Environmental protection is the practice of limiting human activities that cause damage to the natural environment. This includes preventing long-term degradation, such as resource depletion and loss of biodiversity. It also involves addressing global issues like climate change and energy sustainability.
The League worked to promote major new initiatives to protect the environment, including air quality, wetlands remediation, water resources, and waste management. These measures reduce pollution, and help people live in a healthier, more sustainable way.
For example, we continue to push for measures that will stop the manufacture and use of ozone-depleting substances (ODS), promote alternative products that reduce GHG emissions, save energy and prevent the need for future ODS production and consumption, and implement programs that protect surface and groundwater as well as drinking water. We also support policies that manage land as a finite resource and promote principles of stewardship in order to preserve the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the ecosystem.
At the local level, we work with communities, states and tribes to understand risks from specific chemicals and take action, especially for those who are most exposed, such as families near industrial sites. We help them design and implement strategies to protect their communities and the environment, and we support efforts to ensure that Federal agencies are held accountable for their actions, such as through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements governing airports, buildings, military complexes, highway projects, parkland acquisitions, etc.
The League continues to push for more aggressive enforcement of EPA’s regulations that prohibit the release of hazardous and toxic chemicals in our waters, soils and air. We oppose attempts to weaken these safeguards, and we urge EPA to reject the pressure of the chemical industry and to use sound science in its decisions.