Agency consultation networks in environmental impact assessment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Wang, Jie; Ulibarri, Nicola; Scott, Tyler A.
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Irvine; University of California System; University of California Davis
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION RESEARCH AND THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1053-1858
• DOI: 10.1093/jopart/muae008
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 448-464
• 关键词: social-ecological systems; collaborative governance; POLICY; 2-mode; infrastructure; ORGANIZATIONS; PARTICIPATION; acceptance; management; models

摘要

Government agencies practice interagency consultation to ensure that broader governmental activities align with their missions and objectives. Consultation allows agencies not only to express their preferences and interests, but also may create administrative burden and procedural delay. To explore the conditions under which agencies choose to review activities proposed by fellow government actors, this research focuses on the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), California's environmental impact assessment law. We conceptualize the CEQA review network as a two-mode network, in which each review agency is linked to particular projects, and use two-mode exponential random graph models to test a series of hypotheses about agency, project, and agency-project dyadic characteristics that shape the choice to review. We find that projects located in sites with socioeconomically vulnerable residents or higher levels of background pollution garner more consultation. Agencies are more likely to provide consultation when their expertise aligns with the project's impact, and are less likely to review a project with agencies that possess the same expertise. This research highlights variations underlying interagency consultation and helps understand how agencies try to influence other agencies' decisions.