The Administrative Presidency and the Environment

"Shafie’s Presidential Administration and the Environment is a welcome addition to the literature. It offers keen insight into the exceptional role of the presidency in shaping U.S. environmental policy, and with its focus on the Trump administration, it brings much-needed critical evaluation of how the administrative presidency can reshape core environmental policies even without passage of new legislation." — Michael Kraft, Professor Emeritus, Political Science and Public and Environmental Affairs, and Herbert Fisk Johnson Professor of Environmental Studies Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

Never before has the discussion on environmental policy been more important. The unambiguous and global evidence on climate change, populist backlash in key liberal democracies, and rising disagreement over what constitutes basic facts demonstrate that our ability to resolve environmental is seriously limited. The Administrative Presidency and the Environment: Policy Leadership and Retrenchment from Clinton to Trump provides a roadmap of how we have reached this point, and by extension, a map forward. Shafie’s analysis of the growth of the administrative presidency replacing statutory progress with regulatory efforts — causing instability in environmental protection as administrations flip between political parties — is an important foundation in understanding environmental policy making in the United States. Shafie‘s detailed assessment of these dynamics is a valuable resource for scholars of environmental policy as well as those for whom this book is a first read on environmental issues. The book provides constructive case studies of critical environmental areas — from public lands to climate change. — Matthew A. Cahn, Vice Provost, California State University Northridge

"David Shafie offers an especially useful analysis of how recent American Presidents from Clinton through Trump have used executive authority to expand or reduce the scope of environmental policymaking. His discussion of substantive policy cases dealing with natural resources, pollution control and climate change reveals that key decisions are increasingly made by chief executives rather than legislators thanks to their ability to apply various approaches such as rulemaking, appointments, discretionary judgments, and budgetary priorities." — Charles Davis, Colorado State University