NRE Exam 3- Presidents

Richard Nixon

• ENVIRONMENTAL PRESIDENT

• United with Congress and the public in environmental views for just the second time in history

• New laws easy after 1960s disasters

• Government focused on cleanup

Gerald R. Ford

• NON-ENVIRONMENTAL PRESIDENT

• More conservative; worried about economy

• Stalled environmental movement

Jimmy Carter

• ENVIRONMENAL PRESIDENT

• Sought a more frugal energy policy

  • Reduce, reuse, recycle

  • More efficiency, less waste

• Created Department of Energy (1977)

• Primitive solar panels on White House

• National speed limit (55 mph) to conserve fuel

• Tax reforms reward energy efficiency

Ronald Reagan

• NON-ENVIRONMENTAL PRESIDENT

• Administration was less sympathetic to environmentalism

• Campaign slogans:

  • “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

  • “Let’s make America great again.”

• Action #1: removed solar panels from White House roof

• Key legislation:

  • Superfund (1981)

  • Global Whaling Moratorium (1983)

• But, these were exceptions…

  • Administration opposed big government

  • Revoked “Liberal Agenda”

George H. W. Bush

• Campaigned as environmental, but didn’t turn out to be

• Recession in late 1980s

  • 1988: unemployment up to 7%

  • Discount store culture born

• Greenhouse effect and the impact of carbon emissions on global warming

  • “Hole in ozone layer”

  • Rising sea levels

• Exon Valdez oil spill

• Increase in air pollution

• Northern Spotted Owl debate

Bill Clinton

• ENVIRONMENTAL PRESIDENT

• Vice President Al Gore

  • ‘Out of the closet environmentalist’

  • Author of Earth in the Balance

• Priorities:

  • Signed ‘Biodiversity Treaty’

  • Pledge to lower greenhouse gas levels to 1990 output by year 2000

  • Environmental policy to protect jobs

  • North America Free Trade Agreement

George W. Bush

• NON-ENVIRONMENTAL PRESIDENT

• By March 2001, 50% increase in oil and coal extraction leases on BLM lands

• Initially refused to renew Superfund, then increased funding

• Fewer:

  • Environmental policy violation lawsuits

  • Violations and fines for polluters

  • EPA clean air inspections of oil refineries

• Increase in:

  • Beach closings

  • Fish consumption advisories from mercury (then introduced policy to cut emissions)

  • Areas with hazardous smog levels

• Hurricane Katrina

• Climate change exposed globally

• Federal scientists censored; trust lost between government and scientific community

• Established Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument

Barack Obama

• ENVIRONMENTAL PRESIDENT

• Environment not a major campaign issue

• Term 1:

  • Public focus on economy, global financial crisis, and Iraq and Afghanistan wars

  • Federal focus on social programs and economy

  • Refusal to sign Kyoto protocol

• 2009: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• Tax credits for energy efficiency

• Term 2: Focus on the environment

• Milestones:

  • Used Antiquities Act (1906) 23 times

  • Expanded Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument

  • Ban on microbeads

  • America’s Greatest Outdoor Initiative

  • Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009

  • Federal strategy to protect pollinators

Donald Trump

• NON-ENVIRONMENTAL PRESIDENT

• Environmental deregulations- more than 125

  • Clean Power Plan out; Affordable Clean Energy Rule in

  • Narrowed scope of Clean Water Act

  • Attempted to redefine Endangered Species Act

  • Revised Migratory Bird Treaty Act

  • Censored federal scientists

  • Described as modernizing and revising in terms of who would benefit from the changes

• 2017: Hurricane Harvey (Texas)

• 2020: US withdrawal from Paris Agreement

• Concerns about transfer of public land management to states, particularly by sportsman

Joe Biden

• ENVIRONMENTAL PRESIDENT

• Focused on strengthening climate change resiliency, pollution mitigation, affordable clean energy, clean energy jobs, and energy independence

• Attention to disadvantaged, uninvested communities overburdened by pollution

• Four integrated policies

  • Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (2021)

  • Inflation Reduction Act of 2022

  • Justice40 (2023)

  • Clean Energy Plan (2024; Clean Power Plan 2.0)