DEATH OF A NATION
Our Phoenix Shall Rise Again
A CALL TO RENEW THE AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL PROMISE
Once upon a polluted land, a revolution stirred—not one of muskets and redcoats, but of conscience and stewardship. Inspired by Rachel Carson’s startling 1962 book, Silent Spring, amidst smog-choked cities and rivers set ablaze, the United States lit a new lantern in the steeple in 1970: the Environmental Protection Agency. Its mission? To defend the lifeblood of a nation – the air, the water, the earth itself.
SUCCESSES OF THE EPA
Here is how we achieved the impressive results that we are beginning to jeopardize:
1970 — The Birth of a Guardian (1)
By President Nixon’s pen stroke, the EPA emerged, answering the people’s cry for environmental justice. It was the Lexington Green of the environmental movement: a stand taken, a shot fired not in anger, but in defense of the public good.
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1972 — The Waters Reclaimed (2)
Like Paul Revere thundering across the countryside, the Clean Water Act surged, warning industries and cities alike: “No longer shall you poison the people’s rivers!” The Cuyahoga, once burning with oil, would soon run clean. The Hudson, once strangled by filth, would breathe again.
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1980 — The Toxic Reckoning (3)
With the Superfund law, America confronted its poisoned past. Love Canal’s anguished families became the new Minutemen, demanding that buried chemical time bombs be defused. EPA rode to the front lines, clearing battlegrounds of contamination, from old factories to poisoned playgrounds.
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1990 — The Air Revolution (4)
Amidst the sulfuric clouds of the industrial age, the Clean Air Act Amendments sounded like a Liberty Bell for the skies. Acid rain, once falling like a quiet plague on forests and lakes, was driven back. Thin and wounded ozone shields began their slow healing. The people’s right to breathe clean air was declared anew.
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2007 — Climate: The New Battlefield (5)
The Supreme Court handed the EPA its marching orders: greenhouse gases are pollutants and must be reined in. A new revolution was called—not against a foreign king, but against the warming hand of our excesses. Though battered by political winds, the EPA stood ready to chart a path through the storm.
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2015 — The Paris Climate Accord (6)
The Paris Climate Accord united nearly 200 nations in a landmark agreement to limit global warming below 2°C. The EPA played a crucial role in shaping America’s commitments by providing emissions data, regulatory frameworks, and scientific guidance, reinforcing the U.S. pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote climate resilience.
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2010s — Under Siege (7)
But every revolution faces counterattacks. Political tides turned, and, although the environment should not be a political issue, the EPA has been shackled, defunded, and derided. Hard-won victories were rolled back. Science was sidelined. Communities of color—often the frontline casualties of pollution—were told to wait, to endure. Yet across the nation, the people marched, rallied, and voted. The lanterns flickered but did not go out.
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We are in danger of reversing many of the gains we fought so hard and sacrificed for. Projects that monitored air quality, protected watersheds, and supported community resilience are being curtailed or shuttered.
Why does this matter?
If we fail to act, our past will become our future. The Chicago River, once reclaimed, may suffer anew. The Cuyahoga may again catch fire. Smog could return to choke our cities. Pollinators may vanish from the fields that feed us. Water scarcity could turn fertile valleys to dust. These are not distant prophecies—they are risks backed by evidence.
Today — The Challenge Before Us
We stand now at a precipice, not unlike that faced by the Founders. Will we rise to the climate emergency, the biodiversity crisis, the poisoned air and water, with the urgency history demands? Or will we falter, handing a diminished republic to the next generation?
THE ROAD BACK—AND FORWARD
We can return to the righteous road, but the first step is the hardest: we must open our eyes not just to the graphs and glacier melt, but to memory itself. We don’t need climatologists alone to tell us something is wrong—we feel it in our bones, and science confirms it. Ask your father about summer breezes before the heat domes. Ask your grandmother about birdsong before the silence. Ask yourself if you recognize the seasons anymore.
This isn’t abstract. This isn’t politics. This is home.
We must rebuild the EPA not as a target for political whiplash but as a sacred trust. Its mission must not merely survive but evolve. It can no longer be left vulnerable to executive whim or corporate capture. The new foundation must be fortified—not just by law but by legitimacy, woven into the fabric of our democracy like the Bill of Rights.
Let it be guided not by disruption for disruption’s sake, but by wisdom. We do not seek to raze the world we know—we seek to preserve what is good by transforming what is deadly. We must design strategies that honor our farmers, our workers, our builders, even as we heed the call of our forests, our rivers, and our skies
This foundation must be resilient. It must be incorruptible. And it must be ours.
The EPA of tomorrow must be insulated from sabotage, its authority enshrined with bipartisan safeguards that endure past any one administration. It must answer to the people, not to shareholders or lobbyists. It must wield science and empathy like twin lanterns, illuminating a path forward.
To achieve this, we propose the following congressional legislative and policy initiatives:
Enact a bipartisan Environmental Protection Charter Act, establishing the EPA as a semi-independent agency with fixed funding indexed to inflation and science-based oversight with the authority to set environmental regulations.
These environmental regulations should automatically sunset after a period specified by Congress unless approved by Congress, as with any presidential executive orders.
Restore and expand the Clean Power Plan to set national carbon limits and accelerate state-led clean energy transitions.
Establish a National Environmental Data Trust, which would require transparent, publicly accessible environmental data and protect it from political interference.
Create a Polluter Responsibility Act, reviving and enhancing Superfund enforcement and requiring full cost accounting for industrial pollution.
Mandate a Federal Climate Resilience Corps, funding green jobs in restoration, conservation, and climate adaptation across all 50 states.
THE NEW COMMITMENT
Let us forge a new covenant—between government and the governed, between human ambition and planetary boundaries—a covenant that acknowledges the scale of the challenge but refuses despair.
Yes, it will take short-term sacrifices, but all will enjoy the long-term benefits.
We must innovate, not regress. We must build clean cities, not choke on smoke. We must harness the sun and wind, not drill blindly into a dying earth. We must restore the promise of Silent Spring—not as a warning—but as a prophecy fulfilled.
Let us make it a future where the skies are clear, the waters pure, the land whole, and the people—all the people—free to breathe, drink, eat, and flourish.
We must build a solid structure to achieve this. The new EPA must be quick and nimble yet grounded in fairness and accountability. There must be an ongoing dialogue with Congress. One bold option is a Congressionally chartered oversight board, independent of executive politics, to safeguard the agency’s mission.
Let this be our Lexington moment. Let this be our Seneca Falls, our Selma, our Standing Rock. Let this be the time we rose again—not in defiance of each other, but in defense of a world worth inheriting.
The phoenix of a nation is stirring.
Will we light the lanterns again?
Will we fight, not with rifles, but with reason, resolve, and a reverence for the land?
The future is coming. Let it find us not as polluters, but as patriots.
Let it find us building a lasting democracy in harmony with a lasting Earth.
Don’t forget that a single battle did not win the American Revolution. It was won by a relentless spirit, a stubborn hope, a refusal to let the dream die.
Today, we are called to that same spirit. To renew the EPA not as a bureaucratic relic, but as a lantern of democracy, shining light on the path to a sustainable, just, and thriving future.
The future is coming! The future is coming!
America, light the lanterns once more.
See again the Beautiful and Spacious Skies, the Purple Mountain’s Majesty, and amber waves of grain.
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NOTES:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established on December 2, 1970, by President Richard Nixon through Reorganization Plan No. 3.
This move centralized federal efforts to protect human health and the environment.
—The Clean Water Act, enacted in 1972, aimed to restore and maintain the integrity of the nation’s waters.
The Cuyahoga River, which had suffered multiple fires due to pollution, including a notable one in 1969, became a symbol of the need for such legislation.
—The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), known as Superfund, was enacted in 1980.
This law was largely a response to the environmental disaster at Love Canal, where hazardous chemical waste had been improperly disposed of, leading to serious health issues for residents.
—In the landmark case Massachusetts v. EPA (2007), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act.
This decision mandated the EPA to determine whether these emissions endanger public health or welfare, thereby compelling the agency to regulate them if found harmful.
—The Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015, united nearly 200 nations in a commitment to limit global warming to well below 2°C. The EPA contributed to the U.S. commitments by providing emissions data, regulatory frameworks, and scientific guidance.
In November 2020, under President Trump, the U.S. officially withdrew from the Paris Agreement. In 2021, under President Joe Biden, the U.S was readmitted, only to have President Trump, at the start of his second term as president, by Executive Order, announce that the U.S. would withdraw again
—During the 2010s, the EPA faced significant challenges, including budget cuts, reduced enforcement actions, and rollbacks of environmental protections.
Under the current Trump administration, enforcement of most pollution regulations are being notably reduced, and programs like Energy Star are facing potential elimination.
—Thanks to my brother Kenneth Crellen for his invaluable editing support.