The Environmental Forum

Not your father's reinvention initiative, E-Enterprise for the Environment was developed by a joint state-federal workgroup to move beyond the cooperative model that has characterized environmental protection into a system of shared responsibility among co-regulators.

In what appears to be the new normal when it comes to defining "waters of the United States," every effort that seeks to clarify that term, and in turn, the reach of federal authority to regulate water pollution, breeds yet more confusion.

Criminal prosecution for major regulatory offenses, for a while the norm and then the exception, is once again on the rise. Government officials, facing dwindling enforcement budgets, are hauling malfeasant corporations and their executives into court to face charges.

The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s approach to environmental law reflected an intense concern about its constitutional legitimacy and worries about promoting elitism and restricting economic freedom and personal autonomy.

There are now more than 700 HCPs nationwide, with additional plans in preparation. While a number of HCPs have been based on a more conventional model of bilateral, single-project permits that merely seek to mitigate harm to listed species, the more noteworthy HCPs are landscapewide and focused on multiple species. These plans each cover hundreds if not millions of acres and even an entire state. As this concept matures, it is outgrowing the ad-hoc way in which plans have been crafted, funded, and managed. The question is how can this area-wide, collaborative HCP concept be improved and implemented to more expeditiously and effectively provide for habitat conservation in concert with needed infrastructure and development?