In its October Term, 1979, the United States Supreme Court was unusually active in the area of environmental law. For the most part, however, its record over the last year can be viewed as a series of housekeeping measures which resolved important but largely noncontroversial and narrow points of law. Indeed, in two of its eagerly awaited opinions, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration benzene standard and the California open-space zoning cases, it appeared to postpone rather than lay to rest the issues. In a number of instances, the Court upheld the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts. It also agreed to hear several important cases, involving the constitutionality of the federal strip-mining law and the development of the federal common law of nuisance, that may bring forth major decisions in the coming year.