This course will consider the capacity of existing North American political institutions to shape effective environmental regulatory policy and explore alternative institutional arrangements that might be necessary in future decades. Major themes will include regulatory fragmentation across governmental and medium (air, water, land) lines, the evolution of environmental regulatory politics and policy in recent decades, and the prospects for devising a more preventive, integrative approach in the future. The emphasis will be primarily on the United States, Canada, and Mexico, although non-North American examples will be introduced where appropriate.