The centralization of environmental regulation has led to inflexibility and inertia in the federal government as it attempts to respond to widely diverse problems. That attempt has also placed penalties on innovation and investment.

In Using Federalism to Improve Environmental Policy, the authors explore the effects of current regulatory policies and propose a radical restructuring of the environmental regulatory authority to meet the need for more aggressive and more responsive environmental enforcement.

Henry N. Butler is the Fred and Mary Kock Distinguished Teaching Professor of Law and Economics at the University of Kansas Schools of Business and Law. Jonathan R. Macey is the J. DuPratt White Professor of Law at the Cornell University School of Law.