Protect and enhance: Lowi's juridical democracy and the prevention of significant deterioration of air quality

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:5040015

Meiburg, A S

The capture of Federal regulatory agencies by the groups they were supposed to be regulating has been a topic of concern in the traditional literature of public administration. In his influential book The End of Liberalism, Professor Theordore Lowi suggested that capture resulted in part from vauge delegations of authority of Congress to regulatory agencies. Lowi argued that democracy would be better served if Congress were more specific in drafting laws, if agencies made greater use of formal rulemaking in implementing them, and if the courts rejected statutes which contained excessively vague delegations of authority - a remedy which he labeled juridicial democracy. This dissertation examines Lowi's theory in light of the experience of Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the requirements of the Clean Air Act to prevent the significant deterioration of air quality in areas where air was already relatively clean. The history of the program to develop and carry out these requirements, known as PSD, is described in detail from its inception in the late 1960's through EPA's final regulations in 1980. Special attention is given to the actions taken by EPA after environmental groups successfully used the courts to force EPA to develop a PSD program in 1974, how Congress responded by amending the Clean Air Act in 1977, and the difficulties these amendments and subsequent additional court reviews caused for EPA.

• Research Organization: Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5040015
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290300* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
Health
& Safety
500600 -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Regulations-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AIR QUALITY
CLEAN AIR ACT
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
LAWS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NORTH AMERICA
POLLUTION LAWS
POLLUTION REGULATIONS
PREVENTION OF SIGNIFICANT DETERIORATION
REGULATIONS
US EPA
US ORGANIZATIONS
USA