Facing Challenges: the Environmental Protection Agency

RFF President and Senior Fellow Paul Portney comments on the issues faced by the EPA following the resignation of EPA Administrator Christie Whitman.

On NPR's Talk of the Nation, and in the Los Angeles Times, Portney discusses challenges facing the EPA today, versus when it was founded. On the Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Portney discusses succeses of the EPA and issues the agency faces such as public land and climate change. (Video | Transcript)

Would some of these challenges EPA faces be resolved if the agency was elevated to cabinet status? Portney testified before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Government reform stating that a cabinet level agency would be appropriate and that a new bureau of environmental statistics would prove to be a valuable resource.

Evaulating EPA and its environmental regulations have been key topics to RFF researchers.

• In his 1997 book, Economic Analysis at EPA, Senior Fellow Richard Morgenstern examines the Regulatory Impact Analyses conducted at the agency and their impact on environmental rules.
• In Science at EPA, RFF Press author Mark Powell examines how scientific information impacts environmental decisions at the agency through various case studies.