Funny the things we forget . like the Republican Party has been the progressive one up until 50 years ago , freed the slaves , encouraged the equal rights movements yet they have always wanted to do what was best for the economy . Irrelevant . I didn ' t ask for the Republican party brochure . Back then the extent of the environmental impacts weren ' t even known . The the republican even led the charge , as you stated , and established the EPA . They didn ' t need to know the full extent to know about the polluted air and skies that were all around them . Republicans didn ' t just pull it out of thin clean air , the electorate was demanding it because they were sick of smog , dirty water and other consequences of unregulated industry . A policy you want to go back to for reasons beyond understanding .