On Mar. 4, 1985, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee M. Thomas announced final standards to cut the amount used in gasoline by 90 percent starting Jan. 1, 1986.

The EPA, established on December 2, 1970 by President Richard Nixon, opened its doors in downtown Washington, D.C., and consolidated in one agency a variety of federal research, monitoring, standard-setting and enforcement activities to ensure environmental protection.