Argumentative essay, Environmental conservation is a major topic in the United States and across the globe

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United States Government Role in Environmental Protection
Introduction
Environmental conservation is a major topic in the United States and across the
globe, especially due to the ecological implications on human and animal life, thus the
need for the balance of the ecosystem. The imbalance in the environment, adversely
affecting both humans and wildlife, is inflicted by human activities, making it a necessity
for governments to intervene through legislative and regulatory measures. The federal
government contributes massively to environmental conservation measures and
programs. Most of the government's conservation programs in the are implemented
through the Global Environment Facility (GEF), in partnership with USAID-administered
Development Assistance Account initiatives (Vogler 172). In this paper, the
government's role in enhancing environmental conservation will be evaluated, and the
outcomes of the measures in specific scenarios of the environment.
The regulation of human practices that adversely affect the environment has
significantly advanced in recent years. The federal government has taken up the
environmental conservation task as both a social and economic purpose, raising
concern and consciousness of environmental health and intervention with policies and
measures to conserve the environment in the country and beyond, across the globe

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(Haas 2). The government has been at the forefront of various environmental strategies
and implementations that have had positive impact on conservation (Sampaio and
Costa 66).
Environmental Protection Policing and Federal Agency
The industrial growth of the United States has been a concern of the government
for the past six decades. Combustion exhaust from engines from industries and
automobiles has been attributed to air pollution such as smog among others, especially
in the major cities. Economists classify environmental pollution as an externality, in
which each responsible entity can escape but at the expense of the society as a whole.
The market forces have minimally addressed such problems. Therefore, the
government becomes morally obliged to protect and preserve the earth's fragile
ecosystems, even when such measures sacrifice some economic signs of progress
(Robertson 52). The government has initiated a slew of policies and legislations to
respond to the environmental protection obligation, attempting to control pollution.
Notable legislations are the Clean Water Act of 1972, Clean Air Act of 1963, and the
Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 (Haas 3).
The government also played a crucial role in the environmentalists''
establishment of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), from an
executive order that President Richard Nixon signed. The foundation consolidated
various federal programs and measures tasked with environmental protection into a
single, government-backed agency (Moffatt 18). The aim of the Environmental
Protection Agency was the protection of environmental and human health through

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enforcement of the Congress' regulations. Environmental conservation benefits human
existence and enhances economic wellbeing and a balance in the ecosystem,
especially the relationship between wildlife and human existence (Zhong and Shi 11).
The agency (EPA) is still a tool of the government for pollution control and setting
enforceable environmental conservation limits. The agency defines timelines for
pollution and ensures polluters' responsibility through compliance to set standards,
setting limits for endurable pollution, and conformity of industries to the requirements
and adherence to new standards set across the years.
The federal government, through the Environmental Protection Agency, also
coordinates and supports environmental research and anti-pollution measures for the
state and local governments into the federal initiative (Moffatt 20). Private and public
environmental groups and educational institutions have also collaborated with the
government through the agency to enhance environmental conservancy research and
dynamics. The government also administers regional offices of the agency to propose,
develop, and implement essential regional programs for the protection of the
environment (Zhong and Shi 11). The federal agency may delegate some enforcement
and monitoring responsibilities to the state governments but retains the national
governmental authority that enforces policies, such as through sanctions, fines, and
other directives as the federal government may grant (Department of State 8).
Positively Impacting Environmental Conservation Outcomes

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The federal government has made notable improvements in environmental
quality and conservation through the Environmental Protection Agency since the 1970s.
Environmental data collected and implementations to limit pollution has seen the
reduction of virtual pollutants of the air. In the past three decades, however, Americans
have expressed the need for greater efforts in combating air pollution, especially with
rising health complications from respirational causes (Cohen 10).
The federal government has had significant impacts on environmental
conservation. The Congress responded to the national outcry in the 1990s for more
efforts in environmental protection by passing crucial amendments to the previous
enactments, such as the Clean Air Act, signed into law by then-president George H. W.
Bush (Moffatt 20). The new amendments incorporated market innovation into the
designed system for securing substantial reductions in the emissions of sulfur dioxide,
especially due to the production of the destructive acid rain. Sulfur dioxide and the
resulting acid rain are major destructions on lakes and forests, especially in the Eastern
region of the United States and Canada (Robertson 53). Environmental protection policy
remains a priority in political discussions years since the enactments, especially with the
connection to climate change and clean energy (Haas 3).
Collaboration with Public and Private Environmental Organizations
The government also supports other environmental conservancy organizations
and collaborates to ensure maximum benefit for the country. The government has set
environmental policies that must be attained with collaborative efforts for national
economic and resource security and global ecosystem balance (Vogler, 176).

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Conservation International (CI) identifies multiple geopolitical and economic influences
that the United States and the world environmental challenges face, thus requiring
massive engagement with the federal government for accomplishment. Conservation
International participates in the establishment of a bipartisan support system for
international environmental conservation (Cohen 12).
The teaming up with multiple environmental institutions has enhanced key
information and advice on mechanisms to the national and regional policymakers and
executive engagements for appropriations of congressional and other priorities in
environmental policy (Department of State 10). The collaboration has enhanced
fisheries management priorities, ocean health, conservation finance, forestry practices,
and sustainable agriculture for supportable human and wildlife coexistence (Cohen 10).
Public and private environmental conservation organizations raise public awareness of
the critical role of nature for national, economic, and global environmental security for
humankind's wellbeing (Vogler 174).
Environmentalists also pressure the government into intervention and solving
environmental problems. Environmental activists are the proponents of classical
liberalism in the environmental protection priority (Moffatt 19). The government has the
final authority of control on environmental issues, such as thermal power plant
ownership and regulation, roads, railways, dams, and other infrastructure that affects
the environment. The government applies checks and controls on industries and related
institutions that require legislative approval, hence the overall manager of the
environmental situation.

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Direct Environmental Regulation
The United States government is tasked with the responsibility of direct
restrictions and regulations on pollution activity, such as setting the limits for legally
acceptable pollution. For instance, the government may define X units of pollution
degree as an industry's limit, especially through the Environmental Protection Agency
(Department of State 10). The agency is the organization regulates the practices that
may adversely affect the environments, such as rising qualms on wanton disregard by
some industries and unsafe practices that pose threats to human existence and the
environment in general (Cohen 12). Further from safeguarding environmental and
human health, the Environmental Protection Agency crafts regulations per the
environmental laws on the government's discretion as well as methodology research for
appropriate conservatory measures (Zimmerman 14775).
The government implements changes to make the country a better living setting,
with existing and new legislation enforced to ensure direct regulation is achieved. Some
of the new legislation for direct government regulation include the Federal Water
Pollution Control Act, Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act, among other
national statutes for environmental protection. The United States Department of Energy
(DOE) partners with the Environmental Protection Act to expand coverage of programs
such as the Energy Star initiated in 1996 to enhance low energy consumption and
reduced greenhouse emissions from power generating plants (Zhang et al. 271).
Through the Energy Star program, the Environmental Protection Agency enhanced the
American citizens to save resources up to 180 billion kilowatt-hours in 2007, an
equivalent of 5 percent of the total countrywide electricity demand (Francis 14).

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Through effluent fees, the government has a second approach to the pollution
control problem, as it is a unit price that polluters pay to the federal government as a
waste discharge cost. The idea of the effluent cost is to bring the marginal cost that
private industries pay closer to the true marginal social expense of the pollutive
emissions. Through the effluent fees, government pollution control is at an advantage
over direct control, as a cheaper and socially acceptable means of reducing stated
pollution, likely to be accomplished in this approach than indirect control (Francis 15).
The polluter faces an effluent charge and thus considers the reduction of waste
discharge for more profitability, enhancing the marginal cost to lower by reducing
discharge units. Therefore, the government ensures accountability and responsibility of
polluters through the effluent fee, lowering the marginal costs of control, and levelling
the polluters' contribution to controlling (Francis 14). The federal government also
administers the Transferable Emission Permits, enhancing trading off between the
efficiency of effluent charges and certainty of direct control. The economic efficiency
from either approach enhances permits to be purchased and sold for firms relative to
their pollution's marginal costs. The United States government is also a massive player
in international environmental conservation policies in multinational organizations,
enhancing globally accepted policies and standards for a balance in the ecosystem
(Sampaio and Costa 66).
Despite the massive governmental intervention for environmental protection in
the country, there have been numerous outcries on the government's failures and lost
ground. Marine life, tropical and temperate forests, and wetlands are at the brink of
extinction, which raises the question of the government's role in protection. Species are

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disappearing while others are at a serious threat, while desertification is claiming
massive environmental areas. The emissions and discharge of toxic chemicals are still
beyond sustainable standards, causing landfills and ocean spills harmful to both
humans and wildlife (Sampaio and Costa 66). The government has been criticized for
the approval and implementation of technologies designed with little or no consideration
for the environment.
The government has also been blamed for environmental failures such as the
rise of modernism, American politics and anti-government rights, negligent media, and
complexity of contemporary environmental programs and issues (Turin 14). The federal
government has failed in the appropriate environmental remedy of protecting melting ice
caps, warmer global temperatures, and rising sea levels (Department of State 9). The
government has failed to establish an accord between human beings as the primary
causes of global warming and necessitate a response to the problem with an
appropriate remedy. The government has been blamed for the misinformation of
citizens on global warming. There has also been massive political interference in
environmental protection measures, especially with the two major political divides
between the Republicans and Democrats (Turin 13). The government also needs to
develop alternative energy options that are less pollutant and that reduce carbon-
intensive energies with reduced subsidies (Zhang et al. 267).
Conclusion
The United States government has been a critical player in national and
international environmental conservation measures. Environmental legislations and

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policies have enhanced the regulation of industries and the standard pollution units for a
manageable and sustainable ecosystem balance. Massive investments and
collaborations through the national agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, and
amendments to existing law have enhanced environmental improvements over the past
few decades. Collaborations with public and private environmentalist organizations have
also reaped positive research outcomes and measures in environmental protection.
However, despite the progress, there are still attitudes of non-contentment with the
federal government's role in environmental conservation. For instance, massive cancers
have been attributed to inhalation of pollutant gases into the environment, attributed to
industrial emissions and chemical wastes. At all levels, the government, federal, state,
and local, have more to do to implement complete control. However, the effluent fee on
industries has enhanced accountability and reduction on the emissions and waste
discharge, which is an essential measure by the government.

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Works Cited
Cohen, Steve. The State and Local Role in Protecting America’s Environment, State of the
Planet, Columbia University, 2020.
Francis, Abey. The Role of Government in Environmental Protection. International Economics,
2014.
Haas, N. Richard. “United States Government Policy. Global Resources, The U.S Economy, and
National Security.” Conservation International, Washington DC, 2013.
Moffatt, Mike. The U.S. Government's Role in Environmental Protection, 2020. Retrieved from
https://www.thoughtco.com/us-governments-role-in-environmental-protection-1147507
Robertson, C. Williams. “Growing State-Federal Conflicts in Environ-mental Policy: The Role
of Market-Based Regulation.” Journal of Public Economics, 2012.
Sampaio, José Adércio Leite and Costa, Beatriz Souzam. "The Role of Brazil and the United
States in the International Promotion of the Right to a Healthy Environment," University
of Baltimore Journal of International Law: Vol. 4, Article 3, 2016.
Turin, R. Dustin. “Environmental Problems and American Politics: Why is Protecting the
Environment so Difficult?” Inquiries Journal, 2014.
United States Department of State. Policy Issues: Climate and Environment - United States
Department of State, 2020.

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Vogler, James. “Studying the Global Commons: Governance Without Politics?” In P.
Dauvergne (Ed.), Handbook of Global Environmental Politics (Second Edition
ed.,). Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Pub., 2012, pp. 172-182
Zhang, Yurong, et al. "Comparison of evaluation standards for green building in China, Britain, United
States." Renewable and sustainable energy reviews 68, 2017, p. 262-271.
Zhong, Qiu, and Guoqing Shi. "Environmental issues to protection: The United States versus
China." Environmental Consciousness in China, 2020, p. 11.
Zimmerman, Julie Beth. "Environmental Science & Technology and the United States Environmental
Protection Agency: A Core Partnership in the Environmental Research Community." 2020, p.
14775-14775.