In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, this book brings together leading scholars and EPA veterans to provide a comprehensive assessment of the agency’s key decisions and actions in the various areas of its responsibility. Themes across all chapters include the role of rulemaking, negotiation/compromise, partisan polarization, judicial impacts, relations with the White House and Congress, public opinion, interest group pressures, environmental enforcement, environmental justice, risk assessment, and interagency conflict. As no other book on the market currently discusses EPA with this focus or scope, the authors have set out to provide a comprehensive analysis of the agency’s rich 50-year history for academics, students, professional, and the environmental community.

A fabulous book. Fifty Years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offers even more than the definitive history of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It provides an immensely valuable account of pollution control law in the United States during the past five decades. The book is a deserved tribute to all that EPA has accomplished and clear-eyed warning of how much the nation would lose if current efforts to undermine the agency were successful. -- Richard Lazarus, Professor of Law, Harvard University
Part history, part drama, and part public policy manual, Fifty Years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is sweeping in scope, extraordinary in depth, and a “must read” for anyone who cares about America’s environmental policy framework and the journey to a sustainable future. -- Dan Esty, Yale professor; Former Commissioner, Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection; and EPA official (1989-93)
This compilation of articles by 15 experts interweaves a history of the Environmental Protection Agency with currents in US politics and environmental science.... Chapters cover establishment of the EPA (1970) and laws and regulations regarding clean air, clean water, climate change, hazardous waste disposal/cleanup, and chemicals (including pesticides and genetically modified organisms). Later chapters address the role of science and the impact of economics and politics on EPA's agenda and priorities. A final chapter looks ahead with guarded optimism: so much was done, but more remains to be done on lead in water (old issue) and climate (new issue). As shown, the EPA has mostly sustained its mission despite legislative gridlock and partisan politics, with a narrative climax of sorts in systematic dismantling during the Trump years. Recommended. * Choice Reviews *

A. James Barnes is Dean Emeritus and Professor at the Paul H. O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University where for 30 years he has taught environmental law in the O'Neill School and in the Maurer School of Law. From 1970 -1973 he served as Assistant and Chief of Staff to EPA's first Administrator, William Ruckelshaus, and later served as EPA General Counsel (1983-1985) and Deputy Administrator (1985-1988).
John D. Grahamis Dean Emeritus and Professor at the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. He is a specialist in risk analysis who worked closely with EPA during his time as Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the George W. Bush administration from 2001-2006. He was the founding director of the Center for Risk Analysis, Harvard School of Public Health (1985-2001).

David M. Koniskyis Professor at the Paul H. O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University where his research and teaching focus on environmental politics and policy, federalism, public opinion, and environmental justice.