RFF held a celebration in early May to honor J. Clarence "Terry" Davies, director of the Center for Risk Management and a senior fellow, who is retiring. Davies, a political scientist whose career spans more than 35 years, has played an influential role in the development of this country's environmental regulatory system.
RFF invited William Ruckelshaus, the first administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and former CEO of Browning-Ferris, to comment on Davies' many accomplishments and contributions. Ruckelshaus has known Davies for many years.
"It is not an exaggeration to say that Terry Davies is as responsible as anyone for laying the foundation for environmental public policy in this country," Ruckelshaus said. Davies' career is remarkable in its breadth and scope — he co-authored the reorganization plan that established EPA and went on to help draft several major pieces of legislation, including the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), Ruckelshaus said.
"Throughout his career, Terry has taken on landmark, path-finding assignments," Ruckelshaus said. Between teaching stints at Bowdoin College and Princeton University, Davies became the very first budget examiner for environmental programs at the Bureau of the Budget. He then went on to serve as a consultant to the President's Advisory Council on Executive Organization, where he played an important role in developing the plan for organizing parts of 15 different agencies from across the federal government into an entirely new agency — EPA.
Davies subsequently served on the senior staff of the Council on Environmental Quality and as executive vice president of the Conservation Foundation. And from 1989 to 1991, he was the EPA assistant administrator for policy, the agency's third-ranking position. In 1992, he rejoined the RFF staff, where he had spent a three-year stint in the mid-1970s.
"Terry was present when the fundamental set of laws that have formed the framework for environmental policy in this country were created," including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and TSCA, Ruckelshaus said. Since then, he has spent much of his time "serving as a constructive, objective critic of the laws he helped to put into place," Ruckelshaus said.
"Over the past 20 years, there has been virtually no committee or group that has tried to look comprehensively at the base of our environmental laws, that Terry hasn't been part of," Ruckelshaus said. Davies was a member of the National Academy of Public Administration's Committee on EPA Priorities, and has served on or chaired numerous EPA and National Research Council committees.
Davies has published several books and numerous articles over the years. His research has included work on risk assessment and risk management issues, pollution control regulations, public participation in environmental decisionmaking, program evaluation, and the use of science in environmental decisions.
"Terry's contribution to the understanding, maturation, and development of our environmental regulatory system has been huge," Ruckelshaus said.
A version of this article appeared in print in the Summer 2000 issue of Resources magazine.
