Environmental Legislation

Generations of Americans have benefited from this legacy of leadership in environmental protection. However, these gains have not been free of controversy. Environmental regulation is complex, sometimes burdensome for regulated groups and, increasingly, the focus of intense partisan debate.

TNC is working to uphold the foundational laws, regulations and other legal provisions that underpin basic environmental and conservation values while also identifying and supporting efforts to improve relevant processes and outcomes.

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To meet this challenge, TNC will weigh how a policy enhances or undermines the shared strengths of core environmental laws. TNC will continue its role as a leading advocate for federal and state funding to support implementation and enforcement of environmental laws and regulations across the United States.

While U.S. environmental laws and statutes have made profound contributions to the health and safety of people; the protection of lands, waters, oceans and wildlife; and the enhancement of science, their implementation has also been selectively criticized.

EPA is called a regulatory agency because Congress authorizes us to write regulations that explain the critical details necessary to implement environmental laws. In addition, a number of Presidential Executive Orders (EOs) play a central role in our activities.

The California Environmental Legislation & Policy Clinic gives students a unique opportunity to experience the legislative process in California through direct work with legislative staffers and engagement with advocates and stakeholders. Students work on cutting-edge environmental issues, contributing to innovative legislative solutions, and gain a nuanced understanding of what it takes to make law in California.

In this Clinic seminar, students learn the nuts and bolts of the California legislative process, legislative drafting, and lobbying. Guest speakers include attorneys, policymakers, and lobbyists at a variety of state agencies and organizations. Through their clinical work, students make valuable connections with environmental advocates, policy experts, and the legislative staffers with whom they collaborate.

Julia Stein is the Deputy Director for the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Lawand Supervising Attorney for the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic. Prior to coming to UCLA, she practiced at large private firms in Los Angeles, focusing on environmental litigation, regulatory compliance, and land use practice, including litigating complex environmental cases in state and federal court, advising clients on compliance with state and federal environmental regulations, and assisting clients through land use entitlement and development processes. She also has experience lobbying, drafting legislation, and orchestrating research and comments on significant regulations.

Sabrina Ashjian is a project director for the Emmett Institute on Climate Change & the Environment and clinical supervising attorney for the California Environmental Legislation & Policy Clinic at UCLA School of Law. She was previously at the UC Berkeley School of Law Environmental Law Clinic and taught environmental justice courses. After beginning her career as a public defender in the Central Valley of California, Sabrina served as a consumer fraud and environmental protection prosecutor, after which she advanced animal welfare and environmental legislation as the California State Director for the Humane Society of the United States. Sabrina has been appointed by two governors to serve the state: by Governor Brown to the Cannabis Control Appeals Panel, and most recently, by Governor Newsom to the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.

The U.S. Congress has passed significant legislation governing environmental law and policy. Below, you will find the more prominent pieces of legislation. If you wish to research the legislative history of these statutes, we recommend you review our research guide on federal legislative history, to help perform further research.

The RCRA was passed to regulate solid waste in the United States. In the "Congressional findings" section, it is further provided that due to the passage of other environmental laws and regulations (such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act) more solid waste was being created, and there needed to be more regulation on hazardous waste disposal. The RCRA is overseen by the EPA.

Environmental laws are laws that protect the environment.[1] Environmental law is the collection of laws, regulations, agreements and common law that governs how humans interact with their environment.[2] This includes environmental regulations; laws governing management of natural resources, such as forests, minerals, or fisheries; and related topics such as environmental impact assessments. Environmental law is seen as the body of laws concerned with the protection of living things (human beings inclusive) from the harm that human activity may immediately or eventually cause to them or their species, either directly or to the media and the habits on which they depend.[3]

Early examples of laws designed to preserve the environment for its own sake or for human enjoyment are found throughout history. In the common law, the primary protection was found in the law of nuisance, but this only allowed for private actions for damages or injunctions if there was harm to land. Thus, smells emanating from pigsties,[4] strict liability against dumping rubbish,[5] or damage from exploding dams.[6] Private enforcement, however, was limited and found to be woefully inadequate to deal with major environmental threats, particularly threats to common resources. During the "Great Stink" of 1858, the dumping of sewerage into the River Thames began to smell so ghastly in the summer heat that Parliament had to be evacuated. Ironically, the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers Act 1848 had allowed the Metropolitan Commission for Sewers to close cesspits around the city in an attempt to "clean up" but this simply led people to pollute the river. In 19 days, Parliament passed a further Act to build the London sewerage system. London also suffered from terrible air pollution, and this culminated in the "Great Smog" of 1952, which in turn triggered its own legislative response: the Clean Air Act 1956. The basic regulatory structure was to set limits on emissions for households and businesses (particularly burning of coal) while an inspectorate would enforce compliance.

Chemical safety laws govern the use of chemicals in human activities, particularly human-made chemicals in modern industrial applications. As contrasted with media-oriented environmental laws (e.g., air or water quality laws), chemical control laws seek to manage the (potential) pollutants themselves. Regulatory efforts include banning specific chemical constituents in consumer products (e.g., Bisphenol A in plastic bottles), and regulating pesticides.[8]

Environmental law has developed in response to emerging awareness of and concern over issues impacting the entire world. While laws have developed piecemeal and for a variety of reasons, some effort has gone into identifying key concepts and guiding principles common to environmental law as a whole.[20] The principles discussed below are not an exhaustive list and are not universally recognized or accepted. Nonetheless, they represent important principles for the understanding of environmental law around the world.

Defined by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs," sustainable development may be considered together with the concepts of "integration" (development cannot be considered in isolation from sustainability) and "interdependence" (social and economic development, and environmental protection, are interdependent).[21] Laws mandating environmental impact assessment and requiring or encouraging development to minimize environmental impacts may be assessed against this principle.

The modern concept of sustainable development was a topic of discussion at the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm Conference), and the driving force behind the 1983 World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, or Bruntland Commission). In 1992, the first UN Earth Summit resulted in the Rio Declaration, Principle 3 of which reads: "The right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations." Sustainable development has been a core concept of international environmental discussion ever since, including at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Earth Summit 2002), and the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Earth Summit 2012, or Rio+20).

Identified as essential conditions for "accountable governments,... industrial concerns," and organizations generally, public participation and transparency are presented by UNEP as requiring "effective protection of the human right to hold and express opinions and to seek, receive and impart ideas,... a right of access to appropriate, comprehensible and timely information held by governments and industrial concerns on economic and social policies regarding the sustainable use of natural resources and the protection of the environment, without imposing undue financial burdens upon the applicants and with adequate protection of privacy and business confidentiality," and "effective judicial and administrative proceedings." These principles are present in environmental impact assessment, laws requiring publication and access to relevant environmental data, and administrative procedure.

In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation. e24fc04721