  The paper addresses the problem whether and how it is possible to detect the
Luttinger-liquid behavior from the $IV$ curves for tunneling to 1D or quasi-1D
conductors. The power-law non-ohmic $IV$ curve, which is usually considered as
a manifestation of the Luttinger-liquid behavior, can be also deduced from the
theory of the Coulomb blockaded junction between 3D conductors affected by the
environment effect. In both approaches the power-law exponents are determined
by the ratio of the impedance of an effective electric circuit to the quantum
resistance. Though two approaches predict different power-law exponents
(because of a different choice of effective circuits), the difference becomes
negligible for a large number of conductance channels.
