Local environmentalism has claimed that empowering environmental management to local governments would increase policy efficiency and political responsiveness. Echoing such arguments, Taiwan has developed an environmental governing system that carries similar democratic spirit by allowing local governments to have their own policy orientations and major control over their personnel. Nevertheless, how local political situations may influence the enforcement of street-level bureaucrats, especially in a democratization context, is still not clear. This paper tries to illustrate how local political, social and economic factors have been perceived to influence local regulation enforcement by bureau staffs in Taipei and Kaohsiung Environmental Protection Bureaus. This research indicates that such long suspected factors as illegal lobbying/solicitation for penalty relief did play a role in interfering street-level regulation enforcement.