Environmental Law

This is FindLaw’s collection of Environmental Law articles, part of the Corporate Counsel Center Law Library. Environmental law is the collection of statutes and regulations pertaining to air quality, water quality, the wilderness, endangered wildlife and other environmental factors. The umbrella of environmental legislation covers many laws and regulations, yet they all work together toward a common goal, which is regulating the interaction between man and the natural world to reduce threats to the environment and increase public health. Law articles in this archive are predominantly written by lawyers for a professional audience seeking business solutions to legal issues. Start your free research with FindLaw.

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Environmental Law Articles

Summary of The Clean Air Act

The Clean Air Act is the comprehensive Federal law that regulates air emissions from area, stationary, and mobile sources. This law authorizies the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to ...
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Summary of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act

Also known as Title III of SARA, EPCRA was enacted by Congress as the national legislation on community safety. This law was designated to help local communities protect public health, safety, and the environment from chemical hazards.To implement ...
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Summary of the Endangered Species Act

The Endangered Species Act provides a program for the conservation of threatened and endangered plants and animals and the habitats in which they are found. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) of the Department of the Interior maintains the ...
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Summary of The National Environmental Policy Act

The National Environmental Policy Act was one of the first laws ever written that establishes the broad national framework for protecting our environment. NEPA's basic policy is to assure that all branches of government give proper consideration to ...
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Summary of the Pollution Prevention Act

The Pollution Prevention Act focused industry, government, and public attention on reducing the amount of pollution through cost-effective changes in production, operation, and raw materials use. Opportunities for source reduction are often not ...
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Summary of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

RCRA (pronounced "rick-rah") gave EPA the authority to control hazardous waste from the "cradle-to-grave." This includes the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste. RCRA also set forth a framework for the ...
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Summary of The Toxic Substances Control Act

The Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 was enacted by Congress to test, regulate, and screen all chemicals produced or imported into the United States. Many thousands of chemicals and their compounds are developed each year with unknown toxic or ...
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Superfund Reauthorisation Or Reform: To Be Or Not To Be?

While both parties in Congress agree that Superfund needs significant reform, they disagree on the appropriate legislative mechanism. Some suggest that Congress delay reform until after the election, passing an appropriations bill that allows for ...
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Superfund Scrap Recycling Exemption Bill Now Law

On November 29, 1999, President Clinton signed the "Superfund Recycling Equity Act" into law, exempting generators and transporters of "Recyclable Material" from liability under the federal Superfund law. The provision was contained in the omnibus ...
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Supreme Court Decision Shows More Even-Handed Interpretation of Environmental Statutes

A recent decision by the United States Supreme Court acknowledges that the Endangered Species Act ("ESA"), 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq., has some purposes in addition to protecting endangered species. The decision suggests that, at least for some ...
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