The Clean Air Act of 1970 tells the EPA to set standards for what kinds of toxic air pollutants can be released into the вЂњambient air,вЂќ either from factories or cars and trucks. There are two crucial ones, passed by Congress within a two-year span of Richard NixonвЂ™s presidency: What are the most important laws governing the EPA? Some of that money is supposed to go to states, who will enforce some of the regulations themselves.

Congress also gives money to the EPA to enforce those rules. This statute formally empowers the EPA, an independent agency of the federal government, to issue regulations about what companies must do to help bring about that cleaner air. The process works like this: Congress passes a law with a general goal in mind-say, cleaner air around the country. A statute is a law passed by Congress, while a regulation is a law promulgated by a federal agency. We mostly do it with statutes and regulations. How do we protect the environment in the United States? Many of them have looked anew at the environmental policy machine running in the background of the government and asked, essentially: Wait, that old thing? How does that work? Suffice it to say that this scares a lot of Americans. His only rival is Ronald Reagan, who did not enjoy the benefit of a Republican Congress. Trump could be the most hostile president ever to sit over the agency. Its proposed budget cuts billions from the agencyвЂ™s budget, and it has begun the process of rescinding years of Obama-era regulatory work. The Trump administration has indicated-through its proposed budget and through its choice of appointees-that it cannot abide the status quo.

The American public benefits from this process, according to most research and a large majority of Americans tell pollsters that they approve of it. EPA employees consult the most recent science about conventional air or water pollution, formulate rules to protect the public from those dangers, and turn them into law. The laws remain in place today, though the EPA still bickers with various industries over their scope. Although they contained flaws, the laws accomplished their goals with greater success than critics predicted and their rules cost businesses less money to implement than even hopeful supporters forecast. Here is the most astonishing thing about these laws: They worked. They sought to restrict toxic air pollution nationwide, clean up hundreds of streams and rivers, and erect a permanent, federally empowered Environmental Protection Agency. These laws arose from a flurry of legislating-nearly all emerged in the same two-year period-and they had astonishingly large goals. A little less than 50 years ago, President Richard Nixon united with a Democratic Congress to pass laws that altered the everyday experience of almost everyone living in the United States.

Clean air and water act s