Congress and the Metropolitan Environment

Abstract

With respect to the use of land in the United States, the federal government has two very different identities, depending on which lands are considered, namely (1) federal lands (the “public domain” and other lands held by federal agencies or native American tribes) and (2) nonfederal lands (private property and land held by state and local governments). In the first role, the federal government is the “1,000-pound gorilla” in most western states where it is the dominant land holder, as discussed in Box 1–1. In its second role—the topic of this chapter—the federal government is more of a “97-pound weakling,” with limited and indirect influence over the use of private land in comparison with states and local governments.

A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.

Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac, 1949

It is the continuing policy of the federal government, in cooperation with state and local governments . . . to foster and promote the general welfare, to create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony, and fulfill the social, economic, and other requirements of present and future generations of Americans.

National Environmental Policy Act, 1970, Sec. 101(a)