The Floor is Now the Ceiling: “No More Stringent” Laws and State Environmental Regulation

Many American states have adopted No More Stringent (NMS) laws, which are intended to curb the ability of environmental protection agencies to issue strict rules regulating pollution. This study leverages variation in scope, restrictiveness, and duration of NMS laws to assess their efficacy in constraining the behavior of environmental regulators. Results from a set of panel data models indicate that NMS laws with broader scope and greater restrictiveness are associated with significantly lower environmental compliance costs. Thus, despite the possibility of strategic behavior by implementing agencies, these laws appear to effective in achieving their proponents’ aims of reducing the regulatory burdens imposed on industry.