Editors' Summary: The 102d Congress adjourned on October 9, 1992, leaving a mixed record of environmental successes and failures. The three principal environmental statutes before it — RCRA, the FWPCA, and the ESA — all failed to win reauthorization. Much heralded proposals to elevate EPA to cabinet-level status got nowhere. Bills to protect banks and municipalities from CERCLA liability and reform federal mining law stalled and died. However, Congress did pass a landmark national energy policy bill, and extensive hearings were held on the bills that were not enacted.

Editor's Introduction: On August 8, 1984, the House passed H.R. 5640, the Superfund Expansion and Protection Act of 1984. If agreed to by the Senate, the bill will greatly expand the hazardous waste cleanup program begun under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

Editors' Summary: In December 1987 the Supreme Court held, in Gwaltney of Smithfield, Ltd. v. Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Inc., that citizens could not obtain civil penalties under §505 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) for violations that occurred wholly in the past. The ruling seemingly resolved a three-way split among the federal circuit courts of appeal on the scope of such citizen suits. But the Court's analysis actually leaves a number of questions unanswered, as the author of this Article observes.

DAVID MORELL: Let me begin by saying that, outside Washington, D.C.,  you will find that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a relatively minor player. The federal, state, and local regulatory systems are dominated not by the federal agency, but by many actors who engage in many activities. There are 50 sovereign entitites operating in different ways, and literally thousands of municipalities and communities that go either in no direction at all or in their own directions.

It has been a year now since the term "energy crisis" burst into our vocabulary. To most of us, it meant sitting in a line for gasoline and hoping that we would make it to the pump. To some of us, it meant "dialing down" the heat in our homes and a hefty increase in our electric bills. But with the spring came the thaw. Gasoline was once more plentiful—no more lines and fearful waits. We turned off the heat and enjoyed the sunshine.

The beverage container industry has shifted over the last several years from a deposit-and-return system to the "throwaway" metal or glass container. Legislation has been introduced in Congress that would require a deposit on all containers of beer and soft drinks, and thus have the effect of causing a widespread return to "returnable" containers. Laws that have this objective have been enacted in three states and several communities, and have been presented to the governing bodies of numerous other communities and states.