The birth of the EPA In the wake of the first Earth Day, and with growing public outcry over the deteriorating state of the environment, President Nixon formed an advisory council to consider how to organize federal programs to reduce pollution. Based on the council’s recommendations, Nixon sent Congress a plan to consolidate many departmental responsibilities under one federal agency, to be called the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Senate and House of Representatives approved the reorganization proposal and Nixon signed it on Dec. 2, 1970, appointing William Ruckelshaus as the EPA’s first administrator.
Major EPA milestones
1970 – The Clean Air Act is passed, requiring a 90 percent reduction in emissions from new automobiles by 1975.
1972 – The EPA bans the use of DDT, a widely used pesticide found to cause cancer.
1974 – The Safe Drinking Water Act is passed.
1980 – Under the new Superfund Law, the EPA sets up a nationwide program for toxic waste site cleanups and establishes a list of the most hazardous toxic sites in the US.
1987 – The US joins with 23 nations to sign the Montreal Protocol, pledging to phase out production of chloro-fluorocarbons (CFCs) inked to destruction of the Earth’s ozone layer. This initiative reverses ozone depletion and is considered a landmark environmental success.
1991 – In the largest environmental criminal damage settlement in history, Exxon agrees to pay $25 million in fines, $100 million for restoration work, and $900 million to set up a remediation fund arising from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
1996 - The EPA takes the final step in phase-out of leaded gasoline.
2010 – The EPA and the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration set the first national greenhouse gas emissions standards under the Clean Air Act by establishing new standards for light-dutyvehicles to reduce GHG emissions and improve fuel economy.
2015 – EPA announces an agreement with the Port Authority of NY/NJ to reduce truck idling at the Port of Newark
Did you know this about the Montreal Protocol? The Montreal Protocol is a great success story for environmental protection. By restoring the Earth’s ozone layer, it positively affected human health, poverty, climate change and the protection of the food chain. Without it:
The Earth’s ozone layer would have collapsed by 2050 with catastrophic consequences.
There would have been an additional 280 million cases of skin cancer, 1.5 million skin cancer deaths, and 45 million cataracts in the United States.
The potential intensity of hurricanes and cyclones would have increased three times.
Our global climate would be at least 25 per cent hotter today.
The Montreal Protocol proves it’s possible for nations to come together to solve global environmental problems.
More info at www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/09/montreal-protocol-ozone-treaty-30-climate-change-hcfs-hfcs/.