On January 1, 1970, as his first official act of the new decade, the President signed into law the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). That symbolic step has highlighted a year and a half of unprecedented development of the law relating to protection of the environment.

There have followed: court decisions giving force to NEPA and similar Federal laws, actions forcing more consideration of environmental factors in Federal administrative decisions, stronger Federal pollution control laws, and a host of innovative environmental actions by the States. Together they furnish important evidence that the Nation is beginning to institutionalize its concern for the quality of life.