The piecing together of an environmental protection program, which began when the National Environmental Policy Act became law on January 1, 1970, moved ahead in 1976 with significant new legislation covering toxic substances.
Energy policy was another story, however, with no discernible legislative progress. Meanwhile, energy consumption and oil imports increased, the oil cartel raised prices, and the uncertainty over the future of nuclear power continued. Wishful thinkers might still look to technology for a cheap, plentiful, and benign new source of energy—or to a sudden change in lifestyle that will reduce our dependence on energy—but the fact is that the third anniversary of the oil embargo of 1973 passed with no evidence of an increase in the nation's capacity to cope with its altered circumstances.
The Toxic Substances Control Act, effective January 1, 1977, was passed after five years of legislative debate and after a succession of scares over mercury, asbestos, vinyl chloride, kepone, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenols) , and a variety of carcinogens in drinking water. Its purpose is primarily preventive—requiring the screening and testing of new chemicals before they are marketed and the testing of chemicals in use that are suspected of being hazardous to human health and the environment.
Since legislation is only a first step, the effectiveness of the act will take time to test. Indeed, whether the environment has been substantially improved as a result of the other legislation of the 1970s is a matter of conjecture and dispute. Optimists can cite achievements; pessimists can point to disappointments and programs behind schedule.
The accompanying articles deal with these issues, with other new legislation (covering ocean fisheries, forest management, and waste management), and with a number of other questions—from water quality to ozone depletion—that are likely to be of continuing importance in 1977 and after.
A version of this article appeared in print in the January–March 1977 issue of Resources magazine.
