to the Department of the Interior, Robert Burford to the Bureau of Land Management, and Anne Gorsuch to the Environmental Protection Agency. These three hoped to weaken the environmental laws which had been passed earlier.One goal of the new administration was to give federal government land to state governments.
Later, they hoped, the state governments would sell the land, making it available for corporate usage. Though this was tried by many states, it largely failed.
The environmental movement has struggled against these new policies. It argues that public lands are owned by the people of the United States and should not be cheaply sold to private interests.
Environmentalists were successful to a great extent. James Watt and Anne
Gorsuch were forced to resign during Reagan's first term.
Moreover, the Reagan administration's environmental policies became more moderate in the following years. The administration's desire for great and immediate change cooled off a bit, largely because of the significant opposition it faced.
By 1985, the government and US industry were together spending $70 billion annually to reduce pollution. The budget for reducing pollution fell after 1981,
and progress in improving air quality decreased. However, some areas continued to be cleaned up with highly positive results.
