Signed January 1 1970, NEPA created the Council on Environmental Quality

Evidence

Although formally titled the “National Environmental Policy Act of 1969,” NEPA became law on January 1, 1970, when it was signed with great fanfare by President Nixon. NEPA turned out to be a deceptively simple statute. Its far-reaching declarations of a national policy “to create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony” prompted its dubbing as the “Magna Carta of environmental law.” NEPA also created a “Council on Environmental Quality” within the Executive Office of the President charged generally with advising the President on environmental issues and more specifically with ensuring governmental NEPA compliance. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 324

Categorization

• DEFINE: Precise institutional facts — NEPA’s signing date, the Council on Environmental Quality — that anchor the reader’s structural understanding.
• XREF: connects to: Nuclear-weapons dread turned the planet’s finite life span into urgent policy concern — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 296; State SEPAs extended NEPA’s reach to private activity and added substantive mandates — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 398

Broader Connections

• State SEPAs extended NEPA’s reach to private activity and added substantive mandates #expands (0.85) — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 398