#TBT: Lyndon Johnson Signs The Clean Air Act

 

     On December 15th, 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson, in office for less than a month in the wake of the assassination of his predecessor, John F. Kennedy, signed his first major bill into law: the Clean Air Act. 60 years ago today, the law built upon a decade of research by setting the first requirements for controlling air pollution. The need for data and enforcement led to the founding of the EPA in 1970. The Act would later be amended in 1965 to establish regulations for automobile emissions and again in 1990 to make further progress.

     Also noteworthy is that the law was the first that allowed citizens to file civil suits in response to corporate violations of regulations. This power has since been used thousands of times by local citizens and environmental groups to check pollution and threats facing endangered species and habitat; litigation is now one of the pillars of the environmental movement.