ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on archival materials from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) to analyze the evolution of the organization’s approach to the politics of environmental protection between the 1970s and the turn of the twenty-first century. Formed in the 1940s, the NFIB exploded in size and influence in the 1970s and 1980s, riding a wave of populist anti-statism to become the country’s premier conservative mouthpiece for the interests of independent business owners. Its rise, however, also accompanied the growth of the modern environmental movement and the growing public awareness of the problems of industrial pollution and, by the 1980s and 1990s, human-caused climate change. This chapter highlights the potent irony of the attack on environmentalism as part of an attack on “big government,” given the origin of Green politics, and analyzes how small-business conservatives framed their opposition to environmental regulation from the era of Earth Day through the “acid rain” scare to the origins of today’s focus on climate change. It thus contributes to explaining the historical origins, within the business community, of climate denialism.
