During photosynthesis, a chemical called chlorophyll absorbs the light energy and encourages a reaction between carbon dioxide and water that results in glucose and oxygen. Oxygen is expelled as a waste product from the plant, and it enters the atmosphere.
The EPA was proposed by President Richard Nixon and began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. The order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate. The agency is led by its Administrator, who is appointed by the president and approved by Congress.
Nixon recognized that such federal legislation needed the attention of an exclusive agency. By the summer of 1970, he submitted Reorganization Plan Number Three to Congress, which called for a single entity to govern the United States' environmental policy [ EPA ].The EPA inherited environmental charges that had been arbitrarily assigned to other governmental departments.ith the reassignment of environmental programs and the formation of a comprehensive agency to deal with them, the U.S. was well on its way to effective environmental policy. In the next section, we'll learn about some well-known EPA programs.