Why Environmental Agencies Adopt ERP
Resource constraints increasingly confront most environmental agencies—often in core regulatory programs—and are driving them to seek more efficient and sustainable approaches that integrate traditional tools and new strategies. Evidence from available studies suggests that ERPs achieve performance that equals or exceeds other more traditional compliance assurance approaches, but can require a substantially smaller commitment of state regulatory resources over the long term. In addition, state programs have found that ERP provides:
- Improved facility accountability that can reduce the need for resource-intensive enforcement actions over the long term;
- Better information for the public and other stakeholders on environmental compliance and performance of facilities in targeted sectors;
- Clear explanations for facilities about what they must do to comply with the law;
- A level playing field for all facilities in a sector;
- Measurable environmental improvements in disadvantaged neighborhoods that face multiple environmental and public health threats; and
- Data on individual facility and sector-wide performance that helps state programs target their resources in a cost-effective way.
Page last modified 1/28/2013