Clinton agencies made major environmental policy without new statutes.

Evidence

What may have begun, however, as an administrative effort intended to fill the void left by Congress and deter congressional intervention transformed into a highly activist, ambitious lawmaking agenda during the decade’s final years. Beginning in 1997, Secretary Babbitt wielded a sledgehammer to underscore the significance of Interior’s new policy of destroying dams that were environmentally harmful or had otherwise outlived their functions. He further adopted sweeping reforms of long-standing rangeland policies and hardrock mining law, placing significant environmental restrictions on economic exploitation of the public lands without the benefit of any new, intervening federal statutory authority. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 700

Categorization

• QUESTION: Babbitt’s unilateral agency lawmaking raises the separation-of-powers legality question flagged at 699 — worth chasing how courts treated it.
• XREF: connects to: Clinton’s executive branch defeated 1990s rollbacks by mobilizing public hostility, reversing 1970s roles — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 583; Large corporate buyers can impose government-like environmental standards without legislation. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 1013

Broader Connections

• Large corporate buyers can impose government-like environmental standards without legislation. #exemplifies (0.80) — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 1013