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National Parks Service Act
The National Park Service Organic Act is a United States federal law that established the National Park Service as an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. -
Taylor Grazing Act
is a United States federal law that provides for the regulation of grazing on the public lands to improve rangeland conditions and regulate their use. The law initially permitted 80,000,000 ac of previously unreserved public lands of the United States to be placed into grazing districts to be administered by the Department of the Interior. As amended, the law now sets no limit on the amount of lands in grazing districts. -
Burton Act
Congress passed a law that gave hospitals, nursing homes and other health facilities grants and loans for construction and modernization. The program stopped providing funds in 1997, but about 140 health care facilities nationwide are still obligated to provide free or reduced-cost care. Since 1980, more than $6 billion in uncompensated services have been provided to eligible patients through Hill-Burton. -
Clean Air Act
first federal legislation regarding air pollution control. It established a federal program within the U.S. Public Health Service and authorized research into techniques for monitoring and controlling air pollution. -
Wilderness Act
The National Wilderness Preservation System to be composed of federally owned areas designated by Congress as "wilderness areas", and these shall be administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use as wilderness, and so as to provide for the protection of these areas, the preservation of their wilderness character -
The Occupational Safety and Health Act
To assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women by authorizing enforcement of the standards developed under the Act by assisting and encouraging the States in their efforts to assure safe and healthful working conditions by providing for research, information, education, and training in the field of occupational safety and health and for other purposes. -
National Environmental Policy Act
The National Environmental Policy Act is a United States environmental law that promotes the enhancement of the environment and established the President's Council on Environmental Quality. The bill was an early step towards the development of the United States' environmental policy, NEPA is referred to as the “environmental Magna Carta”. -
Marine Mammal Protection Act
The Act makes it illegal to take marine mammals without a permit. This means people may not harass, feed, hunt, capture, collect, or kill any marine mammal or part of a marine mammal. The Act also formalized the marine mammal health and stranding response program to improve the response of stranding and unusual mortality events. -
Stockholm Declaration
the first document in international environmental law to recognize the right to a healthy environment. In the declaration, the nations agreed to accept responsibility for any environmental effects caused by their actions. -
Clean Water Act
first major U.S. law to address water pollution. Growing public awareness and concern for controlling water pollution led to sweeping amendments in 1972 -
Endangered Species Conservation Act
authorized the United States Secretary of the Interior to develop a comprehensive list of species or subspecies of animals threatened with worldwide extinction. It also prohibited the importation from any foreign country any animal-whole or in part, any product, or any egg belonging to a species on that list. -
Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species
is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. -
Endangered Species Act
provides for the conservation of species that are endangered or threatened throughout all or a significant portion of their range, and the conservation of the ecosystems on which they depend. -
Safe drinking Water Act
federal law that protects public drinking water supplies throughout the nation. Under the SDWA, EPA sets standards for drinking water quality and with its partners implements various technical and financial programs to ensure drinking water safety. -
Toxic Substance Control Act
regulates the introduction of new or already existing chemicals. When the TSCA was put into place, all existing chemicals were considered to be safe for use and subsequently grandfathered in. Its three main objectives are to assess and regulate new commercial chemicals before they enter the market, to regulate chemicals already existing in 1976 that posed an "unreasonable risk to health or to the environment" -
Soil and Water Conservation Act
provides the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) broad strategic assessment and planning authority for the conservation, protection, and enhancement of soil, water, and related natural resources. -
Energy Security Act
This act would have devoted major federal funding to develop an integrated program utilizing a combination of Synthetic Fuels, Solar and Wind Energy, Geothermal and Ocean Thermal Energy, Biomass and Alcohol fuels, and energy conservation programs with the aim of cutting U.S. oil imports in half by 1990, and eliminating them completely by 2000. One of the very first thing Ronald Reagan did upon taking office was eliminate the funding for the program from the budget... lol -
Montreal Protocol
international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion. -
Oil Pollution Act
strengthened EPA's ability to prevent and respond to oil spills. A trust fund financed by a tax on oil is available to clean up spills when the responsible party is incapable or unwilling to do so. The OPA requires oil storage facilities to give the government plans detailing how they will respond to large discharges. It has published regulations for aboveground storage facilities and requires the development of Area Contingency Plans to prepare for oil spill response on a regional scale. -
Convention on the Law of the Sea
The Law of the Sea Convention defines the rights and responsibilities of nations with respect to their use of the world's oceans, establishing guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine natural resources. -
Kyoto Protocol
is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the premise that global warming exists and human-made CO2 emissions have caused it. -
Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty
It designates Antarctica as a “natural reserve, devoted to peace and science”. Article 3 of the Environment Protocol sets forth basic principles applicable to human activities in Antarctica and Article 7 prohibits all activities relating to Antarctic mineral resources, except for scientific research.
