It’s amazing how quickly our first installed president has managed to dismantle environmental protection without a mandate from the American citizenry. Here’s a quick recap:
- Proposed allowing oil companies to drill on protected land, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the coast of Florida
- Backed out of the Kyoto Treaty, an international effort to reduce global warming
- Overturned a rule regulating arsenic in drinking water, then reversed himself under pressure from the citizenry, but delayed “right to know” laws
- Refused to reauthorize the Superfund tax, allowing corporations to shirk the financial responsibility associated with the cleanup of Superfund sites they polluted
- Failed to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, something he promised during his campaign
- Blocked a Clinton administration rule that would require air-conditioners to be 30% more efficient
- Cut the federal renewable energy research budget by 50%
- Suspended hard rock mining regulations, allowing corporations to avoid financial liability for violating anti-pollution laws
Yesterday, the administration of Bush the Lesser proposed relaxing the part of the Clean Air Act that requires power companies to install pollution controls when they renovate their generation plants. For years, the power companies have been trying to get the rules relaxed and now they’ve found the chump to do it for them.
0 responses. Comments closed for this article.