2004 CPEO Brownfields List Archive

From: cpeo <cpeo@cpeo.org>
Date: 19 Dec 2003 19:19:43 -0000
Reply: cpeo-brownfields
Subject: New RFF-CPEO publications on brownfields
 
During the past decade, the primary responsibility for addressing
contaminated sites - known as "brownfields" - has shifted from the EPA
to state regulatory agencies and local governments.  Recent federal
legislation, the "Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields
Revitalization Act," acknowledges this change.  The new law increases
funding for state cleanup programs and limits the authority of EPA to
take enforcement actions at sites cleaned up and certified by state
programs. 

This decentralization of brownfields policies has made extraordinary,
and at times painful, demands on state regulatory agencies to enlarge
their mission from a traditional focus on environmental protection and
risk reduction at brownfield sites to one that seeks to incorporate into
rules and procedures other important social goals, such as economic
development, efficient infrastructure use, and job creation.  For many
brownfields practitioners, however, this array of policies makes
brownfields attractive because it provides opportunities for creative
negotiations, deal-making, and the possibility of reforming regulatory
practices.

The brownfields literature has little to say about how such
transformations occur, or how regulatory agencies and policy
entrepreneurs respond strategically to the political preferences of
state legislatures; we know relatively little in detail about how new
brownfields policies emerge at the state level, what groups or political
interests push them forward, how these negotiations are structured, what
incentives are valued by different parties, and under what conditions
these inducements find favor and are actually implemented at the local
level.  

These questions are addressed in three new reports issued jointly by
Kris Wernstedt of Resources for the Future (RFF) and Bob Hersh of the
Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO).  In their study, which
was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Wernstedt and Hersh rely
on extensive interviews, document review, case studies, and a survey, to
examine the emergence and implementation of brownfields policies in
Wisconsin, one of the most innovative states in the country in
brownfields.  

The first paper, "The Brownfield Bargain: Negotiating Site Cleanup
Policies in Wisconsin," is an historical analysis of the politics and
process of brownfield development in the state during the past two
decades. The second paper, "Brownfield Redevelopment in Wisconsin:
Program, Citywide and Site Level Studies," relies primarily on case
studies to examine how the legislative and administrative reforms of the
state's brownfield program influenced the behavior and choices of local
government officials and private sector participants.  And in the final
paper, "Brownfield Redevelopment in Wisconsin: A Survey of the Field,"
the authors report on a survey of some 250 brownfield stakeholders,
including elected officials, staff from economic and community
development agencies, attorneys, developers, and representatives from
non-profit organizations.  The paper analyzes how different groups
perceive the environmental and economic benefits of brownfields as well
as the principal barriers to more effective brownfields redevelopment.  

These papers can be downloaded from the CPEO web site at
http://www.cpeo.org/brownfields/br_papers.html or from RFF at
http://www.rff.org/rff/News/Features/Brownfields.cfm

Bob Hersh
Brownfields Program Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO)
1101 Connecticut Ave., NW  Suite 1000
Washington, DC  20036

Tel:     202.452.8043
Fax:    202.452.8095
email:  bhersh@cpeo.org
url:      www.cpeo.org
 
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