On February 11, 1975, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it will conduct a public proceeding and hold public hearings on whether it should require corporations to disclose information about "socially significant matters," and, in particular, about the environmental effects of corporate activities and about corporate fair employment practices.¹ The SEC has never before scheduled a formal public hearing to consider disclosures related to the interests of "ethical investors."² Nor has the SEC ever announced publicly t

The large number of federal facilities throughout the nation—military bases, nuclear fuel plants, the TVA, the Bonneville Power Administration—contribute significantly to ambient environmental pollution. Various efforts have been made at the federal level to bring federal facilities into conformity with federal and state pollution standards, but the problem still persists.

As urban populations in ever increasing numbers flee the smog and heat of city summers, they bring with them to formerly rural and wild areas the urban problems of crowding and environmental degradation. A case in point is the once remote Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge bordering the Atlantic Ocean in extreme southeastern Virginia, which today is sandwiched between burgeoning "second home" beach developments.

DAVID MORELL: Let me begin by saying that, outside Washington, D.C.,  you will find that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a relatively minor player. The federal, state, and local regulatory systems are dominated not by the federal agency, but by many actors who engage in many activities. There are 50 sovereign entitites operating in different ways, and literally thousands of municipalities and communities that go either in no direction at all or in their own directions.

Industry has won the first round in the ongoing skirmish to determine whether local governments and municipalities are subject to the strict, joint, and several liability scheme of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)¹ for the disposal of household garbage, or municipal solid waste (MSW), at municipal landfill sites across the country. In the first decisions to address the issue, U.S.

Editor's Introduction: On August 8, 1984, the House passed H.R. 5640, the Superfund Expansion and Protection Act of 1984. If agreed to by the Senate, the bill will greatly expand the hazardous waste cleanup program begun under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

It has been a year now since the term "energy crisis" burst into our vocabulary. To most of us, it meant sitting in a line for gasoline and hoping that we would make it to the pump. To some of us, it meant "dialing down" the heat in our homes and a hefty increase in our electric bills. But with the spring came the thaw. Gasoline was once more plentiful—no more lines and fearful waits. We turned off the heat and enjoyed the sunshine.

The beverage container industry has shifted over the last several years from a deposit-and-return system to the "throwaway" metal or glass container. Legislation has been introduced in Congress that would require a deposit on all containers of beer and soft drinks, and thus have the effect of causing a widespread return to "returnable" containers. Laws that have this objective have been enacted in three states and several communities, and have been presented to the governing bodies of numerous other communities and states.

In recent years, the United States has finally awakened to the fact that its environmental assets are being rapidly and irreparably depleted due to lack of care and foresight, and that this destruction of our environment could ultimately result in our own collective demise. Many citizens consider the problem serious enough to merit constitutional recognition and have been pressing for such reform at both the state and federal levels. The federal government's attitude towards granting such recognition can hardly be described as enthusiastic.

Editors' Summary: This Article examines the policies and systems with which the U.S. Navy implements the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The author analyzes the many problems regarding NEPA compliance that the Navy has encountered, and proposes numerous reforms in the Navy's NEPA implementation system. This topic is especially timely because the Navy's NEPA program is currently facing a major court challenge in Concerned About Trident v. Schlesinger, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.