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Translating Vague Statutes into Rules and Regulations

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US Environmental Policy in Action

Abstract

If you were walking down the street one afternoon and a news reporter asked for your candid thoughts on environmental rulemaking, you would probably respond with a blank stare or you might say the act of rulemaking included a bureaucrat sitting behind a computer all day, filling out forms. As you will learn in this chapter, rulemaking is an essential component to a thorough understanding of how environmental policy works. Here, we recount details from our conversation with Professor Daniel Fiorino, a 31-year veteran of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), about how complex the regulatory profession can be.1 Fiorino’s extensive career included many different duties, but we focus on the start and conclusion of his EPA career—from a regulatory analyst to the Director of the National Environmental Performance Track Program. In documenting the evolution of his work, we start with his responsibilities as they pertain to agency rulemaking.

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© 2014 Sara R. Rinfret and Michelle C. Pautz

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Rinfret, S.R., Pautz, M.C. (2014). Translating Vague Statutes into Rules and Regulations. In: US Environmental Policy in Action. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137482082_6

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