Environment

The United States and the Environment

Republican President Richard Nixon began warning Americans about the inherent dangers in overdepen-dence on foreign oil in the late 1960s, and Democrat President limmy Carter unsuccessfully attempted to steer a comprehensive energy plan through Congress during the oil crisis of the 1970s. Although environmental issues were tabled in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush yielded to pressure and signed the Clean Air Act in 1990. Bill Clinton, in part because of the urging of Vice President Al Gore, took a strong stand on environmental issues after being elected in 1992. When George W Bush entered the White House in 2001, however, the environment was again relegated to the back burner, despite the fact that between 1992 and 2004, American oil consumption jumped by 20 percent and carbon dioxide emissions increased by 15 percent.

A report issued in early 2008 placed the United States at the bottom of the Group of 8 and 39th of 149 nations on environmental issues. The rankings were based on assessments of responses and performance in areas such as sanitation, greenhouse gas emissions, agricultural policies, and air pollution. In 2006, a group of scientists, who had become disgusted with the position of the Bush White House on the environment, determined to take a more active role in increasing the importance of environmental issues during future campaigns by offering their support to candidates with strong records of environmental support. Within a year, the group claimed 2,500 members, including John Gibbons and Neal Lane, who had served as science advisors to President Bill Clinton, and eight Nobel laureates. Expressing similar concerns, a group of environmentalists created the nonpartisan website, http://www.greenprimary.org, to provide information about the environmental policies and records of all political candidates and allow voters to ask politicians questions about their stance on environmental issues.

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