Changes

===Since 1970===

===Since 1970===

Environmental issues reemerged on the national agenda in 1970, with Republican [[Richard Nixon]] playing a major role. The debates over the public lands and environmental politics played a supporting role in the decline of liberalism and the rise of modern conservatism. Although Americans consistently rank environmental issues as "important", polling data indicates that in the voting booth voters rank the environmental issues low relative to other political concerns.   

Environmental issues reemerged on the national agenda in 1970, with Republican [[Richard Nixon]] playing a major role, especially with his creation of the [[Environmental Protection Agency]]. The debates over the public lands and environmental politics played a supporting role in the decline of liberalism and the rise of modern conservatism. Although Americans consistently rank environmental issues as "important", polling data indicates that in the voting booth voters rank the environmental issues low relative to other political concerns.   

But is the environment a secondary issue, commanding insufficient attention from political candidates to play a major role in politics?  What cannot be ignored is the success with which the Republican party, beginning in the late 1970s, harnessed populist distrust of the federal government, the Democratic party, and the modern environmental regulatory state, and argued the alternative was the conservative agenda promoted by Republicans. In the West the most prominent organs of the federal government include the federal land agencies that oversee vast sweeps of the landscape. The growth of the Republican party's political power in the West was made possible by the rise of popular opposition to public lands reform.  Successful Democrats in the inland West and Alaska typically take more conservative positions on environmental issues than Democrats from the Coastal states.<ref>Turner (2009)</ref>

But is the environment a secondary issue, commanding insufficient attention from political candidates to play a major role in politics?  What cannot be ignored is the success with which the Republican party, beginning in the late 1970s, harnessed populist distrust of the federal government, the Democratic party, and the modern environmental regulatory state, and argued the alternative was the conservative agenda promoted by Republicans. In the West the most prominent organs of the federal government include the federal land agencies that oversee vast sweeps of the landscape. The growth of the Republican party's political power in the West was made possible by the rise of popular opposition to public lands reform.  Successful Democrats in the inland West and Alaska typically take more conservative positions on environmental issues than Democrats from the Coastal states.<ref>Turner (2009)</ref>

==Further reading==

==Further reading==

* Arnold,  Ron. ''At the Eye of the Storm: James Watt and the Environmentalists'' (1982), from conservative perspective

* Arnold,  Ron. ''At the Eye of the Storm: James Watt and the Environmentalists'' (1982), from conservative perspective