#TBT: Jimmy Carter Creates The Department Of Energy

 

     On August 4th, 1977, Jimmy Carter took critical action in combatting the Energy Crisis by signing the Department of Energy Organization Act. One of numerous significant changes President Carter made to the Cabinet, the law created the Department of Energy, which consolidated the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Federal Power Administration, and the Federal Energy Administration, among several other agencies.

     The Department of Energy also helped handle Carter's nuclear policy, which would be one of his few major domestic policy contributions. Carter signed into law the "Superfund," a government program designed at cleaning up toxic waste sites, in the wake of the Three Mile Island Reactor Meltdown in 1979. Unfortunately for Carter, foreign policy became too much too handle.

     With the Iran Hostage Crisis from 1979 to 1981 and the related 1979 Energy Crisis spike, Carter's numerous energy-related laws could not keep up, and it would not be until Reagan entered the White House that external factors contributing to the increase in real and perceived fuel prices would be resolved.

     Today, however, the Energy Department plays an even more important role in cleaning up pollution, fighting climate change, and contributing to America's national defense. While the Department of Energy could not win Carter a second term, it would be vindicated as the decades went on/