title: Case study of municipal air pollution policies: Houston's Air Toxic Control Strategy under the White Administration, 2004-2009.
abstract: Local government has traditionally played only a minor role in regulating airborne toxic pollutants. However, from 2004 to 2009, the City of Houston implemented a novel, municipality-based air toxics reduction strategy to address what it considered unacceptable health risks and an insufficient regulatory response from state and federal agencies. The city's effort to exert local control over stationary sources of air toxics represents a unique opportunity to study the selection and performance of policy tools and to consider their ramifications for the design of future air pollution control strategies. The results of this case study demonstrate the potential for municipal government to use a combination of cooperative and confrontational policies to stimulate responses from private industry and state and federal regulators as part of a strategy to address local air quality problems.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, Human Genetics & Environmental Sciences, The University of Texas School of Public Health, 1200 Herman Pressler Street, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. J.Bruhl@bcm.edu
authors.forename: Rebecca J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Bruhl
authors.forename: Stephen H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Linder
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sexton
mesh_terms: D000397:Air Pollution; D058735:Environmental Policy; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D013781:Texas