1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910451859203321

Autore

Flippen J. Brooks <1959->

Titolo

Nixon and the environment [[electronic resource] /] / J. Brooks Flippen

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Albuquerque, : University of New Mexico Press, c2000

ISBN

1-283-63509-7

0-8263-1994-7

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (322 p.)

Disciplina

363.7/056/097309047

Soggetti

Environmental policy - United States

Electronic books.

United States Politics and government 1969-1974

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

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.

Sommario/riassunto

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.