It is becoming an essential part of doing business in America. Our environmental challenges, too, are changing. The gray and brown hazes that darkened some cities at midday are gone. Once polluted waters again are home to fish and other wildlife. Otters have returned to the Adirondaks.
New environmentalism requires empowerment at the point where problems and challenges occur.
It also means that those closest to problems are held strictly accountable for achieving environmental results. It recognizes that sometimes the optimal scale will be national, or even global, as in the cases of acid rain, ozone layer depletion, and global warming. Many in EPA and in the environmental movement are on the front lines of this new environmental ethic. They recognize that the system that was developed over the past twenty-five years is ready for change. They recognize that, to be fully successful, the federal government needs to improve the way it does business.