President Bush was in the state of Tennessee Friday, to highlight some of his administration's environmental accomplishments.
He stopped there after bad weather forced him to cancel an Earth Day visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The president said Earth Day is an opportunity for Americans to recommit themselves to good stewardship of the land. He said that since the 1970's, "the air's cleaner, the land is better ... and the economy is growing."
He added that ozone levels have dropped, said he has enacted provisions to cut emissions from heavy diesel engines by 90 percent, and described how his administration is aggressively restoring, improving and protecting a total of three million acres of wetlands.
But critics chide him for, among other things, allowing companies to sidestep anti-pollution regulations and seeking to open public lands to timber, oil and gas exploration.