To the Congress of the United States:

Four months after I took office, I presented to the Congress a comprehensive Message on the Environment, a charter for the first years of my Administration. Building on the record of the Congress in the 1970s, I sought both to protect our national heritage and to meet the competing demands on our natural resources.

Certain basic ideas remain the foundation of American environmental policy. Our great natural heritage should be protected for the use and enjoyment of all citizens. The bounty of nature—our farmlands and forests, our water, wildlife and fisheries, our renewable energy sources—are the basis of our present and future material well-being. They must be carefully managed and conserved. The quality of our environment must be nurtured by wise decisions and protected from hasty or unplanned actions. Clean air and water remain essential goals, and we intend to achieve them in the most efficient and effective ways possible. And we have a serious responsibility to help protect the long-term health of the global environment we share with all humanity.

I am proud of the achievements of this period. The program I offer today emphasizes continuity, but it also reflects a keener awareness of certain serious emerging problems—such as disposition of the toxic wastes our highly technological society produces.