Congress has shaped environmental laws in a way that "assumes they will not be administered fairly," he complained last week. By allowing the E.P.A. too little discretion, the laws stifle progress in protecting the environment. . . . Inflexible laws serve no one's long-run interest. Scientific unknowns and changing technology make it impossible to write good prescriptive environmental law. Mr. Ruckelshaus is right in principle: with more discretion, the Administrator could protect the environment in more rational ways. For that to happen, industry and environmentalists will have to stop demanding that Congress write laws leaving E.P.A. no room for judgment.... It will take time for any administrator to earn the trust that Mr. Ruckelshaus commands, but to deny flexibility is to step from mistrust to misgovernment.

Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Imper…, loc. 131