The key to solving the contradiction between the economic and social development and ecological environment lies in whether environmental regulations can push enterprises to make technological innovation, transform the mode of economic growth, and achieve “win-win” cooperation between the economic sustainable development and the environmental protection. Based on the provincial panel data of China from 2004 to 2015, this paper constructs a nonlinear threshold model of environmental regulations and regional technological innovation from the perspective of governmental behaviors, and investigates the threshold effect and timing change of environmental regulation. The research results show that: 1) When the intensity of environmental regulation is low, it is not conducive to the improvement of regional technological innovation capabilities, while when the intensity of environmental regulation exceeds a certain “degree”, environmental regulations promote the regional technological innovation; 2) High promotion pressure, financial imbalance and low fiscal decentralization of officials are not conducive to the improvement of regional innovation capabilities, while low promotion pressure, financial balance and high financial power of officials are conducive to the improvement of regional technological innovation capabilities; 3) In terms of the transmission mechanism, R&D investment and industrial structure upgrading have a positive transmission function on environmental regulations and the technological innovation, while FDI inflow and investment demand have a negative effect, and government actions affect the transmission mechanism.