The authority of federal agencies to acquire, use, or distribute surface waters in the western states was dealt a dramatic setback by the United States Supreme Court on July 3. In California v. United States¹ the Court read §8 of the Reclamation Act of 1902² to require federal agencies constructing reclamation projects to comply with state-imposed limitations on the use of project waters except where such limitations are inconsistent with the statutory objectives of the project.

The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) efforts to implement provisions of the 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments aimed at preventing the significant deterioration (PSD) of air quality in clean air areas of the nation have quickly become the subject of a number of lawsuits.

Recent litigation and congressional enactments have served to spotlight a relatively new and little considered statutory mechanism which attempts to inject congressional oversight into the process of formulating the President's annual budget request.

A California state court recently interpreted the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA),¹ one of the strongest environmental statutes in the country, in a manner which apparently limits the utility of that statute as a powerful substantive tool for environmental protection.Like the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)² on which it is modeled, CEQA requires that an environmental impact report (EIR) be prepared for proposed government and government-licensed projects affecting the environment.

In contrast to the environmental record of the 95th Congress in its first session, which displays an emphasis on pollution prevention, the focus of attention in the second session clearly shifted toward natural resources conservation. Though some significant accomplishments in this area were recorded in 1978, the luster of these gains was dimmed by lack of action on several important issues and the failure to fully protect environmental values in some instances.

In a classic legislative "quick fix," the 95th Congress on the next to last day of its second session rushed through to passage an amendment to §311 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA)¹ that breathes new life into the federal program for the regulation of hazardous substances spills into the nation's waters. The program had been plunged into a state of suspended animation by a recent federal district court decision in Manufacturing Chemists Association v.

Whether federal agencies have implicit power to fund the participation of particular groups or parties in their administrative proceedings in the absence of explicit statutory authorization remains one of the most controversial issues in administrative law.¹ The Second Circuit's en banc ruling last year in Greene County Planning Board v.

In a dramatic announcement on December 1, 1978,¹ President Carter made good on his pledge that protection of the environmental values of the vast "national interest" lands² in Alaska is the most important environmental goal of his administration.

Given that legislative and administrative controls on environmental pollution involve considerable economic sacrifices, a crucial underlying question is whether the prices paid for environmental protection by taxpayers, consumers, and industry are justified. Lawmakers have traditionally eschewed this difficult question, dismissing it as unanswerable. Within the last year or so, however, environmental, health, and safety regulations have been widely blamed for contributing to a uniquely pernicious and malignant economic malady: Inflation.

The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, signed into law on August 3, 1977, authorized the Department of the Interior to issue regulations implementing the Act's environmental protection provisions.¹ The Secretary of the Interior was required to promulgate interim regulations within 90 days of the date of enactment² and to issue permanent regulations within one year.³