Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface -- A policymaking framework : defining problems and portraying solutions in U.S. environmental politics -- Part 1. Regulating polluters. The nation tackles air and water pollution : the Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts ; Love Canal : hazardous waste and the politics of fear ; Ecosystem-based management in the Chesapeake Bay ; Market-based solutions : acid rain and the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990 -- Part 2. History, changing values, and natural resource management. Oil versus wilderness in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ; Federal grazing policy : some things never change ; Jobs versus the environment : saving the northern spotted owl ; Playground or paradise? : snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park ; Crisis and recovery in the New England fisheries ; The Deepwater Horizon disaster : the high cost of offshore oil -- Part 3. New issues, new politics. Climate change : the challenges of international environmental policymaking ; Cape wind : if not here, where? If not now, when? ; Fracking wars : local and state responses to unconventional shale gas development ; Making trade-offs : urban sprawl and the evolving system of growth management in Portland, Oregon ; Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans : disaster, restoration, and resilience -- Conclusions : Politics, values, and environmental policy change. Answers to environmental issues are not black and white. Debates around policy are often among those with fundamentally different values, and the way that problems and solutions are defined plays a central role in shaping how those values are translated into policy. Through her analysis, Judith Layzer systematically explores the background, players, contributing factors, and outcomes of 15 cases, and gives readers insight into some of the most interesting and controversial issues in U.S. environmental policymaking.