The definitive guide to U.S. environmental, energy, and natural resource politics. Fully updated for its ninth edition, this comprehensive text bridges science and policy through real-world case studies, equipping readers to tackle the most urgent challenges of our time.

Important updates include:

• Comprehensive coverage of key political and policy decisions through late 2026, including presidential appointments, legislative initiatives, budgetary decisions, and congressional actions across multiple administrations.
• Expanded comparisons of environmental, energy, and natural resource policies under the Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations, with insights into ongoing and emerging policy debates.
• Updated case studies that reflect recent controversies and developments, such as regulatory changes, public land use conflicts, climate policy shifts, and international environmental agreements.
• Revised and enhanced learning objectives at the start of each chapter to guide student understanding of core concepts, policy challenges, and analytical frameworks.
• New abstracts, discussion questions, and suggested readings to deepen engagement and facilitate classroom interaction.
• Improved clarity and flow throughout the text to make complex policy topics accessible to a wide range of students.
• Extensive citation of current scientific studies, government reports, and policy analyses, with resources to support further research.
• A balanced exploration of the partisan divide shaping U.S. environmental policy, illustrating how political dynamics influence policy outcomes.
• Continued integration of environmental science with political and policy analysis to assess the strengths and weaknesses of existing approaches and explore potential future directions.
• Focus on sustainability and global challenges, emphasizing the critical role of state, local, and business initiatives alongside federal policy in shaping the twenty-first-century environmental agenda.

Michael E. Kraft is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. He is the author of, among other works, Environmental Policy and Politics, 8th ed. (2022), and coauthor of Coming Clean: Information Disclosure and Environmental Performance (2011), with Mark Stephan and Troy D. Abel. In addition, he is the coeditor of Environmental Policy: New Directions in the 21st Century, 12th ed. (2025), with Barry G. Rabe and Norman J. Vig; Toward Sustainable Communities: Transition and Transformations in Environmental Policy, 2nd ed. (2009), with Daniel A. Mazmanian; and Business and Environmental Policy: Corporate Interests in the American Political System (2007) and The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Environmental Policy (2013), with Sheldon Kamieniecki. For over forty years, he taught courses in environmental policy and politics, American government, Congress, and public policy analysis.