From an environmental perspective, the midterm record of the 96th Congress was notable less for its achievements than as convincing evidence that the climate of concern and commitment to protection that led to a surge in environmental legislation in the early part of the 1970s has drastically changed. There is a certain irony in this shift because it comes at a time when continuing and newly recognized threats to environmental integrity beset the country as never before. Yet, as the new decade begins, there is a greater understanding that the problems are more complex than was once thought and that the answers are correspondingly less obvious. In all quarters, there is a heightened sensitivity to the economic costs of environmental protection, and it is often accompanied by a somewhat jaundiced look at the tangible and intangible benefits that such costs produce. Despite the solid evidence of continuing public support for environmental protection,¹ political opposition to environmental laws has broadened and become more powerful if the most recent session of Congress serves as a guide. In 1979, there was little final legislative action on environmental issues, and even rear-guard efforts to preserve earlier gains had difficulty competing with other major national concerns regarding the economy and foreign affairs.

Energy was the dominant issue in 1979, as environmental considerations were de-emphasized to facilitate a number of schemes to increase the nation's energy supplies. While 1980 may see a retreat from the President's proposed massive federal subsidization of synthetic fuel production, an action that could have major environmental consequences, a plan to overcome the delays in licensing energy facilities by waiving the deliberate review procedures set forth in environmental statutes is expected to pass. Protection of the vast undeveloped Alaskan lands was the major non-event as Congress failed to follow up on President Carter's administrative initiatives at the end of 1978.² Congress did, however, make progress in grappling with the issues of hazardous wastes and spills of oil and toxic substances, but their final resolution in a Congress sensitive to the upcoming elections is difficult to forecast.