ShmoopTube

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One area in which Bush senior doesn't get a lot of credit is his work [George H.W. Bush with his arms up in the jungle]

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on the environment Reagan had mostly said meh when it came to environmental

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issues. But HW was determined to give mother her a helping hand that's what a [Hand is extended towards planet Earth]

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mama's boy right. While much of Bush's environmental concern arose thanks to

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the Exxon Valdez oil spill the public had seen a lot of depressing pictures of [Animals covered in oil]

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seabirds covered in oil and well they needed cheering up. Both the public and

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the birds. Bush actually did manage to get a decent amount of

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environmentally friendly legislation passed, he even earned a reputation as the [Owl sat on a tree branch]

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environmental president not the worst thing to be known for.

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Yeah Nixon can vouch for that, one of the key pieces of legislation the [Picture of Nixon]

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environmental president got passed was the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 like we

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said birds covered in bubbling crude was just too sad plus there were other

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animals that were affected. So Bush worked with Congress to actually try and [Guy watching TV looks upset]

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do something about it. Well the Oil Pollution Act did a lot of

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good stuff if forced oil companies to have a detailed cleanup plan in case of

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spills it also required Big Oil to take more precaution against spills happening

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in the first place or at least keep plenty of paper towels handy well the [Man stood in front of hunreds of paper tower packets]

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The law hasn't stopped all oil spills we're looking at you Deepwater Horizon. But HW

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and Congress definitely helped steer us in the right direction

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and the oil act wasn't bush's only stab at helping the environment [Cows in a field]

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turns out the Exxon Valdez catastrophe had softened the country's mood toward

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environmental legislation in general. People were giving a big thumbs down not only

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to oily water but to smoggy air as well so Bush introduced amendments to the [Man with a facemask on]

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Clean Air Act that had originally been passed by Nixon in 1970. The Reagan

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administration had not renewed the act but Bush decided that choking on the air

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we breathe probably isn't a good thing and let's face it no one looks good in [Man wearing a gas mask in smoggy air]

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a gas mask. Bush's amendments to the Clean Air Act focused on limiting smog

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emissions and acid rain yes we had that. His bill included reformulated gasoline [Smoke coming out of an industrial chimney]

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requirements that would reduce pollution and establish emission cap these caps [Smoke from chimneys is reduced and caps are put on them]

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provided economic incentives for companies to you know go green.

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Similar programs are still in use today so Bush's environmental legacy all is on

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Bush also appointed the nation's first professional environmentalist as head of [Man hugging a tree]

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the EPA which sounds about as crazy as hiring a plumber to fix your plumbing...

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