United States environmental law

In the United States, there are numerous types of environmental laws. They come in many forms and have diverse purposes relating to protection of the natural environment, the control of pollution, and resulting in protection of human health. As an introduction, a few examples of federal statutory environmental laws are provided here.

Related Topics:
United States - Natural environment - Pollution - Federal - Statutory

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• The Endangered Species Act seeks to protect various species of animals that are deemed to be threatened or endangered by human activity.
• The Clean Water and Clean Air Acts regulate (through a variety of methods) industrial, waste disposal, and other human activities that result in contamination of the air and water.
• Superfund is the common name for a set of laws that established a multi-billion dollar fund to pay for remediation of toxic waste sites left by companies that are unwilling or unable to pay. The same set of laws also creates liability for a broad spectrum of parties, such as prior owners or operators, of sites that are currently contaminated, even if the pollution was legal when it occurred.
• The National Environmental Policy Act requires the federal government to consider environmental impact via an environmental impact assessment before taking any significant action, such as building a highway.

There are many more environmental laws in the United States, both at the federal and state levels. The common law of property and takings also play an important role in environmental issues. In addition, the law of standing, relating to who has a right to bring a lawsuit, is an important issue in environmental law in the United States.

Related Topics:
Common law - Property - Takings - Standing

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