President Obama came into Tuesday’s State of the Union address with some pretty compelling environmental credentials.

On his watch, the U.S. has led the world in cutting carbon emissions, the use of renewables has dramatically expanded, and the Obama White House has consistently pushed to raise taxes and increase regulation on the oil and gas industry since his first day in office. After the defeat of “cap-and-trade” legislation, Obama also catered to the environmental lobby by going around Congress and letting the Environmental Protection Agency write its own rules for limiting greenhouse gases.