Chapter 25: Environmental Law


*Societal and Political Questions

  1. Law of Unexpected Consequence: no matter what you do to the environment, positive or negative, there will be unexpected consequences


A. National Environmental Policy Act (1969)


  • First big federal act dealing with the environment

  • Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)

    • Made up of three environmental scientists

    • Advise the president on the environment

  • Created EPA

  • Created Environmental Impact Statements

    • Must be provided by any major federal founded project

    • Details how the structure will affect the environment


B. Clean Air Act


  • State Implementation Plan (SIP)

    • Made up of EPA And state environmental officials

    • Shows states how to clean their air

  • Prevention of Significant Deterioration Area (PSDA)

    • Keeps clean air states clean

    • Helps other non-clean air states clean their air

  • Non-Attainment Areas

    • EPA decides the air is extremely polluted

    • You can only build more factories in said area if you buy and shut down a different factory and produce no more waste/pollution than the factory you just replaced


Big Pollutants:

  1. Carbon Monoxide

    • Comes from mostly cars

  2. Particulates

    • Comes from volcanoes


C. Clean Water Act (1972)


  • Point source: you can pinpoint exactly where

  • Non-point source: the point wanders around


Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIRFA): The EPA regulates sprays meant to control insects, fungus, and rodents. Makes sure they’re safe.


Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA): EPA must approve new substances


Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA): Regulated by the EPA, brings hazardous waste to designated trash sites


CERCIA (Superfund): Tax fund used to clean CERCLA sites; a special tax on any company using petroleum, makes more than 12 million per year,

  • They’ve been a program for 40 years

  • 200 CERCIA sites

  • 3 have been cleaned fully

  • 19 have been started or are in the process of being cleaned


*The EPA never has a mission to completely stop pollution, only to minimize it as much as possible