Regulation of the Environment
In 1969, Congress enacted the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to establish environmental protection as a goal of federal policy. The NEPA’s declaration of national environmental policy states:
The Congress, recognizing the profound impact of man’s activity on the interrelations of all components of the natural environment, particularly the profound influences of population growth, high-density urbanization, industrial expansion, resource exploitation, and new and expanding technological advances, and recognizing further the critical importance of restoring and maintaining environmental quality to the overall welfare and development of man, declares that it is the continuing policy of the Federal Government, in cooperation with State and local governments … to use all practicable means and measures … in a manner calculated to foster and promote the general welfare, to create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony, and fulfill the social economic and other requirements of present and future generations of Americans.