George E. Brown Jr

Remembering the 'start-up' of the environmental movement and the first set of laws, a body of originating legal environmental protection precedents from green visionaries like George E. Brown in California, who passed away suddenly in 1999.

"My friend George"

SJS: George was looking forward to the 21st century and especially to the challenge of nuclear non-proliferation, his concern for decades. George was a visionary, an engineer, a vet who opposed disastrous war, and a leader in Congress who led from California in shaping the modern environmental movement. In his 'rumpled, quiet way' he moved to form coalitions few thought could be formed and garnered support for the first set of U.S. Congressional acts that served as foundation legislation for decades of green progress. His work advanced environmental air quality and clean air legislation (he attacked Los Angeles smog, some of the worst air quality of any city in the world at the time and the air standards that came out of California became models worldwide). He succeeded in clean water efforts and, though rarely given credit given his quiet approach to accomplishing big picture goals. As one example, he was a champion, a key player and drafter of legislation founding the Environmental Protection Agency, as the LA Times noted (without pomp or circumstance) in George's obit: "He championed the creation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency". The EPA was in many ways his vision achieved ... George was for many years the Congressperson out in front of "big science". His profound accomplishments are especially missed now in this era as anti-science positioning threatens in the U.S. Congress...

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George's obituary, Los Angeles Times, 1999

http://articles.latimes.com/1999/jul/17/news/mn-56747

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Recollection from 1977 - George Brown goes Green

Not many U.S. Congressmen can claim to have an "integral urban district office" complete with solar heating and cooling, a lean-to greenhouse, and bee-hives. Representative George E. Brown, Jr. (D-Calif.) can, however ... because he does have just such office facilities.

Two years ago — when Congressman Brown decided that he wanted solar heating for his Colton, California office building (an old house located in a semi-residential part of town) — he asked his staff to design and install a low-cost, low-technology heating system by themselves. He told his aides that they were free to seek expert advice, but that they should attempt to do as much of the actual construction as possible.

So while Brown was away in Washington, his staffers outfitted the building with an air-handling, "active" solar heating setup that employs a single large wood-and-fiberglass solar collector and a bin loaded with 13 tons of rock for heat storage ... a setup that — so far — has provided virtually 100 percent of the office building's winter heating needs. (The same system can be used to provide cooling during the summer, although — because of the desert-like temperatures that hit the area during the summer months-supplemental cooling must also be used.)

In back of the aging office structure, Brown's aides built a lean-to "solar greenhouse" that furnishes the main house with additional solar heating and provides the Congressman's staff with a year-round supply of fresh vegetables.

A year or so ago, Brown's staff members decided they wanted to "raise" honey as well as vegetables ... so they "coaxed" a swarm of bees into an empty hive, and within six months harvested 100 pounds of the golden sweetener!

Because of the great amount of public interest in these and other of the Congressman's activities, Brown recently encouraged the Agricultural Division of the University of California's Cooperative Extension to apply for federal funding to open a community food preservation center in nearby Riverside, California. The application was approved.

If it has to do with living-better-for-less alternatives, chances are the honorable George E. Brown, Jr. knows about it ... or is already doing it!

-- Linda Martin / Mother Earth News

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SJS/Siterunner: George was the man who convinced me to look at politics as a serious calling. When I was a young teenager in East LA, looking out at a larger world in which I had yet to travel, and debating nuclear proliferation, the debate topic of the year as high schools were considering why sirens were on occasion loudly going off and forcing us to crawl under our desks, the man I got to know in Monterey Park was at the beginning of his career in politics and science.

For the next 35 years he was my mentor and an inspiration of what can be done to make a difference and create a better world. George was a visionary with tousled hair, a professorial look, a smelly pipe and a twinkle in his eye. He was always there for his constituents, like me, an East LA kid who grew up to be a friend and cohort as we did green work over the years. George was a real presence in Congress, in science and environmental achievements that carry on to this day.

Back in the early days, we would speak of the smog in LA and how we needed to clean up the air. I spoke of my asthma with George and his engineering background gave him advantages over the run-of-the-mill politicians in DC in knowing how best to address the pollution from cars, the gas engines that were becoming ubiquitous in fast-growing suburban Southern California. When I was in college at USC and getting deeply involved in politics, we spoke of the children in Los Angeles and their lung problems and scientific and medical studies that were vividly (shockingly) demonstrating the consequences of growing up in the most polluted air in the country. George worked in Congress to change this -- he moved conservative and liberal politicians in his direction and a key goal was setting up an EPA as an umbrella agency to coordinate environmental federal and federal-state efforts... George was a "first-mover" as the term has come to be known in business. He had a plan and set out to accomplish it. He succeeded and the Environmental Protection Agency was founded and historic initial green laws and regulations for environmental protection and security were passed. Today these act as models for cities and nations around the world. California and greens moved out in front with ideas to improve quality of life and the work continues.

Georges remains with us always in his legacy of accomplishment. I miss him often but know he is still around. I feel him when I write of green ideas and look to kids and education and our shared future...

-- Steven Schmidt / GreenPolicy360

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http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Environmental_Laws

http://www2.epa.gov/aboutepa/epa-order-11102

http://www2.epa.gov/aboutepa/birth-epa

http://www2.epa.gov/aboutepa/guardian-epas-formative-years-1970-1973

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The George E. Brown, Jr. Archive at the University of California

http://newsroom.ucr.edu/2347

"Congressman, a visionary who championed the environment, alternative energy, human rights and education. When he died in office in 1999 at the age of 79, he left a legacy that included establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Science Technology Policy, Section 8 housing for low-income people and scholarships for veterans."

Details of that legacy – from his first political post as mayor of Monterey Park, Calif., to his chairmanship of the House of Representatives Science Committee – survive in 525 boxes and nine file cabinets of personal papers donated recently to the University of California, Riverside by his widow, Marta Brown...

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http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Environmental_movement

http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Env_policy_laws_US_'the_beginning'_of_env_era.jpg

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