President Jimmy Carter left behind huge environmental legacy

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In many ways, the late President Jimmy Carter was far ahead of his time when it came to safeguarding Mother Earth.

“Jimmy Carter understood the value of protecting the land very well. One of his many accomplishments as an environmentalist was introducing the concept of clean energy, according to Mark K. Updegrove.

Updegrove, a presidential historian who conducted interviews with the late President Carter, is the president and chief executive officer of the LBJ Foundation. He discussed Carter’s energy and conservation concerns, as well as his installation of solar panels at the White House, with CBS News Bay Area.

President Carter brought the press together and unveiled the 32 panels that were mounted on the West Wing roof of the White House in 1979.

“There will be a tremendous, exciting challenge to the American people,” Carter declared with the media present.

The economic impact of the 1973 oil embargo on Iran was still being felt by the United States. Carter saw the need to reduce the country’s reliance on foreign energy.

Carter referred to the panels as “a new solar strategy,” stating that no one could ever embargo the sun, even though the oil flow would be disrupted.

In addition to heating the water for the West Wing, the panels also helped save electricity by using the sun’s energy. Carter, however, was aware that the American people, accustomed to turning on the lights by flipping a switch, could find it difficult.

He continued, “This solar strategy will not be easy to accomplish,” to the crowd of reporters.

The inauguration of Carter took place on January 20, 1977. The United States’ 39th president signed a hotly contested energy law in 1978. It mandated more energy-efficient buildings and appliances, penalized gas-guzzling vehicles, and offered tax breaks to promote the development of solar and wind technologies.

However, detractors noted that the bill also deregulated natural gas and promoted domestic coal extraction.

Protecting over a dozen rivers, wetlands, national forests, and coastal habitats was another part of Carter’s climate legacy.

The activities of President Carter in Alaska were a significant achievement.

Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, or ANILCA, in 1980, a few weeks before his administration came to an end. Over 100 million acres of public lands in Alaska, which is roughly the size of California, were protected as a result of the bill.

The statute made the area a wildlife refuge and a national park. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one new protected area that is home to wolves, sheep, bears, caribou, and other wildlife.

That audacious idea led the former president to the refuge in 1990, where he met Kate Kelly, a KPIX News anchor at the time.

Kelly, her sister, environmental author Debbie Miller, and Miller’s two young daughters were camping on the refuge. In Alaska, Miller has authored several publications, such as The Artic National Wildlife Refuge.

Kelly was afterward happy that she had taken a home camera to film the trip. The former president, his wife Rosalynn, and a Discovery documentary crew paid the campers an unexpected visit.

In order to meet Miller and talk about her writings, President Carter had instructed the crew to head straight to the campground.

Kelly had another encounter with the former president in 1992, this time in San Francisco.

Carter was on a tour promoting his then new book “Turning Point” when Kelly interviewed him about the book as well as energy policy.

“Our country really hasn’t had much of a policy in the last few years. I wanted to ask you what did you think worked in your policy and what would you hope to see in a new energy policy?” asked Kelly.

Carter told Kelly how, under his administration, the nation had a very comprehensive policy put on the law books that required efficient automobiles, homes to be insulated so they wouldn’t waste heat, and changed the rate structure on electricity to discourage the waste of electricity. His policies also required labels be put on all kinds of appliances to show how efficient they were, and emphasized the advantages of solar power.

“Those laws are still on the books,” proclaimed the former President.

When Carter installed those solar panels in 1979, he wanted the nation to get 20% of its power from the sun by the year 2000. Many experts believe if we had done that, we’d be living on a much cooler planet.

At the end of the year, the United Nations said 2024 wasset to be the warmest year ever recorded worldwide, driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels.

As for the West Wing solar panels? Carter’s successor Ronald Reagan had them quietly removed, citing a roof repair. But they were never re-installed.

Today, many of these panels have found a new home. Some are at theCarter Libraryin Atlanta Georgia and theNational Museum of American Historyas part of theSmithsonian Institute, while others are with theSolar Energy Industries Associationand at the Solar Science and Technology Museum in Dezhou, China.

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