Environmental Policy, Federalism, and the Obama Presidency

Environmental policy is a central piece of President Obama’s domestic policy agenda. Congressional gridlock, however, has frequently compelled the Obama Administration to turn to the tools of the administrative presidency to achieve its goals. While executive authority has enabled the President to pursue a relatively ambitious environmental agenda, it has often engendered conflict with Congress, industry, and some states. High levels of intergovernmental conflict have plagued the Obama Administration in several areas of environmental policy, including investment in renewable energy, Environmental Protection Agency regulations on air pollution, and executive actions to manage public lands. And, for their part, states have continued to pursue their own policy goals in the absence of federal policy, with episodes of both policy innovation and retrenchment. Although President Obama’s approach continues a trend of presidents primarily using the tools of the administrative presidency, the President’s signature climate change policy, the Clean Power Plan, may signal an evolving intergovernmental partnership in environmental policy.