Enter policy…

Environmental awareness grew with the smog in California in the 1940’s. The first federal regulation that addressed the link between energy use and environmental damage was the 1963 Clean Air Act, which established air quality standards and reduced emissions of carbon and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere (Hirsh, p 64). In 1969, Congress passed the National Environmental Policy, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) became the enforcement body responsible for further amendments to the Clean Air Act. Energy conservation entered conventional society with the first “Earth Day” initiated by Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970. While American was enjoying the benefits afforded them through the mass production and consumption of goods, Nelson coordinated the “teach-in” to educate our citizens about humanity’s contribution to environmental degradation (Hirsh, p65). Paradoxically, while Earth Day marked the beginning of the modern environmental movement, a counter argument was made that conservation infringed on those conveniences and comforts that had become an American way of life. Resistance, mainly by those industries that had monopolistic interests in maintaining the status quo, stressed that energy growth was necessary for economic growth (Sovacool, p353). This argument persists to this day, even with sufficient evidence to refute it.
The stark realization of our finite amount of natural resources was made evident to Americans during the 1973 oil embargo. The fear of lifestyle changes that conservation required was addressed through energy efficiency, a more user friendly alternative. The idea that we would waste less of the energy we use by employing “technical fixes” such as building insulation, double-pain windows and simply turning off the lights when leaving a room were promoted (Hirsh, p140). Less wasteful use of energy did not require lifestyle changes, but mindsets did begin to change for some of citizens who waited in the gas lines for hours just to fill up their tanks.