Externalities and the Matching Principle: The Case for Reallocating Environmental Regulatory Authority

<div> The extreme centralization of environmental regulation is the result of interest group politics and dramatic political developments rather than a sober analysis of the major trade-offs involved in moving to federal domination of environmental protection. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, many environmental concerns that had previously been thought of as purely local issues, such as solid waste disposal, became federal issues. Although there is little doubt that national politicians were ahead of the curve in terms of responding to environmental concerns, one must not then assume that state and local politicians would have continued to be unresponsive to environmental issues arising in their…