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The Alternative Motor Fuels Act of 1988

In 1988, Congress passed the Alternative Motor Fuels Act (AMFA) after finding that long-term energy security was essential to the health of the U.S. economy, that the substitution of imported oil with alternative fuels would both increase energy security and improve air quality, and that transportation accounted for 60 percent of the nation's use of oil.

Disposal of Transuranic Waste

Transuranic waste is produced primarily from nuclear weapons development and production and consists largely of ordinary items such as rags, clothing, and tools that become contaminated by transuranic radioactive material, most prominently plutonium.

The 2003 EPA Air Quality Status Report

On September 22, 2004, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a report on the status of United States air quality based on preliminary data from 2003. According to the report, total emissions of the six principal pollutants targeted by the Clean Air Act for their potentially adverse effects on human health and the environment--sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, ozone, lead, and particulate matter--dropped in 2003. Since 1970, the aggregate total emissions from all six pollutants have decreased from 301.5 million tons per year to 147.8 million tons per year, a 51 percent decrease.

EPA's Phaseout of Diazinon

In December 2000, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that, pursuant to an agreement with manufacturers of diazinon, all residential uses of diazinon, one of the most widely used pesticides in the United States, would be phased out. Diazinon is an organophosphate insecticide that is relatively persistent, which means that it does not readily break down in to non-harmful byproducts.

The Global Environment Facility

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a international financial organization whose mission is to protect the global environment. The GEF was established in 1991 and has three implementing agencies: the World Bank, the United Nations Environment Programme, and the United Nations Development Programme; however, it is independent of each of those three agencies. The GEF assists international efforts to achieve goals of sustainable development--development that improves living standards of people everywhere while preserving natural resources and the environment for the use and enjoyment of future generations--developed at United Nations conferences in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972 and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992.