News Release

August 25, 2002

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Out of Bounds, Out of Control: Regulatory Enforcement at the EPA
Recently under Attack, Agency Receives Fresh Criticism from New Book

The Environmental Protection Agency acts as lawmaker, prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner, obliterating due process along the way -- without reference to the nature of the violations in question or the amount of environmental damage done -- argues James DeLong in a new book.

In Out of Bounds, Out of Control, James DeLong says that this aggressive enforcement is completely at odds with the rule of law, which noted economist F. A. Hayek described as the "rules which make it possible to foresee with fair certainty how the authority will use its coercive powers in given circumstances."

The EPA repeatedly violates the rule of law by exercising a breathtaking discretion to define violations of environmental law -- a discretion it has exercised retroactively and arbitrarily. DeLong reveals how many of the EPA regulations conflict, making compliance difficult. In the end, the vast majority of EPA violations are administrative, not related to the environment. He illustrates his point with story after story of specific regulatory abuses, many of which are positively Kafkaesque.

Out of Bounds, Out of Control should frighten all who believe in the democratic process.

Out of Bounds, Out of Control: Regulatory Enforcement at the EPA