White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest sparked a conversation about President Obama’s legacy when he told reporters, “The President is going to go down in history as the greenest president we’ve ever had,” this past Tuesday.
Apparently, Obama’s environmental record surpasses Theodore Roosevelt’s passionate protection of our national parks. Apparently, his accomplishments at least rival President Nixon’s, whose feats include the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Center on Environmental Quality as well as the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act and the Water Quality Improvement Act.
It is quite a bold statement from the White House, but it is not a baseless claim. Obama has made environmental policies an important part of his administration since day one.
He has increased fuel efficiency standards, carbon pollution standards and investments in renewable resources, vetoed streamlining the Keystone XL Pipeline, struck a historic environmental deal with China and is now rolling out a new plan to highlight the health effects of climate change.
That’s quite the list, especially when you factor in that the president is the first to publicly say climate change is real, man-made and a serious threat to our safety in a time that even the United States Senate denies humanity’s role in the process.
It shouldn’t be considered groundbreaking to side with more than 97 percent of scientists on climate change, but for our government, science too often gets thrown out the window. If there is anything that helps the president claim the title of “greenest president ever,” it’s his use of the bully pulpit in a turbulent political atmosphere.
Though Nixon’s accomplishments brought us leaps and bounds ahead of where we were prior to his election, Obama’s focus on climate change was a bold step to bring to light a looming and critically important issue.
If nothing else, the president has laid the foundation for future presidents to make substantial progress on environmental policies that mitigate the effects of climate change, although it might be too late. It is still unclear whether Earnest’s statement will ultimately be true, but there is no denying at this point the incredible danger climate change poses to the U.S. and the rest of the world. As the Obama administration focuses intently on firming up the president’s legacy, environmental policy will and should be a continued focus during the last year and a half of his term.
Not only is a focus on environmental protection a noble and powerful point for the legacy of an embattled presidency that had to fight series of roadblocks by Congress tooth and nail, but given the current state of our environment, it’s the right thing to do.
thompjak@indiana.edu
