Excerpt
The states have expanded their role in environmental protection over the past three decades, and now implement most of the federal environmental statutes. With this heightened responsibility has come an increase in state financial commitments to pay for these programs and the states have met this responsibility for years. During the past few years, however, the fiscal crisis in the states, coupled with many new federal environmental rules and a lack of significant new federal money, has left the states with at least a $1 billion annual gap in the amounts they need to implement current federal law. These shortfalls have been documented in several studies. At the same time, the first wave of state (and federal) environmental employees is retiring, leaving both a knowledge gap and an opportunity for modifying the type of staff that the agencies have. These situations leave us in a time of flux regarding the future of environmental protection.
The federal system of environmental protection in the United States centers on the delegation of many of the federal regulatory programs to the states. In the last 10 years, the number of programs states operate has grown from 40 to 75 percent. States now operate …
Footnotes
R. Steven Brown is the executive director of the Environmental Council of the States, the national nonprofit, nonpartisan association of all the state environmental agencies and their leaders. Its mission is to champion the role of the states in environmental management; provide for the exchange of ideas, views, and experiences among the states; and articulate state positions.
- Copyright 2004 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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