ABSTRACT
In the early 1960s, the U.S. Congress responded to the increased environmental awareness and pressure for action discussed in Chapter 1, with the exploration of options to address environmental degradation and lack of sustainability. The effort to respond to the environmental threat and public pressure for environmental action was led by academics and members of Congress from districts reliant on the economic and recreational opportunities afforded by natural resources that were being threatened by continued environmental neglect and insult. An option considered in response to the threat and public demand was a comprehensive mandate requiring every entity, both public and private, to achieve a specified level of environmental protection, or at least implement the alternative that was the least damaging to the environment. Such an approach with specific requirements and penalties for lack of compliance would have had some similarities to the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which had been recently passed by Congress.
