Time for a Restatement

Despite its importance and economic impact, in many ways U.S. environmental law is a conflicted mess. Congress’s inability to take major legislative action has led to a statutory paralysis in environmental law that has lasted for 25 years, and the growing expansion of executive regulations to fill the gap has forced federal and state courts to interpret statutory authority in situations that Congress could never have foreseen. When overlaid with cooperative federalism structures to encourage experimentation at the state level, the notorious complexity of current regulatory requirements, and the establishment of environmental programs in multiple, overlapping laws in distinct subject areas rather than one unifying statute, U.S. environmental law seems designed to generate confusion and overlapping obligations and liabilities.