Wednesday, October 07, 2015

Let’s Modernize Our Environmental Laws

Gregg Easterbrook makes some interesting observations in his New York Times Op Ed where he states:

"Our major environmental laws are a generation or more out of date — written for conditions of the past, not the present. The Clean Air Act, signed by President Richard M. Nixon in 1970, has not been amended since 1990, a quarter-century ago. The Clean Water Act, passed in 1972, has not been updated since 1987. The Endangered Species Act, passed in 1973, was last amended in 1982. The National Environmental Policy Act, the law that mandates environmental impact statements, was passed in 1970 and last amended in 1982."

"Protection of nature and of public health are data-driven sciences — yet environmental laws are grounded in obsolete information. Like generals fighting the last battle, regulators and their opponents keep rehashing disputes of the 1960s and 1970s, the period when the enabling statutes of environmental protection were being debated by Congress."

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