Category:US Environmental Protection Agency

http://www.epa.gov/

Environmental Protection/Mission

The US EPA's mission is to protect human health and the environment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Environmental_Protection_Agency

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Protection of the Commons

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/The_Commons

Reflections

GreenPolicy Siterunner / SJS: Rep. George E. Brown, originally from East Los Angeles/Monterey Park, was "instrumental" in envisioning and working to pass historic envrionmental initiatives over three decades in the US Congress, including the recommendations and legislation that led to the US EPA's establishment. Congressman Brown was right there in the center of first era of US environmental legislation, a stalwart supporter of science who went on to become chair of the House Science Committee. In many roles, including drafting the legislation that set up the first 'National Climate Research Program' via the National Climate Program Act of 1978, George worked every day with singular focus on science and the environment until his untimely death in 1999.

http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/George_E._Brown_Jr

George brought your Green Policy siterunner into politics at the beginning of the Congressman's career in 1963. George became a mentor to your siterunner over the years, starting when I was a 14 and 15 year year old and my high school debate team researched and addressed nuclear weapons and proliferation, the year's debate topic. The Congressman generously shared his ideas about the 'Cuban Missile Crisis' and risks of cataclysmic nuclear war, this as the Vietnam war heated up and the Cold war took on ominous dimension.

George E. Brown & EPA, an Environmental Protection Legacy

>Remembering the 'start-up' of the environmental movement and the first set of laws, a body of originating legal environmental protection precedents from green visionaries like George E. Brown in California.

"My friend George"

SJS / Siterunner: George was looking forward to the 21st century and especially to the challenge of nuclear non-proliferation, his concern for decades. George was a visionary, an engineer, a vet who opposed disastrous war, and a leader in Congress who led from California in shaping the modern environmental movement. In his 'rumpled, quiet way' he moved to form coalitions few thought could be formed and garnered support for the first set of U.S. Congressional acts that served as foundation legislation for decades of green progress. His work advanced environmental air quality and clean air legislation (he attacked Los Angeles smog, some of the worst air quality of any city in the world at the time and the air standards that came out of California became models worldwide). He succeeded in clean water efforts, though rarely given credit given his quiet approach to accomplishing big picture goals. As one example, he "championed" and was a key player in legislation founding the Environmental Protection Agency, as the LA Times noted (without pomp or circumstance) in George's obit: "He championed the creation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency". The EPA was in many ways his vision achieved... George was for decades the Congressperson out in front of "big science". He was a key figure in the Landsat program, the long-running database of imagery of Earth that is moving on to its fifth decade with Landsat 9 (and open access) as a result of Brown's efforts. On the House science committee for over 30 years he led an array of science efforts, including one that greens look to as prescient -- he drafted legislation establishing the first federal climate change research program via the Federal Climate Program Act of 1978. His profound accomplishments are especially missed now in the current era as anti-science positioning in the U.S. Congress threatens national and global security...

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An added note about Jerry Brown and the California political environment, very much out in front of the environmental movement with far-sighted regulations of auto emissions, air quality control, and a host of first-mover green initiatives. Your GreenPolicy siterunner I came to know the Governor in the 1970s and supported the Governor's work, eventually becoming an advisor. The mulitple environmental protection initiatives that Jerry Brown and forward-looking California activists put forward are numerous and continue to serve as model green best practices for other communities, states and even countries. In 1992 your siterunner worked with the Brown presidential campaign and directly with the Governor to draft the 1992 presidential campaign platform, emphasizing many green ideas as well as campaign finance/lobbying reform to make possible our environmental policies and positions.

Governor Brown had been called an 'insurgent', a dreamer, and too many names to mention but one of the best known was his "Governor Moonbeam" moniker that Mike Royko, the newsman from Chicago gave him and later 'took back' as politics and environmental realities came to support the Governor's 'far-out' positions. The Jesuit logic-in-action of Jerry Brown serves as a counterpoint to charges that he was 'spacey'. Today, under the Governor's leadership, the state's environmental work and California EPA with out-in-front legislation continues to this day acting as a model. Many are moving to catch up, protect their environments and shift to energy efficient and productive economics.

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EPAs Internationally

The model of green, environmental protections and laws that arose in the 1960s and 70s has served as a model for many government and non-government organizations.

The activism of the first wave of the modern environmental movement has led to advances in awareness and public/private action around the US and globally.

Here are some of the orgs that have been established along the 'EPA model'

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