Laptop Battery Tripling allowable levels of mercury pollution, shifting the burden of toxic clean up from polluters to taxpayers, and undoing rules for cleaning up America's dirtiest power plants topped a laundry list of Bush administration exploits to weaken decades environmental progress in 2003.
"Third and fourth generation family farmers can't enjoy their backyards, sometimes can't even leave their houses, due to the toxic gases coming from the manure in these industrial feedlots. Knowing that these animal factories are a major source of toxic pollution, why is the Bush administration cutting secret deals cut behind closed doors and letting polluting animal factories off the hook from their responsibility to obey clean air and clean water laws " asked Pat Gallagher, Sierra Club's Director of Environmental Law.
Thinkpad "The Bush administration is systematically turning back 30 years of environmental progress," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club executive director. "You really have to go back to the McKinley administration in the late 19th century to find so many gratuitous giveaways to special interests looking to exploit our air, water, and natural areas. Americans want a 21st century administration that can deliver forward-thinking environmental solutions."
An environmental group sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday for delays in forcing power plants and other large air polluters in Georgia to clean up emissions. The suit, filed by the Sierra Club in Atlanta's U.S. District Court, says the EPA has dragged its feet for nearly two years on setting pollution limits in the state. "They should have done it a long time ago, " said Curtis Cox, an attorney with the Georgia Center for Law in the Public Interest who is representing the Sierra Club.
Microsoft The Sierra Club surveyed subscribers of RAW, the organization's twice-weekly electronic newsletter tracking the Bush administration's environmental record, to determine the worst-of-the-worst decisions affecting public health and the environment. Mercury pollution, toxic cleanup, and soot and smog registered as the greatest concerns, from a list that also included oil drilling on sensitive lands, a secret amnesty deal for giant factory farms, and lax environmental enforcement, among others.
But Mr. Bush' protection angered environmental leaders. Allen Mattison, a spokesman for the Sierra Club, warned that Mr. Bush's plan might "open the door to runaway logging" in areas that are now protected.
Laptop Computers The survey also found that the public is largely unaware of the broad scope of the Bush administration's assaults on the nation's air, water and lands, Pope said. Many respondents expressed surprise that they haven't heard more about the administration's environmental record from mainstream media.
Daniel F. Becker, the director of the Sierra Club's global warming and energy program, said the FreedomCar was reminiscent of a Clinton administration program that spent more than $ efficient cars but failed to produce any for sale. "It is a sham program, " he said, "merely designed to create the impression that Detroit and the Bush administration are moving toward clean cars when they have no such intention."
Laptop Computer "Trying to limit my vote to three big ones is beyond difficult," wrote one RAW reader in a typical response. "This administration is doing more damage than the Reagan & Bush Sr. ones did. And I didn't think that was even possible! Thank you for making the effort to educate Americans about what this administration is really doing to this country!"
Well, the conference came and went. No action was taken by the elder George Bush and his administration. Since then, there have been several promises, and much rhetoric, but little action. The current Bush administration seems commited to ignoring the threat. This is illustrated by the recent report that certain groups within the administration cut out a long and comprehensive section on the dangers posed by rising global temperatures that was to be contained in a new Environmental Protection Agency report.
Desktop Computer The full list of 2003 Bush administration actions, ranked according to the survey response, appears below. To subscribe to RAW, visit http://www.sierraclub.org/raw.
Notebooks 1. MERCURY RISING - Issued public health warnings to pregnant women and children about mercury after announcing policy changes to triple amount of mercury pollution allowed from power plants.
Lenovo 2. SUPER DUPED - Became first administration to support shifting burden of Superfund toxic waste cleanups from polluters to taxpayers.
Hard Drive 3. SOOTY SANTA - Dismantled provision of Clean Air Act that requires oldest, dirtiest power plants and refineries to curb soot and smog pollution.
Travelstar 4. BACK IN BLACKOUT - Proposed a national Energy Bill that did nothing to reduce dependence on foreign oil, repair or address antiquated electricity grid, or protect special places from oil and gas drilling.
Gateway 5. DRILLING WILDERNESS - Opened nearly 9 million pristine acres in Northwest Alaska to the oil and gas industry for exploration and drilling.
Laptop Parts 6. STONEWALLING, BIG TIME (tied)- Continued to withhold documents from secret meetings between Bush/Cheney Energy Task Force and energy industry lobbyists.
Software 6. DON'T AX, DON'T TELL (tied) - Promoted a wildfire policy that expanded commercial logging in the backcountry but did little to protect people where they live.
Hard Drives 7. NEXT STOP, SHINOLA - Allowed untreated sewage to be blended with treated sewage, cut funding for local sewage treatment, and didn't require health officials to warn public about sewage in water.
Electronics 8. CRITICAL CONDITION - Obliterated the process of critical habitat designation for imperiled wildlife under the Endangered Species Act.
Canon 9. COP OFF - Continued pattern of willful negligence for enforcement of even basic clean water and clean air laws.
Desktop Pc 10. POST 9/11 LIES - Discovered by EPA Inspector General to have lied about post 9/11 environmental health hazards near Ground Zero.
Desktop Computers 11. ROAD WARRIOR - Expanded the legal loophole that allows obnoxious road claims through federally protected wilderness, national parks, and public lands.
Think Pad 12. HOG WASH - Secretly negotiated backroom deal to exempt giant animal factories from laws governing air and toxic pollution.
Repair 13. POLLUTED LOGIC - Refused to classify industrial carbon emissions, linked to global warming, as an official pollutant under the Clean Air Act.
Data Recovery 14. HOT AIR - Proposed fantasy hydrogen power initiative to improve auto fuel efficiency rather than promoting more proven technologies like gas-electric hybrids.
Cisco 15. ESTATE TOX - Ended a 25-year ban on the sale of PCB-laden real estate.
Keyboard Contact: Eric Antebi, 415-977-5747
Monitor Sierra Club - 12/23/2003
Topic: White House
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