Center for the Economy and the Environment
Learning from Innovations In Environmental Protection:
Commissioned Research Papers

The Center for the Economy and the Environment at the National Academy of Public Administration is conducting a two-year project commissioned by the U.S. Congress to design and manage a series of independent assessments of efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), states, communities, businesses, and others to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of environmental protection.

The Academy is posting those research papers as they become available under the five general categories below.

You also can view a full set of executive summaries.

The Academy panel's own report to is available in the publication's database, please click here to be redirected..

Innovations in Regulation

1. Evaluation of the Massachusetts Environmental Results Program Full Report
by Susan April and Tim Greiner
Kerr, Greiner, Anderson and April (KGAA) Inc.
Reston, Virginia

2. ISO 14001 and EPA Region I's Star Track Program: Assessing their Potential as Tools in Environmental Protection Full Report
by Jennifer Nash and John Ehrenfeld
Technology, Business, and Environment Program
Center for Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts

3. The Potential and Pitfalls of Innovative Permits: Learning from
New Jersey's Facility-Wide Permitting Program Full Report
by Susan Helms, Jennifer Sullivan, and Allen White
Tellus Institute
Boston, Massachusetts

4. Green Permits and Cooperative Environmental Agreements: A Report on Oregon's and Wisconsin's Regulatory Innovation Programs Full Report
by Jerry Speir
Tulane Institute for Environmental Law and Policy
Tulane Law School
New Orleans, Louisiana

Trading Systems to Reduce Air and Water Pollution

5. Analysis of Volatile-Organic-Compound Air Pollution Trading Systems Full Report
by Eric Ruder and Michael Hix
Industrial Economics, Inc.
Cambridge, Massachusetts

6. Crosscutting Analysis of Trading Programs: Case Studies in Air, Water, and Wetland Mitigation Trading Systems Full Report
Appendices A-I include case studies on the following programs:

• Tar-Pamlico River Basin, North Carolina
• San Joaquin River, California
• Wayland-Sudbury, Massachusetts
• Rahr Malting and the Minnesota River, Minnesota
• Kalamazoo River, Michigan
• The RECLAIM Trading Program for SOx and NOx, California
• New Jersey Open Market Emission Trading System
• Wetland Mitigation Banking in Ohio

by Robert Kerr, John Jaksch and Steve Anderson
Kerr, Greiner, Anderson and April (KGAA) Inc.
Reston, Virginia
and
Battelle Pacific Northwest Division
Richland, Washington

Governance in Watersheds

7. The Watershed Approach - An Empirical Assessment of Innovation in Environmental Management
including case studies from:

• Nisqually River and Dungeness River watersheds in Washington
• Black Earth Creek and Tomorrow-Waupaca River watersheds in Wisconsin
• Upper Little Tennessee River and Long Creek watersheds in North Carolina.
  Main Text , The Six Case Studies
  by Stephen M. Born and Kenneth D. Genskow
  University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Madison, Wisconsin

8. Environmental Governance in Watersheds: The Importance of Collaboration to Institutional Performance
Full Report , Appendices A-C
including case studies to be posted at a later date:

• Rhode Island's Salt Ponds: Using a Special Area Management Plan to Improve Watershed Governance Full Case Study
• Delaware Inland Bays Estuary Program: Using a Nonprofit Organization to Implement a CCMP Full Case Study
• The Tampa Bay Estuary Program: Developing and Implementing an Interlocal Agreement
• The Narragansett Bay Estuary Program: Using a State Water Quality Agency to Implement a CCMP? Full Case Study
• The Tillamook Bay National Estuary Program: Using a Performance Partnership to Implement a CCMP
• Tahoe Regional Planning Agency: the Evolution of Collaboration Full Case Study

by Mark T. Imperial
Institute for the Study of Government and the Nonprofit Sector &
School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405
and
Timothy Hennessey
Department of Political Science
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI 02881

9. The Navesink Watershed Management Effort Full Report
by Caron Chess and Ginger Gibson
Center for Environmental Communication
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey

10. Lessons from Large Watershed Programs: A comparison of the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program with the San Francisco Bay-Delta (CALFED) Program, Central and South Florida (Everglades) Project, and the Chesapeake Bay Program
Full Report
by Robert W. Adler and Michelle Straube
CommUnity Resolution, Inc.
Salt Lake City, Utah

Changing the Federal/State Relationship

11. Mixing Management Metaphors: The Complexities of Introducing a Performance-Based State/EPA Partnership System into an Activity Based Management Culture Full Report
by Lee Paddock and Suellen Keiner
Environmental Law Institute
Washington, DC

12. The National Environmental Performance Partnership System: Making Good on its Promise?
by Jeanne Herb, Allen White and Mark Stoughten Full Report
Tellus Institute
Boston, Massachusetts

13. Environmental Performance Measures in a Federal System Full Report
by William T. Gormley, Jr.
Georgetown University
Washington, DC

14. Reinventing EPA New England: An EPA Regional Office Tests Innovative Approaches to Environmental Protection
Full Report
by Jodi Perras
Perras and Associates
Indianapolis, Indiana

Compliance Assurance & Superfund: Reforms at EPA

15. Reinventing Superfund: An Assessment of EPA's Administrative Reforms Full Report
by Robert Nakamura and Tom Church
State University of New York
Albany, New York

16. Towards Integrated Approaches to Compliance Assurance Full Report
Jeanne Herb, Mark Stoughton, Jennifer Sullivan, and Michael Crow
Tellus Institute
Boston, Massachusetts

17. Can EPA Accommodate California and Other Leading Edge States? Full Report
Paul Silvern
Hamilton, Rabinovitz & Alschuler, Inc.
Los Angeles, California