Replication Data for: Are Republicans Bad for the Environment?

While many studies of environmental policy control for partisanship in elected officials, there has been little direct examination of what impacts partisan leadership has on environmental policymaking and management within the U.S. federal system. Using a dataset that tracks toxic releases over 25 years, we examine how partisan control of executive and legislative branches at both state- and federal-level impacts environmental policy. We find that the conventional wisdom that Republicans are bad for the environment to have some validity, but it is dependent on what offices Republican elected officials occupy. More specifically, Republicans only have an impact on toxic chemical releases when occupying executive offices. While governors have a stronger impact, presidents have a more consistent impact, which suggests governors have more vertical and horizontal checks and balances to hurdle when implementing an anti-environmental agenda. Our conclusions provide further insight into understanding how partisanship affects environmental outcomes.