Barack Obama’s Environmental Legacy: A Mixed Bag but Progress in the Right Direction

President Barack Obama passed legislation and enacted, via executive order, significant environmental protections and green energy initiatives during his two terms in office. More could’ve have been accomplished had he possessed a like-minded Congress that supported his agenda. Democrats only held the majority in Congress from 2009 through 2010 of Obama’s first term. However, over the following six years, the President would find his agenda and policies stymied at every turn by Republicans, hence, his use of executive orders.

Obama's environmental legacy has received mixed reviews all along the political spectrum.  Criticisms on the left are that he did not go far enough, especially regarding climate legislation; while the right insists he went too far with his “job-killing” regulations. Below are some articles that critique President Obama’s environmental and clean energy policies.

Forum:  Assessing Obama’s Record on the Environment via Yale Environment 360 (July 25, 2011)

11 Problems with President Obama’s Climate Change Plan via The Daily Signal (June 26, 2013)

Obama’s Environmental Policies Don’t Deserve Paul Krugman’s Praise via The New Republic (October 10, 2014)

Let’s Celebrate the Environmental Progress Made During the Last Eight Years via Sierra (November 3, 2016)

2016: Obama’s Climate Legacy Marked by Triumphs and Lost Opportunities via Inside Climate News (December 26, 2016)

Ready to defend Obama’s environmental legacy? Top 10 accomplishments to focus on via Environmental Defense Fund (January 12, 2017)

Here is a short list of Obama’s environmental achievements (You can see the entire list and read about them in Obama’s Remarkable Environmental Achievements via Legal Planet, November 2, 2016.):

• Jumpstarted the green economy
• Greenhouse gas (GHG) standards for new vehicles
• GHG standards for power plants and factories
• Mercury controls for power plants
• Established more national monuments than any other president in history
• Designated some 580,000 square miles of ocean off Hawaii as a national monument
• Signed the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21^st Century Act
• Blocked construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline
• Brought 299 species under the protection of the Endangered Species Act
• Set energy efficiency standards for commercial conditioners and furnaces
• Stricter air quality control standards
• Negotiated the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement (Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement on June 1, 2017.)

Environmentalists and clean-energy activists were expecting this trend of environmental-friendly regulations and policies to continue with the election of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the presidency. That hope was crushed on November 8, 2016, with the election of Donald Trump. Republicans would now hold power in the executive and legislative branches of government. With that power structure in place, an all-out assault would take place on environmental and green-energy policies as well as on the Environmental Protection Agency itself, especially with the appointment of former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to be the agency administrator.

Pruitt filed fourteen lawsuits against the EPA as Oklahoma's attorney general. He has close ties throughout the fossil fuel industry, an industry he is now employed to oversee and regulate. Pruitt has certainly made those hostile to the EPA happy with the actions he's taken since his appointment. Now, however, Mr. Pruitt finds himself mired in controversy due to ethical challenges and lavish spending habits using taxpayer money. He has also been deregulating at an alarming pace. We will examine his impact since taking hold of the reins at the EPA in the next post.   

The EPA is under attack...here's a reminder why it's important

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt goes before Congress today to answer questions about his spending habits and ethics issues. Not only has Mr. Pruitt spent lavishly and carelessly, he is also deregulating at a rapid pace, putting the health of Americans and our environment at risk. In light of all this, it behooves us to review the EPA's history and mission as well as how it has improved the quality of American lives over the past 48 years. 

One needs only to remember, or see photos of (Documerica), the condition of the environment in the United States in 1970 to realize the EPA's value. Documerica is a photo project created from 1971 to 1977 to document the condition and transformation of the environment as new regulations were put in place and clean-up efforts began. We have come a long way since then in improving the environment and protecting U.S. citizens from toxins associated with pollution.

Republican President Richard Nixon signed an executive order to create the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. You may be surprised by that fact given today’s Republican party's animosity towards the agency. However, it is the truth. Nixon's executive order was not only a wise action, but a beneficial one, one that has improved the quality of life for many Americans. The EPA's mission is short and simple: The mission of the EPA is to protect human health and the environment. 

EPA: Our Mission and What We Do

The campaign to reduce pollution and improve the environment was widespread. Those of a certain age will remember this commercial: 

The post-EPA years have resulted in a cleaner, healthier country. The agency's research, recommendations, and regulations have improved the quality of the air we breathe, the land on which we live and toil, and the water we drink and use for transportation and recreation.

Some of the major laws enacted throughout the years include but are not limited to:

1970 – The Clean Air Act

1970 – Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act

1972 – Federal Water Pollution Control Amendments

1972 – Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act

1972 – Marine protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act

1973 – Endangered Species Act

1974 – Safe Drinking Water Act

1975 – Hazardous Materials Transportation Act

1976 – Toxic Substances Control Act

1977 – Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act

1980 – Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Created

            the Superfund Program)

1980 – Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act

1982 – Nuclear Waste Policy Act

1986 – Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act

1990 – Oil Pollution Act

1992 – Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act

1997 – Kyoto Protocol

2005 – Energy Policy Act

2007 – Energy Independence and Security Act

2016 – Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21^st Century Act

The site I used to compile the above list is here. The reader can see on the site that during the 1970s, there were 16 major pieces of legislation passed by Congress. That shrank to 10 and 11 laws in the 80s and 90s, respectively, to 5 from 2000 – 2010, and only 1 since 2010. The regulatory landscape was obviously changing. 

In the 80s, the Reagan administration viewed environmental regulations as a burden on the economy and overreach by "big government," and so commenced an era of deregulation and cuts to the EPA's budget and staffing levels. In the 90s, some conservative groups—legislators, think tanks, media, the fossil-fuel industry—organized a massive campaign (that is still ongoing) to challenge climate scientists and climate policy in an effort to foster denial and doubt about climate change and that it was/is largely due to human activities.

Each time a different political party won the presidency or gained the majority in Congress, there has also been a corresponding change in environmental policies, either supporting or impeding the EPA's mission. Democratic administrations tend to expand the agency's authority, while Republican administrations prefer to weaken it via deregulation and budget cuts.  

Environmentalists across the country and around the globe cheered when Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. We’ll examine his environmental legacy in the next post.  

History of the EPA