Expert assessment of the performance of the US system for environmental regulation

Abstract

A questionnaire was developed and administered to four groups of experts in order to assess their views about the attributes of ‘an ideal regulatory system’ and determine the extent to which they believe the current US system for regulating criteria air pollutants and surface water quality conforms to that ideal. A linear multi-attribute utility score was developed for each respondent and for groups identified as: academia, government, industry, and non-governmental organizations. There is considerable agreement among respondents, although some groups identify different primary attributes of regulation as more important, assigning significantly different weights. On average, respondents assess the US system for regulating criteria air pollution as operating at only 38% of their ideal; water survey respondents score current mean performance of the US regulatory system at 35% of their ideal. Asked to assess how well the current US system could be made to operate ‘without fundamental changes,’ respondents scored potential maximum performance at between 52% and 64%, still short of ideal, but a significant increase in the existing performance.