| Year | Pres. | House | Senate | Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1900 | R | R | R | |||
| 1904 | R | R | R | |||
| 1908 | R | R | R | |||
| 1912 | R | D | R | |||
| 1916 | D | D | D | National Park Service created | ||
| 1920 | D | R | R | |||
| 1924 | R | R | R | |||
| 1928 | R | R | R | |||
| 1932 | R | R | R | |||
| 1936 | D | D | D | |||
| 1940 | D | D | D | |||
| 1944 | D | D | D | |||
| 1948 | D | R | R | Federal Water Pollution Control Act passed |
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| 1952 | D | D | D | |||
| 1955 | R | D | D | Eisenhower speaks about problem of air pollution. Air Pollution Control Act passed |
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| 1956 | R | D | D | |||
| 1960 | R | D | D | Federal action is needed in planning, coordinating and helping to finance pollution control. The states and local communities cannot go it alone. Yet President Eisenhower vetoed a Democratic bill to give them more financial help in building sewage treatment plants. | ||
| 1962 | D | D | D | Silent Spring is published by Rachel Carson |
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| 1963 | D | D | D | Clean Air Act passed | ||
| 1964 | D | D | D | |||
| 1965 | D | D | D | Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act passes sets car emission standards |
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| 1968 | D | D | D | To continue to work toward abating the visual pollution that plagues our land | The Population Bomb published about world population tied to overpopulation. Apollo 8 takes the picture Earthrise |
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| 1970 | R | D | D | National Environmental Policy Act requires fed. Agenies to prepare an environmental impact statement. First Earth Day. EPA is established |
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| 1972 | R | D | D | We must recognize the costs all Americans pay for the environmental destruction with which we all live: Poorer health, lessened recreational opportunities, higher maintenance costs, lower land productivity and diminished beauty in our surroundings. Only then can we proceed wisely, yet vigorously, with a program of environmental protection which recognizes that, although environmental protection will not be cheap, it is worth a far greater price, in effort and money, than we have spent thus far. . . A decent job for every American is a goal that need not, and must not, be sacrificed to our commitment to a clean environment. Far from slowing economic growth, spending for environmental protection can create new job opportunities for many Americans. | In January 1969, we found the Federal Government woefully unprepared to deal with the rapidly advancing environmental crisis. Our response was swift and substantial. . . A proposal to provide for early identification and protection of endangered wildlife species. . . We pledge a workable balance between a growing economy and environmental protection. We will resolve the conflicts sensibly within that framework. . . We commit ourselves to comprehensive pollution control laws, vigorous implementation of those laws and rigorous research into the technological problems of pollution control. The beginnings we have made in these first years of the 1970’s are evidence of our determination to follow through. . . We intend to leave the children of America a legacy of clean air, clean water, vast open spaces and easily accessible parks. | Clean Water Act passes |
| 1973 | R | D | D | Endangered Species Act to prevent animal extinction |
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| 1976 | R | D | D | the Democratic Party believes that a concern for the environment need not and must not stand in the way of a much-needed policy of high economic growth. . . environmental protection creates jobs. | A clean and healthy natural environment is the rightful heritage of every American. In order to preserve this heritage, we will provide for proper development of resources, safeguards for clean air and water, and protection and enhancement of our recreation and scenic areas. . . We believe that it is a national responsibility to support scientific and technological research and development to identify environmental problems and arrive at solutions. | |
| 1977 | D | D | D | Carter proposes to lower US energy demand and increase solar energy |
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| 1980 | D | D | D | We support strict adherence to automobile pollution standards. . . We will support policies to eliminate acid rain pollution from power plant emissions. . . To defend against environmental risks that cross national frontiers, international cooperation must be extended to new areas, such as acid rain, deforestation and desertification, buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, thinning of the ozone shield, air and water pollution, oil spills, chemicals in the environment, and disposal of radioactive waste. | We believe that a healthy environment is essential to the present and future well- being of our people, and to sustainable national growth. . . The nature of environmental pollution is such that a government role is necessary to ensure its control and the proper protection of public health. Much progress has been made in achieving the goals of clean air, clean water, and control of toxic wastes. At the same time, we believe that it is imperative that environmental laws and regulations be reviewed and, where necessary, reformed to ensure that the benefits achieved justify the costs imposed. Too often, current regulations are so rigid and narrow that even individual innovations that improve the environment cannot be implemented. | Superfund law signed into law |
| 1984 | R | D | R | Americans know that industrial production and economic development do not have to mean ruined land or polluted air and water. Sound resource management, careful planning, and strict pollution control enforcement will allow us to have a prosperous economy and a healthy environment. | We pledge to meet the challenges of environmental protection, economic growth, regulatory reform, enhancement of our scenic and recreational areas, conservation of our non-renewable resources, and preservation of our irreplaceable natural heritage. . . In setting out to find solutions to the environmental issues of the 1980s and 1990s, we start with a healthy appreciation of the difficulties involved. Detecting contamination, assessing the threat, correcting the damage, and setting up preventive measures, all raise questions of science, technology, and public policy that are as difficult as they are important. However, the health and well being of our citizens must be a high priority. | |
| 1988 | R | D | D | WE BELIEVE that the last seven years have witnessed an unprecedented assault on our national interest and national security through the poisoning of our air with acid rain, the dumping of toxic wastes into our water, and the destruction of our parks and shores; that pollution must be stopped at the source by shifting to new, environmentally sound manufacturing and farming technologies; that the federal government must promote recycling as the best, least costly way to solve the trash crisis | The Republican Party has a long and honored tradition of preserving our nation’s natural resources and environment. We recognize that the preservation, conservation, and protection of our environment contribute to our health and well-being and that, as citizens, we all share in the responsibility to safeguard our God- given resources. | Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) established |
| 1989 | R | D | D | Exxon Valdez spill | ||
| 1990 | R | D | D | Clean Air Act of 1990 | ||
| 1992 | R | D | D | We reject the Republican myth that energy efficiency and environmental protection are enemies of economic growth. We will make our economy more efficient, by using less energy, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and producing less solid and toxic waste. . . For ourselves and future generations, we must protect our environment. . . To foster greater responsibility in government at every level, we support giving greater flexibility to our cities, counties and states in achieving Federal mandates and carrying out existing programs. | Clearly we have led the world in investment in environmental protection. We have taught the world three vital lessons. First, environmental progress is integrally related to economic advancement. Second, economic growth generates the capital to pay for environmental gains. Third, private ownership and economic freedom are the best security against environmental degradation. The ghastly truth about state socialism is now exposed in what used to be the Soviet Union: dead rivers and seas, poisoned land, dying people. . . Environmental progress must continue in tandem with economic growth. Crippling an industry is no solution at all. Bankrupt facilities only worsen environmental situations. Unemployment is a form of pollution too, poisoning families and contaminating whole communities. | |
| 1996 | D | R | R | We understand we have a sacred obligation to protect God’s earth and preserve our quality of life for our children and our children’s children. . . And in the last two years, 25 years of bipartisan environmental progress — started by a Democratic Congress under a Republican President — has come under attack from the far right. . . Today’s Democratic Party knows that we can protect the environment and expand the economy. We believe we can create more jobs over the long run by cleaning the environment. We want to challenge businesses and communities to take more initiative in protecting the environment, and we want to make it easier for them to do it. | Our goal is to continue the progress we have made to achieve a cleaner, safer, healthier environment for all Americans – and to pass on to our children and grandchildren a better environment than we have today. We must recognize the unique role our States, localities, and private sector have in improving our environment. The States and communities are the laboratories of environmental innovation. Inflexible requirements hurt the environment, add unnecessary costs, and reduce technology development. While we have made substantial environmental progress, we must reject failed approaches created by fearmongering and centralized control which will not serve our environment well in the century ahead. | |
| 2000 | R | R | R | Once Americans were led to believe they had to make a choice between the economy and the environment. They now know that this is a false choice. But there is a real choice to make in 2000: whether we will protect our environment in ways that are practical and achievable or go back to the policies that led to generations of environmental devastation and degradation. | While the very nature of environmental concerns at times requires federal intervention, the heartening progress made by many of the states and localities demonstrates their unique ability to solve problems at the local level. As the laboratories of innovation, they should be given flexibility, authority, and finality by the federal government. | |
| 2004 | R | R | R | We reject the false choice between a healthy economy and a healthy environment. We know instead that farming, fishing, tourism, and other industries require a healthy environment. We know new technologies that protect the environment can create new high- paying jobs. We know a cleaner environment means a stronger economy. | Our Party’s environmental policies are geared towards results. Thanks to President Bush’s strong leadership and the commitment of Congressional Republicans to reform and innovation, air pollution has been reduced, water quality has improved, wetlands have been restored, and more than a thousand brownfields sites are being revitalized. | |
| 2008 | R | D | D | The Republican perspective on the environment is in keeping with our longstanding appreciation for nature and gratitude for the bounty the Almighty has bestowed upon the American people. | ||
| 2010 | D | D | D | BP Oil Spill | ||
| 2012 | D | R | D | Democrats are committed to protecting our natural resources while creating jobs, preserving habitats, and ensuring that future generations can enjoy our nation’s outdoor heritage. From investing in clean energy to protecting our air, land, and water, Democrats have made protecting the environment a top priority. | The environment is getting cleaner and healthier. The nation’s air and waterways, as a whole, are much healthier than they were just a few decades ago. Efforts to reduce pollution, encourage recycling, educate the public, and avoid ecological degradation have been a success. To ensure their continued support by the American people, however, we need a dramatic change in the attitude of officials in Washington, a shift from a job-killing punitive mentality to a spirit of cooperation with producers, landowners, and the public. . . The Republican Party supports appointing public officials to federal agencies who will properly and correctly apply environmental laws and regulations, always in support of economic development, job creation, and American prosperity and leadership. | |
| 2016 | D | R | R | Democrats believe clean air and clean water are basic rights of all Americans. Yet as we saw in Flint, Michigan, low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately home to environmental justice “hot spots,” where air pollution, water pollution, and toxic hazards like lead increase health and economic hardship. | Conservation is inherent in conservatism. As the pioneer of environmentalism a century ago, the Republican Party reaffirms the moral obligation to be good stewards of the God-given natural beauty and resources of our country. . . The environmental establishment has become a self-serving elite, stuck in the mindset of the 1970s, subordinating the public’s consensus to the goals of the Democratic Party. Their approach is based on shoddy science, scare tactics, and centralized command-and- control regulation. . . Our agenda is high on job creation, expanding opportunity and providing a better chance at life for everyone willing to work for it. Our modern approach to environmentalism is directed to that end, and it starts with dramatic change in official Washington. We propose to shift responsibility for environmental regulation from the federal bureaucracy to the states and to transform the EPA into an independent bipartisan commission, similar to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with structural safeguards against politicized science. . . Information concerning a changing climate, especially projections into the long-range future, must be based on dispassionate analysis of hard data. | |
| 2020 | R | D | R | Every American has the right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live without fear of exposure to toxic waste. And all Americans should benefit from the clean energy economy—especially those who have been left out and left behind for generations. Democrats will create an environmental justice fund to make historic investments aimed at eliminating legacy pollution, which disproportionately causes illness and premature death in communities of color, low- income communities, and Indigenous communities. We will protect children’s health by replacing lead service lines and remediating lead paint in homes and schools; remediate Superfund and other contaminated sites; and ensure housing and schools have adequate plumbing and safe wastewater disposal systems. | ||
| 2024 | D | R | D | Every major plank of our Investing in America agenda shares that commitment to environmental justice. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests a record $21 billion in tackling legacy pollution, the biggest effort to right such wrongs in American history. We’re also investing in capping orphaned oil and gas wells, which leak deadly methane into surrounding communities well after Big Oil is gone. . . From his first day in office, President Biden has taken historic steps to protect, conserve, and restore them. He set our nation’s first-ever national conservation goal to protect at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030, including by supporting locally led, voluntary efforts. Today, he is on track to conserve more American lands and waters than any President in history – over 41 million acres so far, including dozens of new national monuments, wildlife refuges, and other protected areas, from the Grand Canyon to the Great Lakes. | Republicans will promote beauty in Public Architecture and preserve our Natural Treasures. We will build cherished symbols of our Nation, and restore genuine Conservation efforts. |