Public policy of environment: the trajectory of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1970-1981)

• Grant number: 14/16242-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: March 01, 2015
• End date: August 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Henrique Martinez
• Grantee: Roger Domenech Colacios
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL-ASSIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Assis. Assis , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was the first governmental agency created by a country to regulate environmental pollution in its territory. Founded in 1970, the agency had an immense bureaucratic and scientific structure. As legislative mechanism were created instruments like the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act that enabled the agency to set standards for the improvement of environmental quality in the U.S., in addition to fine and prosecute offenders. Our goal in this research is to characterize this agency and its regulatory instruments from the assumptions of Environmental History. The discussion is the formulation and implementation of public environmental regulatory character at a time that was discussed the limits of state presence in the economy and the entry of the orientation of the free market as a political program of the State. Having been a pioneer regulatory agency the EPA opened the way for the creation of agencies of the same type in other countries, including the Secretary of Environment in Brazil in 1973, representing the parameter of environmental policies for the period. (AU)