BK 16 (Oct 1, 2019): The Republican Reversal - Conservatives and the Environment From Nixon To Trump

Hi Everyone...

Our Oct 1st meeting will be a discussion of The Republican Reversal: Conservatives and the Environment From Nixon to Trump by James Morton Turner & Andrew C. Isenberg. They have some Chapter Excerpts you can check out & there is a video below. You will also find a Timeline, Data & News on their website as well.

With 216 reading pages it will be approximately 7 pages per day! 

The Republican Reversal from Kindea Labs on Vimeo.

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My thoughts & Discussion at the Meeting...

Since I was young during the end of the 1960s & 70s I found it fascinating & of great value to read about the actions taken at that time and even before then.

We discussed the following...

* Republican President T. Roosevelt signing the Antiquities Act in 1906 and using it to protect nature.

* Republican Presidents Ulysses S. Grant & Benjamin Harrison creating national parks and forests.

* Republican President Richard Nixon creating the EPA & signing the Clean Air Act...just one of a dozen he signed with bipartisan support.

* The backpedaling of environmental protections beginning with Republican President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

* Republican George H. W. Bush pushed through an amended Clean Air Act to include Acid Rain and an international agreement concerning climate change.

* The 3 views Republican party had during the 1970s - urgency of environmental issues, faith in scientific research and experts & the need for government to regulate to protect the public health and the complete opposite view by the party since the 1980s.

* The religious viewpoints of the environment.

* The problems with complying with the laws.

* The influence of Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring."

* Democrat President Lyndon Johnson signing the Wilderness Act.

* The groups created to oppose environmental protections like the du Pont family creating the American liberty League, Lewis H. Brown, president of the asbestos manufacturer John-Manville, creating the American Enterprise Association/American Enterprise Institute and all the others who contributed to groups like this.

* Great Table 1.1 on page 33 showing bipartisan votes of House & Senate on the major environmental laws from 1960s & 70s.

* The influence the Sierra Club had.

* The oil rig explosion of 1969 and the declaration of Earth Day by President Nixon.

* 1970s water pollution...industry releasing 22 million gallons pollutants into the water with no treatment for 70% of it.

* The Senate overriding President Nixon's veto of the Clean Water Act in 1971.

* President Reagan's environmental work in CA as Governor.

* Changes in speed limits to curb gas consumption in the 1970s.

* President Ford signing the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act & the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1976.

* President Jimmy Carter signing bills - Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, the Alaska Lands Act & Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.

* President Jimmy Carter installing solar panels on the roof of the White House.

* President Reagan's appointment of James Watt and his influence.

* President Bill Clinton creating 19 new national monuments and giving protection to 58.5 million acres of national forest roadless areas.

* President Barak Obama protecting 5.1 million acres.

* President Trumps reversals of many gains in environmental protections.

* The impact of the EPA.

* The problems with President Reagan's EPA head Anne Gorsuch, her son Neil appointed to the Supreme Court and Rita Lavelle's conviction.

* 1980s Congress having 80 hearings on Acid Rain & the Clean Air Act.

* Bush/Cheney influence on greenhouse gas emissions and all the rules favoring industry beign found illegal.

* The Koch brothers influence.

* Vice President Gore's influence of An Inconvenient Truth film.

* President George W. Bush's influence with Kyoto Protocol and Ally Enron Corporation.

* Exemptions for Fracking - Halliburton Loophole

* Newt Gingrich's initial support and then change.

* Change in Mitt Romney from when he was governor of MA working with later head of the EPA Gina McCarthy to when he ran as a presidential nominee.

* Influence of President Trump's head of EPA Scott Pruitt.