"All 50 states have the equivalent of an Environmental Protection Agency. In my state, it's called the Department of Natural Resources. Other states have different names, but again, I'd shift that power and that money out of Washington and basically just leave in place an umbrella organization that really is limited to mediating interstate conflicts over, say, where a body of water or a piece of land goes through multiple states. "Other than that, I'd leave those requirements and those responsibilities to the state government, where the people making those decisions have to live with them. And I think that's part of the balance."
The EPA currently has the primary responsibility for enforcing many of the nation's federal environmental laws and regulations, such as the Clean Water Act, and sometimes issues policy or guidance to encourage states to comply with those laws. [...]. Lisa Heinzerling, a law professor at Georgetown University and former EPA associate administrator, said Walker's approach would instead result in 50 different air quality standards and 50 different states conducting basic scientific research to support environmental protection. "If Gov. Walker really does desire meaningful environmental protection in this country, taking power from EPA and giving it to all 50 states is a very silly way to achieve it," she said. "His idea is a really inefficient, and almost certainly ineffective, way of protecting the environment."