Ryan, Erin. “Multilevel Environmental Governance in the United States.” Environmental Scientist 25.3 (2016). 51-57. https://www.the-ies.org/resources/quadrophilia-how
The intensity of multilevel environmental governance disputes reflects inexorable pressure on all levels of government to meet the increasingly complicated challenges of regulation in an ever more interconnected world. In the United States (US), debate over the responsibilities of different levels of government are framed within our system of constitutional federalism, which divides sovereign power between the central federal administration and regional states. Dilemmas about devolution have been erupting in all regulatory contexts, but environmental governance remains uniquely prone to federalism discord because it inevitably confronts the core question with which federalism grapples—“who gets to decide?”— in contexts where state and federal claims to power are simultaneously at their strongest.
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Ongoing jurisdictional controversies in energy policy, pollution law, and natural resource management reveal environmental law as the canary in federalism’s coal mine, showcasing the underlying reasons for jurisdictional conflict in all areas of law.
© Erin Ryan. Used with permission.