Environmental Legislation

General Disclaimer

This Web project was developed as part of "Internet Resources" courses offered by the Biology and Geology departments of the California State University, Los Angeles in 1995 and 1996. It was submitted to the instructors for evaluation and then placed on-line by the Electronic Desktop Project (EDP). EDP does not update or maintain any of the material of this project, and does not vouch for validity or correctness. Furthermore, the student developing this project was instructed about the rules of copyrights. EDP can in no way be responsible for the inclusion of copyrighted material within this project.

Purpose

Have you ever been frustrated by our government? Have you ever wondered what they were up to? Have you wished for an easy way to communicate with your elected representatives? Do you feel like your representatives aren't representing you at all?

This WWW home page is designed to address those issues. This document has links to a wide variety of sites on the internet. There are links that will allow you to find out what the current laws are, what new laws are being considered, who your representatives are, and what they're doing.

In order to make this project possible, I had to limit its scope. So I've concentrated on one important issue: the environment. I've also concentrated on levels of government that effect me personally--the State of California, the US Federal government, and international treaties that concern the US.

Those who are interested in other states or other nations will still be able to find many links to things of interest.

Local governments--click here to skip down the page to the local governments section.
State of California--click here to skip down the page to the California section.
- California State Legislature
- The Governors Office
- California State Agencies
- Current State Laws
Federal government--click here to skip down the page to the Federal government section.
- House of Representatives
- Senate
- The President
- Federal agencies
- Existing federal laws
International treaties--click here to skip down the page to the international treaties section.
Non-governmental organizations--click here to skip down the page to the non-governmental organizations section.
Clicking on the blue up arrows will bring you back to this table of contents

Local governments

Local governments--city, county, and special districts such as sanitation districts--have a greater impact on our day to day lives than any other level of government. They also have a great impact on the environment. For instance, how much does your community spend on mass transit? What kinds of zoning laws exist? Does your community encourage recycling, composting, water conservation, etc.?

There are very few local governments that maintain internet sites:

California City Link: Only a couple dozen California cities are on the net, and most of the information seems to be for tourism, business, or new residents--in other words, these are advertisements for how wonderful their community is. But some cities list the names, addresses, and e-mail addresses of local government officials.
Whether or not your community is listed, I encourage you to get involved! Make sure your local government officials know you care about the environment, and that you're watching what they're doing.

State of California

California State Legislature

The California State Senate home page: Access to several sources of information about the Senate and the State. Some of the best links are listed separately here.
Who's your state senator?: Type in your zip code and let the computer tell you! The senators name, address, etc. will be returned.
Search for bills by text or by number: To find out what the State legislature is up to, search this database for the topic you're interested in. You can also search using a bill number. You can read the text of the bill, and find out its status. You can also request automatic updates via "snail mail" (US Postal Service).
Legislative analysts office: Analysis of the 95-96 Budget bill. There's not much about the environment here...but then that says a lot...

The Governors Office

The governors office doesn't seem to be connected to the internet. But then, some people say the governor isn't connected to reality, either...

California State Agencies

CERES: CERES (California Environmental Resources Evaluation System) is "an information system being developed by the Resources Agency to facilitate access to a variety of electronic data describing California's rich and diverse resources, such as information about physical environments, living creatures and their habitats, and environmental impact reports and studies."
The CERES home page contains links to many documents related to the State's environmental programs.
California Department of Fish and Game: This is the "Natural Heritage Division" home page. It has information on endangered species, and California's environment in general.

Current State Laws

California State Codes: A home sheet for California State Codes. If you know what you're looking for, this is useful. But since there is no provision for searching the codes, it is of limited usefulness for legal neophytes.

Federal government

House of Representatives

The House of representatives home page: The starting point for the WWW in Washington DC. The more interesting links are listed below.
"The legislative process": This is a home page connecting to several searchable gopher servers and WWW pages. You can find information about current and recent bills, floor actions, amendments, etc. Finding information about particular bills is easier if you already know the bill number, but you can also search for keywords. The House will soon add a WWW page listing how each member voted.
California's house delegation: If you need the name, address, or phone number of your Representative, use this link. This directory also lists committee assignments and the representatives rank in each committee.
E-mail addresses for those Representatives who have them: 9 of California's Representatives have e-mail addresses at this time.
How environmentally conscious are our Representatives?: Before you call or write your senator/Representative, check out this link--The 1994 National Environmental Scorecard, published October 1994 by the League of Conservation Voters. This link takes you directly to the list of west coast congressional reps and senators, with their environmental voting records. It contains links to a brief description of each bill or amendment from 1994, so you can see exactly how your representative voted on each issue.

Senate

US Senate gopher server: The most interesting links are listed below.
Environment and Public Works committee: Press releases and general information.
Senator Boxer's press releases: Several weeks worth of press releases can be accessed through this gopher server, giving the Senator's thoughts on current issues. If you'd like to respond, see the e-mail address below.
Send an e-mail letter to Senator Boxer at < Senator@Boxer.Senate.Gov>

The President

The White House Home page: If you have an appropriate sound program, you can hear messages from the president, Vice President, and the First Lady. You can also view Al Gore's favorite political cartoons featuring himself. The more interesting links are listed below.
White House publications: You can read the latest white house press releases, briefings, and announcements (and search them for keywords). You can also download several of the Presidents speeches and other documents.
Send an e-mail letter to President Clinton: After reading the press releases, you might feel the need to communicate with our President! If your message is interesting to the presidents staff, you can receive a reply in only 2 or 3 working days. Or you might never get a response...
Technology for a sustainable future: This document (an on-line version of a published book) outlines the administrations goal of promoting environmental technologies. It's interesting.

Federal agencies

"Environmental Pollution and Control": A home page for environmental issues in the federal government, provided by FedWorld of the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. It has links to the EPA, NOAA, etc.
US Fish and Wildlife service home page: Good stuff. Endangered species, wetlands, wildlife law, etc.
USGS home page: They have water resources info, environmental research, etc.
EPA home sheet: Good stuff! Includes a searchable directory of EPA documents on-line.
EPA rules, regulations, and legislation: This page is mostly blank now, but hopefully they'll add more soon.
Radioactive waste info from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Includes data on the current status of nuclear waste sites, etc.
Download the NTIS Environment Highlights: This catalog lists more than 200 titles in the NTIS collection that deal with the environment.

Existing federal laws

Internet Law library: The US House of Representatives Internet Law library. Search the federal codes for laws containing your search terms.

International treaties

Multilateral conventions: This link is to the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. They have a WWW site which includes links to the full text of most multilateral conventions (aka treaties) concerning the environment. But the best thing is, you can search for your key words!
International treaties by subject: Probably the second best source. The treaties are arranged by subject, which makes it easier to find things than the sources listed below.
International treaties: A home page (courtesy of the House of Representatives) linked to gopher servers with information concerning all sorts of international treaties and conferences. Since there is no way to search these, it has limited usefulness--but it's interesting browsing...
The United Nations: The UN Gopher server, with links to environmental and other information.

Non-governmental organizations

The Sierra Club action alerts on WWW: The Sierra Club encourages public participation in the democratic process by publishing these action alerts. They are designed to inform the public about environmental issues being considered (or ignored) by congress. This WWW page is updated very frequently. It also contains information about the SC link, a listserve that can send you these updates automatically by e-mail.
Greenpeace International: The Greenpeace International homepage, with links to many things of interest.
Environmental organizations on line: A page linked to all the non-profit environmental organizations on the web, from the Sierra Club to Friends of the Santa Clara River.
The Green Disk electronic journal: This will connect you to a text file, introducing Green disk electronic journal. You can download a sample issue using an FTP program on a Mac or IBM compatible machine. If you like it, you can subscribe.
environmental newsgroup.: Perhaps one of the best sources for news about our environment, including possible environmental legislation, is newsgroups on the internet. This is one of my favorites. Other possibilities are and save the Earth.

Would you like more environmental information? Check out this link:

Environmental sites on the internet: Larsg�ran Strandberg of the Royal Institute of Technology Library, Stockholm, Sweden, has compiled the most extensive WWW document about the environment that I am aware of. Strandberg's home page has links to all sorts of WWW sites around the world, arranged alphabetically by topic. Have fun!

No trees were killed to create this document.

This document is being displayed using 100% recycled electrons.

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