Grist Magazine, an online environmental journal, recently published this interview with Assistant Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett. It is worth a read, as it provides some insight into what many in the Bush Administration are trying to accomplish in environmental policy. Scarlett exemplifies the sincere belief of many – though certainly not all – environmental officials in the administration that more flexible, market-oriented, property-based, and non-regulatory initiatives can equal or exceed the performance of another generation of command-and-control regulations.
Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Scarlett worked at the Reason Foundation, where she oversaw its public policy studies on environmental issues, among other matters. She’s generally viewed as the fount of free-market thinking within the Bush Administration’s environmental team. Unfortunately, it often appears that she is unable to get her free-market ideas put into practice. Grist readers respond to the interview here. Note that one reader suggests Scalett loses many internal battles with more pro-industry folks at Interior. Though a fan of Lynn Scarlett’s work, I am afraid that reader may be right. Last year, a group of free-market analysts got together to evaluate the Bush environmental record, and the President barely got a passing grade. (Incidentally, Scarlett responds to that evaluation here.)
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