A book release event was held on October 2, 2014 to announce and celebrate the release of a new book, “Next Generation Environmental Compliance and Enforcement,” by GW Professors LeRoy Paddock and Jessica Wentz. The event, held in the Law School Faculty Conference Center, was attended by EEM Professors Jonathan Deason and Joe Cascio.
The new book represents a major step forward in one of the eight focus areas, “Next Generation Environmental Self-Governance,” being undertaken by the newly chartered Environmental and Energy Management Institute.
Here is a summary of the book, which appears on the website of the publisher of the book, the Environmental Law Institute (http://www.eli.org/eli-press-books/next-generation-environmental-compliance-and-enforcement):
“Faced with declining budgets, widespread enforcement problems, and an increasingly complex array of environmental challenges, regulators across the world are searching for new strategies to facilitate compliance with environmental laws. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has spearheaded these efforts with the introduction of its “Next Generation Compliance” initiative, through which the agency hopes to leverage information and technology to streamline enforcement procedures and strengthen compliance with federal environmental laws. Cynthia Giles, the Assistant Administrator for the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) has outlined five key elements of this initiative: rules with compliance built in, advanced pollution monitoring technologies, electronic reporting systems, increased transparency, and innovative enforcement strategies.
In December 2012, EPA representatives and other stakeholders participated in a two-day workshop to exchange ideas and develop strategies for implementing a “Next Generation” approach to environmental enforcement and compliance. This book is a compilation of selected papers from that workshop. These papers cover a broad array of topics, ranging from relatively abstract comparisons of different compliance approaches to focused case studies of regulatory programs. Some of the specific mechanisms identified by the authors to streamline enforcement and compliance include: advanced monitoring technologies; self-certification programs; company compliance management systems; environmental petitions; insurance mechanisms; and regulatory approaches that leverage a company’s internal economic interests to drive behavior.”
Professor Paddock is the Associate Dean for Environmental Law at GW and serves as the Focus Area Leader for the EEMI’s Next Generation Environmental Self-Governance focus area. He formerly was the director of Environmental Legal Studies at Pace University Law School and was a visiting scholar at the Environmental Law Institute. Dean Paddock also served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Minnesota and served on the American National Standard Institute’s ISO 14000 Environmental Management Systems Council.
Professor Wentz is a Visiting Associate Professor and Environmental Law Fellow at GW’s Law School, where she focuses on global climate governance, sustainable energy development, and environmental justice.