Environmental policies in USA (Essay Sample)

Environmental policies in USA Name: Institution: Environmental policies in USA Introduction Globally, the environment is a major concern. This includes risk of stratospheric ozone exhaustion, climate change, and losing some species because of natural habitats damage with more weight in forestry. A great concern on the depletion of the ozone layer in the stratosphere has seen efforts from the international community to reduce the use of chlorofluorocarbons and halons – the major chemicals responsible for this depletion. The U.S. has been in the front line in developing both the scientific and economic foundations through which the issue can be addressed. The U.S. is one of the signatories to the Montreal Protocol, which calls for a faster reduction in use of chlorofluorocarbons and halons (Hahn, p.306). Globally, nations are trying to come up with a set of policies, which will address this menace. With respect to this global climatic change, the U.S. government started an aggressive research plan with an estimated out.ays of $954 million by 1991. The federal government is responsible in regulating activities that have an environmental effect in the U.S. and the primary goal of environmental policy is to protect and maintain the environment for future generations and balancing the burden of environmental cost. Many groups in the U.S. have shown a great concern about the environmental issues. In both national and local elections in U.S., the aspirants often come up with policies and talk about the environment in their campaigns. Every year, the U.S citizens and the corporate sector donate a lot of money to environmental maintenance. At the same time, the Federal government spends billions of dollars in upholding environmental policies and the management of resources. In the recent past, U.S. has laid a number of measures to reduce a number of pollution and improving the quality of water in various parts. Despite all this, the U.S. continues to struggle to utilize its resources in a safe and sustainable way that preserves its unique environment. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 gives a concise but influential statement of national policy that encourages a productive and promotion of pleasant harmony between the man and his environment. This is known as the beginning of the Environmental Impact Statements (EISs). Furthermore, NEPA also gave the Organic Act for the Council on Environment Quality (CEQ) (Auer et al. 2011, p.136). Generally, the Federal policies on the environment have had an optimistic effect on cleaning of the environment despite the fact that the precise magnitude of this effect is hard to determine. NEPA was established to make sure that the Citizens are informed and are aware of their input into the decision made by agencies that could have an effect on them and the natural environment. The Environment Impact Statements (EISs) is mandated by NEPA to carry out primary projects examining the state of the environment before and after the implementation of the projects. Major Environmental Concerns Depositing of acid in form of acid rain is great concern. This results from sulfur and nitrogen dioxide emissions into the air. The emitted gas travels and lands in another region changing the acidity of the water or land where the acid rain falls. Acid deposits in the Western U.S. and Northeastern U.S. had serious problems, which forced coal power firms to use high smoke stacks. Ozone depletion is another concern. The ozone serves as an obstacle to ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were proved to be the major cause of ozone depletion. The EPA banned use CFCs in spray cans. Heat-trapping air pollutants such as carbon dioxide are causing climate change. Since the industrial era, carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere has increased by about 40% mostly from use of coal, oil, and natural gas. Because of this, the global temperatures continue to rise (Engler & Engler, 2013, p. 44). The climatic changes are a big threat to the community and the earth at large. U.S. is amongst the nations that emit carbon dioxide in massive and thus the actions that U.S. takes are crucial in determining how serious the fight against air pollution is and in slowing down climatic change globally. The U.S. Environmental Policies History During the 1800s, the U.S. was in great transition in usage of its enormous resources. Prairies were converted to cropland and indigenous forests cut down to pave way for cultivation and industrialization. Similarly, at the same time a number of animal species were hunted to extinction. The realization and effects of these actions started to be felt and recognized during 1900s leading to change of attitudes of the citizens. Leaders and various conservationists such as John Muir started to call for environmental protection and maintenance of nations resources. Due to their campaigns, national forests, parks, and agencies were formed. During the 1930 crop disaster, U.S. residents became more aware of the environmental issues. Poor farming methods were the main contributors of soil erosion and consequently poverty. As a result, policies that encouraged soil conservation were taken up. Furthermore, research on better ways of disposing garbage began. In 1970, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was established. U.S. Environmental Policies and Regulations There are two main policy tools for environmental protection – rules and inducements. In U.S., the federal government uses rules in form of regulations. The regulations come in terms of designed standards and performance standards. The performance standards provides guidelines specifying the right levels of emissions and give those involved the freedom to device a way for meeting these levels. The designed standards provide the exact techniques to be used to meet the performance standards. Similarly, the federal government can use inducements. In this case, rewards or penalties are used to control those involved. The primary inducements are charge systems and tradable permit systems. Charge system mechanisms include tax incentives – to promote use of clean and renewable power, emission taxes to deter release of toxic substances. Tradable permit system include auction of pollution rights whereby the set pollution level is divided into units that can be auctioned. Auctioning was undertaken for sulfur dioxide pollution and for greenhouse gases to reduce global warming. The Clean Water Act This Act disallows release of pollutants into waters and it requires sites that release materials into water bodies to have a license to do so. The sites include industries, municipalities, and sewerage systems. On acquiring license, state and federal agencies ensures that the best practices are used to reduce pollution and any discharge is in compliant with quality water goals and objectives (NDRC, 2013, p.4). The EPA at the national level primarily implements the Act. The EPA gives annual grants to aid in local water projects. The Act has played a major role in cleaning up U.S. waterways. The percentage of waters that does not meet the set standards has reduced distinctly in spite of increase in the U.S. population. Sewerage management plants have also upgraded their pollution controlling equipments leading to a substantial decrease in their effect on waters. Despite the successes of the Act, many challenges linger especially on the unaddressed sources of water pollution. Headstream and wetlands lacks a comprehensive protection under the Act in spite of the fact that they contribute a lot in the supply of drinking water. The coal mining practices contributes to water pollution particularly to contamination of downstream waterways. The EPA proposes policies for regulating cooling water intake structures though the rule is weak for protecting the aquatic environments. The Clean Air Act The quality of air in U.S. has improved tremendously from 1960s though much more needs to be done as air pollution continues to be a threat to the health of many Americans. The Act was enacted in 1970. The act mandates the EPA to control the emissions of air pollution that threatens the health of American citizens. The Act has considerably minimized air pollution with a 40% drop of the six major pollutants between 1990 and 2008. In 2012, EPA concluded a new policy that sets new emission limits of soot. The Clean Air Act wants National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to be revised in a five years interval to a level that is satisfactory to human health protection. Furthermore, EPA finalized revision of toxic air pollution standards reducing mercury, acid gases, and toxic metals from industries. Mercury affects brain growth both children and unborn (NDRC, 2013, p.7). Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA is responsible in controlling the carbon air pollution from industries and vehicles. In 2012, EPA provided carbon pollution standards for new power plant (Hahn, p.335). The NRDC has proposed a flexible guideline in which EPA would be able to set standards for each state that reflects the state's existing mixture of coal and gas generated. Clean Energy Clean, reliable, and renewable energy supports domestic growth and stabilizes the economy while minimizing dependency on fossil fuels that contribute to various forms of pollution. For instance, wind energy cuts releasing of about 65 million tons of carbon dioxide, 75,000 metric tons of sulfur dioxide, and 50,000 metric tons of nitrogen oxide annually. The federal government has utilized a number of policies to promote the use of clean energy though more needs to be done (NDRC, 2013, p.10). Some of the regulations include the Energy Policy Act (EPACT) of 2005, the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, and Energy Improvem...