaking are the result of gridlock. While some of the policymaking processes are new, such as the active role of courts in deciding environmental conflicts, or the collaborative governance processes that have emerged most notably around endangered-species conflicts, they are not the result of a gridlocked Congress. Rather, they emerge from the “golden era” of environmental policy and the many environmental laws adopted by Congress and the president in the 1960s and 1970s. These laws allowed for citizen suits, which the authors deftly portray in the chapter on courts. Congress invited citizens to engage actively in policymaking by making the courts more readily accessible. The seeds of collaborative governance, too, were planted in the environmental laws of the golden era because of the silo structure of the laws (i.e., water supply is separated from water quality is separated from air quality is separated from toxic wastes), making them ill-suited for addressing environmental problems embedded in complex social and ecological settings. Collaborative management seeks to build bridges across the environmental law silos while also bringing the diverse parties in an environmental conflict to the table in order to explore workable solutions.
Certainly, legislative gridlock, or more accurately, heightened partisanship, plays a role in the shape and direction of each policy pathway. It moves the already high bar of major legislative action that much higher, but it is not the cause of collaborative governance or citizen lawsuits, and it is not the only reason that policy entrepreneurs have explored different strategies and venues for realizing their policy goals.
Fortunately, the authors are evenhanded in the development and treatment of their cases and do not attempt to force them into a gridlock box. Repeatedly throughout the chapters, they offer alternative explanations for the forces at play in any given policy pathway. For instance, the authors describe the impetus for a rule banning the building of roads on vast swaths of Forest Service land as coming from preservationists seeking forest protection and forest service officials struggling with inadequate budgets. Likewise, they argue that collaborative governance efforts emerge from the inadequacies of command-and-control policymaking as well as the desire to find less conflictual, more peaceful means of addressing environmental problems. Finally, they rightly note that when the Republican Party controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency between 2000 and 2006, party leaders did not make environmental policy a top agenda item, choosing instead to pursue other issues. Thus, pragmatic budget considerations, agenda setting, and efforts to devise more effective policymaking processes, not to mention many other considerations, shape the various pathways. In the end, what the authors have captured with their diverse and interesting case studies is not so much environmental policymaking shaped by a gridlocked Congress but an overview of how a complex governing system—US federalism—allows for many different policymaking processes to occur simultaneously, each with its strengths and limitations.
This is a well-written book that is easily accessible to a variety of audiences. It would make a suitable text for an upper-division undergraduate or lower-division graduate course on environmental policy. Policymakers, activists, and engaged citizens could readily gain a broad overview of environmental policymaking processes from this single volume. Even environmental policy scholars, who tend to specialize in studying a particular policymaking pathway, would benefit from exploring policymaking processes beyond their area of specialty.
