American Heritage Rivers Initiative: A Harbinger of Future White House Environmental Policy?

February 1999
Citation:
29
ELR 10065
Issue
2
Author
Thomas C. Downs

Editors' Summary: In his 1997 State of the Union Address, President Clinton announced the American Heritage Rivers Initiative, which promotes the environmental, economic, historical, and cultural aspects of rivers and their surrounding communities. So far, 14 rivers have been designated as American Heritage Rivers under the Initiative. Critics, however, claim that the Initiative is not authorized by an act of Congress. This Article explores whether the Initiative is statutorily authorized by existing laws and regulations. It begins with a brief description of the Initiative's elements and the designation process. It then discusses the opposition to the Initiative, and the Administration's response to attacks made by some members of Congress. Next, the Article examines the statutory authority for the Initiative and suggests that it is implicitly authorized by a number of existing environmental protection and historic preservation statutes. It also provides a synopsis of a number of site-specific statutes that are applicable to each designated American Heritage River. The Article concludes that the Initiative's bottom-up, top-down approach has the potential to become a popular paradigm for creating federal environmental policy, and additional American Heritage River designations are likely if the Initiative is perceived as successful.

The author is an attorney in the Washington, D.C., office of Patton Boggs LLP. Patton Boggs represents the city of Jacksonville, Florida, and assisted in the city's successful effort to have the St. Johns River designated as an American Heritage River. Mr. Downs can be reached at tdowns@pattonboggs.com.

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American Heritage Rivers Initiative: A Harbinger of Future White House Environmental Policy?

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