The Environmental Protection Agency

President Richard Nixon appeared in San Clemente, California, for the momentous signing of the National Environmental Policy Act—the congressional statute that formally recast the government's role from conserving the wilderness to protecting the health of the environment and the general public. In the previous decade, rising unrest over the link between pollution and poor health—spurred forward by Rachel Carson's groundbreaking 1962 exposé Silent Spring and Lady Bird Johnson's beautification campaign—gave birth to a burgeoning environmental movement demanding strong and urgent action from the federal government. President Nixon, pledging vig orous enforcement, signed into law today a clean air bill that sets a six-year deadline for the automobile industry to develop an engine that is nearly free of pollution.Mother Jones NYT