Environmental Law
颜涵 201211101060
    Today concern for the environment extends into such areas as chemical pollution of the air we breathe and the water we drink, strip mining, dam and road building, noise pollution, offshore oil drilling, nuclear energy, waste disposal, the use of aerosol cans and nonreturnable beverage containers and a host of other issues. In fact, there is hardly a realm of national life that is not touched by the controversy that often pits those who style themselves environmentalists against proponents of economic growth in our energy consuming society. The problem is to balance the needs of the environment against those of the economy or consumers trying to cope with the high cost of living without destroying the earth on which we all depend.
    现今对环境的关注已经延伸到各个领域，比如我们呼吸的空气和饮用水中的化学污染、露天开采、水坝和公路修建、噪音污染、近海石油钻探、核能、废弃物处理、喷雾罐和一次性饮料瓶的使用以及各种环境问题。实际上，没有哪个国家不存在环境保护和靠能源消费来拉
动经济增长之间的矛盾，那些自称环境学家的人对此十分愤怒。而问题的关键就在于如何让那些经济体和消费者降低对环境的需求，最终达到既设法满足生活的高消费又不摧毁我们所依赖的地球的状态。
    In the late 1960s both state and federal governments began enacting legislatetion and establishing new agencies to set and enforce standards of clean air and water and to protect America’s remaining open land from abuse by overzealous developers. The federal Clean Air Act of 1967, the Clean Air Act Amendment of 1970 and the 1972 amendments to the federal Water Pollution Control Act set new high standards for environmental quality. In many cases states have followed suit by setting their own tough standards of air, water and land use.
    二十世纪六十年代后期，各州政府和联邦政府都开始颁布法律并设立新机构来规定并提高洁净空气和水源的标准，从而保护美国剩下的开放土地不受过度开垦的破坏。1967年的联邦净化空气法案，1970年的净化空气法修正案，以及1972water pollution年对联邦水污染控制法修正案都对环境质量设立了新的高标准。在很多情况下，各州都纷纷效仿，制定了他们自己对于空气质量、水源质量和土地利用的严格标准。