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5 CEQ at High Tide The great nineteenth-century British actor Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree once remarked, “The only man who wasn’t spoiled by being lionized was Daniel.”1 If Tree were alive today, he might have added Russell Train. Nothing prepared Train for the glare of national publicity that surrounded his appointment as chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality. Those who made their living “inside the Washington beltway” and within the larger environmental community already knew Train well. The new CEQ, however, cast him for the first time as a figure of true national prominence. The announcement came on January 29, 1970, only days after Nixon stressed environmental protection in his State of the Union address. Train walked into the White House Roosevelt Room with Nixon, a room jammed with the press and known to sta≠ers as the “fishbowl.” After Nixon introduced and praised his new chairman, Train had to answer questions for over thirty minutes. The next morning his picture graced the front pages of the Washington Post, New York Times, and other major newspapers throughout the country. He had interviews on CBS and the popular NBC morning program the Today Show. The weeks that followed brought more in-depth coverage with long articles on his life and career in such magazines as Time and Business Week. Although Train complained that several photos showed him “with my eyes cast down as if asleep,” the coverage was universally positive.2 He was “Nixon’s own conservationist,” the “pollution philosopher,” the “big train in the nation’s cleanup,” and simply the “environmental protector.”3 Train, it seemed, had arrived just as environmental quality peaked in the nation’s consciousness. Even as the press lionized him, the nation prepared for what organizers termed a “national teach-in on the environment”—the first Earth Day. The issue appeared so popular that pundits declared that “no clear opposition to environmentalism existed.”4 Nixon followed his State of the Union with the first environmental address to Congress, a detailed packet of thirty87 CONSERVATIVE CONSERVATIONIST 88 seven specific legislative proposals that Whitaker’s task force had worked on for almost a year.5 Its work essentially completed, the task force disbanded, removing for Train one of the other focal points for environmentalism within the administration . Train’s responsibilities now covered more than simply the Department of Interior and he was free to focus as much on the future as the present. Nixon looked to him to secure the environmental vote even as the Democrats scampered for advantage in an increasingly partisan environment. The issue was terribly complex and the stakes high. Screw up, Train knew, and he faced the lions. Train’s two colleagues on CEQ did little to deflect attention from the chairman . They were able advocates and solid appointments whom Train welcomed, but neither held his clout. Dr. Gordon MacDonald, a renowned geophysicist and member of the National Academy of Sciences, was Vice Chancellor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He brought technical expertise and important connections to the scientific community. Robert Cahn was a Pulitzer prize–winning journalist with the Christian Science Monitor, known for his outstanding environmental coverage. Meeting soon after their appointment in Train’s Interior Department o∞ce, the three adopted what Train referred to as the “strong chairman mode.” This implied a less formal working environment that essentially promised Train more personal autonomy.6 The three got along well and worked in close proximity but rarely met in formal session. Each had his individual responsibilities but no doubt existed over who dominated the direction of the council or its agenda. The pressure was as obvious as the glare from the nation’s media. Just after the announcement of their appointments, Train and his colleagues joined Ehrlichman in Whitaker’s o∞ce. Ehrlichman made it clear that CEQ was part of the Executive O∞ce of the President. Its job was to advise and assist Nixon, not to lobby or criticize him publicly. Train was now the administration’s top environmentalist but, at least in this sense, was still part of a team. His primary liaison at the White House was Whitaker, who worked with Nixon’s cabinet-level Domestic Council. Environmentalists expected more, of course, as did many in Congress. In his confirmation hearings before the Senate Interior and Insular A≠airs Committee, Train found a reception even warmer than his hearings a year before. Committee chairman Jackson invited Muskie...

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