Protecting the surroundings seems to be on everyone ’s mind these days . Constituents encourage their interpreter to proposecarbon legislation . Grassroots environmental group protest polluters . Average citizen concerned withglobal warmingtake simplemeasuresto reduce theircarbon footmark . But only one organization has the power to base and enforce the environmental insurance of the United States : TheEnvironmental Protection Agency(EPA ) . The EPA exist to protect human wellness and the environment .

Headquartered inWashington , D.C. , with   10 regional government agency around the country , the EPA creates and enforces regulations that enact environmental lawmaking . So while Congress sets environmental laws like the Clean Air Act , it ’s up to the EPA to determine how the United States will hand the goal laid out by the legislation . The agency depute some of its permit - issuing and insurance policy enforcement responsibleness to states and   American Indian tribes .

Anadministrator , who answer directly to the President of the United States of the United States , order the EPA . The administrator works with a deputy administrator and   more than   a dozen staff offices . The faculty offices function like departments and handle issues like environmental appeals , administrative law , homeland security and public affairs .

The EPA is also one of the premier sources of environmental data in the United States . Its science lab supervise the quality ofwater , melodic phrase , land and human health to localise home standard and keep data track of programs ' progress . Much of the selective information is public , creating an enormous cache of environmental record . To maximize its inquiry potential , the agency gives grants to states , nonprofit organization and educational institution for fellowships and environmental programs .

In this clause , we ’ll take how the EPA come up to be instal and explore some EPA programs and contestation .

History of the EPA

By the sixties , the United States was poisoning itself withpesticides . interior parking area andcropsgave a delusive stamp of levelheaded , vibrant agriculture but hide chemical substance that were destroying the surroundings . pesticide were kill dirt ball and animals as well as endanger human health . In 1962 , the naturalist Rachel Carson wrote a book that catalyzed the environmental motion . " Silent Spring , " serialized in the New Yorker and finally a New York Times good - marketer , documented the detrimental effect of DDT , a synthetic pesticide , and other chemical compounds that caused trauma to wildlife , specially to birds .

The Holy Scripture piqued the populace ’s interest in environmentalism . Ecology , previously an obscure donnish field , became a logical topic of public give-and-take . country and local government activity enacted environmental laws , regulating polluter or banning the economic consumption of sure chemicals . But the mass of laws was confusing and often ineffectual . The United States needed a comprehensive environmental insurance policy .

President Richard Nixon was initially loth to create a federal agency that lay out , monitored and enforced environmental law . In 1969 , he work an environmental council and advisory citizens committee , but met with public charge that the organisation had no effectual function . But by January 1 , 1970 , Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act ( NEPA ) , which promised to institute a federal persona in environmental protective cover . Nixon recognized that such federal legislation needed the care of an exclusive agency . By the summer of 1970 , he submitted Reorganization Plan Number Three to Congress , which called for a single entity to govern the United States ' environmental insurance [ EPA ] .

The EPA inherit environmental charges that had been arbitrarily assigned to other governmental section . The Department of Health , Education and Welfare no longer monitoredair pollution , waterhygiene and waste management ; the Department of the Interior no longer had obligation for federal urine timbre and pesticide inquiry . Misplaced environmental programs were finally commix under a single agency .

With the reassignment of environmental program and the organization of a comprehensive agency to share with them , the U.S. was well on its way to effective environmental insurance . In the next section , we ’ll read about some well - known EPA program .

EPA Programs

The EPA initially focused on create programs that enacted several key pieces of legislation . The first , of course , was NEPA , which call for wide environmental improvements . But the Clean Air Act of 1970 , the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act of 1972 were also important other law for the EPA to act out .

Today , the EPA manages   more than   a hundred programs that preserve   a XII major jurisprudence or statutes . The programs can be loosely broken down into six family : air , defilement prevention , wastes and recycling , toxics and chemical , waterand pesticides . We ’ll discuss some of the EPA ’s most illustrious program that fall into these family .

As a governmental agency , the EPA is under perpetual examination and has its ploughshare of critics . In the next section , we ’ll acquire about some recent EPA contention .

EPA Controversies

During the administration of President George W. Bush , the EPA has face critique regarding its commitment to impose environmental laws and pursuing vicious polluter . Lawsuits against the agency , congressional investigation , an overall drop in convictions and several gamey - profile resignations by disappointed EPA employee have critics advise that the EPA is no longer adequately performing its responsibility .

Even theSupreme Courtconfirms that the EPA has shirked some of its responsibilities . In April 2007 , the court side with environmentalists in Massachusetts et al.v . Environmental Protection Agency et al . In a 5 - 4 conclusion , the court rule that the EPA was creditworthy for regulating novel - fomite glasshouse gas ( GHG ) discharge under the Clean Air Act . It was the first Supreme Court case to investigateglobal warming .

The display case began in 1999 when several environmental groups encourage the EPA to ground standards for new vehicle ' GHG emissions . Four class after receiving the prayer , the EPA replied that it had no authority to influence such emissions and even if it did , consider it inexpedient to do so [ source : Supreme Court ] . Massachusetts join with other states , city and groups to sue the EPA .

The Supreme Court ruled that the EPA has the authority to regulate GHG emissions under the Clean Air Act and caused the State Department of Massachusetts harm by not doing so . The conclusion potentially gives states fighting for GHG regulations new ability over the agency . California , which proposed strict regularization in December 2005 , is now suing the EPA for failing to make a opinion . The state is authorized to make its ownair pollutionregulations but want EPA favorable reception before doing so .

The EPA has also attracted aid for its sharp decline in young investigations , prosecutions and strong belief – all of which dropped by a third between 2002 and 2006 . Civil lawsuit against defendants who reject offers to settle outside of court dribble almost 70 per centum [ source : Washington Post ] . The EPA ’s administration insists that numbers are down because the agency has shift its focal point to big cases with likely convictions .

In June 2007 , former EPA Administrator Christie Todd   Whitman face a Congressional auditory sense over the government ’s environmental response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks . In the days following 9/11 , Whitman assured the public that the air in Lower Manhattan was good to breathe and that resident and workers could recall to the region . However , the line was not safe and clinical reports from the Mount Sinai World Trade Center Screening and Monitoring Program have shown that 70 percent of 9,000 worker at the Trade Center situation reported respiratory problems . Whitman deny accusations that she had manipulated EPA data under pressure from the White House [ origin : New York Times ] .

To learn more about the EPA legislation , policy and controversies , stick with the links on the next varlet .

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