When Donald Trump takes back the White House this month, he is expected to roll back many of President Biden’s climate policies, canceling incentives for clean energy, promoting fossil fuel production and drilling, and undoing pollution controls.

It won’t be the first time a Republican president has undone the environmental legacy of his Democratic predecessor. Forty-four years ago, a strikingly similar story played out when Ronald Reagan replaced Jimmy Carter as commander in chief.

Carter, who died this week at 100, was the first American president to grasp the seriousness of the climate crisis and try to do something about it. He promoted renewable energy, worked to limit pollution and understood the long-term threat posed by global warming.

Reagan pushed the country in precisely the opposite direction. To get a sense of how the next four years might play out, it’s worth looking back on Carter’s environmental legacy, and what survived Reagan’s deregulatory efforts.

Clean energy

In 1979, Carter had 32 solar panels installed on the White House roof. While the panels were crude and inefficient by today’s standards, and powerful enough only to run a water heater, Carter saw what was coming.

“In the year 2000 this solar water heater behind me, which is being dedicated today, will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy,” he said at the installation ceremony.