President Obama at a 2009 tree planting ceremony/Courtesy: The Huffington Post

Yes, there was some wrangling over numbers that led Nixon to veto the act before being overridden. And yes, some might object to his embrace of nuclear energy and his role in creating tax credits for oil exploration. But how many Republicans today can lay claim to so many environmental accomplishments? Or Democrats, for that matter?

The most important pieces of legislation that today give the EPA the authority to fight polluters were first passed through Congress during Nixon’s presidency. And oh, by the way, the EPA was created by Nixon through executive order. He also established the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and signed both the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Air Act. Credit for the environmental awakening of the period belongs mainly to the likes of Rachel Carson, Paul Ehrlich, the Club of Rome, Gaylord Nelson, and Russell Train. But the president who was once recorded saying, “People don’t give a sh*t about the environment,” was politically sensitive enough to realize that they actually did, and as a result he made good on the momentum of that environmental awakening.

President Obama might have done well to study how an oil spill during Nixon’s time was used as a call to action. Instead, his failure to seize the moment on the environment and energy has earned him widespread criticism from throughout the political spectrum. The disapproval was only amplified this week when his new oil market supervision plan was met with skepticism. The good news for the president is he’s overseeing an improving economy and has health care to tout for now, but it’s a good bet he looks upon the legislative success of Richard Nixon with a bit of envy, particularly in establishing environmental regulations.