Environmental Protection New Approaches

In recent years, the interest in alternatives to the nation's 'command-and-control' approach to environmental protection has heightened. Driving this interest are concerns that the current approach to environmental protection has heightened, that the current approach is inefficient and excessively costly, and that it is ineffective in addressing certain problems such as non-point source pollution and global climate change. Alternative environmental protection approaches range from proposals that would replace the current system to ones that would supplement it. Elements of the proposals include enhanced information processes, greater reliance on market mechanisms, devolution of federal responsibilities to state and local decision-makers, and substitution of private markets for public actions. The proposals for the most part represent a mix of techniques, and few are really new. Most of the ideas have been developed and promoted for some time; many have been incorporated to some degree in existing programs. This book briefly summarises a number of 'new approaches'.