The US Environmental Protection Agency Celebrates the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day on April 22, 2010. In Spring 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson created Earth Day as a way to “force this issue onto the national agenda.”
In 1970, President Richard Nixon and Congress established a new federal agency to tackle environmental issues, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in response to the growing public demand for cleaner water, air and land. The EPA was tasked with the challenging goal of repairing the damage already done to the environment and to establish guidelines to help Americans in making a cleaner—and safer—environment a reality.
FOOTNOTE: