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The French territorial State is in flux. After a decade of reforms, it is now organized around a new administrative governance pattern, structured in a Y shape. This pattern is, by its very nature, indeterminate and has given rise to varying institutional configurations over time and space, and depending on the policy field. By taking as a case study a French region, this article deals with the emergence of new forms of administrative regulation around the Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development. First, it stresses the increasing role played by the regional level, whose place has been strengthened in the local administrative order by the recent round of reforms. Secondly, it shows that the rise of a regional State is a negotiated process, which depends on three main variables, whose combination generates distinct ways of steering public policies, ranging from strong regional control to a softer action based on organization and coordination.