Former President Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100, left behind a history of pioneering energy and environmental policy.
In his single term in the Oval Office, Carter took a range of actions on issues that remained influential long after his presidency ended, from imposing new wilderness protections to creating the federal Department of Energy during the recurring energy crises of the 1970s.
Carter formally created the department in August 1977, seven months into his presidency, when he signed the Department of Energy Organization Act. The law consolidated a number of existing agencies under the umbrella of the new federal department. The reorganization was largely in response to the 1973 oil crisis, during which the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) imposed an embargo against nations that had backed Israel during the Yom Kippur War the same month.
Amid national anxiety around energy supply, Carter was also an early champion of energy efficiency and specifically the use of renewable energy to achieve American energy independence. One of his most visible efforts was the installation of 32 solar panels on the roof of the White House in 1979. The installation came two years after the establishment of tax credits for homeowners installing solar-powered water heaters.
In his remarks marking their installation, he expressed concerns that remain relevant in 2024 about American dependence on foreign imports for energy and called for the U.S. to derive 20 percent of its energy from solar by the year 2000.
“Solar energy will not pollute our air or water. We will not run short of it. No one can ever embargo the Sun or interrupt its delivery to us,” Carter said.
The 39th president’s emphasis on energy efficiency is often remembered as emblematic of his pleas for Americans to make some material sacrifices for the greater good, in contrast to the optimistic tone of his successor, Ronald Reagan, who defeated him in a landslide in 1980. The panels were ultimately removed from the White House under Reagan — an action frequently referenced as a reflection of that contrast, though their removal wasn’t completed until 1986, halfway through Reagan’s second term and months after the solar tax credit expired. A set of panels was reinstalled decades later under former President Obama.
Despite his emphasis on renewable energy, Carter was also a major booster of the domestic coal industry. He was elected by a Democratic coalition that included Southern and Appalachian mine workers that are today solidly Republican, and touted coal as a resource that would make the U.S. less reliant on oil from the Middle East.
“I would rather burn a ton of Kentucky coal than to see our nation become dependent by buying another barrel of OPEC oil,” he said in a 1979 speech in the Bluegrass State, referencing the bloc of major oil-producing nations. He struck a similar note in a 1978 speech, saying “for now, we have no choice but to continue to rely heavily on fossil fuels, and coal is our most abundant fossil fuel.” In a 1980 campaign speech in Illinois, he told union miners “my goal as president of the United States is to see on the world energy markets Arab oil replaced with Illinois coal.”
Carter also leaves an expansive legacy on conservation, including his 1978 signature of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), which created 10 new national parks and preserves in the state comprising 56 million acres. Over the course of his presidency, he created 39 new national park sites. The National Park Service named him an honorary National Park ranger in 2016.
As recently as 2022, the then-97-year-old former president weighed in on environmental disputes in Alaska, filing an appeal against a planned road through Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge that would link the towns of King Cove and Cold Bay. In the appeal, Carter said construction of the road would violate ANILCA, writing that an earlier decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals allowing it “is not only deeply mistaken, it’s dangerous.” The Biden administration announced its backing of the road in November.
Carter, an engineer by training, also bucked fellow Democrats in Congress with plans to eliminate multiple federal water projects that he believed were financially wasteful and harmful to rivers.
“[I]f your interest was sensible stewardship of the nation’s finite natural and financial resources, many of his decisions seemed sound,” historian Rick Perlstein wrote in his book “Reaganland.” “But what looked like an inexplicable boondoggle to an engineer often looked like a matter of life and death for the congressmen in whose districts those projects sat.”
Among those who pushed back were former Rep. Mo Udall (D-Ariz.), who said “Tucson and Phoenix [were] going to dry up and blow away” if Carter’s planned “hit list” went through.
Congress and Carter’s White House eventually reached a deal in which 18 projects on the list saw their funding cut, but nine others were unaffected.
The Biden Interior Department hailed Carter’s environmental legacy in a statement following the announcement of his death.
“President Jimmy Carter exemplified what it means to live a life of faith and service to others. His love for and conservation of our shared public lands leaves a tremendous legacy, and I am grateful that the Department will continue to honor his work at the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park for generations to come,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. “My heartfelt condolences go out to his family and the global community as we all mourn this selfless public servant.
