Learning about federalism has shown us that we can regulate pollution and environmental protection at all levels of government in the US—local, state, and federal

When it comes to controlling pollution, I think strengths in the federalist system really shine through the independent nature of state and federal involvement and the subsequent relationship that is intertwined between the governing entities. This independence allows the federal government to set more general standards but allows the states to fine tune these regulations to meet their needs. This strength highlights the diversity of each state and allows them to pursue the priorities of the people and their local governments. Another example of this strength is evident through regional cap and trade programs, such as RGGI, where states can be a part of climate action, even if the federal government isn't. I think these actions feature the division of power that makes federalism successful (cooperative), where there may be federal consensus regarding science on an issue like climate change, but where the values, economics, and technology differ by region or even by state.

I think the policy tools to achieve a preventative approach with a reactionary approach would be using tort laws paired with command and control limit laws. Since tort laws are used as a reactionary tool and we can use those to set new precedents regarding particular pollution issues. Tort laws set a foundation for preventative approaches, which can then be regulated with command and control laws that set health or technology based standards to prevent pollution. Setting limits through command and control laws ensures that policy is not always reacting to pollution, but instead pushing forward with new standards that protects past to current social progress, while also promoting future improvements.

To achieve a desired level of environmental quality, but allow flexibility to minimize the costs of regulation I think we could pair command and control laws with market based pollution laws. As discussed previously, we can use command and control laws to set limits and introduce new standards to industry pollution output. Once these standards are in place, it's possible to use market based pollution laws to help with the flexibility of achieving industry pollution goals. Cap and Trade programs can help minimize industry abatement costs through the banking of allowances and using offsets. Regulation costs can be minimized through the auctioning of left over allowances, which benefits both the government and the industry.