By Alliance for Sustainability President Terry Gips
In an all-too-rare bipartisan effort, the nation is celebrating the legacy of former peanut farmer, Georgia state legislator and Governor, President of the US and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter. He was a true inspiration for me and millions on so many levels. I’d like to share some of the many profound and relatively unknown insights from his life and achievements from a sustainability perspective.
I first met Jimmy Carter in 1974 when he began his campaign for President and then worked for him as a White House aide in 1979, including one intimate night with him.
Inspiration Amidst Sadness and Hopefulness
I’m filled with sadness about the President’s death at the age of 100 in his humble home in Plains, Georgia. He had the most accomplished and long-lived post-Presidency, arguably the greatest. I’m also feeling two other kinds of sadness and yet hopefulness amidst the darkness we face as a new President seeks to repudiate nearly all of his visionary accomplishments and ideals.
President Carter was so far ahead of his time, perhaps too far on numerous levels as you will see. He was a true role model for me as I am flooded by memories of his decency, virtue, principles, faith, humbleness, sense of justice, caring about people and the planet, bravery, vision and work ethic.
It’s astounding to me that he was willing to bravely confront the racist South of his upbringing, whether in his Baptist church or politics. From his childhood through his Presidency and after, he spoke out and took action on the environment, human rights and other humanitarian causes.
He is well-known for somehow overcoming the bitter enmity of formerly warring Israel and Egypt to forge the critically-impactful, seemingly impossible Camp David Peace Accords that still hold today.
As a post-President he built bi-partisan friendships, such as with former President Gerald Ford who he defeated. The President expanded his impact as he built homes and promoted Habitat for Humanity and led peace, civil & human rights, reconciliation, hunger relief, health, environmental and democratic election efforts around the world with the Carter Center.
He did this while battling brain cancer and metastatic melanoma, all the while teaching Sunday School every week at the local church of his youth.
What People Don’t Know – Meeting Jimmy Carter
Here are some personal reflections on several of the remarkable things few have addressed, along with my take on his significance for sustainability.
I first met Jimmy Carter when he was Georgia’s Governor after I was elected as a young national delegate from California to the December 1974 Democratic Party National Mid-Term Convention in 1974. My seatmate was a relatively unknown Democratic funder from San Francisco named Nancy Pelosi. We hit it off and had a great time together, from laughing to deep discussions. She was unbelievably kind and fun.
On the second day of the Convention, our California delegation hosted a breakfast with a Presidential candidate cattle call bringing in one after another to speak and greet. After several of them, some aides came into the room and passed out bags of peanuts. They were followed by the then Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter.
Nancy and I started laughing, like this was some kind of joke. A small-town peanut farmer from Georgia with a southern drawl running for President?! We were totally unimpressed and felt he had no chance. Little did we know who he really was.
It’s still hard to believe he could become President two years later, somehow rising above a crowded field of 12 other well-known candidates — from CA Gov. Jerry Brown (whose Gubernatorial campaign I ran in Yolo County in 1974) and US Rep Mo Udall to Peace Corps Founder Sargent Shriver and US Senators Jackson, Bayh and Bentsen.
President Carter’s Surprising First Two Controversial Initiatives
A second and different source of sadness was the results from President Carter’s surprising and hardly-discussed decision to take on two of the biggest, toughest challenges we faced:
- Domestically, he sought to eliminate wasteful “pork barrel spending” beloved by members of Congress but costing taxpayers billions of dollars (hint: that was nearly 50 years before DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency).
- Internationally, he called for fundamental human rights.
It’s probably not possible to think of two more righteous issues that could ignite such a national and global firestorm. Carter’s proposed spending cutbacks were attacked by both Democrats and Republicans who wanted to keep the flow of dollars coming to their districts in order to get re-elected and dole out patronage.
Meanwhile, countries around the world attacked the President for meddling in their affairs and “calling the kettle black.” They ridiculed the US for its own history of slavery and discrimination, violation of treaties with Native Americans and internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. His effort backfired and Carter ended up uniting the world against the US. Sadly, that legacy has only worsened since then.
Consequently, neither initiative moved forward and they became a massive stone dragging down Carter’s Presidency. Though the President was right to call attention to these issues, it was a massive strategic blunder that I believe really wrecked his possibilities for being the impactful President the US and world really needed.
It’s an important lesson about the need for an effective strategy for those of us seeking to change the world. Winning isn’t everything but losing can be disastrous and end up sabotaging the things we most care about.
Working in the White House for President Carter
Ironically, in 1979 I had the chance to serve President Carter in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. This was thanks to its Deputy Director Larry Gilson, my fellow Claremont McKenna College alum.
It was wonderful to work on our nation’s first rural policy and apply what I had learned on the legislative side working for two US Representatives, along with my grad studies as an agricultural and applied economist from the University of CA – Davis and MBA candidate at the Yale School of Management.
However, it was frustrating trying to move the federal bureaucracy. Even though I was calling from the White House, I was surprised by the lack of responsiveness to even my simplest requests to various federal government agencies supposedly working for the President. It sometimes felt like dropping a coin down a deep well with just an echo and quiet splash.
An Unforgettable Night with the President
I had the privilege of being invited to the White House to watch a film with the President. I was the last one into the small room in the family residence. The only open seat was right next to the President. The film that night was one of the first showings of Alien, which I knew nothing about.
I soon discovered it was a sci-fi horror film. I was disgusted and scared watching aliens surprisingly pop out of people’s stomachs. Meanwhile, Jimmy was totally entertained. He loved every moment and laughed throughout.
Response to the Oil Crisis of 1979 – Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy
My work fundamentally changed over the summer of 1979 as the effects of the cutbacks in oil production took hold from the Iranian Revolution and OPEC. Gas prices surged to record levels and shortages led to frustrating blocks-long lines at service stations. The country was crippled as shipping was hindered and Americans were fed up.
The President created the White House Emergency Energy Task Force to try to figure out how to keep the country functioning. It was placed under the leadership of Stuart Eizenstadt, the President’s Chief Domestic Policy Advisor. They sought representatives from each White House team and I was asked to be our representative to the daily meetings with 40 other leaders.
Though I had no knowledge about energy, I was given the incredible job of researching and writing uplifting, doable stories of how Americans were conserving energy and turning to renewables, like wind and solar.
This was one of my greatest learning experiences as I discovered how Americans were responding in imaginative ways to the crisis at hand. It was truly inspiring to share their stories of resilience and creativity, something I will always be grateful for. I had no idea we could actually shift away from our addiction to fossil fuels. It gave me hope for our country.
Solar Panels on the White House and Support for Energy Conservation and Renewables
A third source of both hope and then sadness was related to President Carter’s leadership on energy and the resultant pushback. In several unusual moves over that summer of 1979, President Carter put solar panels on the White House as an important symbolic gesture but also got massive funding for the US to lead the way on energy conservation and renewable energy.
He provided huge funding for renewable energy research, as well as subsidies to create a renewable energy industry. The result was that the US became the global renewable energy leader and both research and business thrived. He painted the way to a new energy future led by the US but benefiting the world.
At the same time, there were various other initiatives he proposed that I totally disagreed with, such as more funding for dangerous nuclear energy technology and highly polluting synthetic fuels.
A Speech that Backfired and the Take Down of Solar Panels and Renewable Funding
At the same time, the President felt he needed to practice what he preached. In an infamous speech, he spoke to the American people from the White House about the need to sacrifice and conserve energy every way possible, including driving less and turning down thermostats in winter. He wore a sweater and asked Americans to do the same.
Unfortunately, the speech was attacked and degradingly referred to as the “malaise speech”, even though he never used that word. It’s sad that Americans turned on President Carter and we didn’t follow his lead. It could be argued this played a significant role in providing the basis for the devastating climate crisis we face today.
All of this, plus inflation and the Iranian hostage crisis, helped lead to President Reagan’s landslide victory in 1980. Reagan opposed efficiency standards as government overreach and rolled back some regulations. Sound like a familiar talking point today?
His chief of staff Don Regan ridiculed the White House solar panels, calling them “a joke.” They were soon taken down, along with the funding for renewable energy research and subsidies for the burgeoning renewables industry.
I can hardly think of a more short-sighted, counter-productive and anti-business action, especially for Republicans. These actions sent a signal to the world and caused the loss of American-made renewable energy technology leadership and jobs. Europeans and Danes eagerly gobbled up all of this high tech and began their own manufacturing, selling wind turbines back to the US and contributing to our booming trade deficit.
I feel all of this was done simply to spite President Carter and the Democrats. The result is that it made America weaker and more vulnerable in terms of energy security and the economy, while playing a massive role in accelerating climate change and contributing to the political divide we face today.
In fact, President-elect Trump has literally said he plans to stop President Biden’s renewable energy funding in the Inflation Reduction Act, just as President Reagan did to President Carter’s energy initiatives, as the AP points out.
How sad and infuriating. I believe history will judge both Reagan and Trump harshly for their outrageous decisions that are already harming billions of people around the globe and creating a dismal future for us and the planet .
President Carter Environmental Leadership Was Far Ahead of His Time
I believe history will positively judge President Carter for his leadership in so many areas of sustainability. I appreciate that the AP ran an excellent story entitled, “Jimmy Carter raised climate change concerns 35 years before the Paris Accords”.
He was green before most of us knew what it symbolized. He enjoyed nature and believed in Biblical tenets about caring for Creation, and then put them into practice with his life and environmental policy. He chose green as his Presidential campaign color instead of the typical red, white and blue and put it on everything from his buttons, bumper stickers, brochures and shirts to his campaign headquarters in Plains.
Former VP Al Gore called Carter “a lifelong role model for the entire environmental movement.” Natural Resources Defense Council head Manish Bapta told the AP, “President Carter was four decades ahead of his time.” Carter called for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions well before “climate change” was part of the American lexicon.
The AP points out that Carter implemented the first US efficiency standards for passenger vehicles and household appliances. He created the US Department of Energy, which streamlined energy research.
Carter pushed renewable energy to lessen dependence on fossil fuels, calling for 20% of US energy to come from alternative sources by 2000. This was all unheard of before. And he more than doubled the wilderness area under National Park Service protection.
A Report that Could Have Changed the World But Was Missed
“Carter left office in 1981 shortly after receiving a West Wing report linking fossil fuels to rising carbon dioxide levels in Earth’s atmosphere,” according to the AP. Carter’s top environmental advisers urged “immediate” cutbacks on the burning of fossil fuels to reduce what scientists at the time called “carbon dioxide pollution.”
“Nobody anywhere in the world in a high government position was talking about this problem” before Carter, biographer Jonathan Alter said.
“The White House released the findings, which drew forgettable news coverage: The New York Times published its story on the 13th page of its front section. And with scant time left in office, there were no tangible moves Carter could make, beyond the energy legislation he had already signed,” the AP said. It’s sad that we missed the boat and are all paying the price, all-too-similar to tobacco.
“If he had been reelected, it’s fair to say that we would have been beginning to address climate change in the early 1980s,” Alter told the AP. “When you think about that, it adds a kind of a tragic dimension, almost, to his political defeat.” Tragic it is for us and the planet.
An Unresolved Question for President Carter on UFOs
My reflections wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t bring up one final question I always wanted to ask President Carter that is hardly ever reported: Why did you not open up Project Blue Book about UFOs after pledging on the campaign trail that you would?
As a Naval observer, Carter saw and reported a UFO. Later, when campaigning for President, he pledged to make Project Blue Book public. However, after he became President he did not. I think he discovered things that troubled him and/or the military stopped him from disclosing its numerous secrets. I guess the answer is now in Heaven or in some file somewhere.
A Concluding Thought
I’ll never forget there was a man like Jimmy Carter who rose from his circumstances to change the world. He and his incredible partner Rosalynn have shown us all how it’s possible to lead a life of generosity, integrity and kindness without compromising one’s values.
While he may have lost re-election, President Carter has won the hearts and minds of people who believe that public servants can make a positive difference while being role models for both present and future generations. May all public servants seek to do the same.