On This Date in History

Exactly forty-two years ago, President Richard M. Nixon signed the National Environmental Quality Act into law on January 1, 1970.  Among other remarks, he had this to say:

[A] major goal, when you talk about New Year’s resolutions, I wouldn’t say for the next year but for the next 10 years–and I don’t mean that I intend to run for a third term–for the next 10 years for this country must be to restore the cleanliness of the air, the water, and that, of course, means moving also on the broader problems of population congestion, transport, and the like.

These remarks turned out to be prescient.  NEPA was the first in a slew of new federal environmental statutes — an era that came to an end almost exactly ten years later with the election of President Ronald Reagan.

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Reader Comments

2 Replies to “On This Date in History”

  1. Dear Dan,
    Congratulations to LEGAL PLANET for being among the top 100 legal blogs. Thanks for your hard work and committment, and to others for their respective contributions.

    I remember Richard Nixon and the first slew of new federal environmental statutes. As I recall, the statutes may have slowed but the era never came to an end. There has been a constant stream of new regulations and some new environmental statutes since the election of President Ronald Reagan.

    There are plenty of hopeful signs that in 2012 we may finally turn the corner on the climate controversy and make significant progress in the right direction. As a New Year’s resolution, I recommend that this forum adopt more critical and objective analysis of health effects data.

    Have a Happy New Year and don’t forget to smile.

  2. Dear Dan,
    Congratulations to LEGAL PLANET for being among the top 100 legal blogs. Thanks for your hard work and committment, and to others for their respective contributions.

    I remember Richard Nixon and the first slew of new federal environmental statutes. As I recall, the statutes may have slowed but the era never came to an end. There has been a constant stream of new regulations and some new environmental statutes since the election of President Ronald Reagan.

    There are plenty of hopeful signs that in 2012 we may finally turn the corner on the climate controversy and make significant progress in the right direction. As a New Year’s resolution, I recommend that this forum adopt more critical and objective analysis of health effects data.

    Have a Happy New Year and don’t forget to smile.

Comments are closed.

About Dan

Dan Farber has written and taught on environmental and constitutional law as well as about contracts, jurisprudence and legislation. Currently at Berkeley Law, he has al…

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About Dan

Dan Farber has written and taught on environmental and constitutional law as well as about contracts, jurisprudence and legislation. Currently at Berkeley Law, he has al…

READ more

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