The Environmental Protection Agency: Asking the Wrong Questions - Hardcover

This text uses five case studies to examine environmental policies made under the Carter Administration, the years in which the EPA grew into the agency of today. A summary update of these cases through the Reagan Administration is also provided. The detailed discussions of these cases show how environmental policy suffered because of the inability of top officials to recognize the distinction between scientific questions and political questions and the interaction between the two. It also shows how environmental policy fell victim to public alarm, misinformation, power conflicts between competing interest groups, poor co-ordination between the offices within the EPA and inexperience on the part of the top officials. Nonetheless, some sensible rules did emerge. The authors argues that the EPA should shift its emphasis to protect the human environment and to formulate a coherent view of the proper balance between health and economic needs, rather than attemping to sort out the conflicting views of various special interest groups.