Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters
ORCID (Links to author’s additional scholarship at ORCID.org)
Abstract
Citizen participation is a cornerstone of modern American environmental governance. Public participation in decision-making, monitoring, and enforcement increases regulatory transparency, community engagement, and ensures policymakers are informed at the local level. To William D. Ruckelshaus, the first (and fifth) Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there was no role as powerful or indispensable. In his inspiring essay, The Citizen and the Environmental Regulatory Process, Ruckelshaus championed the role of the participant citizen, whose involvement in multifaceted environmental decision-making provided legitimacy to regulatory proceedings. Throughout his storied career, Ruckelshaus returned to this core ideology that public participation in environmental governance produced robust and beneficial oversight. His vision for EPA, splendidly set forth in the 1972 Indiana Law Journal article, described an agency borne out of a tumultuous period of environmental catastrophe, with cheating polluters, passive government, and an outraged public. Ruckelshaus recognized the potential of both the EPA and the public that it served.
Publication Title
University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law & Public Affairs
Document Type
Article
Keywords
environment, environmental law, EPA, Ruckelshaus, citizen participation, citizen suit, regulation, agency, administrative law, pollution, public
Recommended Citation
Monika U. Ehrman, The Environmental Citizen: Participant and Problem, 8 U. PA. J.L. & PUB. AFF. 20 (2023)
