Department of Energy

Examples of Department of Energy in the following topics:

• The Carter Administration

  • His administration sought to make the government "competent and compassionate"; however in the midst of an economic crisis produced by rising energy prices and stagflation, he met with difficulty in achieving his objectives.
  • The final year of his presidential tenure was marked by several major crises, including the 1979 takeover of the American embassy in Iran, an unsuccessful rescue attempt of the hostages, serious fuel shortages, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
  • Carter created the United States Department of Education and United States Department of Energy, established a national energy policy, and pursued civil service and social security reform.
  • Carter's ethos of humility and compassion informed much of his presidency and was reflected in his foreign policy and administration.
  • He returned the Panama Canal Zone to Panama amidst criticism at home for his decision, which was seen by many as yet another signal of U.S. weakness and of his own habit of backing down when faced with confrontation.

• Domestic Policies

  • Carter told Americans that the energy crisis was "a clear and present danger to our nation" and "the moral equivalent of war," and he drew out a plan he thought would address it.
  • In 1977, Carter convinced the Democratic Congress to create the United States Department of Energy (DoE) with the goal of conserving energy.
  • As reaction to the energy crisis and growing concerns over air pollution, Carter also signed the National Energy Act (NEA) and the Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA).
  • The purpose of these watershed laws was to encourage energy conservation and the development of national energy resources, including renewable energy such as wind and solar energy.
  • When the energy crisis set in, Carter was planning on delivering his fifth major speech on energy; however, he felt that the American people were no longer listening.

• The Environment

  • In the same speech, he also promised to work with Congress, environmental groups, and the energy industry to require a reduction of the emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury, and carbon dioxide into the environment within a "reasonable period of time."
  • He would later reverse his position on that specific campaign pledge in March of 2001 in a letter to Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel, stating that carbon dioxide was not considered a pollutant under the Clean Air Act, and that restricting carbon dioxide emissions would lead to higher energy prices.
  • In June of 2005, State Department papers showed the Bush administration thanking oil company Exxon executives for the company's "active involvement" in helping to determine climate change policy, including the U.S. stance on Kyoto.
  • Evidence suggests that the administration's decision to delay the report's release was because of its potential to affect Congress's upcoming final vote on an energy bill six years in the making, which turned a blind eye to fuel economy regulations.
  • In February, NOAA (part of the Department of Commerce) set up a seven-member panel of climate scientists to compile the report.

• The Varieties of Progressivism

  • Emerging at the end of the nineteenth century, Progressive reformers established much of the tone of American politics throughout the first half of the century.
  • Many of the core principles of the Progressive movement focused on the need for efficiency and the elimination of corruption and waste.
  • Additionally, many cities created municipal "reference bureaus" that conducted surveys of government departments looking for waste and inefficiency.
  • After in-depth surveys, local and even state governments were reorganized to reduce the number of officials and to eliminate overlapping areas of authority among departments.
  • Many Progressives hoped that by regulating large corporations, they could liberate human energies from the restrictions imposed by industrial capitalism.

• Garfield and Arthur

  • As president, Chester Arthur continued many of the reforms of his predecessor, though he had benefited from the spoils system himself.
  • In April, 1880 there was a Congressional investigation into corruption in the Post Office Department, where profiteering rings allegedly stole millions of dollars by employing bogus mail contracts called "star routes".
  • Dorsey, was involved, Garfield decided to root out the corruption in the Post Office Department "to the bone", regardless of where it might lead.
  • When he succeeded Garfield, reformers feared that Arthur, as a product of the spoils system, would not devote his administration's energy to continuing the investigation into the Post Office scandal.
  • Despite his previous support of the patronage system, Arthur, nevertheless, became an ardent supporter of civil service reform as president.

• Mobilizing a Nation

  • The Department of Labor’s new Employment Service attracted workers from the South and Midwest to war industries in the East and was used by federal production offices to hire fresh employees.
  • The War Department drafted hundreds of thousands of African-American men into the army with equal pay, but placed them in segregated units with black soldiers led by white officers.
  • Coal was the major source of energy and heat.
  • War Department to feed the troops, thus saving money that could be spent elsewhere on the military.
  • The Agriculture Department estimated that more than 20 million victory gardens were planted, with between nine and 10 million tons of fruit and vegetables harvested in these home and community plots, equaling all commercial production of fresh vegetables.

• National Security

  • The majority of the provisions of the Act took effect on September 18, 1947, the day after the Senate confirmed James Forrestal as the first Secretary of Defense.
  • This was later changed in the amendment to the act in 1949, creating what was to be the Department of Defense.
  • The Act merged the Department of War and the Department of the Navy into the National Military Establishment, headed by the Secretary of Defense.
  • It was also responsible for the creation of a Department of the Air Force separate from the existing Army Air Forces.
  • At the same time, the NME was renamed as the Department of Defense.

• Woodrow Wilson and Race

  • Despite promises made to black voters during the election of 1912, Woodrow Wilson gave into the demands of white Southern Democrats, fired a number of black Republican politicians, and supported racial segregation.
  • A Southerner, Wilson was said to be a vocal fan of the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, which celebrated the rise of the first Ku Klux Klan.
  • Wilson ignored complaints when his cabinet officials established official segregation in many federal government departments, such as the post office, because of his own firm belief that racial segregation was in the best interests of black and white Americans alike.
  • McAdoo defending the establishment of separate toilets in the Treasury and Interior Department buildings by saying, “I am not going to argue the justification of the separate toilets orders, beyond saying that it is difficult to disregard certain feelings and sentiments of white people in a matter of this sort.”
  • In what became an acrimonious exchange in the Oval Office, Trotter listed examples of federal workplace segregation in several government buildings run by the Treasury Department, War Department, Interior Department, and others.

• Opposition from the Courts

  • The flurry of new law in the wake of Roosevelt's first hundred days swamped the Justice Department with more responsibilities than it could manage.
  • Additionally, many Justice Department lawyers were ideologically opposed to the New Deal and failed to influence either the drafting or review of much of the White House's New Deal legislation.
  • The ensuing struggle over ideological identity increased the ineffectiveness of the Justice Department.
  • This disarray at the Justice Department meant that the government's lawyers often failed to foster viable test cases and arguments for their defense, subsequently handicapping them before the courts.
  • The effect of this decision radiated outward, affecting other doctrinal methods of analysis in wage regulation, labor, and the power of the U.S.

• The Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

  • Department of State specialists, argued for what was essentially the continuation of existing U.S. foreign policy.
  • The opposing view, argued by Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and a number of influential Department of Defense policy makers such as Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, held that direct and unilateral action was both possible and justified and that America should embrace what it referred to as opportunities for democracy and security offered by its position as the sole remaining superpower.
  • Others, like Secretary of State Colin Powell, a highly respected veteran of the Vietnam War and former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were more cautious about initiating combat.
  • Following the Gulf War, inspectors from the United Nations Special Commission and International Atomic Energy Agency had in fact located and destroyed stockpiles of Iraqi weapons.
  • s 2001 bombing of Afghanistan and 2003 invasion of Iraq