'Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)' is explained in detail and with examples in the Laws & Regulations edition of the Herold Financial Dictionary, which you can get from Amazon in Ebook or Paperback edition.
The Environmental Protection Agency is the United States’ environmental enforcement group. It is not a cabinet level department, though its Administrator typically receives cabinet status and rank. The president appoints the administrator after the individual is approved by the Congress. The EPA is headquartered in Washington, D.C. It also operates ten regional offices and 27 laboratories throughout the U.S.
President Richard Nixon originally proposed the EPA and created it by signing an executive order. It started operating December 2nd of 1970. President Nixon’s order received ratification from Congress via committee hearings in the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency lies in protecting human health and the environment. To do this, it engages in research and environmental assessments. The group also promotes education. It carries the responsibility for enforcing environmental standards as provided in the national laws. The EPA does this by consulting with the federal, state, local, and tribal governments. Some of this enforcement, monitoring, and permitting it delegates out to the fifty states and the recognized Indian tribes.
The powers of the EPA allow it to issue sanctions and levy fines. Whenever possible it works with the government and industries to prevent pollution voluntarily. It also promotes efforts to conserve energy throughout the country.
The Environmental Protection Agency has a number of priorities in its mission. First and foremost it is interested in protecting Americans from substantial risks to their health as well as the environment in which they work, live, and learn. To do this, they carry out the best scientific research so that environmental risk can be effectively reduced on a national level. They also work to enforce the federal laws which safeguard the environment and health fairly and efficiently.
The EPA feels that every individual and group in society should be able to access correct information for taking care of environmental risks and health. This includes businesses, people, communities, and local, state, and tribal governments. They want to see environmental protection treated as a critical priority in all American policies. Energy, economic growth, natural resources, transportation, health, industry, agriculture, and foreign trade should all be taken into consideration when making environmental policy.
Making the protection of the environment help with sustainable and economically productive development is another concern of the Environmental Protection Agency. They make it their business to ensure that the U.S. is leading other nations in protecting the world’s environment as well.
The EPA carries out a number of activities in order to see through their mission and goals. The primary one is to develop and enforce the environmental regulations. Congress passes laws that the EPA puts into effect by writing regulations. They set national standards for state and tribal governments to enforce on their own. They also help these groups if they can not achieve the national standards. Enforcing such regulations becomes necessary if they are not able to convince offenders voluntarily.
The EPA gives many grants out to educational groups, state programs, not for profits, and others. Almost half of their budget is devoted to this. These finance everything from cleaning up communities to paying for scientific studies. They also sponsor dozens of partnerships as part of this. Some of these help to recycle solid waste, lower greenhouse emissions, and conserve energy and water.
The group spends a lot of time and effort studying environmental issues. In their over two dozen labs around the country, they find and attempt to solve these problems. They also share the findings with academic circles, the private sector, other government agencies, and foreign countries. The Environmental Protection Agency publishes online and written materials regarding what they learn and their various activities.

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