The role of Congress in environmental protection cannot be overlooked. For more than five decades, Congress has legislated and revised numerous statutes concerning the environment (McGarity, 2004). Mainly, these legislations are aimed at regulating the conduct of public and private entities in matters related to the environment. However, their efforts follow specific considerations that align with the standards stipulated by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
One of the major interests taken into account is acceptable risk levels. For environmental statutes to be valid, the members of the Congress assess the acceptability of the specific risk levels. According to Mc Garity (2004), Congress evaluates concerns like the robustness of the risk; populations that are exposed; the nature of the harm caused; the worthiness of resources exposed; and tolerability of such a risk. Although there is much scientific uncertainty in environmental matters, with the current level of technology, most of these questions can be answered using informed empirical methodologies.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
In addition, Congress has to take into account the International Environmental Laws. When formulating environmental laws, Congress is mandated to align their campaigns with international laws. International bodies like the United Nations (UN) regulate the global policies set at national levels concerning environmental conservations. As such, the members of Congress must put into consideration legislation at the national level that does not breach the international agreements. This goes a long way in fighting towards a similar trajectory of making the world a safe place to live. Besides, sticking to the international stipulated regulations helps in reducing international misunderstandings that could arise breaching these policies. For instance, laws that influence global warming are a global concern and all the countries are directly or indirectly stakeholders their concerns matter to Congress.
Pollution reduction goals are another aspect of consideration. Essentially , the central goal of Congress legislators when passing environmental laws is to reduce pollutions. Arguably, these endeavors should be anchored in the best interests of the vast majority. It concerns Congress what the people will say about the legislations developed in the house. Besides, Congress consider what professional environmentalists would say regarding the laws they make or amend.
Issues That Congress Should Address
The first environmental issue that needs attention is global warming. Although this topic has been legislated and revised for decades, more legislations are still necessary. Connolly et al. (2020) noted that the level of global warming is still worrying. In what they regarded as a Business-As-Usual policy, these researchers indicated that the current policies are somewhat weak and less effective in controlling the greenhouse effects. Based on such pieces of research, Congress should address the current policies and make more adjustments. For instance, more stringent measures on emissions could help salvage the severe effects that Connolly and colleagues predicted in their research.
Congress should also address the issue of preserving bedrock that supports safeguarding of environment. Since environmental policies have always been developed and revised to avert pollutions, preserving bedrock that supports environmental safeguards from the perpetrators is of utter importance. Congress can do this by, for instance, advancing legislative measures that push back policies such as the bipartisan chemical safety law passed in 2016 whose effects are likely to undermine the efforts that have been put for decades to reduce the impacts of pollution.
In brief, Congress is utterly critical in developing environmental policies in the United States. However, their efforts follow specific considerations that align with the standards stipulated by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). For instance, they must consider the risk levels of the deemed environmental issues and abide by international policies when making laws. There are many issues that Congress can address; for instance, revising global warming policies and preserving bedrock environmental safeguards from polluters.
Word Count- 619
References
Connolly, R., Connolly, M., Carter, R. M., & Soon, W. (2020). How Much Human-Caused Global Warming Should We Expect with Business-As-Usual (BAU) Climate Policies? A Semi-Empirical Assessment. Energies , 13 (6), 1365. https://doi.org/10.3390/en13061365
McGarity, T. O. (2004). The Goals of Environmental Legislation. BC Envtl. Aff. L. Rev. , 31 , 529.
