The history of science policy in the United States begins with WWII. Prior to the second war, science wasn't a large issue within government. The only governmental institutions that existed to promote and regulate science was the Smithsonian Institution and the Department of Agriculture. Before the 1940s, all scientific promotion and regulation was handled by outside organizations, such as the National Academy of Science and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Then came World War Two. To promote the development of scientific capabilities, FDR issued an executive order creating the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD). At its head was the pioneer of science policy and the first presidential advisor on science and technology, Vannevar Bush. Under his leadership and a practically limitless fund, the OSRD helped put together some of the first large, publically supported scientific projects, including research on radar, weapons, early-warning detection systems, and, of course, the atomic bomb.
When the war was over it was declared that science had won the war. But Vannevar Bush did not want to end there. In an influential document, called Science, The Endless Frontier, he argued that the same ingenuity of science that won the war should and ought to be applied in peacetime, to improve our standard of living, ensure our prosperity, and garuntee our resilience against future threats.
So begins science policy, the effects of which have led directly into the environmental policies that are so important in preserving our world.
Most people who study the history of science policy deem the years 1950-mid 1960s as the "Postwar Consensus." During this time, most policy makers and American citizens held to the belief that our economy was directly tied to our science, so science should be given free realm and support to improve our economy. The general disposition was that we should have faith in science to move us forward, with as little regulation as possible.
During this time the enthusiasm for science became a matter of national pride. At its height, this enthusiasm centered around the rivalry with the Soviet Union, which became heated after the first Soviet's successful satellite, Sputnik, was launched in 1957. During this time, funding and emphasis in science and technology development was in the center of many policy decisions. It was during this time that NASA, the NSF (National Science Foundation), the NIH (National Institute of Health), and many other agencies were established to promote the sciences. The international rivarly during this time played out in all venues of science and technology, not just within the Space Race, as Americans pushed to prove that it provided better consumer products and standards of living for its citizens.
This period of almost unfettered enthusiasm for science led to the many of the practices that would later become the first targets of environmental reformers.