Book excerpt: This study examines the role of the courts in the public policy process by analyzing the federal-state conflicts over offshore energy development--known as the Seaweed Rebellion--from the Roosevelt through Clinton administrations. Dr. Edward A. Fitzgerald posits that the courts play an important role interpreting statutes and overseeing administrative actions to ensure 'that important legislative purposes, heralded in the halls of Congress, are not lost or misdirected in the vast hallways of the federal bureaucracy.' He concludes that the court's interpretations and deference towards executive decisions undermined the important statutory role of the coastal states, decreased environment protection, and has caused a breakdown in the program of outer continental shelf energy development.