As environmental politics pick up steam and continue to gain more and more attention, more people are getting involved in and paying attention to the process of environmental policy-making. If you want to get involved or understand environmental politics, you need to understand who the key players in making this policy are. In many cases, these key players mirror the key players for any specific type of policy but, for the sake of this article, I will attempt to highlight specific groups and organizations that provide a strong influence in the formation of environmental policy.
Every major action in US politics tends to originate from and leave through the executive branch. Because of the President's enormous power to veto any bill passed through Congress, Congress tends to only push through things they know the President won't veto. Likewise, although he is not a member of Congress, the President will often have someone introduce a bill on his behalf and with his support into Congress. Therefore, the views of the current President greatly influence the direction of environmental policy within the country. For example, in the previous section I discussed how Reagan's anti-regulatory stance caused a relaxing of protections put in place under his predecessors. Today, Obama's concern for the environment has led directly to an increase concern for global warming and attempts at major policy reform.
The President is not the only influence on envirionment in the executive branch, however. Within the Office of the President, there is a whole committee devoted to handling and advising the president on environmental matters, called the Council On Environmental Quality. This council reports to the president on the status of environmental efforts and oversees the implementation of environmental policy by the executive branch's agencies.
Once environmental policy has been put into place it is enforced through the agencies of the Executive branch. The agency most influential for environmental policy is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While one might think that the EPA's role is only to enforce what is put into place, the truth is that much of the actual implications and effects of a policy is determined by the implementation of a law or policy (see Part 4, on the process of policy making), so the EPA is an important entity in creating environmental policy as well as in enforcement.