Pros And Cons Of The EPA

The inception of U.S. Environmental policy most notably began under the Presidency of Richard Nixon; Nixon oversaw the passage of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and the creation of the Environmental Policy Act (EPA). The Clean Water Act of 1972, in particular, enacted stringent laws to prevent pollutants from entering navigable waters, outlawing open sewers from dumping crud into a local stream and the law also protects land that filters and purifies water as it flows by. The Landmark law passed in 1972, however, has not impeded the pending water crisis facing the U.S. today. The United States must take immediate measures in order to combat the problem; given that the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence now ranks water scarcity as a major threat to national security; right next to Terrorism (Sullivan). The United States should reform the Clean Water Act of 1972 to look for any deficiencies in the law.

The EPA is the agency responsible for setting all of the regulations and rules for drinking water. These regulations apply to individuals, businesses, state and local governments, non-profit institutions etc. Congress passes laws to govern the U.S but they have authorized the EPA and other federal agencies to help them put the laws into effect and to make sure they are as effective as possible. The first two steps in this process consists of Congress writing and the president approving a bill. Then the act must be “codified” by applying it to the United States Code. The United States Code is basically a list of permanent laws for the U.S. As soon as the law has been made official, agencies like the EPA begin to create regulations for the specific law to make it apply to individuals, businesses, and local governments; all of this to make the law work for everyone every day. The regulations set standards for each aspect of daily life that go along with the law. For example, the EPA will come up with specific levels of sulfur dioxide that is allowed in our air to coincide with the Clean Air Act to protect human health and the environment. The regulations in this example would tell industries and businesses exactly how much sulfur dioxide they can emit into the air

Improved air quality wasn’t a subject of national concern until the mid 1900s. After decades of coal burning, unregulated gas emissions from cars and the excessive burning of fossil fuels, people started noticing bad air quality as a hazard to their lives. Over several decades, after seeing the costly effects air pollution was having on the environment and people’s health, interest groups like the Friends of The Earth club and the influences of Theodore Roosevelt and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring finally came together to persuade the government to enforce legislation that would reduce air pollution. Because of these efforts, the policies of the Clean Air Act of 1963 and the Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Act of 1965, that aimed to control air pollution and raise air quality standards, helped create the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on December 2, 1970. Since then, the EPA has passed more air quality improvement acts, and amendments to previous acts passed, to increase restrictions on air pollutants, with their main policy concern being the Clean Air Act. Improved air quality acts imposed by the EPA have been successful in cleaning the United States’ air quality by reducing ground-level ozone pollution and reducing emissions, allowing for a decrease in pollution related deaths/illnesses and a better standard of living. The EPA, through regulations and the Clean Air Act, has delivered it’s promise to improve air quality in the United States.

PPA empowered EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) to develop and co-ordinate all pollution – prevention strategies

For this proposal to succeed first the state must adopt, second the Environmental Protection Agency approves the water quality criteria to meet the current requirement of the Clean Water Act. Once that occurs the agency will issue a rule amending the California Toxic Rule to withdraw the pertinent federal criteria where applicable to the state. California has adopted the Environmental Protection Agency approved criteria which are considered protective for the Clean Water Act for federal decree.

The EPA deals with a lot of pollution regulations in regards to automobile emissions, nuclear materials, and harmful substances in products. They make sure that these regulations are based on the most recent scientific research and attempt to implement them fairly (US Environmental, 2015). This agency not only creates and sets these standards, but works with companies and states to help the federal standards be met, whether the aid is in knowledge of new technologies, money, or innovative ideas.

For years, the government has been regulating citizens and subsidizing companies that they like. Each time they restrict or support a company, they hurt the free market, which then hurts the economy and like a Rube Goldberg machine the entire country is affected. The most common and harmful regulations are those set by the environmental protection agency (EPA). The EPA tries to stop natural selection and save animals through human intervention. Nearly all of the regulations have an effect on how everyone goes about their day. For example, in California the EPA saved a small fish with a minuscule population by pumping 71 billion gallons of fresh water into the ocean, this started one of the biggest droughts in California ever. The EPA

President Richard Nixon officially created the Environmental Protection Agency, otherwise noted as the EPA, in the spring of 1970. However, concern for the environment and its protection began long before the government regulatory body. In years prior, environmentalism had planted its roots as a growing focus of many American citizens. Before the focus on the environment as we know it, there were multiple individuals who stressed the importance of nature and brought attention to the degradation of the environment through industrialization. Famous literary scholars first expressed their concern during the 1850’s—a direct response to the Industrial Revolution. Henry David Thoreau, with his ode to nature through Walden, or Life in the Woods, captured the importance of nature in a transcendental sense; while later in the nineteenth century, John Burroughs took a more realistic approach with his 27 volumes of essays on his experience with nature. In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal brought the sense of ecology into government acts; among which were The Soil Conservation Service—reducing the effects of erosion on agricultural land, and the Pittman-Robertson Act, responsible for funding state fishing and wildlife programs from taxes on hunting and fishing equipment.1

The Environmental Protection Agency currently has a policy to limit the construction of power plants to clean burning natural gas systems in an effort to reduce carbon dioxide gasses in the atmosphere. Many utility companies have become reluctant to build new power plants because of this policy and California has experiences a 500-600% increase in utility rates over a one year period. There are many pros and cons to this EPA Policy, some of which have environmental and social impacts.

After numerous complaints from citizens about the overwhelming pollution in the United States, Congress decided to pass both the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act in order to protect America’s environment and its citizens. Through the tight restrictions placed on businesses in these acts, Congress hoped that the pollution put out by large industries would decrease and its affect on the lives of everyone in the United States would lessen. Under the Clean Air Act, cities, businesses, and automobiles must meet air quality standards and follow provisions created by the Environmental Protection Agency. Under the Clean Water Act, businesses must have licenses to release certain pollutants and national water quality standards must be met. The Clean Air and Water Acts are extremely effective, therefore, it was necessary the government create them. These acts have helped drastically decrease the pollution in America and have improved the health of citizens as well as the environment.

In 1970 President Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency because of the public’s concern over pollution and contamination of the environment. The EPA was established to regulate many toxic or possibly toxic substances that have entered the environment. Under the federal “Safe Drinking Water Act” of 1974 the EPA had the ability to regulate activities that have an impact on sources of public drinking water. Due to the injection of potential of toxic substances entering the ground through fracking, the possible effect of the chemicals on drinking water gave the EPA the ability to regulate the rigs that had the potential to effect the water supply through the Underground Injection Control Program (UICP). In 1997 the 11th United States

The United States Environmental Protection Agency is a government agency whose purpose of being created was to protect human health and the environment by enforcing regulation based on the laws of the state. The agency since its creation has given the US a lot of advantages, but has also brought about some disadvantages ("EPA at 40: Pros and cons - Los Angeles Ecopolitics” p. 4). One of the advantages brought about by the EPA is that industrial air pollutants have been controlled. By issuing regulations to the power plants the agency will significantly reduce air pollution caused by the plants. The control of solid waste disposal will also be advantageous to the country.

When President Richard Nixon was in charge, the whole environmental policies started to properly rise in American. Back in 1989 when President Bush issued what would the following year be called the Clean Air of 1990, the United States was taking notice in world climate. Over the years, the country as a whole has strayed from putting emphasis on these issues. Graphs show us that we did better back in 1990 than we did in 2004. Compared to many other countries such as Germany, Japan, Canada, UK, Italy, France, and Australia, the United States releases an incredible amount of more greenhouse emissions. President Bush wanted to take care of three major issues of the time that would benefit every American, “The President proposed legislation designed to curb three major threats to the nation 's environment and to the health of millions of Americans: acid rain, urban air pollution, and toxic air emissions.” (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2015). Acid rain is something that harms plants, marine life, and humans, it has high levels of nitrate and sulfur dioxide. Too much of acid rain can begin to kill species because of its toxic chemicals. Professor Pecorella 2015 on a class lecture of public opinion said that,“public opinion reacts to action”,since this is true, then this would validate what EPA does because the majority of people do believe in global warming. The Environmental Protection Agency would help ensure a safer future for America, one that would allow

The EPA is more than just clean air and water for humans; it’s clean air and water for wildlife claims Mark Hofberg, the Assistant Campaigns Officer with the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s. They do their best to keep harmful chemical products out of the environments of the animals. In the year 1972, just two years after the EPA was formed, they began banning DDT. DDT was an insecticide that was used widely at the time, until environmental pioneers began to realizes the negative effects it had on the wildlife, especially on the birds of prey. The EPA recently issued guidelines restricting the use of a rodenticide, effectively protecting birds, foxes, coyotes, and other wildlife.If the EPA’s budget and power are severely reduced, we may see the proliferation of toxic pesticides and other chemicals without stopping to check the damage they will cause wildlife and their habitats. A strong EPA is absolutely essential to protecting the wildlife specie (Mark Hofberg). The wildlife of the United States will die out without the correct help from the

The Environmental Protection Agency of the Republic of Liberia is the principle authority for implementing the national environmental policy and sustainable management law for the protection of natural resources in Liberia. As a commitment to the environment, the Government of Liberia established the EPA in 2003 under the EPA Act.The Agency became a fully functioning entity in 2006 with a board of directors and Policy Council. As the lead government environment protection Agency, the EPA has been charged with the executive authority over all environmental activities and programmes relating to environmental management in Liberia (The National Environmental 2003).