Bush on the Environment

[theoriginalblurker]

The Environmental Protection Agency agreed to weaken an important part of its new smog requirements after being told at the last minute that President Bush preferred a less stringent approach, according to government documents.

The memos and documents indicate that EPA officials had wanted to make the public welfare standard more stringent than the health standard, although still not as protective as some scientists had recommended.

But the White House insisted on making both standards identical, according to the documents. When EPA officials balked, the issue went to Bush, who sided with his budget office.

The White House defended Bush's action.

"This is not a weakening of regs (regulations) or standards," White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto said Friday. "But it was an effort to make the standards consistent. There's no question we have an interest in how federal regs impact communities."

"Never before has a president personally intervened at the 11th hour, exercising political power at the expense of the law and science, to force EPA to accept weaker air quality standards than the agency chief's expert scientific judgment had led him to adopt," said John Walke, clean air director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a private advocacy group. "It is unprecedented and an unlawful act of political interference."

I've been whining about GWB's record on the environment since his 2002 State of the Union address in which he proposed the ironically named Clear Skies legislation which "reduced" pollution levels by allowing industry to police themselves, effectively destroying the Clean Air Act .  I have refused to watch any SotU speech since.

Let's just take a look at the environmental records for the top three potential presidents (from the League of Conservation Voters):

Barack Obama
Hillary Clinton
John McCain


Any questions?

Comments

[auspeople.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Inhofe was bitching about this supposedly... article in the paper today showing how the refinery areas here would be out of sync on ozone under the new policies.

Gawd!

[greeneyes-rpi.livejournal.com]

GWBs environmental policy makes the baby Jesus cry. His mother should be ashamed.

[kcarp.livejournal.com]

I thought it as *pinkeye* that made baby Jesus cry...

Oh wait--that's from the acid rain?

[(Anonymous)]

The EU's environmental standards are some of the most stringent in the world - however, 40% of their cars on the road run on diesel. For some unknown reason, our EPA's been attacking the diesel industry in the US for the past few years. The most recent tightening of smog standards killed diesel engine sales in the US for a couple of years. (not to mention diesel smog is so heavy that it mostly ends up back on the road and ultimately water treatment plants). Instead of pushing for more reliable and more efficient combustion engines (like the diesel --- hybrids and ethanols are a joke to everyone except politicians that have absolutely no knowledge of these technologies), the EPA goes behind our backs and makes it harder to get 50mpg cars that run for 1/2 a million miles without needing much more than an oil change. Here's a stat for you - if a third of the cars in our country were diesel, our oil consumption would be decreased by about the same amount that we import from Iran.

bush is an idiot

[(Anonymous)]

Bush always talks about 'accountability." He should be accountable for his incompetence on a variety of issues and be subject to being FIRED for poor job performance just like anyone else is!.