Methodism: Empire of the Spirit

Congress empowered the Environmental Protection Agency on the theory that only a national agency that is insulated from accountability to voters could produce the scientifically-grounded pollution rules needed to save a careless public from its own filth. In this provocative book, David Schoenbrod explains how his experience as an environmental advocate brought him to this startling realization: letting EPA dictate to the nation is a mistake. Through a series of gripping and illuminating anecdotes from his own career, the author reveals the EPA to be an agency that, under Democrats and Republicans alike, delays good rules, imposes bad ones, and is so big, muscle-bound, and remote that it does unnecessary damage to our society. EPA stays in power, he says, because it enables elected legislators to evade responsibility by hiding behind appointed bureaucrats. The best environmental rules, those that have done the most good, have come when Congress had to take responsibility or from states and localities rather than the EPA. Schoenbrod succeeds admirably in presenting a provocative analysis of the contemporary state of environmental law and policy. He makes a strong challenge to conventional wisdom. Richard B. Stewart, School of Law, Center on Environment and Land Use Law, New York University This engaging book brings environmental policy analysis alive with personal experiences pithy examples, and human interest stories. It challenges blithe acceptance of the status quo. Terry L. Anderson, executive director, PERC, and senior fellow, Hoover Institution