Ozone Alert! and urban air quality: the significance of strategic policy innovation in Tulsa, OK

The City of Tulsa was one of the nation's first urban areas to design and develop a voluntary program (Ozone Alert!) to reduce emissions of chemical precursors to the formation of tropospheric ozone, a recognized public health hazard. Based on its record of performance, Tulsa signed the first Flexible Attainment Region (FAR) agreement with the U.S. EPA that accorded it substantial discretion in finding ways to meet regulatory compliance with air quality standards. As a result, Tulsa's ozone control program has received national recognition and has served as a model program that other cities in the U.S. and elsewhere have copied. This paper addresses the strategies and tactics with which entrepreneurial individuals in Tulsa tackled their urban ozone pollution problem, and the innovative solutions that the city developed to keep its air quality in compliance with federal standards. The authors argue that strategic policy innovation is a process that helped Tulsa overcome a variety of environmental challenges, and that it holds promise for other urban regions that are attempting to become more sustainable.