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Happy 50th Anniversary, Federal Clean Water Act

Legal Planet

The Clean Water Act (CWA), one of the nation’s most important environmental laws, is 50 years old today. In virtually all other nations, enforcement of water pollution control and other environmental laws is the sole responsibility of government regulators. (credit: Amazon).

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50 Years Ago: Environmental Law in 1973

Legal Planet

In the previous three years, Congress had passed NEPA, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act. Continuing the legislative wave, 1973 saw the passage of the Endangered Species Act (ESA. One subject stood outside the political turmoil: environmental law. In another notable case, the D.C.

Law 137
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More on the Clean Water Act at 50

Environment, Law, and History

Legal Planet's Richard Frank posted today on the US Clean Water Act's 50th birthday. Nevertheless, and with the possible exception of the Clean Air Act, no law enacted as part of the outpouring of federal environmental legislation in the 1970’s has proven more successful and transformational than the CWA.

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"Environmental law" - a response to Farber

Environment, Law, and History

He also goes on to state that "The 1960s were also Congress’s first forays into issues like air and water pollution, wilderness protection, and the endangered species. " Even allowing for methodological nationalism and the focus on the unrepresentative Supreme Court, this is all rather strange.

Law 96
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Our Environmental Statutes Are Broken

Law and Environment

The Clean Water Act – It’s routine for EPA to take more than 10 years to act on NPDES permit renewals. The Clean Air Act – The Supreme Court has ruled that it does not provide authority for EPA to address the defining issue of our time. They created a pathway towards cleaning our air, water, and land.

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Disasters and Environmental Laws – Have We Learned Our Lesson?

Acoel

My presentation was titled: Environmental Disasters that Led to Environmental Laws. This presentation reminded me of how our environmental laws in this country have been enacted. As many of us know well, most major federal environmental laws were enacted on the heels of major environmental disasters. appeared first on ACOEL.

Law 52
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Learning to Name Environmental Problems

Legal Planet

It was only once that shift was made that we could begin to think of contaminated rivers, smog, and clearcutting as part of the same body of law. In other words, it was only then that we could in terms of “environmental law” rather than distinct bodies of rules governing a scattering of different situations.