What Everyone Needs to Know Q&A: As the Trump administration orders a media blackout at the Environmental Protection Agency and instructs staff to temporarily suspend all new contracts and grant awards, we want to know:
What does the US Constitution say about protecting the environment?
Nothing, explicitly. Like many other basic values, rights, and privileges that laws protect and many Americans embrace (civil rights, for example), the environment is not mentioned there. This creates a challenge because all federal laws, including the federal environmental laws, need a basis in the Constitution to be legal, implementable, and enforceable. The courts strike down laws that have no such basis. Fortunately, a few specific powers given to Congress in the Constitution, especially the power to regulate interstate commerce, provide this support. For years, the Commerce Clause as it is known, has been used, and upheld by the Supreme Court, as the constitutional basis for environmental law. Through the Commerce Clause Congress can regulate not only goods that move from state to state, but also matters that affect interstate commerce. So entirely intrastate matters that have impacts on other states, even if the effect appears to be small, can be regulated. For example, this empowers the EPA to regulate intrastate, onsite hazardous waste as part of Congress’s broader objective to protect interstate commerce from pollution; and the Fish and Wildlife Service to regulate endangered species whose habitat may be only in one small area because the species affects biodiversity and similar values that cross state lines. The reach of the Commerce Clause presents complex and evolving legal questions that have come into play with respect to important national issues such as federal gun control laws and the Affordable Care Act. With respect to environmental laws, it remains a solid constitutional basis. Other constitutional provisions relied on to support environmental laws include the power to tax and spend, to enter treaties, and to regulate public lands.
State constitutions often contain provisions different from the US Constitution. In keeping with this valuable element of US law, environmental protection provisions appear in several state constitutions, including Illinois, Montana, Hawaii, and Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, for example, provides that the state’s “public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”
[Page 25-26, Environmental Protection: What Everyone Needs to Know by Pamela Hill]
Images: 1) National Park by LaughingRaven. CC0 Public domain via Pixabay. 2) The headquarters of the United States Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. by Coolcaesar. CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Artist Documents Paris and New York Cityscape Through Vintage Photography
Canada based photographer Irene Suchocki showcases her enormous talent at Eye Poetry by providing her fans with a wide collection of travel photos from all over the globe. Her most admired works are from the cities of London, New York and Paris, which are captured with an old world style and a romanticized wanderlust sensibility. You can find other stunning photographs from other cities, such as Iceland, Venice, Amsterdam, San Francisco, New Orleans on her Etsy shop.
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(Source: culturenlifestyle.com, via wordsnquotes)