The Role Of The EPA

It seems as if the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been avoiding encounters with people who are fighting for environmental justice. However, there may be an underlying reason why the EPA is not putting effort into these environmental problems. Over the years, the EPA has experienced budget cuts, this has resulted in the loss of jobs and programs. When money is not readily available, the amount of money that is available is usually conserved and only used when necessary. It does not look as if they are the reason why majority of the issues are not be taken care of. Based on my understanding of the article, it seems as if the EPA is working at the will of the government. The people working in the agency are responsible for doing their

Two major laws that are regulated by the EPA are the Clear Air Act and the Clean Water Act. These laws, passed by Congress, give the EPA the authority to write regulations. The Clean Air Act regulates emissions of hazardous substances into the air. The set the air emissions standards in which businesses must abide by or face penalties. The Clean Water Act restricts the release of pollutants into water. The goal of both of these laws is to protect the public and provide clean drinking water and sustainable habitats for marine life. The EPA also regulates many other environmental health concerns. They regulate hazardous substances such as asbestos, lead, and mold. They also have a large role in tackling major environment

The environmental protection agency has been stepping up its mandate of ensuring safer and better environment for not only the business operators, buts also the society as a whole. In order to achieve this goal of environmental protection, there has been the creation of environmental protection agency that has ensured that all the businesses, irrespective of their size and type, strive to ensure that the environment is protected for the benefit of current and future generations.

The major responsibilities of the EPA allow the government to maintain a healthier environment when instituting new laws and regulations. In order to be knowledgeable on what the EPA's responsibilities are, there must be an understanding of what exactly the EPA participates in. "The agency consolidates federal research, monitoring and enforcement activities... [and their] mission is to protect human health by safeguarding the air we breathe, water we drink and land on which we live," (EPA, 2017). In other words, the EPA's main responsibility is to guard all aspects of human life by the protection of the environment; they enforce regulations that improve the

In 1976, Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in response to a growing national concern about public exposure to toxic chemicals. Since then, it has largely been hailed as a failure for two reasons. First, TSCA has been unable to effectively compel producers to test and disclose adequate information on chemical toxicity. Second, it has been ineffective at designating sufficient resources to the EPA to identify and reduce the possible health and environmental risks associated with new chemicals. Nonetheless, it has been devoid of major revisions since its implementation. In the nearly 40 years of congressional inaction on this issue, many states have intervened by enacting stricter chemical laws that fill in TSCA’s gaps.

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

I agree with Dr.Clark’s statement that states he “wonders how certain government officials sleep at night”. I have my share of government officials who I dislike, and the fact that some of them had done things in the past and are still in office surprise me to this day. It’s time we hold certain officials to the same laws that ordinary citizens live by (except the president). Additionally, during our lecture Dr. Clark had mentioned that the new Supreme Court Justice believes that the EPA can’t make regulations by themselves, which hampers the power of the agency

In my opinion we have to have environmental regulations to sustain the environment we have today. Many people claim that these regulations restrict business which I think is true and so does Melanie J. Martin in one of her articles she states “Businesses may see certain environmental laws in a negative light if they must adapt their practices and increase spending to comply with regulations.” And if a company is struggling to make it by as it is I don’t think they will survive after paying out of pocket to comply with new regulations. The laws we have in place today in Texas I think get the job done and their not to extreme.

On Thursday’s morning Gina McCarthy gave a lecture for different classes of political sciences. Gina McCarthy was chosen by President Barack Obama in his first year as president as the 13th administrator for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA mission is “to protect public health and the environment”. In other words, its mission is to provide clean air, clean water, safe and healthy land, and stable climate for the people. She believes that, “If you don’t have a good environment you won’t have a good economy”. McCarthy walked her way through being the face for EPA by working all levels of the government and by abrogating for children’s health. She assured us that even though you think you don’t have power everyone has the power to make a change even though it seems insignificant.

The Environmental Protection Agencies give states funds in order to regulate certain companies that could cause environmental pollution. (pg. 53, ForgaÌ, N) By having the states do the regulation they have put it in their hands to do the inspections of the companies which in turn makes the companies want to stay compliant by following the regulations that have been set forth for them because of deterrence.

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.

In the 1970’s there was growing confusion regarding environmental policy due to certain states creating environmental protection laws which were largely ineffective. To ease confusion, fix national guidelines, and monitor and enforce them President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA functions under three federal departments: the Interior, Agriculture, and Health, Education and Welfare departments. The original role of the EPA was to administrate the Clean Air Act which was enacted to reduce the air pollution caused by vehicles and industry. The EPA has since grown to enforce at least 12 major statutes such as: ocean dumping laws, safe drinking water, insecticides, and asbestos hazards in

The environment and the health of the surrounding population go hand in hand. The Environmental Protection Agency takes on this ever so important mission of protecting them both. The mission statement of the EPA states, “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Small Business Programs is to support the protection of human health and the environment by advocating and advancing the business, regulatory, and environmental compliance concerns of small and socio-economically disadvantaged businesses, and minority academic institutions (US Enviromental Protection Agency, 2010).” The impact of its mission can be defined clearly as it examines the impact of contamination in the air, the water, and the land on human health.

C. Political, Governmental and Legal Forces The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) mission is to protect human health and environment ensuring that all parts of society - communities, individuals, businesses, state and local and tribal governments - have access to accurate information sufficient to effectively participate in managing human health and environmental risks. The EPA develops and enforces regulations. When the congress writes environmental law they then implement it by writing regulations and they also enforce those regulations, and help companies to understand the requirements. One regulation that the EPA developed is focused on motorcycle emission standards in which Harley Davidson must abide by to continue to sell their product.

With regards to environmental policy, it is important for governments to consider concepts such as risk, economic efficiency and cost-benefit. A common concern voiced by proponents of regulatory reform in recent decades has been that the costs associated with certain regulations outweigh the benefits that the regulations are intended to provide (Tengs &Graham, 1996). Another, and somewhat related, view is that, more intelligent regulatory policies could achieve the same social goals (e.g., cleaner environment, safer workplaces) at less cost, or could achieve more ambitious goals at the same cost (Tengs &Graham, 1996). For the reasons above, Federal Agencies, have invested in using tools such as the cost benefit analysis and