Extract
Restraining Federal Preemption When There Is an 'Emerging Consensus' of State Environmental Laws and Policies
INTRODUCTION
The model of cooperative federalism, which engages both the federal and state governments in setting and meeting environmental goals, has dominated the environmental regulatory field since the 1970s. It integrates national policies and interstate environmental pollution reduction goals with the sensibilities and flexibility of locally tailored actions. Recent trends in federalism jurisprudence, however, have circumscribed both federal and state power to regulate in the environmental arena. Courts' applications of federalism principles to constrict both federal and state solutions can impede the stronger environmental protection that the public is increasingly demanding.At the same time, Congress and the executive branch have failed to advance key public environmental goals. For example, the federal government has failed both to address global climate change threats and to move aggressively forward on clean energy development solutions. Federal actions to reduce mercury pollution from coal plants and various pollutants from cars and trucks have widely been criticized as too little, too late. The political will for environmental leadership at the federal level has stagnated in the early part of the twenty-first century.The states are serving as Justice Brandeis's fifty laboratories of democracy.1 They are stepping up to fill this environmental law and policy gap as federal actions have been viewed as insufficient or, in some cases, counterprod...See the full content of this document
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