Environmentalist or Pragmatist?

Nathan Connolly: Earlier in the episode we learned about how the first Earth Day sheds light on Nixon’s pragmatic approach to the environmental issue, but Nixon’s environmental policy record includes more than just Earth Day. In fact, Nixon signed more environmental bills than any president before. Most notable of which created the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Clean Air and Water Acts, and the Endangered Species Act.

Nixon: Each of us all across this great land has a stake in maintaining and improving environmental quality. Clean air and clean water, the wise use of our land. The protection of wildlife and natural beauty. Parks for all to enjoy. These are part of the birthright of every American. To guarantee that birthright, we must act, and act decisively.

Nathan Connolly: This legislation supported the burgeoning environmental movement which began cresting in the 1960s. After the end of World War Two, the country went through a period of exponential growth. There was more disposable income, and population increases. More cars, and urban sprawl, but behind the sheen of economic prosperity lay heaps of trash and pollution that contaminated the air, water, and land. So, by the time Nixon became president in 1969, the environment was a major concern that cut across party lines, and as with Earth Day, the historian J. Brooks Flippen explains that Nixon’s support of environmental legislation was based on ulterior motives.

J. Brooks F.: He didn’t have much environmental background and not much personal interest, but he was certainly an astute politician and realized that there was constituency to be had. He was also recognized that it was many young people, and the young people were the ones that were more likely to be against his Vietnam War, and he saw a way to broaden his appeal. A lot of things were going on, a lot of evidence of environmental decay right when he came into office. There’s a great public outcry and Nixon took advantage of it. He ended having one of the most outstanding environmental records of any president to this day.

Nathan Connolly: So give us some sense of the kinds of legislation that Nixon helps to establish and sign into law as the environmentalist-in-chief, so to speak.

J. Brooks F.: Well, early in his administration, Nixon had a major address on the environment. It was 37 point agenda, and it covered pretty much all aspects of the environmental protection. So that included strengthen the air pollution laws, tightening emission standards, and spending more money for waste treatment facilities. A lot of this became legislation months, if not years later, after a lot of rigmarole, but when Nixon came into office, Democrats were pushing for some centralized organization within the administration to coordinate environmental protection. This was not Nixon’s idea, but he realized that it had tremendous support in congress, and what he decided to do was he decided to sort of get on board and take it over.
The result of that was of course the Environmental Protection Agency, which Nixon created. Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act, and Nixon wanted to take advantage of it, signed it on January 1st 1970, sure to get as much public attention as possible. That declared protection of environmental policy, the nation’s policy. E.P.A. and Nepa were tremendously important in the years to come.

Nathan Connolly: Nixon was very good at trying to target particular voting blocks. He tried to go after African-Americans by supporting things like black capitalism, he tried to go after workers by making sure that he talked about law and order, and the building of strong communities. He certainly was trying to target young people through his environmental policy. Especially at a time when many young people were taking a very explicit anti-American, or at least anti-Vietnam War stance, which was clear cornerstone of his administration. How effective was he at targeting young people with this environmentalist approach?

J. Brooks F.: I don’t think he was as affected as he certainly would’ve liked. Every time that Nixon proposed an environmental outreach, a lot of times Muskie and the Democrats would out-propose him. If Nixon proposed 10 billion dollars for waste treatment facility, Muskie came back with 15 or 20. Nixon really felt that he wasn’t getting the credit that he deserved. So Nixon does an awful lot for the environment, a lot of really important bills in the 1969 to 1971 period, but because he felt that he wasn’t getting the credit, you’re gonna see Nixon begin to back away from the issue.

Nathan Connolly: Wow.

J. Brooks F.: Nixon is going to always maintain rhetorical support for it, and indeed, even late in his administration he accomplishes much, but you see him shifting his policies, and in the long run you can trace many of any environmental reactionaries back to this period in Nixon. Nixon sort of shifted his stance, and I think a lot of that was because he wasn’t getting credit.

Nathan Connolly: If you had to think about Nixon’s legacy, relative to environmentalism, given all the legislation that you just put out there, his stance on Earth Day, certainly thinking about trying to animate young voters around this issue, how would you characterize the consequences of his legislation after he resigned, but also the broader impact of his particular stance well after his resignation?

J. Brooks F.: He signed into the law the cornerstones in the environmental protection today, and most of what the environmental debate is today is interpreting laws that were passed during the Nixon era, or shortly thereafter, but when Nixon began to retreat a bit, I think Nixon set the stage for what followed, and it was tough. Nixon is a tremendous politician, and he realized that the public opinion was shifting when you get to the mid-70s. What you have is the energy crisis, and business was certainly organized and they had their own lobby now against environmental protection. They were complaining to the Republicans in Congress, Nixon was facing Watergate, he wanted to shore up his conservative base, but Nixon began to back away and it’s tough to maintain public support for environmental protection because so much of the environmental debate had gone from street activism and things like Earth Day, and now it’s lawyers with briefcases.
They’re debating over percentage of particles in the air or the water, and it’s just really tough to keep that public support up when it’s such minutiae. It’s important, but it’s not gonna be something that you can get a broad movement. Nixon began to calculate that people would always say that they care about the environment, but they would vote on other issues. I think that assumption has followed so many presidents afterwards. Very few presidents in the days since Nixon have come out and said, “Well, the environment is not important, and the environmental protection, it’s not something we should worry about.” What they’ve maintained is support for it, and then worked in ways to weaken the economic impact. That’s when you get the partisanship, and it kind of all goes back to Nixon.

Nathan Connolly: Give me a sense, Brooks, as to how Nixon thought about his environmental contributions later in life.

J. Brooks F.: I think Nixon late in life, Nixon was looking for an alternative to the narrative of the Vietnam War and Watergate. I’ll give you an example. In 1991, Nixon gave a speech at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Afterward he ran into William Riley who actually had been a Nixon veteran, but then was George Bush’s E.P.A. administrator. Nixon commented to Riley, “I know you. You’re an E.P.A., and I founded E.P.A. I’m an environmentalist too!” That was reported, and Nixon I think took pride in that. If you’re a cynic you can say, “Well, Nixon was just trying to, again, divert from Watergate and Vietnam”, but I like to think that maybe late in life he realized that it was perhaps a substantive issue worthy of addressing, and he maybe recognized that his legacy was important and quite positive in this respect.

Nathan Connolly: J. Brooks Flippen is a professor of History at South Eastern Oklahoma State University, and the author of ‘Nixon and the Environment’.