June 17 & 18, 2026, Washington DC
“The United States will not be able to respond to climate change, drive better economic outcomes, or deliver broader measures of social equality if the physical world remains underdeveloped…. American governance is stronger if it can demonstrate that it has a political system capable of delivering essential services to its people, including safe public streets, functioning mass transit, and plentiful housing. For various American ideals to be fully realized, the country will need to recover its ethos of building…” Dan Wang, Breakneck
In his recent book, Breakneck, author Dan Wang highlights the differences between China, which he characterizes as an engineering state, and the United States, which he characterizes as a lawyerly society. As the quote above illustrates, the United States cannot address the engineering challenges of the 21st century unless we can shift away from our recent history as a lawyerly society to one that is able to build the infrastructure that society requires.
ECL’s Transforming the Regulatory System Summit, focused on one important aspect of the shift from a lawyerly society to more of an engineering society, the regulatory system, policy and processes of the U.S. The summit included a deep dive exploring the wicked problem of transformative regulatory reform and the role the engineering community can play leading these efforts.
The summit was a call to action, an opportunity for the engineering community to think big about the possibilities of transforming our regulatory system rather than continuing to play victim to this system.
Summit Reports
Agenda & Reading List
Transforming the Regulatory System Summit Agenda
Evocateur Presentations
Paul Heberling of The Nature Conservancy contrasted the need for environmental protection with the need for infrastructure. He described the current “moment of opportunity” for the engineering community to contribute its expertise and credibility in shifting regulation from creating bureaucracy toward its fundamental purpose.
Lisa Kammer is Vice President/Technical Director at Weston Solutions, Inc. and an expert with respect to site investigation and remediation of deep fractured bedrock PFAS. She described the complex challenges of regulating PFAS – thousands of chemicals, uneven science, multiple release pathways, cross-program jurisdictions, and an unsettled regulatory landscape. She stressed the importance of cradle-to-cradle thinking with respect to PFAS, setting the stage for exploration of the case study.
Rachel Levine, Senior Transmission Policy Analyst for the Niskanen Center’s Climate and Energy Team, described the fragmented state of regulation of our electrical grid, which has resulted in delays, lack of coordination, and cost allocation disputes. Levine noted the leadership opportunities for the engineering community in fixing these broken policies.
- Optimizing communication for policy makers.
- Learning the policy-making space.
- Engaging with communities early and often.
Beth Osborne, President and CEO of Smart Growth America, highlighted the housing and housing affordability crisis in the U.S. and the regulatory barriers contributing to this crisis. She addressed the contradictions between transportation engineering and land use. She stressed the need for the engineering community to reform its practices that are contributing to the crisis by moving away from checklists to performance-based practices and policies.
David Sloan Wilson is an evolutionary biologist, author, and President of Prosocial World, a nonprofit dedicated to enabling individual and collective action for positive change. He kicked-off the summit by describing the characteristics of complex adaptive systems in nature, which can offer important lessons regarding the human systems that comprise our regulatory system. Wilson noted that the only thing that works for engineering cultural living systems (such as the regulatory system) is that the individual sectors within the system must act with the welfare of the whole system in mind, a mindset of stewardship at all levels.
