Few today remember President Ronald Reagan as an environmentalist, and with justifiable reason. Though as governor of California Reagan signed the California Environmental Quality Act and opposed destructive dam and highway projects, the record of his presidential administration on issues such as fossil-fuel leasing, pollution standards, and Superfund is decidedly more mixed.
But Reagan did leave us with one crucial environmental program that continues to serve as an ideal model for a conservative, market-oriented approach to conservation. The Coastal Barrier Resources Act, which he signed in 1982, designates a 3.5-million-acre zone of environmentally sensitive beaches, wetlands, barrier islands, and estuaries along the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes as completely off-limits to federal subsidies for development.
