I promised this a long time ago here is the published version of Al McGartland's talk upon receiving NAREA's Award for Outstanding Public Service through Economics. From the third paragraph:
I review the history of economics and its role in policymaking at EPA and provide insight into how economics has changed national environmental policy in the United States. EPA economists and economics make significant contributions to the agency that extend beyond the very important one of providing decision-makers with a sense of the benefits and costs of relevant policy options. An obvious triumph of economics is widespread adoption of market incentive-based policy instruments. Other noteworthy contributions by economists exist but may be less obvious. Taken together, these success stories—or failures, for those who think economics should have made even bigger contributions—provide lessons on how economics can play its role in the policy process. Have economics and economists made a difference to environmental policy? The answer, from my experience, is an emphatic yes. And some of our most profound influences have probably been outside the scope of a benefit-cost analysis.
Al discusses the early history of environmental economics at EPA and how the influence of outside economists helped inform and expand economics at EPA; successes including the increased use of market incentives; Executive Order 12291 and benefit-cost analysis with examples including Alar and lead in gasoline; and ends with the current state of environmental economics at EPA and thoughts for the future.
Full disclosure: Al is my boss and a great one, but I would be recommending this anyway. I think the article is appropriate for any environmental economics class but I would think it's especially useful for cross-listed classes with a lot of non-economics majors who may not understand how environmental economics is relevant at EPA.
Complete article is here and is open access.
This work is not a product of the United States Government or the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and the author is not doing this work in any governmental capacity. The views expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily represent those of the United States or the US EPA.
