The Environmental Protection Agency celebrates its 40th anniversary next week. Time magazine's 1969 cover story on the combustible, polluted river, Ohio's Cuyahoga River, led to creation of the EPA. Since then, the agency has been on the job to protect all of America's rivers, lakes, streams and, most importantly, drinking water. We also have the EPA to thank for cleaner air, and solving problems with acid rain and the ozone layer. The EPA regulates chlorofuorocarbons and sulfur emissions respectively. The lead additives that used to be in gasoline are just one of the carcinogens the EPA has taken out of our daily lives. Our refrigerators and appliances cost less to run thanks to the Energy Star program. You can take a hot shower using less water, which you spent less to heat up. And you can choose a car with better gas mileage because the EPA practically invented fuel efficiency. We are grateful and continue to count on the EPA's engineers, scientists, and environmental-protection specialists to be our advocates by regulating greenhouse-gas emissions, stopping the destruction of Appalachian watersheds rom mountaintop-removal coal mining, or ensuring that we don't poison our drinking water with fracking chemicals and toxic coal ash.
Thank you EPA and Happy 40th Birthday!!
Link to site: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/mbrune/detail?entry_id=77727
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