Created by FindLaw`s team of writers and legal writers| Last updated: 20 June 2016 The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation issues regulations on «the conservation of natural resources, including subsoil, waters, forests in designated protected areas, wildlife and its habitat, in the field of hunting, hydrometeorology and related fields, environmental monitoring and pollution control, including radiation monitoring and control, and the functions of designing and implementing public environmental policy and legal regulation. [57] Environmental laws come from a number of places. Most federal regulations come from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations contains many environmental regulations created by the EPA. U.S. Supreme Court decisions interpret EPA rules broadly. A famous case that confirms the EPA`s extensive powers is Calvert Cliff`s Coordinating Committee against the Atomic Energy Commission. EPA uses its Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance to enforce its regulations. Chemical safety laws regulate the use of chemicals in human activities, especially man-made chemicals in modern industrial applications. Unlike media-focused environmental laws (e.g., air or water quality laws), chemical control laws attempt to manage the (potential) pollutants themselves. Regulatory efforts include banning certain chemical constituents in consumer products (e.g., bisphenol A in plastic bottles) and regulating pesticides. The following student guides provide information on working in environmental law: LawCareers.net, Chambers and Partners Student Guide and Target Law.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, «In recent years, China has worked with great determination to develop, implement and enforce a sound framework for environmental law. These countries include Cambodia, China, Indonesia, India, Maldives, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and the Lao People`s Democratic Republic. [27] While there are federal laws and international treaties on environmental law, there are also many state and local laws relating to the environment. Each state has an agency to manage and regulate the state`s natural resources. They set regulations on how people can hunt and fish. Most states also have an agency to regulate environmental quality. To encourage efforts to prevent environmental damage, Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). NEPA declared a national environmental protection policy and established the Council for Environmental Quality (CEQ) within the Office of the President. To implement this policy, NEPA requires federal agencies to consider the environmental impact of broader federal measures. Under NEPA, a federal agency will first determine whether its proposed measures have been categorically excluded from the NEPA regulations, as has been the case for many EPA activities. If the project is not excluded, the Agency must conduct an environmental assessment to determine whether the project will have an impact on the environment.
If no impact is detected, a «Finding of No Significant Impact» is submitted. If the assessment reveals effects, the Agency must prepare a detailed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Elements of the EIS include: a brief description of the project, including its underlying purpose and the needs addressed by the Agency; a description of all reasonable alternatives to the project; a description of the environment affected by the alternatives; and an analysis of the environmental impact of each possible alternative. The completed EIS is then submitted as a draft for public comment. At the end of the notification and comment period, a final EIA will be published. The final EIS must be prepared before work on the proposed project can begin. Congress began enacting specific legal protections for the environment in 1899 with the Rivers and Harbors Act, which provided a regulatory mechanism to limit water pollution in the country`s navigable waters. Modern environmental law began to evolve in the 1950s with the passage of laws such as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (now known as the Clean Water Act (CWA)) and the Clean Air Act (CAA). Environmental sanitation laws regulate the removal of pollution or contamination of natural environments such as soil, sediment, surface water or groundwater. Unlike environmental laws, remediation laws are designed to respond to pollution after the fact, and therefore often have to define not only the necessary response measures, but also the parties who may be responsible for implementing (or paying for) those measures. Regulatory requirements may include rules for emergency response, assignment of responsibility, site assessment, remediation studies, feasibility studies, corrective actions, post-cure monitoring, and site reuse. While affected industries are controversial in the fight against regulation, many environmentalists and public interest groups also believe that current regulations are inadequate and push for stronger protection.
[19] [20] [21] Environmental law conferences, such as the annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in Eugene, Oregon, generally have this purpose and also link environmental law to issues of class, race, and the like. The first examples of legal decrees aimed at consciously preserving the environment, for one`s own good or for human pleasure, can be found throughout history.