Air quality standards and regulatory styles in West Germany and the United States of America

Abstract

A comparative analysis of air quality standard-setting in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the United States of America (USA) suggests that the environmental regulatory processes have been significantly influenced by different cultural traditions and legal requirements. Though isolated regulatory strategies have been transferred (e.g., use of emission "bubbles"), the potential for transferring attractive elements of each country's regulatory approach will be limited. However, the authors found that the transfer of regulatory, scientific and technological information between the US and the FRG appear to have had the greatest impacts on the regulatory processes in each of the two countries.The results of this study also suggest that public and private sector policy makers will increasingly find it necessary to track the results of regulatory activities, as well as technological innovations, in other countries in order to forecast and influence potential regulatory or legislative actions.