Article by Oliver A. Houck
The crippling blows of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to New Orleans and the central Gulf Coast were more than a failure of levee systems and public response agencies, although these failures were massive. They were also the failure of environmental programs designed to anticipate, prevent, and mitigate exactly such a scenario, including the environmental impact review process, wetlands regulation, coastal zone management, and flood insurance. Had these programs done their jobs, the damages would have been relatively minor. All failed, largely because they were not allowed to succeed. They were overcome by mindsets entrenched in history and by political and economic forces that remain dominant today. The region now faces a reconstruction challenge unparalleled since the Civil War. The question is whether environmental laws and policies will play a more proactive role this time.
About the Author
Oliver A. Houck. Professor Houck is a graduate of Harvard College and Georgetown Law Center, with three years of military service in between. He served as a judicial clerk, then Assistant U.S. Attorney, and then General Counsel to the National Wildlife Federation, all in Washington, D.C., prior to joining the Tulane University School of Law faculty in l981. He has since served on numerous federal boards, including those of the National Academy of Sciences and the Environmental Advisory Board of the Army Corps of Engineers, and currently serves on the litigation review committees of the environmental organizations Defenders of Wildlife and Environmental Defense. He has published more than thirty books and law review articles on environmental, constitutional, and other public law.
Citation
81 Tul. L. Rev. 1059 (2007)