Environmental Regulations and Pollution of the United States

Many believe that environmental regulations in the United States are the most comprehensive and protective on Earth. In many respects this is true but there are significant exceptions and gaps. We shall see that some regulations in certain subject areas have perhaps matured where further improvement may not be necessary. In addition, there are areas where additional regulations are necessary or are totally lacking and are in need of more immediate attention. After reading this chapter, you will have a much greater understanding of just how much environmental regulation we have in the United States and why. It will also be apparent that staying in compliance is a complex undertaking requiring much skill and expertise. The amount and complexity of environmental laws and regulations in the United States is due to the fact that we are an industrialized society and consume enormous amounts of energy and goods and our hunger for those goods and energy continues to rise as we continue to improve our standard of living. The United States produces large volumes of waste of all types and as our population continues to increase, the amount of waste produced will also continue to increase. These central facts combined with the dynamic and innate complexities of the natural world add an almost infinite number of negative outcomes in a world with over 7 billion people all wanting to improve their standard of living. The fact is, if we do not have effective and comprehensive environmental regulation, we simply threaten our existence and numerous other species as we are slowly devoured in our own garbage. Our advances in science have created many technologies that have improved our standard of living and in some circumstances have improved our relationship with nature. But our technological advancements have also created many unintended negative side effects that question the benefit of some technologies. Although efforts are underway to reduce our energy needs and our veracious hunger for consuming nature, one thing seems certain; our thirst for consumer goods and energy needs will continue to grow, and as our population increases our energy needs will increase even faster. This means that environmental regulation will have to grow with us in volume and complexity as we consume more and more of Earth’s resources and replace it with our waste.