A New Breed of Public Law

CONGRESS GAVE BIRTH TO THE NATION'S MAJOR FEDERAL environmental statutes during a period of intense and extraordinarily fertile social upheaval, as America's young people struggled to reclaim their government and parents fought to recover their children's respect. The first generation of statutes, passed as the Vietnam War was winding down, launched a forty-year revolution in the way Americans treat their environment, propelling unprecedented advancements in pollution control and the preservation of natural resources. Yet somewhere along the line – it is difficult to pinpoint a single event or moment – this progress began to unravel. We learned that the environment of our country was irrevocably linked to the global environment and that frightening changes were under way in the atmosphere as an overload of fossil fuel and other emissions disrupted the planet's climate. The developing world was intent on catching up with the United States and Europe economically but lacked the regulatory infrastructure to moderate the impact of industrialization. Our country backed away from global leadership on environmental issues because energy producers convinced politicians that this role cost too much.

These fateful decisions could not have come at a worse time, as we are belatedly beginning to realize. The world confronts accelerating climate change, an environmental crisis that makes efforts to conquer previous challenges look like mere dress rehearsals.