The White House has been at center stage of environmental policymaking ever since Richard Nixon in 1970 established the Environmental Protection Agency. That reorganization occurred in an era of Congressional activism, when several major environmental statutes were passed, sometimes over veto threats of presidents. The environmental decade, which ended abruptly with the election of 1980, was followed by a decade of conflict that nevertheless managed to produce major environmental policies through the legislative process. Paradoxically, the Reagan assault on the regulatory state reinvigorated the environmental movement in opposition to that administration’s policies, as the movement endeavored to maintain pressure upon Congress to reauthorize and strengthen the major environmental laws passed in the 1970s. When new environmental challenges emerged in the 1990s, gridlock prevented Congress from continuing to reform those statutes. Consequently, major policy changes were initiated by the executive branch. Most environmental policymaking during the presidencies of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump was conducted by executive orders, directives, and administrative rulemaking. This shift was reflected in the actions of environmental interest groups, which focused their lobbying activity upon administrative agencies and the White House.