The Clean Air Act was signed by Richard Nixon in 1970 and gave the newly created Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and states the power they needed to clean up the atmosphere. 20 years later, President Bush followed up by strengthening the Act to allow for more regulations to be issued. And in 2014, President Obama is using this very bill in an attempt to mitigate climate change. Nixon addressed the problem of air pollution in 1970 during his state of the union address.
"Clean air, clean water, open spaces-these should once again be the birthright of every American. If we act now, they can be.
We still think of air as free. But clean air is not free, and neither is clean water. The price tag on pollution control is high. Through our years of past carelessness we incurred a debt to nature, and now that debt is being called ...
The automobile is our worst polluter of the air. Adequate control requires further advances in engine design and fuel composition. We shall intensify our research, set increasingly strict standards, and strengthen enforcement procedures-and we shall do it now.
We can no longer afford to consider air and water common property, free to be abused by anyone without regard to the consequences. Instead, we should begin now to treat them as scarce resources, which we are no more free to contaminate than we are free to throw garbage into our neighbor's yard.
This requires comprehensive new regulations. It also requires that, to the extent possible, the price of goods should be made to include the costs of producing and disposing of them without damage to the environment."
http://
http://www.allgov.com/
http://
http://
http://www.epw.senate.gov/
No comments:
Post a Comment