Week. So you guys are stuck with me for the afternoon. And so with that im now going to read this fantastic biography. Im going to share with you why we are so thrilled to have bob bostock here with the Us Capitol Historical Society this afternoon. Bob is a curator for exhibits at the nixon foundation. And in fact bob worked for former president nixon towards the tail end of his time towards the tail end of his life in the office of former president nixon during his more than three decades of public service. He spent considerable time working on environmental policy really making him a perfect fit for this sort of program. He worked for governor Christine Todd whitman both when she was governor of new jersey and when she became epa administrator during we First Administration of president george w bush. He also served as director of Strategic Communications for the new Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and has some fantastic stories about the work that really did wonders to preserve and promote wildlife Environmental Protection in the state of new jersey the garden state fitting for earth day and topics of environmental concern. He worked for representatives dean gallo and rodney freelinghausen and senator jeff chiazza during his distinguished career. So he has congressional background as well. So with executive background with environmental background with congressional background, we really feel that you couldnt find a better speaker to talk about the environmental decade how president nixon worked with congress to advance legislation including creating the Environmental Protection agency in order to you know, meet the conservation goals and the Environmental Protection goals of a renewed interest in our nation. So with all of that bob thank you so much for being here with us. Tell us about the environmental decade Richard Nixon and the birth of the epa. Thank you, sam. Thanks so much for that very generous introduction and thanks to the United StatesCapitol Historical Society for this program and for giving me the opportunity to speak with the folks on this webinar. I should start by saying happy earth day to everyone. This is the 52nd earth day, which i find kind of hard to believe because i can remember the first earth day. I was in the sixth grade in Radburn Elementary School in fair lawn, new jersey, and i remember very distinctly our teacher. Doing activities on earth day and then after school was over a bunch of us are moms had bought us some flats of flowers that we planted in the park near the school. So that was great fun. I think it would be remiss if i didnt write at the beginning mentioned senator Gaylord Nelson from wisconsin who of course was the father of earth day. He was a great environmentalist and really kicked the ball kicked off the ball to get rolling for that first earth day. And since im in new jersey, i should also mention that on earth day 1970 new jersey was the very only the third state in the country to establish a department strictly dedicated to the environment in that state. So that is something that we also hear in new jersey. Remember very fondly from that first earth day. So i think as we look at the 1970s as a decade of tremendous progress in terms of federal laws and regulations to protect our environment to undo the damage that have been done in in the decades before its probably helpful for us to kind of set the stage a little bit because in some senses this whole movement kind of started out of the blue because if you look back at the 1968 campaign when former Vice President nixon was running against Vice President humphrey and governor George Wallace from alabama. The environment was really not on anybodys radar screen. The Vice President humphrey during that campaign. He dedicated a park and a dam. Mr. Nixon gave one radio address on the environment which was actually titled Natural Resources. It was an interesting address but to paraphrase lincoln it would have it would have been little noted more long remembered and in fact it took me some research to dig it up, but whats interesting about that address is that it foreshadowed in a way a lot of the things that he wanted to accomplish for the environment during his presidency including he the address had 12. The radio address had 12 different points and it included finding a way to combine the federal governments very different and disparate and spread out activities that concern the environment into one agency and also talked about Wildlife Preservation water and land preservation. An air cleaning and all and all of those sorts of things. So it was kind of a foreshadowing if what was going to happen. But again because that campaign was so focused on on vietnam on crime on the economy civil rights and other issues. The environment really didnt get very much play. In fact in may of 1969 the white house did an internal poll to see what the interest was in protecting the environment one percent of those polled indicated that that was important issue to them. And thats in may of 1969, of course within less than a year that would change quite a bit. There were a couple of events that occurred very early in the nixon presidency that i think really raised this whole issue to a to a to much greater attention. The first was in santa california and oil. The pipe burst on january 28th the eighth day of the nixon presidency. It was spewing 1000 gallons of oil an hour before they were able to stop the leak 200,000 gallons of oil had leaked out dirtied 50 miles of beautiful, california coastline. And president nixon went out to see the site about two months later. Didnt want to get in the way of all the cleanup that was going on right away, but it really struck a chord with him. He was a native californian. He loved the california beaches he grew up in Orange County spent a lot of time on the beaches and seeing that i think was really quite a quite a wakeup call not just for him, but obviously for the entire country he said at the time that that spill and seeing the damage it created the Natural Environment to the Marine Mammals into the birds are really touched the conscience of the American People and then just not even six months later of course the Cuyahoga River in cleveland combusted from an oil slick. The fire was out within 30 minutes at the time and when it happened it wasnt really covered very deeply but Time Magazine published his story and put a picture of a burning of the Burning River on their cover of their magazine and that really peoples consciousness about the environment as well. So it went from being almost a nonissue on most peoples minds even though the need to clean up the environment was very apparent for a very long time. It was really not on the front of the american publics consciousness in terms of what the federal governments role should be doing but that all started to change in 1969 Henry Jackson, senator Henry Jackson from washington and congressman john dingle from the state of michigan had introduced the National Environmental policy act, which is abbreviated his nepa. I should say when i started at the epa a little aside here those of us who were new to the agency. Were giving document that was called frequently used acronyms and the document was three pages. Two columns printed on both sides of the paper and those are the frequently frequently used acronym. So ill try and avoid acronyms at the point that i can. But that bill that a piece of legislation was really really important because it established two things. It established number one that Going Forward when any project was done the people doing the project had to perform an Environmental Assessment and do an Environmental Impact statement and it also it also established in the executive office of the president ceq, which is the council on environmental quality, which was designed to serve in much of the way that the president S Economic Council did to serve as an advisory body to the president and the white house staff on Environmental Issues the bill passed by a huge bipartisan vote. Which really was the way all throughout the 19 all throughout the 1970s environmental legislation did pass by huge bipartisan votes and president nixon signed it on january 1st 1970. And then three weeks later when he gave his first state of the union address. He laid out a very ambitious planned for Environmental Protection almost 20 of the speech was dedicated to the environment, which is a lot of which is a real big hunk of speech. I remember when i was at the epa we would be asked around state of the union time. To send over the i think they put a word limit on a hundred words that the president might say in the state of the union speech about the environment and if we got a sentence and if we were we were thrilled to think that almost 20 of the speech was dedicated to the environment that state of the union speech was dedicated in the in to the environment. Its really something and it shows i think how the president and the white house staff were really starting to think about how we need to as he as he put it he said the great question of the 70s is whether were going to clean up. The water and the air and the land that had been so poorly degradated and polluted over the over the decades before and then the following month. He sent a very extensive environmental message up to the congress which outlined a 37point Program Including 23 major legislative proposals and 14 new actions. That could be taken either by administrative actions or executive order. And those there were five main points in that message to the congress in 1970 Water Pollution control air pollution and control Solid Waste Management parklands and Public Recreation and then organizing for action and as we see as as the president s term continues those were those were the main those were the main things that the administration focused on in working with the congress to get those things done. I should mention also that president nixon came into office and during his entire presidency. The congress was in the control of the opposite party, so to get things done required an enormous amount of bipartisan cooperation particularly at a time when the country was divided on so many other issues. But then in july the president proposed the creation of the epa he wanted to take 44 different agencies that were spread across nine different departments all of which had environmental responsibilities and bring them into one agency. That internally particularly in the cabinet John Whitaker who served as in the Domestic Policy Council in the administration and kind of was the lead staff person for the environment tells the story about the Cabinet Meeting where Environmental Issues came up and of course, you know the secretary of the interior was proposing certain things to protect the environment the secretary of the commerce was saying, oh this will ruin business and it you know, its that classic argument that has gone on really for decades about whether the cost of Environmental Protection is going to kill jobs and and hurt the economy. Of course, we found over the years that the exact opposite is true protecting the environment is not a zerosum game in fact it often leads to new technologies new businesses new jobs. Both things can be accomplished at the same time, but this plan which was part of the mission of a group that the president pointed soon after he came to office the Advisory Council on executive organization, which was headed by roy. Ash. Its often called the roy ash or the commission. They were the ones who among looking at all the different aspects of the executive branch devised this plan to move all of these all of these different functions into one agency and by the end of fog or the end of april rather in 1970. They had submitted their proposal to the president for his consideration and then on july 9th, he sent his proposal up to the congress. Now, this was something he did not need a congressional approval for the way it worked is if in Less Congress within 60 days said you cant do this then they were able to go ahead and do it and thats exactly what they did and on december 2nd of 1970. The epa was stood up for the first time and bill ruckels house was appointed as the first administrator of the Environmental Protection agency. And then we saw over the following several years quite a flurry of legislation most of which continues to continues to form the foundation of environmental law and regulations here in the United States the Clean Air Act in 1970. President nixon had called for clean air legislation senator muskie had his version from maine had his version of clean air legislation. There was there was as you read kind of the history of how that all went on there was a lot of kind of one upsmanship between the white house and and senator muskys office and others on the hill trying to make sure that not only did they have a good bill, but that it was a bill that you know, always had a little bit more from this side or a little and then the other side but at a little bit more on on their side to kind of play this game of one upsmanship, which is not all that unusual on capitol hill, but what seems unusual now but was not unusual then during during the 70s. Was that both senator muskie democrat from maine and president nixon republican. Obviously, were able to work it out and get something that they could both agree on neither one got a hundred percent of what they wanted. But they each enough that they could agree on it and move it forward. When they when it went to conference, the house bill was a little less stringent than the senate bill of senate pretty much prevailed. The bill passed again by a huge bipartisan majority. Its almost unfathomable. I dont think you get majorities that big on naming post offices and then went to went to president nixons desk and he signed it on december 31st in 1970. So the year started off with nipper of signing on january 1st 1970 the National Environmental policy act and then it concluded with the signing of the Clean Air Act which has made such a difference over the years to the quality of air in the United States. Then again in 1972 the president sent up another environmental message and it included again a number of initiatives that he wanted to see addressed and that many members in the congress were also working on as well. It included such issues as regulating toxic substances. Hadnt really been done comprehensive improvement in Pesticide Authority again, that was another classic battle in the cabinet, you know, the interior department wanted more more concerns on that the secretary of agriculture is like, oh youre going to kill american agriculture. We need those pesticides to be able to raise crops to feed the country. He also included Noise Control the preservation of Historic Buildings the sighting of power plants to make sure those were done in environmental responsible way. Ocean dumping regulations was Something Else she saw it and in water wanted to greatly expand what our treatment Grant Programs so that you could improve the or give give communities who had Water Treatment plants or many who didnt who were just dumping raw sewage into rivers and and and in some cases the ocean the money to build the Water Treatment to reduce those. Dumping of that stuff right into the ocean. So that was kind of he set out as environmental agenda if you will for 1972. And again, we saw a lot of action in the congress and with president nixon the Marine Mammal protection act was was passed in 1972. It was introduced by representative edward garmass from maryland again a hugely important. Bill and law to protect Marine Mammals it prohibited going far once it was passed it made it illegal to harass feed hunt capture or kill any Marine Mammal of hugely important for the recovery particularly of Marine Mammals along the coast lines that bill, you know, ive been talking about huge bipartisan majorities that passed the house in march of 1972 by 362 to 10. And it passed the senate in late july of that year in an 88 to