Nixon and the environment / J. Brooks Flippen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Flippen, J. Brooks, 1959-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Environmental policy--United States.

Environmental policy.

United States--Politics and government--1969-1974.

United States.

Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994.

Nixon, Richard M.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 308 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Nixon & the environment

Place of Publication:

Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, 2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

No one remembers Richard M. Nixon as an environmental president, but a year into his presidency, he committed his administration to regulating and protecting the environment. The public outrage over the Santa Barbara oil spill in early 1969, culminating in the first Earth Day in 1970, convinced Nixon that American environmentalism now enjoyed extraordinary political currency. No nature lover at heart, Nixon opportunistically tapped the burgeoning Environmental Movement and signed the Endangered Species Act in 1969 and National Environmental Protection Act in 1970 to challenge political rivals such as Senators Edmund Muskie and Henry Jackson. As Nixon jockeyed for advantage on regulatory legislation, he signed laws designed to curb air, water, and pesticide pollution, regulate ocean dumping, protect coastal zones and marine mammals, and combat other problems. His administration compiled an unprecedented environmental record, but anti-Vietnam War protests, outraged industrialists, a sluggish economy, the growing energy crisis, and the Watergate upheaval drove Nixon to turn his back on the very programs he signed into law. Only late in life did he re-embrace the substantial environmental legacy of his tumultuous presidency.

Contents:

Introduction: A wholesale change in values

1. Ecology has finally achieved currency, 1969

2. A Johnny-come-lately, January-April 1970

3. All politics is a fad, May-December 1970

4. You can't out-Muskie Muskie, 1971

5. This political year, 1972

6. Get off the environmental kick, 1973-1974

Epilogue: Our day will come again

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781283635097

1283635097

9780826319944

0826319947

OCLC:

817818654