The relationships between environmental inspectors and the facility personnel at regulated firms are often presumed to be adversarial, and this assumption affects the design and implementation of environmental regulations. However, closer examination of these relationships challenges this fundamental assumption of adversarial relations in environmental policy. Interviews with 44 inspectors and regulated officials throughout Virginia found that the interactions between these two categories of actors are positive. Over 90 percent of the interviewees were positive about their interactions with one another, and inspectors and regulated officials alike indicate that they trust the other. These findings are compelling because they contest common assumptions, and, as such, they provoke debate regarding the fundamental notions concerning the interactions between regulators and the regulated on the frontlines of environmental regulation. La relación entre los inspectores medioambientales y el personal de las instalaciones en las compañías reguladas se supone, por lo general, antagonista, y este supuesto impacta el diseño y la implementación de las regulaciones medioambientales. Sin embargo, una revisión más detallada de estas relaciones cuestiona dicho supuesto. Entrevistas realizadas a 44 inspectores y funcionarios bajo regulación a lo largo de Virginia encontraron que las interacciones entre estas dos categorías de actores son positivas. Más del 90 por ciento de los entrevistados tuvieron una respuesta positiva en relación a sus interacciones con la otra parte, y tanto los inspectores como los funcionarios bajo regulación indicaron que confiaban los unos en los otros. Estas conclusiones refutan los razonamientos habituales y, de ahí, que provocan debate en lo que se refiere a las nociones fundamentales acerca de las interacciones entre los reguladores y los regulados en el frente de la regulación medioambiental.

Rulemaking is an integral component of environmental policy at both the federal and state level; however, rulemaking at the state level is understudied. With this research, we begin to fill that gap by focusing on rulemaking regarding the issue of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in three states: Colorado, New York, and Ohio. This policy issue is well suited to begin exploring state‐level rulemaking processes because the federal government has left fracking regulation to the states. Through semistructured interviews with a range of actors in the rulemaking process across these states, we establish a foundation from which future research in this area may build. This exploratory research yields some valuable insights into the roles different stakeholders are playing in regulating fracking in these three states, and our findings may be useful for explaining state‐level rulemaking more generally.

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Discussions in environmental policy often focus on the highest levels of decision making and action while paying scant attention to those individuals on the front lines. Among those frequently overlooked are the individuals at regulated facilities who interact with government regulators on a frequent basis. Interviews with nearly two dozen facility personnel in Virginia yield findings that challenge common perceptions of the relationships between facility personnel and inspectors. In particular, 86 percent of facility personnel, representing a range of regulated facilities from prisons to landfills to dry cleaners, said their interactions with inspectors were positive. Approximately 70 percent of them said that they trust inspectors and provided evidence of trust in their stories. The ramifications of these findings for environmental policy could be potentially significant because facility personnel are presumed to be adversarial, if not outright hostile, and this assumption impacts the design and implementation of environmental regulations. Copyright 2009 by The Policy Studies Organization.

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