| A | B |
|---|
| Clean Air Act | Established primary and secondary air quality standards. Required EPA and states to develop implementation plans. Sets limits and goals to reduce mobile source air pollution, stationary source (industrial) air pollution and ambient air quality standards. Addresses ozone depletion and acid precipitation. |
| Clean Water Act | Regulates and enforces all discharge into surface water and wetland destruction/construction. |
| Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation Liability Act | Established federal authority for emergency response and clean-up of hazardous substances that have been spilled, improperly disposed, or released into the environment. Developed system of assessing hazardous waste sites. Established a trust fund from taxes on companies to help pay for cleanup |
| Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species | Controls the exploitation of endangered species through international legislation. Bans hunting, capturing and selling of threatened species and bans the import of ivory. Ensures that international trade practices do not cause threat to species survival |
| Emergency Planning & Community Right-To-Know Act | Requires reporting/notification of toxic releases into community environments: the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI); Encourages emergency preparedness response for chemical releases |
| Endangered Species Act | Protects species that are considered to be threatened or endangered, especially from growth and development. Includes habitat. Also includes migratory birds and their habitats. |
| Kyoto Protocol | Agreement among 150 nations requiring greenhouse gas emission reduction to prevent anthropomorphic climate change. USA is one of the only major global economies that refused to sign the treaty. |
| Montreal Protocol | Banned the production of aerosols and initiated the phase out of all CFC's that contribute to stratospheric ozone layer depletion |
| Safe Drinking Water Act | The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is allowed to set the standards for groundwater (aquifer) and drinking water quality and oversees all of the states, localities, and water suppliers who implement these standards |
| Soil and Water Conservation Act | Provides for a continuing appraisal of US soil, water, and related resources, including fish and wildlife habitats, and a soil and water conservation program to assist private landowners. |
| Solid Waste Disposal Act | Also known as RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) To find better and more efficient ways to dispose of solid waste; promotes shredding and separation of waste and burning of remaining materials to produce stream or generate electricity; promotes recycling. Also includes rules about hazardous waste disposal |
| Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act | Requires restoration of abandoned mines. Regulates environmental effects of coal mining in the US. |
| Wilderness Act | Allowed congress to set aside over 9 million acres federally owned land for preservation. |
