The nation's environmental policy approaches and methods are becoming more flexible and diverse, with state governments composing the fulcrum of policy changes. Southern environmental politics and policy are especially valuable when considering a changing environmental policy landscape because they present a contradiction of caution and innovation. This caution derives from the South's well-documented traditional culture while this innovation crosses geographical, pollution media, and intergovernmental levels. Environmental protection in the South must take this paradox into account if progress is to be successful. This book studies Southern environmental policy and politics in order to understand the concrete realities of the Southeast and extend those realities' understanding to other regions of the country. It analyzes a series of cases that describe the state of environmental policy implementation and management in the South. These case studies cover a range of environmental areas, including air quality, drinking water and wastewater, brownfields, collaborative environmental management, and environmental justice, among others. These cases explore the diversity and flexibility which compose the dominant characters of environmental management today.

The nation's environmental policy approaches and methods are becoming more flexible and diverse, with state governments composing the fulcrum of policy changes. Southern environmental politics and policy are especially valuable when considering a changing environmental policy landscape because they present a contradiction of caution and innovation. This caution derives from the South's well-documented traditional culture while this innovation crosses geographical, pollution media, and intergovernmental levels. Environmental protection in the South must take this paradox into account if progress is to be successful. This book studies Southern environmental policy and politics in order to understand the concrete realities of the Southeast and extend those realities' understanding to other regions of the country. It analyzes a series of cases that describe the state of environmental policy implementation and management in the South. These case studies cover a range of environmental areas, including air quality, drinking water and wastewater, brownfields, collaborative environmental management, and environmental justice, among others. These cases explore the diversity and flexibility which compose the dominant characters of environmental management today.

Drawing on the careers of senior executives of the US Environmental Protection Agency, True Green identifies the concrete actions that work in protecting our nation's environment. By examining the exquisitely difficult tasks of executive leadership in environmental protection, one of the most conflicted public issues of today, these scholars provide lessons of executive effectiveness in the principal government institution essential to national environmental progress. The EPA shoulders great expectations from the public and political leaders on fulfilling its statutorily assigned activities. As a result, EPA must act in concert with state and local governments, nongovernment organizations and interest groups, as well as business and industry. This volume also highlights the career civil servants who bridge across from policymakers to the government bureaucrats who must make real the abstract policy choices of politicians. True Green uses the experiences of the individual contributors to provide a deeper understanding of the practices associated with effective executive behavior in the Environmental Protection Agency.

Drawing on the careers of senior executives of the US Environmental Protection Agency, True Green identifies the concrete actions that work in protecting our nation's environment. By examining the exquisitely difficult tasks of executive leadership in environmental protection, one of the most conflicted public issues of today, these scholars provide lessons of executive effectiveness in the principal government institution essential to national environmental progress. The EPA shoulders great expectations from the public and political leaders on fulfilling its statutorily assigned activities. As a result, EPA must act in concert with state and local governments, nongovernment organizations and interest groups, as well as business and industry. This volume also highlights the career civil servants who bridge across from policymakers to the government bureaucrats who must make real the abstract policy choices of politicians. True Green uses the experiences of the individual contributors to provide a deeper understanding of the practices associated with effective executive behavior in the Environmental Protection Agency.

Program evaluation requires attention to rationality, rigor, and careful methods. Yet precision and accuracy alone do not guarantee that program evaluations will be implemented. What prevents an evaluation from being thrown on a shelf to gather dust? Author Gerald Emison, a practitioner with more than 20 years experience, knows that the consumers of program evaluations operate in a decidedly practical and political arena where decision making is a very human and sometimes messy process. Getting students from ideas to outcomes means that knowing clients' needs and effectively communicating results are just as crucial as an evaluator's theoretical knowledge and statistical analysis. Emison wants to help students translate their mastery of methodology into useable program evaluations that are implemented and affect actual programs. Short and to-the-point, Practical Program Evaluations hones in on the applied side of program evaluation, with the goal of creating and presenting program evaluations that are used and improve public enterprises. A handy supplement to core texts, Emison offers honest advice, emphasizing practices that focus on the client, content, control and communication of program evaluations.