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Environment

BOMBSHELL! To Aid Campaign, White House Delayed Release of Environmentally Devastating Pro-Oil Industry Proposals
25-Oct-04
Environment

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "Almost hidden in the news about U.S. crude oil prices hitting a record $50 per barrel was the sudden postponement of a gov report on how to boost U.S. oil-refining capacity. Fearful of inviting campaign controversy, the release of a report eagerly awaited by the oil industry and environmentalists alike has been delayed by the administration until after the election. The National Petroleum Council report to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham reportedly contains a number of suggestions like easing environmental regulations for oil refineries, which is not particularly surprising, considering the strong oil industry ties of the Bush White House. However, when the EPA allegedly raised objections to some of the group's recommendations to roll back some clean air and water rules to allow the oil industry to build more refineries or expand existing ones, the government advisory panel abruptly canceled a Sept. 30 meeting to release its report."

In Michigan, Environment a hot topic
18-Oct-04
Environment

" . . . being the green candidate is a tough sell for Bush in Michigan. Environmental groups blame him for stalling plans that sought to protect lakes from mercury, safeguard roadless areas in forests and clean up contaminated lands. Critis say the president has used subtle, behind-the-scenes tactics like administrative rule making to slow cleanups and benefit corporate interests. A Knight-Ridder analysis of pollution during the Bush term suggests backsliding on environmental protections. Of 14 pollution indicators, nine showed a worsening trend during the Bush term, including fewer federal criminal actions against polluters and a 52 percent drop in the Superfund toxic waste cleanups."

Bush EPA Helped Utilities Across Nation Hide Dangerous Lead Levels in Drinking Water
05-Oct-04
Environment

Newsday: "Dozens of the nation's largest drinking water utilities have tried to hide lead contamination and failed to correct problems, it was reported Tuesday. An examination of 65 of the 3,000 largest utilities found cities such as Philadelphia, Boston, New York City, Providence, R.I., and Portland, Ore., are 'manipulating the results of tests used to detect lead in water, violating federal law and putting millions of Americans at risk,' The Washington Post said. State and federal regulators helped utilities avoid expensive ways of reducing lead in drinking water, the paper said. Problems with lead in drinking water surfaced in 2002 for thousands of residents in Washington, D.C., but only gained widespread attention this year." This means that for NEARLY TWO YEARS, Millions, collectively, have been consuming lead-laced water, while the Bush EPA looked the other way.

Bush Assaults the World's Oceans Even as His Own Experts Warns of Dire Consequences
21-Sep-04
Environment

Common Dreams: "The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, a panel appointed by Bush [warned that] the oceans are in peril and overfishing is a primary factor contributing to the collapse of entire ocean ecosystems. "The Bush administration is trying to water down protections against overfishing - exactly the opposite of today's recommendations." said Matt Rand of Conserve Our Ocean Legacy Campaign." Bush is working to weaken Nat'l Standard 1, which is absolutely critical to insuring healthy ocean ecosystems, a standard that governs all fishery activity in U.S. waters. The standard prohibits fishermen from driving fish populations toward extinction through overfishing and requires rebuilding of already diminished fish populations. "

No Day at the Beach: How the Bush Administration is Eroding Coastal Protection
02-Sep-04
Environment

Sierra Club has released a new report that details how the Bush regime has undermined the safety and beauty of America's 95,000 miles of America's coasts. Thanks to Bush, our beaches may go from sites of natural beauty and recreation to toxic sludge zones. Among the growing threats: mercury, fertilizer and sewage pollution; oil and gas development in sensitive coastal areas; destruction of coastal wild lands and wetlands, and the use of some beaches for military target practice. "The report uncovers several disturbing patterns of decision-making by the Bush administration when it comes to coastal policies. Among them are a steady erosion of general environmental protections, cuts in funding for coastal and environmental protection programs, subsidizing pollution and corporate welfare, and manipulation or suppression of science."

Thanks to Bush, Toxic Mercury Pollution of Rivers Increased by 60% in from 2002-2003
25-Aug-04
Environment

Sierra Club: "Today the EPA announced in its 2003 National Listing of Fish and Wildlife Advisories that 766,872 miles of America's rivers and 13,068,990 lake acres are contaminated with so much poisonous mercury that the fish aren't safe to eat -- that is a more than 60% increase for river miles and an 8% increase for lake acres since the 2002 report. "This increase is astounding considering that the technology exists right now that would put us on the road to cleaning up 90% of toxic mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants by 2008. As America's waters get more contaminated, the Bush administration continues dragging its feet, even endorsing a plan that would delay cleaning up mercury emissions from power plants for at least a decade and setting targets so weak that the industry will be allowed to emit THREE TIMES MORE more mercury after 2018." This is CRIMINAL!

Skyrocketing Rates of Degenerative Brain Disorders Blamed on Chemical Pollutants - The Ones Bush Policy is Increasing
23-Aug-04
Environment

Guardian: "The numbers of sufferers of brain diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and motor neurone disease, have soared across the West in less than 20 years. The alarming rise, has been linked to rises in levels of pesticides, industrial effluents, domestic waste, car exhausts and other pollutants, says a report in the journal Public Health. The report covered the incidence of brain diseases in the UK, US, Japan, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Spain in 1979-1997. The researchers then compared death rates for the first three years of the study period with the last three, and discovered that dementias - mainly Alzheimer's, but including other forms of senility - more than trebled for men and rose nearly 90 per cent among women in England and Wales. All the other countries were also affected." We can just imagine what the rates here in the US will be if Dubya is reelected - and there won't even be an hope of treatment with stem cells, either.

Court Averts Bush's Attempt to Rip Protections from Dolphins
10-Aug-04
Environment

EEN: "Federal Judge Thelton Henderson, in the case Earth Island Institute v. Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans, noted that the US Commerce Department's weakening of the 'Dolphin-safe' label on tuna cans illegally ignored scientific evidence and must be overturned. He ordered the issuance of a new rule prohibiting the use of a 'Dolphin-safe' label on any tuna products caught by netting dolphins. David Phillips of E.I.I. stated: 'Thankfully, the courts have averted a disaster for dolphins. Judge Henderson's ruling exposes the Bush Administration's deceit in ignoring its own scientists and caving in to Mexican demands to allow dolphin-deadly tuna back into US with a phony label.' Phillips continued: 'Secret court documents proved that the government knew all along that netting dolphins was jeopardizing their very survival. Yet the Bush Administration still went ahead and ruled that tuna trade with Mexico was more important than dolphin lives.' "

35 Senators Protest Bush's Scheme to Trash 20 Million Precious Wetland Acres
09-Aug-04
Environment

Common Dreams: "Wisconsin Senator Russell Feingold (D) and 34 of his colleagues sent letters to Bush asking him to withdraw a Clean Water Act policy directive issued in January 2003 that stripped environmental protections from streams, wetlands and lakes. The policy-initiated through a joint memorandum issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -directs federal officials to ignore Clean Water Act environmental safeguards over many kinds of wetlands, streams, and other waters unless they first get permission from their national headquarters in Washington, DC [what a joke!!]. The policy leaves more than 20 millions of acres of wetlands and as much as 60% of the nations' streams without any federal protections."

Bush, the 'Toxic President', Gets a Big Fat F in Sierra Club Superfund Report
27-Jul-04
Environment

"The Bush administration's failure to protect Americans' health from toxic waste pollution is documented in this new report on the Superfund toxic waste cleanup program released today by the Sierra Club. The report breaks down state-by-state the Superfund sites across the country where human exposure to toxic pollution and groundwater pollution is either not under control or where insufficient data on threats exist. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) performance indicators that show that the task of protecting people's health and water supplies from toxic chemical contamination is far from complete. The report finds that human exposure to health-threatening chemicals is not under control at 111 Superfund sites. At another 199 Superfund sites, EPA has insufficient data to determine if migration of groundwater pollution is under control [their own little 'don't ask don't tell' program].

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Warns that the Environment - Home to Us All - is the Single Most Important Issue
19-Jul-04
Environment

In an in-depth interview with Amanda Griscom of Grist, RFK, Jr. reminds us of the number one issue on the board in 2004 is the environment. Destroy that, says Kennedy, and all else becomes irrelevant. Strong regulations and "reconstruction" from past damage is required but, says Kennedy: "I think the environmental issue has ultimately got to be a spiritual issue and a moral issue. I believe we are hardwired to destroy the planet. We are hardwired to compete, to consume, and ultimately that biological urge can only be transcended with a spiritual fire. People have got to recognize that the obligation to the rest of the planet is a moral issue and it demands self-sacrifice and it demands sublimating our biological drives, which otherwise guide most of our decision making."

Bush Hands EVERY ACRE of America's Last Unspoiled Wildlands to the Logging Industry
12-Jul-04
Environment

Statement by Philip Clapp, President of the National Environmental: "This is the biggest single giveaway to the timber industry in the history of the national forests. The day the Administration's proposal takes effect, every acre of the remaining untouched 30 percent of the national forests will lose protection from logging, mining and oil drilling. Allowing governors to petition to protect national forest lands in their states is a meaningless fig leaf. Everybody -- you, me, or the guy on the next corner -- can already petition the Bush Administration about anything we want. The Administration's proposal doesn't give governors any more power to protect national forests in their states than they already have now. Last time I looked, the right to petition the government was still part of the Constitution, not some special new right the Bush Administration is creating in this rule." Call your Congressperson at (202)224-3121!

Bush Overturns the Most Popular Conservation Initiative in Forest Service History to Help Logging Industry
12-Jul-04
Environment

"In a stunning setback for protection of wild forests, today the Bush administration announced that it is proposing to replace the landmark national Roadless Area Conservation Rule with a state-by-state petition process. Under this proposal, individual governors may ask the Bush administration to identify or modify the management of roadless areas in their state-with no guarantee that the Forest Service will take action. The Roadless Rule, finalized in January 2001, was the most popular rulemaking undertaken in Forest Service history. It was designed to protect our last wild forests from road construction and most logging. Despite the widespread public support for roadless area protection, the administration is now proposing to eliminate the Roadless Rule, leaving these special places with no more protection-and perhaps less-than existed before the rule was introduced."

Overall Budget for National Parks Slashed, while Logging Industry (via Bush's 'Fire Control' scam) Given $231 Million
21-Jun-04
Environment

If you listened to Washington Journal on C-SPAN on June 21, then you would have heard Bush's top National Parks toady Fran Mainella mapping out the 'Bush vision" for our (OUR!) national wildlands: snowmobiles in wilderness areas, oil drilling in Big Cypress and other endangered habitats, paved roads in roadless areas (despite overwhelming public outcry against this). The GOP-led House appropriations for the Dept. of the Interior (National Parks is under it) reflects the Bush vision: an overal budget that is slashed, including funds for acquiring and protecting new lands, with the only big increase being Bush's 'National Fire Plan," which is, in essence, a stealth giveaway to the logging industry.

'Nasty Surprises Bill' Would Block Communities from Obtaining Information on Energy Operations
14-Jun-04
Environment

US Newswire: "Congress is considering hobbling public and regulatory oversight of the energy industry under the guise of promoting renewable energy, conservationists warned today. The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote tomorrow or Wednesday on HR 4513, which would drastically curtail the amount of information that energy regulators would release to the public about hydropower dams, garbage incinerators, ethanol facilities, pipelines, transmission corridors, and possibly even mines and oil wells"This bill should be called the 'nasty surprises' bill," Fahlund said. "If it becomes law, a lot of people are going to wake up to proposals for municipal waste incinerators in their neighborhoods, dams in their rivers, ethanol depots next to their schools, and even oil rigs off of their coastlines, and they won't be able to say much about it."

Pentagon Backpedaling on Proposed Plan to Gut Environmental Programs
28-May-04
Environment

Newsday: "The Army is backpedaling on plans to cut contracts and environmental programs and spend the savings on the war effort after Pentagon officials said it could make cuts in other budget areas. The Army's about-face came after The Associated Press reported earlier Thursday details of a memorandum that instructed base commanders to shift money out of environmental programs. "We will be able to continue all the environmental programs, the summer hires and particularly the force protection ... that we previously thought we would have to defer," said a Pentagon spokesman. For once, the press actually did its job!

Kerry, Jeffords and 8 Dems Help Clean Air Trust Challenge Bush's Gutting of the Clean Air Act
18-May-04
Environment

"The Clean Air Trust is joining 10 United States senators in a legal brief protesting the Bush administration's illegal changes to new source review, a key part of the Clean Air Act...The brief points out that the Bush administration can't change the law through a regulation just because it doesn't like the law. As we know, the Bush administration has tried to change the law on behalf of its industry friends, but hasn't made a persuasive case to Congress." The Senators acting as friends of the court are Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton, Charles E. Schumer, Jon S. Corzine, Patrick J. Leahy , Barbara Boxer, Frank R. Lautenberg, John F. Kerry, Christopher J. Dodd, and Jack Reed, and Independent James Jeffords (who might be a better non-Dem choice than McCain as VP candidate for Kerry).

Bush Cops Bogus 'Wetlands Restoration' Photo Op
24-Apr-04
Environment

Up until last December when the outcry from the public and scientists became so intense that he was forced to back off, Bush wanted to open 20 million acres of wetlands to developers and other exploiters. He hoped to do this by changing the classification from wetlands to (in essence) "fair game." He has personally stepped in and aided and abetted developers in bids to trash selected wetlands. For example, the Bush Administration approved a housing project that would destroy hundreds of wetland acres at the headwaters of the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Florida. But now Bush is copping a series of photo ops, including one in Maine and one in FLA, that depicts him as an advocate of wetlands restoration. Could there be anything lower? Yep - the media who lets him get away with it!

Outsiders Defeated in Sierra Club Voting
23-Apr-04
Environment

NY Times: "After weeks of highly publicized warnings that anti-immigration outsiders were trying to take over the venerable Sierra Club, the club's members on Wednesday overwhelmingly supported all five candidates put forward by the group's formal nominating committee. The three candidates whose participation became the focal point of the controversy were former Gov. Richard Lamm of Colorado, a prominent critic of immigration policies; David Pimentel, a noted Cornell University entomologist; and Frank Morris, the former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. But the three finished at least 95,000 votes behind the winners, placing 11th, 12th and 15th in the race that had a total of 17 candidates for the five three-year terms."

New Report Reveals the Environmental Damage Wrought by Bush, State by State
22-Apr-04
Environment

US PIRG: "In a country that takes great pride in its entrepreneurial spirit, [environmental problems] should inspire our leaders to look for immediate solutions. Instead, the Bush administration has taken the opposite course-looking for opportunities to weaken, not strengthen, our environmental laws and please its allies in the oil, chemical, timber, electric utility, mining and other polluting industries. Each state in the Union will share the burden of the Bush administration's policies to weaken environmental protections; this report, by no means exhaustive, details some of the administration's harmful proposals and reveals how states will experience the very real, very local effects of these actions."

National Council of Churches Blasts Bush's Environmental Failures
22-Apr-04
Environment

ENN: "A national group of Christian leaders is sending a scathing letter to Bush to coincide with Earth Day, accusing his administration of chipping away at the Clean Air Act. 'In a spirit of shared faith and respect, we feel called to express grave moral concern about your 'Clear Skies' initiative, which we believe is The Administration's continuous effort to weaken critical environmental standards to protect God's creation,' the council wrote. The New York-based group, which represents 50 million people in 140,000 Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox denominations, said it was sending its two-page letter to the president on Thursday, as people all over the country celebrate Earth Day'."

Sierra Club Releases Book Detailing Bush Destruction of 100 Years of Environmental Progress
21-Apr-04
Environment

"Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress" has just been released by Sierra Club, which has this to say about the subject: "What we are witnessing now is something larger even than the gutting of the Clean Air Act, abandonment of endangered species, selling out public lands to loggers and oilmen, and allowing polluting industries to write the regulations. The Bush administration seeks nothing less than to overturn the consensus on natural-resource policy that developed from the time of Theodore Roosevelt through the end of the Clinton administration. In place of government as the steward and protector of our nation's natural heritage, Bush and his political allies want to restore the nineteenth-century tradition of government as coconspirator in the economic exploitation of that heritage. Their sights are firmly set on dismantling a century of environmental progress."

Under Bush, US is Perpetrating an Environmental Holocaust
11-Apr-04
Environment

"The enforcement of environmental laws and the penalties and citations levied for violation of those laws have all decreased dramatically under Bush. Proposals and orders from the White House... reduce protection of public lands, hand over natural resources to corporate interests, and turn back the clock on decades-long efforts to curb pollution. Most notable have been efforts to gut the Clean Air and Water Acts and the National Environmental Protection Act. The impact of weakening domestic environmental laws can also be felt globally. For example, the easing of restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants boosts the already disproportionately high U.S. contribution to climate change. The feckless opening up of national forests to logging and mining destroys habitat for migratory birds, marine mammals, and other species, reducing biodiversity from north to south." So writes Daniel Magraw, Center for International Environmental Law.

60 Minutes Exposes Bush's Coverup of a Massive Toxic Spill
02-Apr-04
Environment

"A government whistle-blower says the Bush administration covered up the reasons for a toxic coal slurry spill in Appalachia that ranks among the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. Jack Spadaro [says] political appointees whitewashed a report that said an energy company that had contributed to the Republican Party was responsible for the 300-million gallon spill... Spadaro... played a key role in investigating the spill, which was 25 times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. 'It polluted 100 miles of streams, killing everything in the streams, all the way to the Ohio River... The Bush administration came in and the scope of our investigation was considerably shortened. I had never seen something so corrupt and lawless in my entire career...interference with a federal investigation of the most serious environmental disaster in the history of the Eastern US.' "

Betrayed by an Oil Giant
25-Mar-04
Environment

"Shortly after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, a senior Exxon representative visited the devastated fishing communities of southern Alaska and promised them the company would do everything in its power to restore their livelihoods and 'make them whole.' 'We're Exxon, we do it right..Exxon, whose net income for 2003 is expected to top $21bn, has not paid out a penny of the $5bn in damages originally awarded to the fishing communities a decade ago, launching appeal after appeal and deluging the courts with paperwork. Despite intensive clean-up efforts, Prince William Sound remains polluted by large oil deposits that have destroyed its herring fisheries and wreaked havoc with the once-flourishing wildlife...They are making all these promises about treading with a light footprint and respecting the environment if they open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration, yet they refuse to settle up on a mess they've already made,' Dune Lankard said."

Bush Deals Yet Another Blow to America's Environment
24-Mar-04
Environment

Even while having his total lack of regard for American safety unmasked by testimony before the 9/11 commission, Bush is showing his flagrant disregard for America's environment. Common Dreams reports: "The Bush administration dealt a blow today to Pacific Northwest forests, wildlife, and Americans who value these ancient forests. Trashing the important Survey and Manage component of the Pacific Northwest Forest Plan removes a vital check from the process of balancing the uses of the forests and will increase old growth logging and damage vital wildlife habitat. The administration also weakened the Aquatic Conservation Strategy component of the plan which, along with Survey and Manage, represent the two key ecological pillars on which Northwest forest protections were based."

Proposal to Limit World Bank Fossil-Fuel Investments Sparks Controversy
24-Mar-04
Environment

Grist Magazine: "The World Bank has not yet officially responded to an independent report released last year that recommends it cease investing in oil and coal projects, but that hasn't stopped industry and enviro leaders from taking sides in a fierce debate over the matter... Leaked drafts indicate that the bank is likely to reject the report's most controversial recommendations while adopting some of less contentious. Large African mining companies, international banks, and governments of developing nations are protesting that economic development would be stunted if the bank curtailed funding for fossil-fuel projects. On the other side, a host of enviros and at least six Nobel laureates are advocating adoption of all of the report's recommendations. Though the bank itself is not a huge investor, its decision will have big consequences because most of the world's major banks have pledged to follow its practices."

EPA Insiders Say Bush Let Polluters Write Toxic Release Regulations
17-Mar-04
Environment

"Political appointees in the EPA bypassed agency professional staff and a federal advisory panel last year to craft a rule on mercury emissions preferred by the industry and the White House, several longtime EPA officials say. They were told not to undertake the normal scientific and economic studies called for under a standing executive order...while the proposal to regulate mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants was written using key language provided by utility lobbyists." Mercury, one of the most toxic elements, bioaccumulates in the environment and may lead to severe central nervous system damage, birth defects and other horrific health problems. Within hours of this story hitting the paper, the White House issued this coverup statement: http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=113-03172004

How Industry Won the Battle of Pollution Control at E.P.A.
06-Mar-04
Environment

"Just six weeks into the Bush administration, Haley Barbour, a former Republican party chairman who was a lobbyist for electric power companies, sent a memorandum to Vice President Dick Cheney laying down a challenge. 'The question is whether environmental policy still prevails over energy policy with Bush-Cheney, as it did with Clinton-Gore,' Mr. Barbour wrote, and called for measures to show that environmental concerns would no longer 'trump good energy policy.' Mr. Barbour's memo was an opening shot in a two-year fight inside the Bush administration for dominance between environmental protection and energy production on clean air policy. One camp included officials, like Mr. Cheney, who came from the energy industry. In another were enforcers of environmental policy, led by Christie Whitman, a former Republican governor of New Jersey."

Lead Fears Force D.C. to Expand Response
03-Mar-04
Environment

WashPost reports: "District residents concerned about lead contamination can have their blood tested for free at D.C. General Hospital beginning this morning, and water filters will be distributed to hundreds of day-care centers by next week, city officials announced yesterday. In addition, a team of water-quality experts is proposing to add a chemical to the system serving some city neighborhoods. The treatment, which would begin June 1 and expand if successful, is designed to reduce the lead content. The combined actions represent a far more aggressive response to ongoing public health concerns related to the discovery last summer that thousands of homes have water with lead levels above the federal safety limit."

Bush Junk Science: Missouri River Conservation Plan Draws Fire from All Sides
02-Mar-04
Environment

Environmental News Network reports: "In what may become one of the largest federally funded habitat construction programs in the country's history, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Friday unveiled a 30-year, $1.3 billion plan to restore the Missouri River. Initial reaction indicated the plan satisfied no one involved in a years-long dispute over the future of the historic river, including environmentalists, farm and barge shipping interests and states that rely on the water." The original recommendations by scientists who had studied the river for a decade, was thrown out by Bush; the researchers were fired and replaced by handpicked, less experienced "researchers" unfamiliar with the species in question OR the Missouri river. (see http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=144-11052003)

Sensitive Wildlife Habitats Auctioned to Bush Contributors, Environmentalists Say
01-Mar-04
Environment

"The Bush administration has moved ahead with its plan to auction oil and gas leases on environmentally sensitive lands in Utah, reaping millions of dollars from broad swaths of lands near a national monument. A detailed analysis of the leases auctioned to date, conducted by the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy group that opposed the leases, found that they encompass dozens of critical wildlife habitats that are now open for development. In many cases, the leases were purchased by contributors to President Bush's reelection campaign."

Bush's EPA Want to Release Raw Sewage into New Jersey's Waterways
25-Feb-04
Environment

"Environmental groups on Tuesday attacked a proposal by the Bush Administration they said would allow millions of gallons of half-treated sewage to flow into the state's waterways. The Environmental Protection Agency is looking to let sewer plants release a blend of untreated waste and processed sewage during heavy rains or snow. Often plants functioning near capacity are swamped during severe storms, causing storage tanks to overflow and spill raw sewage into bodies of water. Virtually all of New Jersey's coastline and bays and all inland waterways would be subject to higher levels of pollution if the EPA plan is approved, said 26 organizations that signed a letter to the EPA on Tuesday... 'Pretty soon if it goes through we'll be saying 'Welcome to New Jersey, don't drink the water,'' said Kelly McNicholas of the New Jersey Sierra Club. 'These rules would allow contaminants found in the Third World to come through our taps at First World prices.'"

Was the Anti-Environmental Pryor Appointed to 'Fix Things' for Bush's Corporate Pals?
21-Feb-04
Environment

In a desperate effort to stack America's justice system before he is given the boot in November, Dubya used the cover of a five-day Senate recess to appoint William Pryor for one year to the vital US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which decides the fate of environmental and other safeguards in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama... Pryor's nomination repeatedly failed to gain confirmation from the Senate. "Pryor has taken extreme stances against the role of government in protecting the environment, even standing alone among the 50 state attorneys general in challenging the constitutionality of basic public health and wildlife safeguards," said GlennSugameli of EarthJustice. Bush's move proves that he "has no respect for the rights of American citizens to challenge polluters and other lawbreakers." The whole scheme is designed to give Bush's polluting corporate pals a whole year to trash the southern environment without consequences.

How the White House Shelved MTBE Ban
17-Feb-04
Environment

AP: "The Bush administration quietly shelved a proposal to ban a gasoline additive that contaminates drinking water in many communities, helping an industry that has donated more than $1 million to Republicans... The proposed regulation said the environmental harm of the additive leaching into ground water overshadowed its beneficial effects to the air... At the direction of White House chief of staff Andrew Card and Mitch Daniels, then the White House's budget director, all government agencies withdrew their pre-Inauguration Day draft regulations. The EPA withdrew agency rules, including the MTBE one, in mid-February 2001, White House budget office spokesman Chad Kolton said. In subsequent months, agencies rewrote many Clinton-era regulatory proposals and went public with them. The proposed MTBE regulation, however, never surfaced."

Cap 'n' Trade Cut 'n' Paste
02-Feb-04
Environment

Grist Magazine: "If new rules proposed by the Bush administration to cut power-plant mercury emissions sound like they were written by industry lobbyists, it's only because, well, they kinda were. The proposal, released by the EPA on Friday for a 60-day public comment period, contains at least 12 paragraphs lifted almost verbatim from memorandums sent to the EPA by Latham & Watkins, a top Washington corporate environmental law firm. EPA spokespersons dismissed the plagiarism as an innocent interagency mix-up; the writer of the L&W memos called it 'gratifying.' Enviros criticized the EPA proposal, which would put in place a cap-and-trade system that would let plants buy and sell mercury pollution credits and would not require plants to use the best available technology to clean up their emissions. The EPA claims the new program will reduce mercury emissions by nearly 70% by 2018; until then, you best hope you live near plants that are selling rather than buying the right to pollute."

Bushwhacking Mother Nature: US Environmental Destruction Abroad
31-Jan-04
Environment

Heather Wokusch writes: "While some German politicians are worried about the closing of US military bases in their regions, others fear nasty surprises will surface after the Americans depart. The United States has consistently valued military power more than the environment - but at what price? Some in the White House argue that US national interests transcend greenie niceties, and this certainly was the case with Bush's 3-day stay at Buckingham Palace last year. US security forces trashed the Royal Gardens, historic statues and even the palace itself in an effort to provide the best environment for the president. The Queen's ensuing outrage didn't seem to bother Washington: if US self-protection mandates despoiling a patch of land far away, then so be it. The issue of US military bases overseas arouses similar conflicts... Yet another black mark in the US environmental record abroad concerns toxic weaponry dumped on countries such as Afghanistan."

EPA to Reduce Monitoring of Smokestack Emissions
26-Jan-04
Environment

KRT: "The Bush administration on Thursday issued a new federal rule that limits pollution testing and will likely make it harder for state and federal regulators to monitor pollution from some industrial smokestacks. Fewer air polluters are likely to be caught if government agencies measure emissions from smokestacks less often, which critics say will happen under the new rule limiting a tool used by environmental cops... 'This regulatory rollback would make oversight and enforcement by states, the EPA and citizens extremely difficult, if not virtually impossible,' Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts and Vermont said in a formal objection to a court settlement preceding the rule... A Knight Ridder database analysis of 15 years of enforcement records at the EPA found that the Bush administration has cut enforcement of air pollution rules nearly in half."

Bush-Norton Implement Plan to Open Alaska to More Oil, Gas Development
26-Jan-04
Environment

AP: "Interior Secretary Gale Norton signed off on a plan Thursday for opening most of an 8.8 million-acre swath of Alaska's North Slope to oil and gas development. Some of the drilling could occur in areas important for migratory birds, whales and wildlife... [Oil Company-subsidized???] Geologists think the reserve may contain 6 billion to 13 billion barrels of oil... Environmentalists said the management plan threatens the health of Arctic tundra, ponds and lakes that are home to wildlife and migratory birds and provide a vital subsistence hunting and fishing ground for native Alaskans. 'It makes no sense to industrialize this incomparable wilderness area when there's only about six month's worth of economically recoverable oil Oe and it would take at least 10 years to get it to market,' said Charles Clusen, director of the Alaska lands project for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group."

Busheviks Ignored Scientists in Approving Mountaintop Removal
07-Jan-04
Environment

Elizabeth Shogren writes, "Internal government documents show that officials from a variety of agencies unsuccessfully criticized the Bush administration's effort to let coal miners continue the practice of 'mountaintop removal' mining - the leveling of mountain peaks to extract coal - in Appalachia... In mountaintop removal mining, massive machines take off the tops of mountains, extracting coal and depositing leftover rock in valleys. In the two decades since the practice was first used, 724 miles of streams have been buried and 7% of the forests cut down across Appalachia, according to the draft environmental impact statement. The government prepared the statement in 1998 as part of a settlement of a lawsuit filed by people who live near mountaintop mining operations in West Virginia. A preliminary draft prepared by the Clinton administration considered limiting such filling of valleys. But the administration's document, released in May, introduced no new limitations."

Bushevik Brags About Keeping Mercury in America's Air
02-Jan-04
Environment

"Some critics blamed White House political adviser Karl Rove, OMB regulatory experts or Cheney's office for dictating the new policy. In fact, the regulatory turnabout was engineered by Jeffrey Holmstead, the EPA's senior air quality official and a former industry lawyer, who is little known outside a circle of government regulators and utility industry executives. Holmstead had been a scholar with a libertarian group that advocated market solutions to environmental problems and a partner at the Washington law firm Latham & Watkins, which has represented electric power companies and other industries before Congress. He was associate counsel to President George H.W. Bush, with primary focus on environmental issues. Neither Leavitt nor Christine Todd Whitman, when she was EPA administrator, played a significant role in developing the mercury rule backed by Holmstead, although Leavitt became a strong advocate of the overall cap-and-trade approach during last-minute high-level meetings."

Bush's Worst Environmental Exploits of the Year
31-Dec-03
Environment

"Sierra Club readers rank Bush Administration's 2003 attacks on the environment: 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. 2. SUPER DUPED - Became first administration to support shifting burden of Superfund toxic waste cleanups from polluters to taxpayers. 3. SOOTY SANTA - Dismantled provision of Clean Air Act that requires oldest, dirtiest power plants and refineries to curb soot and smog pollution. 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. 5. DRILLING WILDERNESS - Opened nearly 9 million pristine acres in Northwest Alaska to the oil and gas industry for exploration and drilling." Read the other 10!

Bush Opens 300,000 Acres of Alaskan National Forest to Logging
25-Dec-03
Environment

"Reversing a Clinton-era policy, the Bush administration on Tuesday opened 300,000 more acres of Alaska's Tongass National Forest, the nation's largest, to possible logging or other development. The administration will allow 3 percent of the forest's 9.3 million acres that were put off-limits to road-building by former President Clinton, to have roads built on them and perhaps opened to use by the timber industry. The Tongass comprises 16.8 million acres... John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA, accused the Bush administration of 'gutting the last pristine temperate rain forest' in the United States. Tiernan Sittenfeld of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, an advocacy organization, called it 'yet another holiday gift to the timber industry.'"

Bush Gets 'F' on Environmental Scorecard
11-Dec-03
Environment

"The League of Conservation Voters' 2004 Presidential Candidate Profiles takes a detailed look at each of the major presidential candidates' record and position on key environmental issues. With Bush's failing record on the environment, and the pro-environment stances of his major challengers, the choice is clear: removing Bush from office and replacing him with any of these candidates is the best thing we can do for our environment." Among Dems, John Kerry leads with a 96% record, followed by Lieberman (93%), Kucinich (90%), Moseley Braun (80%), Edwards (76%), Gephardt (66%). Clark, Dean and Sharpton do not have Congressional voting records.

Demand an End to Mercury Poisoning in our Air!
10-Dec-03
Environment

US PIRG writes, "Two years ago, the EPA's own scientists said current technologies could achieve a 90 percent reduction of mercury from power plants. But the electric and coal industries are pressing hard to avoid limiting their mercury emissions. On December 2, the EPA's initial proposal to reduce the danger posed by mercury from power plants became public. Instead of protecting mothers and children from mercury poisoning, this proposal protects the energy industry by setting targets so weak that the industry will be allowed to continue polluting without using state of the art mercury controls." Urge EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt to cut mercury emissions from power plants by 90% by 2008.

Bush's Mercury Proposal: More Toxic Pollution for a Longer Time
08-Dec-03
Environment

Bush wants to"downgrade mercury from being regulated as a 'hazardous' pollutant to one that requires less stringent pollution controls. By doing so, EPA's 'cap' would allow nearly seven times more annual mercury emissions for five times longer than current law. Moreover, an emissions trading program would allow 'hot spots' of mercury contamination in the lakes and rivers neighboring the plants that buy pollution credits instead of reducing their mercury emissions. The proposal, an early Christmas gift to the Bush administration's friends in the energy industry, speaks volumes about the administration's unspoken policy toward America's children. Toxic mercury emissions from power plants put 300,000 newborns each year at risk for neurological impairment... Adults also are threatened. Mercury exposure can damage adult cardiovascular and immune systems, and 8% of American women of childbearing age have mercury in their blood above EPA's 'safe' level. That's nearly 5 million women."

Crimes Against Nature: Bush's Assault on Planet Earth by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr
29-Nov-03
Environment

"I am angry both as a citizen and a father. Three of my sons have asthma, and I watch them struggle to breathe on bad-air days. And they're comparatively lucky: One in four African-American children in New York shares this affliction; their suffering is often unrelieved because they lack the insurance and high-quality health care that keep my sons alive. My kids are among the millions of Americans who cannot enjoy the seminal American experience of fishing locally with their dad and eating their catch. Most freshwater fish in New York and all in Connecticut are now under consumption advisories. A main source of mercury pollution in America, as well as asthma-provoking ozone and particulates, is the coal-burning power plants that President Bush recently excused from complying with the Clean Air Act."

Section of Otero Canyon Trails Closed
25-Nov-03
Environment

From Friends of Otero Canyon: "Mountain bikers in the Otero Canyon area, west of Albuquerque, discovered a Kirtland Air Force Base trail closure sign on the morning of November 10, 2003. The sign states, 'Danger: Live Weapons Firing Ranges. Do not enter without permission of the installation commander. Violators will be prosecuted'... This trail closure has effectively closed the door on the public's alternative fence proposal in whole despite its endorsement by Congresswoman Heather Wilson, Congressman Tom Udall, Senator Jeff Bingaman, Bernalillo County, The City of Albuquerque, The Village of Tijeras, and over 1800 individuals who have signed the Friends of Otero online petition... If you would like to share your opinion on this issue, you can contact the Kirtland AFB Commander, Colonel Henry Andrews, directly." Click on the link for the address and more info!

Bush to Open Giant Alaskan Reserve for Drilling
24-Nov-03
Environment

From Reuters: "The U.S. Interior Department will open millions of more acres in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, the department announced late Thursday. The leasing plan makes the vast majority of 8.8 million acres in the northwest portion of the reserve available for drilling... Green groups claim opening the area goes against comments from more than 95,000 Americans and 100 scientists, who asked the department to adopt a drilling plan that balanced development with conservation and protected key wildlife habitat... The reserve is located near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which the Bush administration had sought to open to drilling. Republican writers of a broad energy bill dropped that proposal faced with stiff opposition in the U.S. Senate."

GOP Energy Bill Presents Historic Threat to Environment
24-Nov-03
Environment

From the Environmental Working Group: "Dozens of provisions in the GOP energy bill agreement pending in Congress make it a historic threat to the environment, according to Environmental Working Group (EWG) President Ken Cook. None are more outrageous, however, than the historic provision that would block efforts by states, counties, a school board and even a Catholic chapel to get oil companies to clean up drinking water pollution from the toxic gasoline additive, MTBE."

Bush Destroys Ozone Layer to Steal Florida Again
24-Nov-03
Environment

"George Bush has brought the international treaty aimed at repairing the Earth's vital ozone layer close to breakdown, risking millions of cancers, to benefit strawberry and tomato growers in the electorally critical state of Florida. His administration is insisting on a sharp increase in spraying of the most dangerous ozone-destroying chemical still in use, the pesticide methyl bromide, even though it is due to be phased out under the Montreal Protocol in little more than a year. And it has threatened that the United States could withdraw from the treaty's provisions altogether if its demand is not met. Talks on the unprecedented demand broke down without agreement at the conference in Nairobi this month as US delegates refused to consider any compromise... [This] comes at a critical time for the ozone layer. Scientists had hoped that it would be beginning to heal by now, but this autumn the ozone hole over Antarctica was at near-record levels." Impeach Bush Now!

CLEAR LIES PART 4: Freemarket 'Solutions': Buying Time and Trading Lives for Corporate Cash
19-Nov-03
Environment

Cheryl Seal reports: "Emissions trading schemes only APPEAR to work. In reality, there is no threat of government prosecution or fines if they fail, no method for measuring actual progress - it all gets lost in the accounting shuffle. As with ALL Bush schemes, the poorest, weakest of all Americans will shoulder the burden because trading schemes encourages environmental injustice. In the sulfur dioxide emissions trading scheme ('acid rain program') that Clear Skies is based on, an astounding 42% of all plants actually increased their sulfur dioxide emissions. Since 1995, 300 of the 500 dirtiest plants, which should have been the prime targets of real clean up, have gone from bad to worse. Most of these pollution gushers are in poor and/or nonwhite areas, where pollution was already disproportionately high. In 2002, 71% of African Americans lived in counties that violate federal air pollution standards, compared to 58% of the white population."

14 States Sue the EPA for Trashing the Clean Air Act
19-Nov-03
Environment

"A coalition of 14 states plus the District of Columbia filed papers in federal court today in an effort to stop the EPA from introducing a new rule that will devastate the Clean Air Act and claim tens of thousands of lives from increased air pollution." The 14 states claim the new rule "violates the plain language of the Clean Air Act, conflicts with Congressional intent, and contradicts longstanding court rulings... 'It is a sad day in America when a coalition of states must go to federal court to defend the Clean Air Act against the misguided actions of the federal agency created to protect the environment,' the New York attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, said. 'But in this matter, the E.P.A. is standing with polluters instead of with the people it is supposed to protect, and the states have no choice but to take this action.'"

Congress Set to Approve Most Devastating Rollback to Marine Protections in 30 Years Thanks to Bush Pentagon
17-Nov-03
Environment

"Scientific projects may be able to evade an environmental law designed to protect marine mammals, under legislation nearing passage in Congress. Environmental groups have criticized the weakening of protection for whales, dolphins and sea lions. They fear the species may be damaged by the use of sonar and explosives used in offshore research." The lethal blow to the 30-year-old Marine Mammal Protection Act was included in the DOD's $400-billion 2004 funding bill, approved on 11/7 by the House of Representatives [ruled by Bush-DeLay goons]. The measure now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to win approval [more goons]. An official at environmental group the Natural Resources Defense Council called the move 'the greatest single rollback of marine mammal protections in the last 30 years.'" Why don't we just sign the deed to the whole US right over to the Bush cartel?

Which Fish Should You Eat?
15-Nov-03
Environment

"The Environmental Defense online Seafood Selector features a printable, pocket-sized Best and Worst Seafood Choices list. Print out a copy to carry in your purse or wallet, and give a copy to a friend."

CLEAR LIES PART 2: King Coal: The Sellout of America's Skies
15-Nov-03
Environment

Cheryl Seal writes, "Irl Engelhardt, chairman of the world's largest coal producer, Peabody Coal Co. served as a key advisor on Bush's transition team. On May 21, 2001, in the midst of the rolling blackouts used by Bush to promote the construction of new coal-fired power plants, Peabody issued a public stock offering, raising $60 million more than expected. The same day, Engelhardt threw a $25,000 party for Bush. Shortly thereafter, power plant emissions standards were eased. Around the same time, Bush proposed easing standards for arsenic in drinking water - a change Engelhardt had lobbied for (arsenic is produced in coal mining operations). A year later, Peabody's influence extended to the Supreme Court. In May of 2002, Bush pressed Ashcroft to favor Peabody in a lawsuit brought by the Navajo Nation against. Not surprisingly, the sell-out Supremes ruled in favor of the coal baronsÂ? but anyone who dares complain had better watch their backs."

Bad for the Construction Industry: EPA Moves Away from Enforcement of Emissions Controls
15-Nov-03
Environment

From McGraw-Hill's Construction.com: "Bush administration decision to back away from enforcing certain air pollution rules that determine when powerplants must install new emission controls not only may harm the environment, but will severely hamper the bottom line of construction firms and engineers who retrofit those plants, say industry officials. On Nov. 5 the Environmental Integrity Project, headed by former Environmental Protection Agency enforcement official Eric Schaeffer, said it had learned from senior officials that the agency would drop pending Clean Air Act enforcement actions and not pursue new cases dealing with that statute's New Source Review provisions. The revelation came just one day before former Utah Gov. Michael O. Leavitt was sworn in as the new EPA administrator."

CLEAR LIES: The Dirty, Deadly Truth about the Clear Skies Initiative and the Catastrophic Energy Plan It Seeks to Justify
14-Nov-03
Environment

Cheryl Seal writes: "In 2002, Bush proposed replacing the Clean Air Act with the grotesquely named Clear Skies Initiative. While the Clean Air Act was one of the most important steps toward positive change in the 20th century, the Clear Skies Initiative, if enacted, will be one of the most destructive of the 21st century. The Initiative is, in essence, a litany of lies concocted to justify the Bush-Cheney Energy Bill, which, at this moment, is being shoved down America's throats by Bush's Congressional goons." This five-part series rips apart Bush's lies and manipulations, revealing the very ugly reality beneath them. Extensive resources for activists listed.

Dems Demand Investigation of EPA Greenlight to Air Polluters
08-Nov-03
Environment

"In an about-face, the EPA on Thursday acknowledged that it will apply less stringent pollution standards to cases brought against some utilities for Clean Air Act violations... Democrats called for a probe of the EPA's failure to enforce the previous, stricter rules. They also said the new rules could endanger ongoing cases, where utilities face billions of dollars in dirty air fines. Emissions from coal-fired power plants and refineries can aggravate asthma, chronic bronchitis and pneumonia. Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, asked EPA inspector general Nikki Tinsley to investigate. Schumer, whose state is downwind from large coal-burning utilities in the Midwest, also called on Leavitt to freeze the decision. 'By taking these steps, the EPA is basically telling these power plants that they have carte blanche to pollute at will,' Schumer said. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said the White House policy was intended to 'coddle the big polluters, and the public be damned.'"

Legislation Leaked: White House Plans to Poison the Clean Water Act
07-Nov-03
Environment

LA Times: "Bush administration officials have drafted a rule that would significantly narrow the scope of the Clean Water Act, stripping many wetlands and streams of federal pollution controls and making them available to being filled for commercial development. The rule, spelled out in an internal document provided to The Times by a senior government official, says that Clean Water Act protection would no longer be provided to 'ephemeral washes or streams' that do not have groundwater as a source. Streams that flow for less than six months a year would also lose protection, as would many wetlands, according to the document. State and federal officials have estimated that up to 20 million acres of wetlands, 20% of the wetlands outside of Alaska, could lose protection under a new rule like the one in the draft. The effect would be greater in California and other parts of the arid West, where many streams flow only seasonally or after rain or snowmelts."

Bush's Retaliatory Firing of River Experts Enrages Scientists
05-Nov-03
Environment

A leaked 10/29 memo from Asst. Sec. Craig Manson to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service orders the agency's Missouri River experts to be fired, after they delivered an opinion on the preservation of three endangered species -- that the Bush cartel did not like. They have been replaced by a team of biologists who know nothing about the species or the river. "It's putting pressure on federal scientists to reach politically expedient conclusions, regardless of their scientific validity," said Chad Smith, of American Rivers. The fired researchers' report was endorsed by an independent panel of scientists and by the Nat'l Academy of Sciences. "There is no justifiable reason for replacing a dozen experts with a decade of experience...particularly when distinguished outside scientists have repeatedly said the existing team is getting it right," said Tim Searchinger, attorney for Environmental Defense." Except, of course, revenge.

EPA Office Held a Wake for Clean Air Act on Halloween
03-Nov-03
Environment

Al Kamen reports, "Folks in the general counsel's office at the Environmental Protection Agency had a fun Halloween party Thursday. It was billed as a wake for the Clean Air Act. Acting General Counsel Lisa Jaeger wasn't around, but we're told that about five dozen career staff from the counsel's office and from around the building attended the seventh floor event. There were wanted posters everywhere of Jeffrey R. Holmstead, assistant administrator for air and radiation, sporting a mustache. The posters said: 'Wanted: suspected in the untimely death of C.A. Adams. [CAA is the common shorthand for the Clean Air Act] Reward: $27,500 per violation per day.' Those are the penalties for violations of the CAA."

Congress Fails to Slow Bush Plan to Privatize National Park Jobs, Damaging Road Construction to Continue
29-Oct-03
Environment

"The Department of Interior spending bill that passed the Interior Appropriations conference committee this week reveals Congress's continuing skepticism about the White House's aggressive outsourcing proposal, but does not delay the process. The first privatization studies are expected to look at Park Service jobs at Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco and the Midwest Archaeological Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. Additional studies are slated to begin in the coming year. In addition to allowing privatization to proceed, the Interior bill does not contain park-protective language about RS 2477 offered by the Chairman of the Committee, which an overwhelming majority of the House supported. As a result, national parks and other public lands remain vulnerable to damaging road construction and off-road vehicle use facilitated by this harmful administration policy." Hey, Congressfolks! "Skepticism" won't stop Bush! Stop caving!

12 States Join in Rebellion Against Bush Attempt to Overturn the Clean Air Act
29-Oct-03
Environment

"A group of 12 states has rebelled against Bush and his environmental policies by suing to block changes in the Clean Air Act that will make it easier for industrial plants to upgrade their equipment without paying for anti-pollution devices. The coalition of states, most in the east of the country, downwind of generating plants and refineries in the Midwest, filed the lawsuit this week. They were joined by several cities, including New York, Washington DC and San Francisco. A separate suit was filed by Illinois, and a collection of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, was expected to file its own legal challenge. At issue is a relaxation in regulations put forward by the EPA in December and published on Monday. The plaintiffs claim the amendments will lead to an increase in harmful emissions. "It amounts to a get-out-of-jail-free card for some of the nation's biggest polluters," said Frank O'Donnell of the Clean Air Trust."

Sludge Not Lest Ye Be Sludged
20-Oct-03
Environment

Daily Grist: "Nothing will get in the way of farmers using dioxin-tainted sewage sludge as fertilizer on their crops, thanks to a Bush administration decision announced on Friday. The U.S. EPA declared that it sees no need to regulate dioxins in sewage sludge that is applied to land in the U.S., saying new studies indicate that the practice doesn't pose significant risks to human health or the environment. But many public-health advocates, enviros, and scientists disagree; a panel of the National Research Council determined last year that the government was using outdated science to determine risks from the use of sewage sludge as fertilizer. Dioxins, highly toxic chemical compounds, build up in the fatty tissues of humans and other animals and are known to cause cancer and damage to neurological and immune systems."

Navy Agrees to Restrict Sub-Detecting Sonar
17-Oct-03
Environment

LA Times: "The U.S. Navy has agreed to limit the peacetime use of a new high-intensity sonar to areas including the western Pacific and the Sea of Japan as part of a federal court settlement with conservationists who contend that the sonar may inflict deadly harm on whales, dolphins and other marine animals. In the settlement, released Monday, the Navy has agreed to restrict testing and training missions that involve a new submarine-detecting sonar to waters off North Korea, China, Japan and the Philippines. The Navy previously had won permission to sweep about three-fourths of the world's oceans with the sonar system."

GOP Proposal May End Coastal Drilling Ban
17-Oct-03
Environment

AP: "House Republicans are drafting a proposal that would end the federal ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, while giving states greater say on whether they want energy development in their coastal waters, congressional sources say. The GOP sources said the proposal, being developed by the Republican staff of the House Resources Committee, has yet to be fashioned into formal legislation and hasn't been reviewed by key lawmakers, including the panel's chairman... Some environmentalists viewed the proposal as an attempt to get support for offshore drilling from states with severe budget problems -- even states like California where there is overwhelming political support for the current drilling moratoria but also a budget crunch. Carl Pope, president of the Sierra Club, said there is a 'very strong public sentiment' for continued protection of coastal waters from oil and gas development and that he doubts many states would take the GOP bait. 'This moratoria has pretty deep roots.'"

EPA Official Gave Misleading Testimony on Clean Air, Say Whistleblowers
10-Oct-03
Environment

"Last year, Assistant Administrator for Air Policy Jeffrey Holmstead testified before Congress that Bush administration efforts to ease clean air enforcement rules wouldn't interfere with pending lawsuits against dirty power plants - but two former agency officials say key aides had repeatedly told Holmstead otherwise. The two whistleblowers are Sylvia Lowrance, former acting chief of the EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, and Eric Schaeffer, the former enforcement official who resigned last year to protest Bush administration environmental policies. Holmstead denies that he gave false or misleading testimony. At stake are dozens of enforcement cases brought during the Clinton administration against power plants and refineries for flouting clean-air standards."

Burmese Virgin Forests Vanishing at an Alarming Rate
10-Oct-03
Environment

"Burma's virgin forests are disappearing at the rate of more than a million cubic metres per year to satisfy the voracious appetite for timber in neighbouring China. The environmental group Global Witness has said in a report that the cash-strapped military regime in Rangoon and rebel groups on the border were cutting down teak, mandrake and Chinese coffin trees at an unsustainable rate with disastrous consequences for the environment, the habitat of forest dwellers and the chances for lasting peace in the country. Although Burma has much of the world's last virgin forest - including 60% of the globe's teak trees - it is suffering the fastest deforestation in south-east Asia, itself the worst affected region in the world. The Burmese military junta's oppression of democrats and ethnic minorities has led to international condemnation and economic sanctions."

Attorneys General Accuse HUD of Noncompliance on Pesticide Law
09-Oct-03
Environment

"The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development isn't abiding by a federal law governing pesticide use in public housing projects, according to attorneys general from 10 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Some 1.3 million families are exposed to unsafe levels of pesticides because of HUD's failure to follow the Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, alleged New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who was one of those calling on the department to enforce the law at HUD-funded housing projects. According to a survey conducted by Spitzer's office last year, public housing authorities throughout New York state relied almost exclusively on chemicals, including suspected carcinogens, to combat pest problems. Under federal law, the authorities are supposed to use non-chemical means whenever possible, such as screens and improved sanitation."

Navy Sonar is Causing the Bends in Marine Mammals, Report Says
09-Oct-03
Environment

"Sonar from navy ships appears to be giving whales and other marine mammals the bends, that infamous bane of scuba divers and other deep-sea adventurers, according to a report published in the latest edition of the journal Nature. Researchers from England and Spain found air bubbles in tissues and blood vessels of whales that died in the Canary Islands shortly after a naval exercise in 2002; such bubbles are a sign of the bends, also known as decompression sickness. The researchers offered two hypotheses for how sonar induces the bends: Either it could cause the animals to panic and rise to the surface too quickly (the cause of the bends in humans), or it could directly cause bubble formation on gas nuclei in whale tissues. The findings could have major implications for the U.S. Navy's ongoing efforts to gain approval for widespread use of very loud, low-frequency sonar, which is in the auditory range of some of the world's largest and most endangered whales."

Bush Insulates Pesticide Makers from Lawsuits
06-Oct-03
Environment

"The Bush administration is doing a big favor for pesticide manufacturers by instituting a new policy that will curb farmers' ability to sue the companies if their products don't work as promised. In a significant policy reversal, the U.S. EPA has reinterpreted a federal law and now claims that it bars suits against chemical manufacturers when their pesticides or herbicides harm a crop they are supposed to protect or fail to eradicate an insect or blight. Tom Buis of the National Farmers Union worries that the shift could leave farmers without legal recourse even if their harvests are destroyed. '[I]f a pesticide not only doesn't do what it says it's supposed to do, but also kills your crop, that could cost you a year's income,' said Buis. The policy shift could also make it more difficult to sue pesticide makers when their products cause sickness or environmental damage. It 'could really be disastrous for public health,' said Erik Olson of the Natural Resources Defense Council."

Democrats Boycott Vote on EPA Nominee
02-Oct-03
Environment

"The eight Democrats and one Independent on a Senate committee boycotted a scheduled vote Wednesday on Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt's nomination to head the Environmental Protection Agency, delaying the panel's action by at least two weeks. The nine senators, members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, complained that Leavitt had failed to adequately answer their questions about his environmental priorities and the Bush administration's environmental policies... Sen. James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.), the ranking minority member on the committee, said the boycott had nothing to do with the quality of the nominee. Instead, he said, it represented an effort to use the minority's leverage during the confirmation process to pry information from the administration about how its policies were affecting Americans' health."

Tell the Nat'l Park Service to Ban Snowmobiles from Yellowstone and Grand Teton
28-Sep-03
Environment

"In late 2000, following years of study, the National Park Service, then under the Clinton administration, moved to ban snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. But in 2002, with the Bush administration in office, the Park Service reversed course and sought to overturn the ban, citing promises from snowmobile manufacturers that they would produce quieter, less polluting models. The Park Service's studies -- including one completed just weeks ago -- show that unless snowmobiles are barred they will continue to pose a health risk to visitors and staff, cause harm to wildlife, and mar visitors' experience with noise and spoiled views. But in lieu of an all-out ban, the agency is proposing just a few inadequate restrictions.... The Park Service plan won't solve the problems caused by snowmobiles. A ban will. Tell the National Park Service to ban snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks."

Act to Protect Utah's Redrock Archaelogical Sites from Drilling
28-Sep-03
Environment

From BioGems: "In keeping with its policy of fast-tracking oil and gas drilling on Western lands, the Bush administration is again rushing to let industrial machinery tear up Utah's redrock country, this time in an area that contains more than 1,000 archaelogical sites. Even among the dramatic landscapes of the redrock canyonlands, the Nine Mile Canyon region stands out. It is home to irreplaceable cultural and archaeological resources, including the largest concentration of rock art sites in the country. Ignoring the potential for damage to these historic treasures, the Bureau of Land management is preparing to give a private contractor's helicopters, vibrating 'thumper' trucks and giant bubble-tired tractors access to the 57,500 acres of federal land in the area as part of a seismic exploration project. But the agency must accept public comments on the plan through October 2. Tell the Bureau of Land Management to withold approval until it has complied with all applicable laws."

What's That Stench at the EPA? Oh, Just More Bushit
24-Sep-03
Environment

"The EPA has struck a deal with monster animal farms that lets them leak stinking animal crap and other pollutants all over, to their heart's content. In exchange for promising not to sue -- ever -- EPA demands a mere $500 fine (yes, just five hundred dollars) and also a contribution of $2,500 toward a fund to, yes, study the problem of rivers of stinking animal crap. Perhaps they could save money by combining the animal crap 'study' with the Administration's latest global warming 'study'. Or, since this Administration rewrites every scientific or intelligence report it gets anyway, perhaps we could skip the formality and expense of 'study' and cut to the chase of word-processing up a report calling for further study... Here's an idea: Attend the next meeting of your local government and announce you're going to dump 80,000 gallons of liquefied manure into the nearest aquifer -- and that you'll do so again, and again, repeatedly, forever. Offer them $500. See what happens."

Costly Loss of Trees in Urban America
22-Sep-03
Environment

"Urban areas in the United States are suffering from a severe and worsening tree deficit that is costing residents billions of dollars in added costs for storm water removal, air pollution controls and energy, according to a new analysis released last week. The study, conducted by American Forests, a Washington-based nonprofit organization, used Landsat satellite data from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s to assess the amount of tree cover in 448 U.S. urban areas. Extrapolations from more recent Landsat data over 40 of those areas suggest that the urban tree canopy has shrunk 10 percent to 17 percent over the past decade -- a loss of 1.7 billion trees -- said Gary Moll, vice president of the group's urban forest center. In fact, the 'urban tree deficit' has grown even faster than that, he noted, because urban areas have been spreading out even as tree canopy has decreased. All told, Moll said, urban areas have 21 percent less tree cover than a decade ago."

Toxic Rocket Fuel Found in Milk Samples from Texas Supermarkets
22-Sep-03
Environment

Environmental Working Group: "A toxic component of rocket fuel has been found in supermarket milk at levels exceeding the federal government's currently recommended safe dose for drinking water, according to a peer-reviewed scientific study published today. A team of five researchers from the Institute of Environmental and Human Health at Texas Tech Univ. report in the journal Environmental Science and Technology that perchlorate was 'unambiguously detected' in seven of seven cow's milk samples from Lubbock grocery stores.... Perchlorate, most of it leaking from military bases or defense plants, contaminates more than 500 drinking water supplies in at least 20 states, serving well over 20m people.... 'These troubling results are the first indication...that livestock can pass [perchlorate] on to humans,' said EWG Senior Analyst Renee Sharp. 'How much more evidence do we need before the government takes action to protect our water, our food and our selves from this toxic chemical?'"

Ecological Disaster Feared as Russia Begins Sale of 873 Million Hectares of Forest
21-Sep-03
Environment

"A plan by the Kremlin which would allow Moscow to sell off the 843 million hectares of Russia's forests to private logging companies has raised fears of an ecological disaster. Forest makes up 70 percent of Russia's territory and spans 12 time zones. It is known as Europe's lungs and is second only to the Amazon in the amount of carbon dioxide it absorbs, and is home to many rare species.... Andrei Ptichnikov, forest coordinator of the World Wildlife Fund, Russia, said: 'Russia has 22 percent of the forest on earth -- a very important part of climate stability and global biodiversity because of all the rare species that live there. According to some estimates, Russian forests absorb 15 percent of the world's carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide. It provides a huge amount of oxygen for not just Europe, but the world.'... The new law however gives any private company the chance to buy the forest land outright, or to have use of it for up to 99 years and then buy it."

The Atrocious Environmental Record of Bush's EPA Nominee
19-Sep-03
Environment

"In Leavitt's 12 years as governor, Utah has outpaced nearly every other state in a dubious category: generation of toxic waste. The Beehive State, the 37th most populous in the nation, now ranks second in industrial pollution, trailing only Nevada.... As governor, Leavitt's pet project was the Legacy Highway, a $1.9 billion four-lane monstrosity designed to feed the every-expanding sprawl of Salt Lake City. There was a problem from the start: the Great Salt Lake and hundreds of wetlands that form one of the great shorebird nesting grounds in North America. Leavitt ignored pleas from environmentalists to avoid the wetlands and began paving them over in 1997, saying that he was fulfilling the Mormon vision of Brigham Young to transform the desert into an economic engine.... [L]ast fall the conservative 10th Circuit Court of Appeals [ruled that the freeway] violated federal clean water and wetland rules-regulations that the governor will be responsible for enforcing as head of the EPA."

NGOs Decry World Bank's Plans for 'Megaprojects' in Unstable, Poorly Governed Countries
19-Sep-03
Environment

"One of the World Bank's most important environmental reforms of the 1990s was its more cautious approach to high-risk infrastructure and forestry projects. This policy is now being reversed.... 'Big is beautiful again, and in spite of their abysmal track record, megaprojects are back in style at the World Bank,' says Peter Bosshard, policy director at International Rivers Network. 'The Bank's new high-risk strategy will prolong the deadlock in important sectors such as water and electricity, and will block the development of sustainable alternatives.' 'Large dam, forestry, and extractive industries projects funded by the World Bank have displaced millions of people and devastated the environment,' said Carol Welch, international program director at Friends of the Earth. 'The Bank's spotty implementation of its inadequate safeguard policies means that communities and the environment will continue to face the greatest risks in World Bank projects.'"

Bipartisan Bill Allows States to Reject Clean Air Rollbacks
18-Sep-03
Environment

"Today Environmental Defense praised bipartisan legislation introduced by Congressman Mark Udall (D-CO) and Christopher Shays (R-CT) giving states the right to choose whether to adopt the Bush administration's recently finalized exemptions to the Clean Air Act's 'new source review' program. The exemptions, which would weaken long-standing clean air safeguards, have come under widespread criticism by states, public health organizations and environmental groups. In the final rules, the administration has also departed from Clean Air Act law and practice by mandating that state and local governments implement the rollbacks. The bill introduced today would restore state's right to choose whether to implement the exemptions.... The rules in question...provide that changes at industrial facilities involving millions of dollars in equipment replacement and leading to substantially higher levels of air pollution are no longer required to adopt improved air pollution control technology."

Bush Administration Refuses to Defend Roadless Rule
18-Sep-03
Environment

Grist Magazine: "In what may be a final blow to the Clinton-era roadless policy, the Bush administration refused to appeal a federal court injunction against the rule by the deadline for doing so last Friday. Enviros are hopping mad that the administration didn't defend the policy, which aimed to prevent road-building, logging, and oil and gas development on 58.5 million acres of roadless national forest land. 'At every turn this administration has sought cover for its intentions to gut the roadless rule, and now it is hiding behind an adverse district court decision, rather than defending the law of the land,' said Robert Vandermark, codirector of the Heritage Forests Campaign. The roadless rule was highly popular with the public; the U.S. Forest Service received more than 2 million public comments in support of the policy before it was enacted, a record for comments on a federal environmental measure."

Over Last Decade, $1 of Every $10 to Bush EPA Nominee Has Come from Firms with Unresolved EPA Violations
18-Sep-03
Environment

"In three terms in office, Utah's governor has entwined his political life with some of the state's, and nation's, top polluters. And, if confirmed, Leavitt will preside over an agency that oversees many of the companies that have been his supporters. A review of a decade's worth of financial records shows nearly $1 in every $10 Leavitt raised came from landfill operators, oil refineries, mining companies and other firms that have unresolved EPA violations for fouling the air, water or land. The single biggest donor among the industries examined was Huntsman Corp., which has a long history with the EPA and state regulators in Texas. The multibillion-dollar petrochemical giant, along with company founder and Chairman Jon Huntsman Sr., gave Leavitt $150,000, including five checks of $25,000 each."

Low-Polluting Cars to Hit U.S. Showrooms Next Month
16-Sep-03
Environment

"There are low-emission vehicles (LEVs), ultra-low-emission vehicles (ULEVs), super-ultra-low-emission vehicles (SULEVs), and the holy grail of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). As if the clean-car world weren't baffling enough, now there's a new acronym to add to this alphabet soup -- partial zero-emission vehicles (PZEVs), which Ford and Toyota will begin selling across the U.S. next month. They're not quite non-polluting, but they're getting closer. PZEVs look and perform like standard cars -- they've just got a couple hundred dollars worth of equipment that makes them markedly cleaner. Ford's first PZEV model will be a Focus, starting at $14,915. Five other automakers are also producing PZEVs, but only for California, which has stricter air-pollution rules than the rest of the country. Still, analysts believe the trend will go national. 'It's only a matter of time before essentially all gasoline-fueled passenger cars and light trucks are PZEVs,' says Tom Austin of Sierra Research."

Mmm, This Salmon Has a Delicious Toxic Fabric Dye Flavor!
15-Sep-03
Environment

"This year, European countries seized dozens of tons of farmed salmon from Chile that were found to have been contaminated with malachite green (a fabric dye), which was banned from the U.S. in 1991 but is still used in some countries as a cheap fungicide. [The Oregonian reports: 'Scientists at the FDA, which oversees seafood imports, have suspected since 1996 the chemical may cause cancer, according to the agency's budget records.'] For its part, the U.S. imports thousands of tons of Chilean salmon each year, and huge quantities of seafood from other nations, without testing for malachite green or other potentially dangerous chemicals used in foreign fish farms. Aquaculture took off during 'a cowboy era of globalization and free market, and that has helped it escape regulation,' said Mike Skladany of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. 'The stuff has just come flooding in without any inspection to speak of.'"

Brazil's Shrinking Rain Forests
14-Sep-03
Environment

"Since 1500, when explorers from Europe first laid eyes on the Brazilian rain forest, the rich tracts of the Atlantic coastline have shrunk to 1.7 percent of their original size." Check out the unbelievable info-graphic put together by NBC News.

Ozone Hole 'Bigger Than it Has Ever Been'
13-Sep-03
Environment

Financial Times: "The Antarctic ozone hole is bigger than it has ever been at this time of year, threatening populated regions of south America and New Zealand with harmful levels of ultraviolet radiation. Last year's hole was smaller than those recorded over the previous decade, leading to hopes that the protective ozone layer in the upper atmosphere was beginning to recover from its destruction by man-made CFC chemicals. But early observations reported on Friday to the British Association science festival at Salford University show that the hole, which appears every southern spring, is returning with a vengeance. The findings suggest that reduction of CFCs will take longer than expected to benefit the ozone layer. Alan Rodger, who runs the British Antarctic Survey ozone-monitoring programme, said: 'Last year's smaller hole should be regarded as exceptional and clearly a one-off event. It was... nothing to do with any reduction in ozone depleting chemicals.'"

Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease: U.S. Companies More Mindful of Social Concerns
13-Sep-03
Environment

"Activists, take heart: It seems that the relentless pressure of boycotts, lawsuits, bad PR, and slow but steady cultural change is having an effect on corporate America. Companies doing business in the 21st century are beginning to listen to the social, health, and environmental concerns of their customers, with the result that products and practices are gradually becoming more eco- and people-friendly. For example: PETA dropped a lawsuit against KFC and its parent company after they agreed to provide more accurate information about the treatment of chicken served in the fast-food restaurants, and Boise Cascade earned major kudos from enviros when it agreed to stop using timber from endangered and old-growth forests. And those two successes both occurred just in the last month. Meanwhile, McDonald's is introducing healthier menu items in response to concerns about U.S. obesity. What next - ExxonMobil protecting the Arctic? Maybe, if the activists keep up the good work."

Greenpeace Obtains Smoking-Gun Memo Documenting White House-Exxon Link
10-Sep-03
Environment

"Did conservative elements in the White House provoke an Exxon front group to sue EPA to suppress a report on climate change? ... Greenpeace [has] uncovered a routine email in a Freedom of Information Act request [in which] Myron Ebell of the Exxon-funded CEI writes to Phil Cooney, a senior official at the White House Council for Environmental Quality. He describes his plans to discredit an EPA study on climate change through a lawsuit. He states the need to 'drive a wedge between the Resident and those in the Administration who think that they are serving the Resident's interests by publishing this rubbish.' He notes his group is considering a call for the then-head of the EPA, Christine Todd Whitman, to resign, and openly suggests that she'd make an appropriate 'fall gal' if the administration is serious about getting back into bed with conservatives opposing action on climate change. His memo...begins 'Thanks for calling and asking for our help.'"

World Wildlife Fund on Global Warming: World Leaders Must Take Immediate Action
10-Sep-03
Environment

"Amidst heat waves, droughts, forest fires, and other extreme weather events over the past months, WWF warns that such climate change impacts will damage protected areas and other valuable habitats unless greenhouse gas emissions are reduced drastically. According to a new publication by WWF, changing patterns of climate affect the natural distribution limits for species or communities, forcing them to migrate in response to changing conditions. Around the world, changing conditions are resulting in the loss of rare species.... Coral reefs are under threat due to rising sea levels and to coral bleaching due to of warmer sea temperatures. National parks around the world have identified climate change as the main pressure causing habitats and species to shift beyond the park borders.... Dr Claude Martin, Director General of WWF International [said] 'World leaders must take steps immediately to reduce CO2 emissions if the world's protected areas are to avoid irreversible damage.'"

Parallel Universe? A Republican-Sponsored Environmental Bill That Ranchers and Enviros Support?
10-Sep-03
Environment

Grist Magazine: "Environmentalists and ranchers alike are getting excited about a bill that would have the federal government pay ranchers to give up their rights to graze cattle and sheep on public lands in the West. The legislation, soon to be introduced in Congress by Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), calls for grazing allotments to be permanently retired after the feds buy them up. The idea behind the bill comes from veteran environmental activist Andy Kerr and his new project, the Oregon-based National Public Lands Grazing Campaign. Kerr wants to get cattle off public lands, where they harm streamside areas, trigger erosion, threaten endangered species, and cause other problems -- but he wants to do it without driving ranchers into bankruptcy. Kerr argues that the buyout plan would pay for itself because the current grazing program is a money-loser for the government, and the damage that cattle inflict on public lands costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars per year."

Be One in a Million: Join a Campaign to Fight Climate Change
10-Sep-03
Environment

Grist Magazine writes, "This fall, senators will get a chance to show how green they really are when the bipartisan Climate Stewardship Act comes up for a vote. The bill, cosponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), would for the first time require mandatory cuts to greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. industries, while giving companies flexible, market-based ways to meet those standards. As part of a coordinated campaign to generate support for the bill, Environmental Defense is working to get 1 million people to send messages to their senators calling on them to vote in favor of the legislation. More than 135,000 citizens have already joined the campaign. Wanna be the next one?"

Superfund to Run out of Money, GAO Says
07-Sep-03
Environment

"An industry-financed trust fund that for years helped offset the cost of Superfund cleanup projects will run out of money next month, placing added demands on the federal budget to meet the cost of cleaning up some of the worst hazardous waste sites in the country, according to a new General Accounting Office study. While the trust fund has declined from as much as $2 billion in 1995 to a few hundred million dollars this year, the Environmental Protection Agency has continued to add sites to the National Priorities List (NPL) of the most contaminated sites. 'The Superfund program's need for federal cleanup funds to address sites that lack alternative sources of cleanup funds may grow in the future, while the program's funding from sources other than general fund appropriations dwindles,' the GAO said."

Meet the New Mobile, Worse than the Old Mobile
04-Sep-03
Environment

Grist Magazine reports: "A new generation of ostensibly cleaner and quieter snowmobiles turns out to be more polluting than older models, according to tests by the U.S. EPA. In a controversial Bush administration decision, the new snowmobiles were approved for use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks after the industry promised they would have a lower impact on the environment; now, it turns out that the new 'mobiles produce from 40 to 213 percent more emissions than 2002 models. The tests measured carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions, as well as noise levels; two of the three models tested failed, and none of them bested the 2002 models. 'When they say 'cleaner and quieter,' you wonder, 'In relation to what?' said Jon Catton, a Montana conservationist who lobbied for a ban on snowmobiles in the park. Yellowstone officials, representatives of the Interior Department, and industry leaders will meet tomorrow to discuss the implications of the findings."

EPA Officials Who Gutted Clean Air Regulations Leave to Work For Power-Plant Polluters
04-Sep-03
Environment

"Two top Environmental Protection Agency officials who were deeply involved in easing an air pollution rule for old power plants just took private-sector jobs with firms that benefit from the changes. Days after the changes in the power-plant pollution rule were announced last week, John Pemberton, the chief of staff in the EPA's air and radiation office, told colleagues he would be joining Southern Co., an Atlanta-based utility that's the nation's No. 2 power-plant polluter and was a driving force in lobbying for the rule changes. Southern Co., which gave more than $3.4 million in political contributions over the past four years while it sought the changes, hired Pemberton as director of federal affairs. Ed Krenik, who had been the EPA's associate administrator for congressional affairs, started work Tuesday at Bracewell & Patterson, a top Houston-based law firm that coordinated lobbying for several utilities on easing the power-plant pollution rule."

Bush Authorizes Commercial Logging in Five Nat'l Parks in the Southern Appalachians
02-Sep-03
Environment

"Internal documents obtained and released by three environmental groups indicate that the U.S. Forest Service has authorized changes to forest plans that allow commercial logging within five national forests in the Southern Appalachians. According to the environmental groups, the Southern Region of the Forest Service is allowing individual forests to decide whether to designate areas of the national forests specifically and primarily for timber production. Such changes would reverse a recent legacy of planning and citizen involvement in the South that resulted in a management scheme that would allow logging only as a byproduct of managing for other values such as wildlife habitat and recreation. In addition, the policy shift comes just a few months after the agency released for public comment its official management plans touting environmental restoration for the roughly three million acres of public land in the five forests."

Shocking Drop in Grain Harvests Shows Need for Renewable Energy
27-Aug-03
Environment

"On August 12 at 8:30, the U.S. Agriculture Dept. released its monthly estimate of the world grain harvest, reporting a 32-million-ton drop from the July estimate. When grain futures markets opened later in the morning, prices of wheat, rice, and corn jumped. This 32-million-ton drop, equal to half the U.S. wheat harvest, was concentrated in Europe where record-high temperatures have withered crops.... The searing heat damaged crops in virtually every country in Europe. Even if the earth's temperature increases only a few degrees...we will likely see heat waves far more intense than anything we can easily imagine. If rising temperatures shrink harvests and drive up food prices, consumer pressure to reduce the use of fossil fuels will intensify. Indeed, rising food prices could be the first global economic indicator to signal the need for a fundamental shift in energy policy, one that would move the world toward renewable energy sources and away from climate-disrupting fossil fuels."

Bush Diverts Public Attention to the West, While Laying Plans for Clearcutting Alaskan Wilderness
26-Aug-03
Environment

Bush has diverted public attention to forest fires in the west, lobbying hard for his "Healthy Forest [Industry] Initiatives." Under this cover, he is quietly laying plans to open over 640,000 ACRES -about 1,000 SQUARE MILES- of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska to logging - including the area's last remnants of old growth forest. Bush mouthpiece Tadd Owens claims 260,000 hectares (note the deceitful use of hectares - 1 hectare = 2.47 ACRES) is just "one tiny sliver of a sliver. And it's going to go through a very careful process to make sure it's not raped and ruined." How do you figure that, Tadd, since the plan is to CLEARCUT? "It's the biological heart of the ecosystem," says Alaska Conservation Foundation director Deborah Williams. "There's been enough cutting of old growth in the Tongass."

Bush Continues His Assault on America's Environment, While Spewing Baldfaced Lies about Achievements
23-Aug-03
Environment

This week, the Liar-in-Chief appeared in Washington State long enough to be booed by thousands of angry citizens, to promote his corporate assault on the environment, and to spew blatantly false statements about his environmental "achievements." From Reuters: "The administration says a major increase in the salmon runs of the past few years is due to a combination of its own efforts to boost funding for salmon conservation, the previous decade's steady advances in management and cyclical improvement in ocean conditions. But environmental activists say most of the 1.7 million fish that returned last year are not prized wild salmon but farm-raised fish. They say Bush has implemented fewer than one third of the measures and allocated just over half of the funding called for in a federal salmon plan for the Columbia and Snake Rivers. "

Leaked Draft of Bush Energy Bill Reveals Plans to Loosen Clean Air Regulations
22-Aug-03
Environment

NY Times reports: "After more than two years of internal deliberation and intense pressure from industry, the Bush administration has settled on a regulation that would allow thousands of older power plants, oil refineries and industrial units to make extensive upgrades without having to install new anti-pollution devices, according to those involved in the deliberations. The new rule a draft of which was made available to The New York Times by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, would constitute a sweeping and cost-saving victory for industries, exempting thousands of industrial plants and refineries from part of the Clean Air Act. ... Clarifying the rule - and making it more lenient - has been a central goal of industry for more than a decade, and the administration has been reviewing it since Resident Bush came into office more than two years ago."

Western Leaders Say 'Healthy Forest Initiative' Is Just Another Corporate Handout
20-Aug-03
Environment

"The "healthy forest initiative" really isn't geared towards forest health. It's more geared towards the profitability of a logging company."- Tom Plante, CO. "The plan essentially does away with the national environmental policy act on which more than thirty years of environmental policy are based."- Phil Lopez, AZ. "I don't think the plan has the average citizen in mind. I think as many of [Bush's] plans have shown, he's more interested in rewarding his cronies who contributed to his election and his record on environment is pathetic and I don't think the plan that he's got in place really does much for small communities." -Dave Gerth, WA- "We think that they're more worried about finding ways to cut old trees, valuable trees and healthy trees to fund this plan than they are to actually get to work and make it work... we're being held hostage here." -Mary Nichols, CA.

Anti-Environment Leavitt Nominated to Head EPA
13-Aug-03
Environment

Geov Parish writes: "To get an idea of just how wretched a job newly nominated Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt would do if confirmed as Res. Bush's choice to run the Environmental Protection Agency, forget about his hostility toward wilderness protection for the stunningly beautiful canyonlands of southern Utah. Go to Salt Lake City. I did, in May. And driving into the Salt Lake Valley from the south, on I-15, what I saw made me sick to my stomach... Scuttlebutt in D.C. is that the Resident's Men -- the same hard-line insiders who've made America's attitude toward global warming an international scandal -- hated and distrusted the previous EPA head, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman. They wanted 'one of their own,' a Westerner like Bush and Cheney and Interior Secretary Gail Norton, someone raised on the notion of endless land available for plunder, someone who'd share their antipathy not only to new legislation but to enforcing the environmental laws already on the books."

Did the Bush EPA Deliberately Deceive Public on Drinking Water Safety?
06-Aug-03
Environment

Newsday writes, "The Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general is investigating whether the agency is deliberately misleading the public by overstating the purity of the nation's drinking water, according to EPA officials and agency documents. The inquiry was begun June 18, five days before then-EPA Administrator Christie Whitman released the 'Draft Report on the Environment,' which stated that '94% of the population served by community water systems were served by systems that met all health-based standards.' Internal agency documents show that EPA audits for at least five years have suggested that the percentage of the population with safe drinking water is much lower - 79 to 84% in 2002 - putting an additional 30 million Americans at potential risk."

Vote To Save Yellowstone's Life
06-Aug-03
Environment

Democrats.com member Marilyn Dinger writes, "My poll is to make the voters aware that Bush and his administration plan to destroy Yellowstone National Park and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem that surrounds it and its wildlife. I work with an advocacy group that is working to save the wonders and beauties of Yellowstone Country for all generations to come. We are working to raise the awareness of the voters that a vote for Bush is a vote to destroy Yellowstone. I hope my poll will help steer voters in the right direction and away from a vote for Bush and Yellowstone's destruction."

Bush Gives His Pals at Oil Refineries, Chemical Plants Permission to Dump 1.6 Million Pounds of Toxic Emissions into the Air WE Breathe
30-Jul-03
Environment

"A study released today shows that the new rule issued by the EPA to alter the Clean Air Act's 'New Source Review' permit requirements could allow nearly 1.6 million more tons of air pollution in 12 key states. The report was sponsored by the Environmental Integrity Project and the Council of State Governments/Eastern Regional Conference. The new rule allows refineries, cement kilns, chemical plants and any manufacturer except utilities to avoid those permits and pollution controls so long as the new project is not expected to increase emissions above their highest level in the past ten years. Under the old rule, emissions were usually not allowed to increase above the highest level in the most recent two years." Meanwhile, child asthma rates and air-pollution related deaths continue to climb.

Bush Plans to Trash One of Earth's Most Precious Endangered Treasures to Enrich Texas Oil Buddies
30-Jul-03
Environment

"Bush is seeking funds for a controversial project to drive gas pipelines from pristine rainforests in the Peruvian Amazon to the coast. The plan will enrich some of Mr Bush's closest corporate campaign contributors while risking the destruction of rainforest, threatening its indigenous peoples and endangering rare species on the coast. Among the beneficiaries would be two Texas energy companies with close ties to the White House, Hunt Oil and Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Vice-Resident Dick Cheney's old company, Haliburton, which is rebuilding Iraq's oil infrastructure. The pipeline slices through some of the most biologically diverse places on earth. Their remoteness has preserved an extraordinarily rich ecosystem in the coastal Paracas reserve, which is home to such rare species as Humboldt penguins, sea lions and green sea turtles."

Outsourcing Fraud - It's The Bush Way!
20-Jul-03
Environment

"The Bush Administration is pushing privatization with a vengeance, looking to downsize government wherever it can. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers could lose their jobs as a result. The Bush assumption is that the private sector can do the work as well as, or better than, the public sector. But that assumption is faulty. This story looks at the risk of privatizing environmental watchdogs. That risk is perilously high."

Critics say Bush's E.P.A. Won't Analyze Some Clean Air Proposals
14-Jul-03
Environment

NY Times reports: "In the last several months, the Environmental Protection Agency has delayed or refused to do analysis on proposals that conflict with the president's air pollution agenda, say members of Congress, their aides, environmental advocates and agency employees. Agency employees say they have been told either not to analyze or not to release information about mercury, carbon dioxide and other air pollutants. This has prompted inquiries and complaints from environmental groups, as well as Democrats and Republicans in Congress."

Environmental Group Gives Bush an 'F'
27-Jun-03
Environment

The Austin American-Statesman reports: "The League of Conservation Voters Tuesday gave President [sic] Bush an 'F' for his environmental record. The flunking grade, down from a D-minus last year on the group's report card, set the tone for what is expected to be a major effort by the environmentalists to defeat Bush in next year's elections. In its scorching report, the group charged that the resident takes the side of corporate interests such as timber and oil and makes proposals that 'would weaken and eliminate fundamental protections for our air, land and water'... League of Conservation Voters president Deb Callahan, who said her group was 'non-partisan,' charged that President [sic] Bush is 'well on his way to compiling the worst environmental record in the history of our nation.'"

NRDC's 'Toxic Tommy' Takes on Bush's 'Clear Skies' Pollution Plan
20-Jun-03
Environment

Natural Resources Defense Council writes, "NRDC has teamed up with award-winning political cartoonist Mark Fiore to spread the word about the administration's 'Clear Skies' plan, now under consideration in Congress. Fiore has created a cheerful little dirt cloud named Tommy Toxic, who offers a guided tour of all the fun things that await us if Congress enacts the Bush administration's plan: dirtier air, more smog, more air-quality alert days, more respiratory ailments, and more global warming pollution. While the cartoon is lighthearted, the Bush air pollution plan is serious business. Polluting power companies and industry lobbyists love it -- but we think it's toxic. That's why we've asked NRDC's online activists to watch the cartoon on our website, where they can also tell their friends about it, and tell Congress to reject the Clear Skies bill."

Stop the Attack on the Clean Air Act! Sign the Petition!
12-Jun-03
Environment

From SaveOurEnvironment.org: "Under severe pressure from industry lobbyists, Bush is preparing to weaken our clean air protections by letting over 18,000 of the country's biggest polluting facilities -- including old, dirty power plants, oil refineries, and chemical plants -- escape rules that require them to install modern pollution controls when they pump out more pollution. This unprecedented weakening of our clean air laws would allow millions more tons of soot, smog, and toxic pollution to be spewed into our air each year. We need your help to persuade the administration to keep our clean air laws strong! Sign now, and help ensure a future with clean air for all of us!"

Razing Appalachia
11-Jun-03
Environment

Despite the fact that 30 government studies since 1998 show that mountaintop mining and valley fills are ruining Appalachia's prime forests and pristine mountain streams, the Bush administration refuses to impose any more limits on King Coal's rapacious activities. Studies show that without more limits on mountaintop mining, 2,200 square miles of Appalachian forests will be lost, and another 1,000 miles of streams will be polluted with the spoilage from valley fills. How much evidence does the Bush administration need? The combined reports -- released in draft form on May 30, 2003 -- run 5,000 pages and weigh 30 pounds! Bush's policy of environmental neglect reflects, in large part, proposals pushed in late 2001 by Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles -- a former mining industry lobbyist. See what environmental advocates, including Trial Lawyers for Public Justice and Earthjustice, have to say about the razing of Appalachia:

Three States Sue EPA over Carbon Dioxide
06-Jun-03
Environment

Reuters reports: "Three states filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday, arguing the agency is failing to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, which they say is required by the Clean Air Act. Several states are taking steps to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that many scientists think cause global warming by trapping the sun's heat in the atmosphere. The U.S. government currently does not regulate carbon dioxide emissions. The White House has rejected mandatory controls on carbon dioxide emissions in favor of voluntary industry efforts."

EPA: Few Fined for Polluting Water
06-Jun-03
Environment

WashPost reports: "About a quarter of the nation's largest industrial plants and water treatment facilities are in serious violation of pollution standards at any one time, yet only a fraction of them face formal enforcement actions, according to an Environmental Protection Agency internal study. The study is the broadest effort to date to document the failure of the EPA and the states to fully enforce the Clean Water Act, enacted 30 years ago to clean up the nation's rivers and streams. The study, completed in February by the EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance, found that half the serious offenders exceeded pollution limits for toxic substances by more than 100 percent."

Save Otero Canyon in Tijeras, NM
26-May-03
Environment

"We, the undersigned, believe that recreational access to the Otero Canyon trails should be preserved. Access to this area, despite being Department of Defense land, has been open to the public for more than two decades while having been repaired, improved, and enjoyed. A well established trail system has been developed with a large, diverse group of users. As seen below, it is of significant value to members of the local and state community. We request that the DOD reevaluate their plans to close off the entire area. We would like to see the continuance of recreational use in this area while allowing the DOD to meet their security needs as well. It is for these reasons that we petition the DOD to build a fence that does not interfere with the current trail system." Sign the petition.

Voter Erosion: The One Consequence that Republicans Fear from their Anti-Environmental Policies
19-May-03
Environment

Christian Science Monitor reports: "In a recent memo to elected GOP leaders, Republican pollster Frank Luntz wrote, 'The environment is probably the single issue on which Republicans in general -- and [oilman] Bush in particular -- are most vulnerable. Poll after poll shows a large majority of Americans -- including most registered Republicans -- want more environmental protection, including wilderness designation and, if necessary, stiffer government regulations to improve air and water quality.' Recent administration actions -- such as abandoning the Kyoto agreement on global warming...pushing for new oil and gas drilling in Alaska and the Rocky Mountains...have resulted in a negative image of Republicans, says Dr. Luntz. They are 'seemingly in the pockets of corporate fat cats who rub their hands together and chuckle maniacally as they plot to pollute America for fun and profit.' Luntz' advice? "Republicans should focus on the rhetoric, rather than the substance, of debate."

Howard Dean: 'Another Example of the Bush Brothers' Rhetoric Not Matching Reality'
10-May-03
Environment

"Jeb Bush and an army of lobbyists for Big Sugar have pushed legislation through the Florida House and Senate which would seriously threaten the viability of the Everglades and may dismantle the federal-state partnership that has begun the process of saving the Everglades," Howard Dean said in a statement released May 8, 2003. "We must not allow the Everglades to be destroyed by politicians who kowtow to the interests of Big Sugar." The bill moves back by 13 years the deadline for when the system must be considered clean. Give em hell Howard!

EPA Colludes with Factory Farm Barons to Trash Clean Air Act and Ignore Superfund Laws
10-May-03
Environment

"The EPA has been secretly negotiating with huge hog and chicken farming operations to suspend the rules of the Clean Air Act as well as Superfund laws for these mega-polluting operations. Some of these large hog farms produce twice as much effluent as the entire human population of major cities. In hog farms, contamination of underground water supplies is rampant, and there is serious air pollution from ammonia, methane, and hydrogen sulfide gases that rise from the evaporation ponds where millions of gallons of pig excrement is pumped. Yet while these carefully orchestrated obscene assaults on our world and its people are being carried out by the Bush administration, some Greens are still carrying a torch for an idealistic dream world that cannot exist today. This lack of a grasp on reality may insure a Republican victory again, like it did in 2000." So writes Jackie A. Guiliano.

Health Group Says State of U.S. Air is Not Good
01-May-03
Environment

ENS reports: "About one half of American population continues to breathe unhealthy air and the Bush administration's proposed changes to clean air laws would only make this situation [worse], finds a new report from the American Lung Association. The administration is putting at risk laws that have helped protect public health for 40 years and is putting politics above clean air and public health, said John Kirkwood, president and chief executive officer of the American Lung Association (ALA), one of the nation's oldest and largest public health advocacy groups."

RFK Jr.: Bush Fighting 'Secret War' On Green Laws
24-Apr-03
Environment

"Q. How would you characterise Bush's approach to environment? A. resident Bush has a secret war against the environment. It is a stealth attack. He's now eviscerating US environmental laws. He has 100 proposed rollbacks of environmental regulations that even if just a portion go through, by this time next year we will have no federal environmental laws... That's not an exaggeration. These laws are being passed below the radar screen. They're being attached to large budget bills that must be passed so there's no public debate...If you talk to the American people around 75 percent, Democrats and Republicans alike, support stronger environmental laws...seven percent say we need the laws weakened. But it's those seven percent that have influence with this administration. Those are the people from the oil, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries and real estate developers who wield tremendous influence with this government...Bush is the worst environmental president in the past 100 years."

Environmentalists Celebrate Earth Day 2003
22-Apr-03
Environment

"Today, as millions of people around the world leave their cars at home, plant trees, and pick up a few extra pieces of litter in honor of Earth Day, Peter Drekmeier will be standing in front of the Lockheed Martin facility in Sunnyvale to protest the company's manufacture of weapons. For Drekmeier, a Palo Alto native and member of 'Environmentalists Against War,' it's a perfect way to celebrate the event which he has been actively involved with since its 20th anniversary in 1990 -- to reflect on how the environment has improved since the first Earth Day in 1970. But it's also a reminder, he said, of everything there still is to lose. 'Earth Day is about focusing on the positive,' said Drekmeier. 'One of our mottoes is, 'Who says you can't change the world?' But the truth is that we're slipping backwards pretty quickly. The '90s were supposed to be the decade of the environment. But if you look at the climate, the ocean ... environmental decline has sped up in the new century.'"

Bush's Earth Night
22-Apr-03
Environment

Alan Bisbort writes: "Of all things, a corporation reminded me -- via a recent faxed press release -- that 'the purpose of Earth Day, founded in 1970 by John McConnell, is to further 'peace, justice and the care of the Earth.'' Since none of this holy trinity (peace, justice, Earth-care) is occurring, or is likely to occur, under the watch of this White House of warmongers, hanging judges and polluters, let's cut the crap. Let's call off Earth Day... If I were to list the anti-environment acts that George W. Bush and his GOP lackeys have done, I'd fill my next two column spaces. Lately, though, he and Interior's Gale Norton have been obsessed with drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Despite several defeats, they keep bringing this bill up for a vote. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), in the hateful spirit of these times, has vowed revenge against all who vote against it."

White House Reshapes Environmental Policy
19-Apr-03
Environment

AP reports: "The Bush administration is quietly reshaping environmental policy to expand logging and other development by settling a series of lawsuits, many of them filed by industry groups. As a result of settlements, the administration has announced plans to remove wilderness protections for millions of acres in Utah, has agreed to review protections for endangered species such as salmon and the northern spotted owl, has reversed a Clinton-era ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and has softened rules on logging. None of the decisions were subject to prior public comment or congressional approval."

Bush-Ashcroft vs. Homeland Security: Clean Air Act Polluted by the Justice Department
19-Apr-03
Environment

Nat Hentoff writes: "Every time the administration removes another strand of the liberties in the Bill of Rights, we are told it has to be done in the vital interest of our homeland's security against the terrorists. But it is increasingly clear that we the citizens need to be secure from our government -- not only where our liberties are concerned but also with regard to our health and our very lives. An astonishing proposal in the Bush-Ashcroft draft of Patriot Act II-- hardly reported, if at all, in much of the press -- subverts the Clean Air Act so radically that residents in towns and cities around the country could be affected."

The $90 Million Club: Cleaning-Up Military Facilities
24-Mar-03
Environment

The Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO) has a state-by-state map of military facilities exceeding $90 Million in clean-up costs.

Damage to Gulf Ecosystem Could Eclipse 1990-1991 Gulf War
20-Mar-03
Environment

As if murder and imperialism weren't bad enough, PentaPost reports: "Experts warned this week that a war in Iraq will cause 'massive and possibly irreversible' environmental damage to the Persian Gulf region and significantly add to the problem of global warming. As about 250,000 U.S. and British troops prepared to move against President Saddam Hussein's forces, international environmental leaders said the ensuing damage to Iraq's ecosystem and food and water supplies may eclipse the destruction to that region during the 1990-1991 Gulf war. 'I think it will be comprehensive damage and I don't think it will be localized to the area of Iraq, regardless of how precise and surgical our bombing campaign will be,' said Ross Mirkarimi, a San Francisco-based environmental analyst who made two trips to Iraq shortly after U.S.-led forces drove the Iraqis from Kuwait."

Bush Will Kill Ancient Sequoias - Write the Forest Service Now!
07-Mar-03
Environment

Bush plans to allow logging in the Giant Sequoia National Monument, killing ancient, majestic trees to slake the greed of his pals. The Forest Service will accept comments only until March 17th, so send yours today! Tell them to stop Bush's obscene plan!

Chemical Soup
02-Mar-03
Environment

Tom Englehardt writes, "Alexandra Rome made herself into a human guinea pig in order to demonstrate to herself -- and then to the rest of us -- in the most graphic way that we reflect our world, our 'civilization,' at the most basic level of all, our bodies. Our society, it turns out, has quite literally left its chemical imprint on us. We are, not to put too fine a point on the matter, ticking chemical bombs and an unchecked industrial/consumer society turns out to be the terrorist. Rome's eloquent statement, which I urge every one of you to read, is a sad reminder that, in the crisis of the moment, under the rule of our own mullahs, we have had to postpone dealing with the basics at every level from global warming to the rampant toxins in our bodies."

Bush's Park Service Ignored Its Own Research to Overturn Ban on Snowmobiles
31-Jan-03
Environment

The National Park Service reversed a Clinton-era decision to phase out snowmobiling in Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks just about exactly the same time an internal report was completed that described the ban as necessary to protect the health of the park rangers, visitors, and wildlife. The ban was reversed at the behest of the snowmobiling industry. Once again, the Busheviks show that corporate profit is the only thing they value, and that they will be as dishonest as they have to be to protect their corporate buddies.

Bush Renames EPA to ' Environmental Pollution Agency' (Satire?)
26-Jan-03
Environment

Bush "announced today that the Environmental Protection Agency has been renamed the Environmental Pollution Agency. 'The new name more accurately reflects the current mission of the agency,' said a senior administration official who refused to be named. Garry Trudeau revealed in 'Doonesbury' today that the EPA has: Produced new rules to speed up logging in national forests, Rolled back protections of 58 million acres from roads and developments, Eased pollution controls for power plants and factories, Rejected new fuel-efficiency standards, Sped up permit-granting for power companies, Lifted a ban on snowmobiles in parks, Proposed 51,000 new natural gas wells, Removed limits on coal producers for dumping mountaintop fill in streams, Reduced EPA fines of polluters by 64%, Opened up Padre Island to drilling, Halted funding for several superfund sites, Replaced scientists who don't support the administration's views, Rejected the Kyoto global warming treaty..."

Hummer H2 Embodies America's Sickness Unto Death
16-Jan-03
Environment

Mark Morford writes, "The King Kong of SUVs, the biggest, most thuggish, most gluttonous, most utterly useless, cartoonish, silly, ultimately deadly civilian vehicle on the road today... It is worth noting, in this time of imminent, useless war, when our country is being run by, essentially, a failed Texas oilman, that it might be about time to rethink our all-American, bigger-is-better, screw-the-environment, high-fivin', the-world-is-our-prison-bitch mentality. Perhaps this is the ultimate reminder the Hummer makes so explicitly clear. Perhaps this is why the SUV itself is such the ideal ethical lightning rod in today's global climate. For in truth, it is exactly the mentality that gave birth to the SUV and the Hummer in the first place -- the weak ego, the need to strut a phony toughness, the insecurity, the patriotic narcissism, the false sense that all is solid and protected and that we care for no one but ourselves -- that has turned us into what we are today."

Watch the SUV Ads the Networks Refuse to Broadcast
09-Jan-03
Environment

"This is George. This is the gas that George bought for his SUV. This is the oil company executive that sold the gas that George bought for his SUV. These are the countries where the executive bought the oil, that made the gas that George bought for his SUV. And these are the terrorists who get money from those countries every time George fills up his SUV." OIL MONEY SUPPORTS SOME TERRIBLE THINGS. WHAT KIND OF MILAGE DOES YOUR SUV GET? Click on the letter to the CEO's of GM, Chrysler, and Ford.

George Bush's War on Nature
08-Jan-03
Environment

Byline of Glen Scherer's Salon article: "Republicans are pushing the most radical assault on the environment in modern times. But history warns of catastrophe for leaders who trust ideology over science." Scherer writes: "Last September, a significantly more powerful event occurred in the windblown silences of the Arctic. In 2002, the second hottest year on record, scientists saw Arctic Ocean ice coverage shrink by more than at any time since satellite measurements were first made a quarter century ago. And, they say, continued melting could leave the Arctic nearly ice-free by summer 2050. In a related report, University of Colorado researchers found that globally warmed glaciers are melting faster than expected, possibly upping ocean levels by as much as 1.5 feet by 2100, far exceeding earlier U.N. estimates of the 2- to 4-inch contribution made by glacial ice to sea rise."

Bush to End Protection of 'Isolated' Wetlands
06-Jan-03
Environment

Wetlands? We don't need no stinking wetlands! The Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers are planning to eliminate regulations that protect so-called "isolated" wetlands from development (that is, from destruction). Thirty to forty percent of all wetlands in the lower 48 states are isolated, which means they have no apparent surface water connection to rivers and streams, estuaries, or the ocean. That means thirty to forty percent of all wetlands are now at risk of being filled in and paved over, or of being ruined by runoff from development projects. If we had a Truth in Advertising law for government agencies, Bush would have renamed the EPA the "Polluters Protection Agency" by now.

9 States Sue Bush Administration for Relaxing Clean-Air Rules
01-Jan-03
Environment

"Nine Northeastern U.S. states sued the Bush administration on Tuesday over its decision to relax clean-air rules to help coal-fired power plants and other industrial facilities avoid costly pollution controls. he consortium of states -- Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont -- filed the lawsuit with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, according to a news release."

Dead Wood: The Lousy Economics of Bush's New Forest Policy
04-Dec-02
Environment

Writes Douglas Gantenbein: "One day before Thanksgiving, when the only environmental issue anyone was paying attention to was turkey depopulation, the Bush administration quietly declared an enormous change in how the government will manage its 192 million acres of national forests... It's perhaps true, as Forest Service officials claim, that current forest-management rules are too complex and costly to administer. But if so, it's equally true that the proposed rule changes are essentially an effort to open national forests to more logging than they have seen in years... But the real problem with the logging changes is not that they are pro-timber industry, it's that they are economic nonsense. It's curious that an administration that is so business-friendly would take measures that actually would hurt business, let alone dozens of small towns across the West. But that's exactly what would happen."

Jeffords Slams Bush for Weakening Clean Air Act - and Making It More Difficult for YOU to Get Info
30-Nov-02
Environment

Delivering the weekly Democratic radio address, Senator Jim Jeffords (I-VT), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said "This year the power industry is getting a nice Christmas gift: the biggest weakening of the Clean Air Act in history...Last week, the Bush administration announced devastating new regulations that will gut clean air laws -- allowing power plants to avoid installing simple anti-pollution equipment when they modernize...Bush insists on moving us backward," he said, "undoing his father's legacy and weakening our nation's environmental laws....And at the same time the administration is rolling back environmental protection laws, it is ensuring that the public knows little about what is happening in their own communities." Jeffords cited a secrecy provision in the law creating a Homeland Security Department that he said would "make it more difficult for the public to get information about dangerous chemicals that may exist near their homes.'"

Clean Air Degrades to Clear Skies to Simply Smog
28-Nov-02
Environment

"Last week the Bush administration announced new rules that would effectively scrap 'new source review,' a crucial component of our current system of air pollution control....But this isn't just a policy change, it's an omen....The original Clean Air Act imposed strict rules on new sources of pollution, but it grandfathered existing power plants, refineries and so on. The idea was that over time, as old facilities closed down, strict rules would become the norm. What happened instead was predictable: In order to keep their exemptions, polluting industries poured money into existing facilities rather than build new ones....the defects of the Clear Skies Initiative -- its conspicuous failure to deal with greenhouse gases, the glacial pace at which it proposes to reduce emissions of those pollutants it does control (many estimates say that it would actually allow more pollution...). But it's a moot point: Last week's announcement is...a signal that even Clear Skies isn't going to happen."

Worst Mass Poisoning in Human History Ignored by Blair's War-Hungry Government
26-Nov-02
Environment

In the early 1990s, the British Geological Survey dug hundreds of thousands of shallow tube wells in Bangladesh - a quick, cheap way to get drinking water. However, the BGS did not take into account the widespread presence of arsenic throughout the strata from which the water in the wells was drawn. Now 36 million people are being poisoned - over a quarter million of them will likely die, while the suffering of the survivors is indescribable. Bangladesh is suing the BGS - but Tony Blair and his government appear far too busy preparing to create new "victims of the Empire" to notice.

Bush Hands Last, Longest Stretch of Barrier Island Habitat to Big Oil
26-Nov-02
Environment

Bush and Gale Norton have handed another national treasure over to the oil barons. BNP Petroleum has just been granted permission to drill two wells in the Padre Island National Seashore, a barrier island on the Gulf of Mexico that features the longest stretch of undeveloped beach in the US. The Park Service insists the greatest possible care will be taken to respect the ecology of the island. Right. Like the oil industry took good care of Prince William Sound, the coast of Spain, the Galapagos...etc. etc. In fact, where oil goes in, environmental degradation is all but INEVITABLE. This decision must be challenged IMMEDIATELY by Congress!

Environmental Groups, Lieberman and Leahy Weigh in on Trashing of Clean Air Act
25-Nov-02
Environment

"Bush and his cartel have used the shift in the Senate back to ultra-rightwing control as a green light to launch one of the most astounding attacks on the American people yet, an attack that may ultimately claim a death count many, many times higher than that of 9/11. Bush's changes to the Clean Air Act will allow the worst polluters in the nation to continue to poison the air unabated. The rate of childhood asthma and elderly respiratory distress, already climbing, is predicted to sky rocket. The number of deaths that can be directly related to air pollution in America is already estimated to be AT LEAST 30,000 - nearly TEN TIMES the death toll on 9/11. Acid rain, beginning to abate in many places, is worsening again already under Bush and will lead to the devastation of northern forests and to a growing number of acidified rivers, streams, and lakes unable to support any game fish at all." - Cheryl Seal

Two Industries Who Will Gain Greatest Immediate Benefit From Bush Gutting of Clean Air Act Are Also Biggest Donors
23-Nov-02
Environment

"According to Earthjustice, two industrial sectors with much to gain from today's action to weaken clean air protections were big contributors to the Bush-Cheney campaign and the Republican National Committee: coal burning utilities and the oil and gas industry. Oil and gas interests contributed $17 million to Bush-Cheney and the RNC, while coal burning utilities currently charged with violating New Source Review enforcement requirements contributed an additional $2 million. Among the most generous contributors was FirstEnergy Corp, which will now be free of current enforcement actions that threatened to be quite costly. FirstEnergy Corp. CEO Anthony Alexander is a Bush Pioneer. Other beneficiaries of Bush's move are BPAmoco, Conoco, and ExxonMobil Corp., all oil companies with refining interests."

Why I Quit the Bush EPA: An Insider's Warning of Environmental Disaster in the Making
22-Nov-02
Environment

Eric Shaeffer is an environmentalist and a man of integrity - qualities that have no home in the Bush administration. "In a matter of weeks, the Bush administration was able to undo the environmental progress we had worked years to secure. Millions of tons of unnecessary pollution continue to pour from these power plants each year as a result. Adding insult to injury, the White House sought to slash the EPA's enforcement budget, making it harder for us to pursue cases we'd already launched against other polluters that had run afoul of the law, from auto manufacturers to refineries, large industrial hog feedlots, and paper companies. It became clear that Bush had little regard for the environment - and even less for enforcing the laws that protect it. So last spring, after 12 years at the agency, I resigned, stating my reasons in a very public letter to Administrator Whitman." Eric Schaeffer is now director of the Environmental Integrity Project at the Rockefeller Family Fund.

Bush Waits until AFTER the Election to Announce Decision to Trash the Clean Air Act
22-Nov-02
Environment

"It is no coincidence this decision was delayed until after the recent elections," said Frank O'Donnell, executive director of the Clean Air Trust. "This may be only the first in a series of polluter-inspired assaults against our clean air and clean water laws." "This is the biggest regulatory rollback of the Clean Air Act in its history," O'Donnell said, adding that polluters see additional opportunities to weaken the Clean Air Act in Congress following the elections. Bowing to the wishes of big polluters, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is weakening so-called "new source review" rules, which require factories and other big sources of pollution to upgrade emission controls when they make a major change that could otherwise increase pollution. "EPA has endorsed this wish-list of polluter loopholes," said O'Donnell, who noted that the National Association of Manufactures has lobbied heavily for the new loopholes.

Changes to Clean Air Act Will Lead to Rampant Environment Injustice, with Blacks the Primary Victims of Killer Pollution
22-Nov-02
Environment

"In the predominantly African-American town of Port Arthur, Texas, flares and fireballs light up the night, and a string of refineries pumps toxic waste into the sky. 'I panic and I can't catch enough air,' says Port Arthur resident Annie Edwards. 'If I go outside, it's worse. I have to strap on my breathing machine at night so I don't pass on while I sleep.' Under changes to the Clean Air Act proposed by the Bush administration, the air in Port Arthur will be allowed to get dirtier. A key provision of the act known as 'new-source review' requires dirty old plants to modernize their pollution controls whenever they expand or increase their emissions. In June, the administration announced plans to redefine how increases in emissions are measured, opening big loopholes for industrial polluters. The effect will be to exclude from review even major pollution increases from more than 16,000 industrial sources."

Bush's Environmental Policy is a Man-made Catastrophe, and It's Getting Worse
12-Nov-02
Environment

Elizabeth Kolbert writes that Bush, "with remarkable single-mindedness, has set about undoing more than thirty years of work to protect the nation's air, water, and shrinking wilderness. Highlights of the Administration's record, which read like a 'Wish you were here' card to regulated industries, include: encouraging road-building through wildlife habitats, pushing tax cuts for energy exploration on public land, rejecting the Kyoto treaty on global warming, and allow[ing] mining companies to fill in valleys and streams with waste. [Bush's new] anti-regulatory efforts have grown even more ambitious, [including the] Healthy Forests Initiative, which [will] open up more national forestland to the timber industry. [Bush says] less effort should be devoted to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and more to preparing for the floods, droughts, and pestilence that" will result. And Bush will soon absolve many older, dirtier power plants from having to upgrade their equipment.

Environmental Losses Will Escalate
12-Nov-02
Environment

Greg Andeck writes: "A Republican controlled house, senate and presidency: OUCH. Last week's elections were a major Democrat spanking. According to President George W. Bush, the elections were a sign that the "people want something done." For most people, this "something" probably includes the stabilization of our economy, terrorist crackdowns and the destruction of Saddam Hussein. The voters probably did not realize that this "something" also means an intensified destruction of our environment in the next two years. Ever since Sept. 11, environmental concerns have taken a back seat to the threats of the world. What should have been a major campaign issue for Democrats -- the Republican weakening of environmental laws and regulations -- became hidden under a cloak of terrorism."

Environmentalists Bracing as Oil Industry Champion Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) Replaces Senator Jeffords (I-VT) as Environment Committee Chair
07-Nov-02
Environment

KnoxNews.com reports: "Environmentalists are bracing for 'the biggest attack on national environmental laws since the Gingrich Congress in 1995' said Phil Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, an environmental advocacy group....House Republican leaders signaled Wednesday that they would like to revive a major energy bill - one of the administration's top legislative priorities - that has been languishing because of differences between Senate Democrats and House Republicans over energy industry tax breaks, drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and a requirement that electric utilities increase the use of renewable energy, among other issues....Replacing Jeffords as environment committee chairman will be Sen. James Inhofe, R-OK, a longtime champion of the oil industry. Jeffords has a 75 percent voting score from the League of Conservation Voters. Inhofe's rating is zero."

Judge Temporarily Halts Bush-Approved Sonar Assault on Whales
01-Nov-02
Environment

Callously disregarding the fact that low-frequency sonar has been proven to cause the deaths or injuries of dozens of whales and dolphins, who rely on their own sonar for survival, Bush gave the Navy permission to use sonar in July. The National Resources Defense Council and other enviromental groups filed suit. In response, U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth D. LaPorte has imposed a temporary worldwide ban to force the Navy to work with environmental groups to find a compromise solution. The ruling is a sound, well-deserved rebuke to Bush - in her opinion, LaPorte chastised the government for violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act and noted that "the environmental groups were likely to prevail on their claim that the federal government failed to consider reasonable alternatives to a worldwide sonar deployment." When will Bush learn that he can't keep violating just about every environmental protection law in the land??

Bush's Anti-Environment Policies Put California's Deserts at Risk
29-Oct-02
Environment

Bush and his James Watt protege Gale "rip up the interior" Norton are working hard to destroy California's Mojave and Sonoran deserts by converting huge tracts, including a parcel sacred to one of California's native American tribes, into mining pits, off-road recreational vehicle havens, and -- this is the most egregious insult of all for anyone who appreciates the beauty of Joshua Tree Park -- a giant landfill adjacent to the monument. But the offenses don't stop there. BLM wants to reduce the endangered desert turtle's protected habitat to let recreational vehicles tear it up, and the DoD wants to exempt the Navy's desert gunnery range from environmental laws so they can drop bombs on big horn sheep and wild burros. If Bush isn't stopped NOW, experts and environmentalists say the damage to the desert's fragile ecosystem could take decades to repair, or it may never recover at all.

The Truth about Forest Fires that Bush Doesn't Want You to Know
27-Oct-02
Environment

Despite the media hype and Bush's handwringing over summer wildfires in the west, now that the smoke has cleared, it's increasingly obvious that the damage was minimal. The L.A. Times notes that "in the path of each of the major wildfires that captured national attention this year, large swaths of land emerged only lightly burned -- often better off for a much needed forest cleaning." It's clear now that Bush and the media sensationalized the impact of the fires to spread misinformation about environmental laws and promote Bush's harmful pro-logging plan, which is currently under consideration in Congress and ought to be scrapped!

Jeb Jeopardizes Everglades $7.8 Billion Restoration Project for Special Interests
13-Oct-02
Environment

"A coalition of environmental groups criticized Gov. Jeb Bush...for the environmental achievement it once praised, the one he touts the most in his re-election campaign: restoration of the Everglades. Just two years ago, the Everglades Coalition gave Bush and his environmental chief, David Struhs, a Steward of the Everglades award. Now, the coalition says Bush is jeopardizing the $7.8-billion restoration plan. They say the state has refused to write tight rules to ensure that water goes to natural systems before it is used for agriculture and growth. The coalition includes 43 environmental groups, including the National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, National Audubon....Half of Florida's historic Everglades are gone. The restoration project aims to reverse years of diking, ditching and draining. But in crafting the project, government has to balance the needs of a complex natural system with water-hungry agriculture and thirsty cities on the fringe of the vast marsh."

Bush Undermines Crucial Environmental Review of US-Funded Overseas Projects
23-Sep-02
Environment

WashPost reports, "Federal officials are scaling back environmental reviews of international infrastructure projects funded by U.S.-backed public development banks... Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who chairs the committee that funds the banks, criticized the Bush administration for reducing environmental oversight on the projects. 'Instead of cutting funds, downgrading offices and eliminating professional staff, it should be strengthening these programs and supporting people who have scientific expertise,' Leahy said. Environmental groups are critical of lending by US-subsidized banks, which include the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Asian Development Bank and African Development Bank. The groups contend these public agencies back projects - oil and gas wells, dams, pipelines and logging - that accelerate the destruction of fragile, diverse and dwindling ecosystems.... US AID criticisms of broad World Bank policies were edited out of a report to Congress." Impeach Bush Now!

George Bunyan Bush
06-Sep-02
Environment

Bush's "recent posturing as an environmentalist - as the man with the plan to save America's national forests in the wake of a summer of unusually severe western fires - taxes credulity beyond reasonable limits. Bush's 10-year strategic plan for managing wild land fires, unveiled recently during a vote-seeking tour of the southwest, is nothing more than a thinly veiled ruse to open America's national forests to the logging companies that supported his candidacy… Corporate timber giants coveted remaining stands of old growth trees in our national forests long before this summer's fires. Bill Clinton fought a pitched battle with them throughout his two administrations…in the last days of his second term by closing vast areas of the national forest system to logging. Unfortunately, the Clinton logging ban, like most other positive contributions he made to the welfare of the nation and the world, is now likely to be reversed by Bush." So writes D. Haynes for Yellow Times.org.

Powell Heckled at Earth Summit over Bush's Earth-Destroying Policies
04-Sep-02
Environment

CNN reports, "U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has faced a stormy reception at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg as he sought to defend America's record on the environment. Powell was repeatedly forced to halt his speech to delegates as he was booed and heckled on Wednesday -- the last day of the conference... Many environmentalists and other delegates at the conference have been angered by the U.S.' refusal to sign up to the Kyoto treaty on global warming, which sets targets for nations to cut greenhouse gases. George W. Bush's absence from the summit has also drawn much criticism and many delegates have voiced anger at what they claim is a campaign by the U.S. and big business to hamper attempts to try and counter environmental damage and bridge the wealth gap between rich and poor nations."

Bush's Forest Policy Proves the Obvious - Bush Loves ALL Corporate Cronies
27-Aug-02
Environment

Paul Krugman writes: "Round up the usual suspects! George W Bush's new 'Healthy Forests' plan reads like a parody of his administration's standard operating procedure. You see, environmentalists cause forest fires, and those nice corporations will solve the problem if we get out of their way. Am I being too harsh? No, actually it's even worse than it seems. 'Healthy Forests' isn't just about scrapping environmental protection; it's also about expanding corporate welfare... In fact, the government doesn't make money when it sells timber rights to loggers. [How much money does it cost?] Funny you should ask: last year the Bush administration stopped releasing that information... So as in the case of the administration's energy policy, beneath the free-market rhetoric is a plan for increased subsidies to favored corporations. Surprise."

All for the Logging Industry: Bush Proposal to Target Fire Crisis by Cutting Down Trees; Will the GOP Sell Heroic Picture of Bush Looking out the Air Force One Window at the Fires?
22-Aug-02
Environment

"Bush plans Thursday to propose a new strategy to lessen risk of the massive wildfires that have scorched the West this summer, by encouraging thinning of small trees, easing regulation of forest management and relying on private companies to carry out more of the work…Environmentalists immediately characterized Bush's proposals as misguided and unnecessary, because western governors have worked with conservation groups to finalize a new 10-year strategy to prevent wildfires and reduce the threat they pose to people and property near the edge of forests…Specifically, the [White House] said that Congress should change land laws so government agencies could permit long-term 'stewardship contracts' with private companies, which would be permitted to keep wood products in exchange…For months, some western politicians have accused environmental groups of blocking or delaying many attempts to clear forests of the dense underbrush that puts forests at great risk of wildfire."

Repost: Republican Scapegoaters Use Western Wildfires as an Excuse to Slam Environmentalists
22-Aug-02
Environment

A few months ago, "Arizona's Republican Senator Kyl criticized the Bush Administration for delaying funds needed to prevent wildfires. As usual, Republicans hate any Federal spending except in their own backyard. Had these funds been available in time, disaster might have been averted. However, when the wildfires did finally occur thanks to Administration belt tightening needed to fund their giant tax cut for the super-rich, Arizona’s Republican Governor Hull decided to use environmentalists as handy scapegoats rather than blame the real culprit. Administration budget axes, which swing unerringly against any program that actually does good for human beings, but always miss when it comes to pork and corporate welfare." So writes Jim Mooney for 21st Century Democrats.

Jeb Redefines Water Pollution Standard to Allow MORE Pollution
21-Aug-02
Environment

Sally Swartz writes: "Imagine a miracle: All of Florida's polluted lakes, rivers, creeks and canals suddenly are pristine. No more low oxygen levels that kill fish. No more problems created by runoff from farms and cities. No industrial waste, no phosphorus from fertilizers or nitrogen that feeds the growth of green slime on clear water. No unknown chemicals that make fish develop sores and lesions. Now imagine that Florida's solution to pollution is the standard for the nation. Apparently, it is just that simple. Florida's environmental bureaucrats are in the process of removing 600 bodies of water from the state's 'impaired' list by changing the rules. They redefined impaired…One problem with the state changing rules to take polluted waters off the 'impaired' list is that federal money no longer will be available for cleanup…If waters are considered impaired, state and federal laws say no more pollutants can be dumped…without setting limits…(not) 'impaired,' dumping can continue."

Bushcroft Declares New Environmental War on the Oceans
12-Aug-02
Environment

In a spectacular break with settled law, the Bush Injustice Dept is arguing in court that waters beyond three miles from shore should not be offered the protections of the National Environmental Policy Act. This is the 1969 law that requires the Feds to take the environment into consideration in its policymaking. It is the most basic environmental law of the land...and the sea. Now we have Ashcroft using a lawsuit -- over the Navy's recently granted permission from the National Marine Fisheries Service to use low frequency sonar to detect quiet submarines -- which the lawsuit charges will disorient and destroy marine mammals. If the Injustice Dept prevails, commercial fisheries, underground pipelines, and ocean dumping beyond three miles will be exempt from the law. Ashcroft's tactic in court fits diabolically with the Bush's previous proposal that the military should be exempt from environmental laws. Get these critters out of office before they destroy the aquarium we all depend on!

'Asian Brown Cloud' Threatens Indian Subcontinent With Consequences Just as Devastating as Al Gore Forewarned
12-Aug-02
Environment

In "Earth in the Balance," Al Gore detailed the very real environmental threats facing our Mother Earth. Just as Al warned during the election that Bush was being bankrolled by 'a new generation of special-interest power-brokers who would like nothing better than a pliant president who would bend public policy to suit their purposes and profits,' Al is just as prescient about the very real environmental threats facing our earth. He must be shaking his head with chagrin today as he reads on CNN.com about the "Asian Brown Cloud," a noxious cloud composed of aerosols, ash, soot, and particulate matter estimated to be 2 miles thick over the entire Indian subcontinent. And it's a killer. Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen estimates that in India alone 2 million people a year die from its atmospheric pollution each year. Meanwhile, back at the corporate-controlled, corruption-ridden White House, Bush parrots his handlers' message: "Pollution? What pollution?" Defeat all Republicans!

'Clear Skies': Bush's Gift to the Coal Burning Polluters
11-Aug-02
Environment

The Minneapolis Star Tribune writes: "the Clear Skies program is objectionable for offering coal-fired power plants an undeserved extension of a privilege they have historically abused. These plants were exempted from the original clean-air legislation of the 1970's... These are the companies whose regulatory burdens the pResident proposes to replace with an honor system: Let them monitor and report their own emissions performance. Don't require any reductions before 2008. Until then, let the utilities increase their pollution output; afterward, let them decide among themselves who will pollute less and who will pollute more. All in all, the Bush plan offers an endless sunny day for the coal burners -- and a hazy horizon for everybody else."

Live in CO, FL, IL, IN, LA, MA, MI, MT, NB, NH, NJ, NY, OK, PA, TN, TX, VT, or VA? Bush's Superfund Cuts Affect You!
07-Jul-02
Environment

"Cleanup projects at toxic waste sites in 18 states are being severely curtailed or halted under a Bush administration plan to reduce spending for the nation's Superfund program, according to an Environmental Protection Agency report... Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-SD, said the Bush approach, which would require taxpayer dollars to assume more cleanup activities at these sites, 'rejects the concept of polluter pays.' A dozen other sites across the country will get some additional money, but less than what regional officials had said was needed. Long-term remediation projects at more than 50 additional sites are also receiving less money, the report said. The Bush administration wants to shift funding for the 33 cleanup projects to the government's general fund, meaning taxpayers would pay. But such a shift requires congressional approval and will slow down the work or halt it entirely in some cases."

Bush Expects Taxpayers to Fund His War on the Environment
03-Jul-02
Environment

It's official: Bush is choking off funding for the EPA's clean-up of some of the most polluted sites in the country. This is the worst kind of anti-environment corporate welfare imaginable, and even Reagan and Poppy Bush refused to sink to this level of campaign contributor pandering - they kept the taxes in place that forced the polluters to pay for their own messes. Instead, Bush is indicating that either WE - the American taxpayers - foot the bill, or we'll just have to stew in the oil and chemical companies' messes!

Bush Slashes Aid for EPA Cleanup at 33 Toxic Sites
01-Jul-02
Environment

Katharine Seelye writes "The Bush administration has designated 33 toxic waste sites in 18 states for cuts in financing under the Superfund cleanup program, according to a new report to Congress by the inspector general of the Environmental Protection Agency. The cuts, imposed because the cleanup fund is hundreds of millions of dollars short of the amount needed to keep the program on schedule, mean that work is likely to grind to a halt on some of the most seriously polluted sites in the country."

Arizona Bushburn: Shifting the Blame
29-Jun-02
Environment

Recently, Arizona's Republican Senator Kyl criticized the Bush Administration for delaying funds needed to prevent wildfires. As usual, Republicans hate any Federal spending except in their own backyard. Had these funds been available in time, disaster might have been averted. However, when the wildfires did finally occur (thanks to Administration belt tightening needed to fund their giant tax cut for the super-rich), Arizona's Republican Governor Hull decided to use environmentalists as handy scapegoats rather than blame the real culprit. Administration budget axes swing unerringly against any program that actually does good for human beings, but always miss when it comes to pork and corporate welfare.

Polluter Gets Its Money's Worth from Bush, While Alabama Citizens Suffer
26-Jun-02
Environment

Here's a perfect example of how Bush's pimping of public policy to the highest bidder hurts average citizens. Birmingham is Alabama's biggest city, and neighboring Shelby County is a playground for polluting power companies that belligerently refuse to clean up their act and know they can get away with it under Bush. Meanwhile, citizens in the area have had to deal with debilitating asthma, flooded rivers that kill fish and other wildlife, and other problems, thanks to Bush's big power-producing campaign contributors.

Republican Scapegoaters Use Western Wildfires as an Excuse to Slam Environmentalists
26-Jun-02
Environment

Republicans in States that are struggling to contain wildfires are, in typical Republican fashion, exploiting these tragedies to display their ignorance about the issue and promote their anti-environment agendas. Arizona Governor Jane Hull (R) and Senator Jon Kyl (R), in particular, are using misinformation to "fan the flames of hate and divisiveness", as a news release from the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter so aptly put it.

Bush Sinks Alaska!
17-Jun-02
Environment

Sure there was no global warming, and we didn't need Kyoto, and then if we changed our mind it didn't matter anyway. Thus saith George Bush and Rush Pigbaugh. But in addition to the North Pole suddenly being forty percent thinner, and Antarctica breaking up, it now looks like Alaska is slowly melting and sinking into the sea. We guess all those Republican Congressmen up there aren't going to find Bush's environmental coattails very long when the voters have to float their kayaks to the voting booth. To add insult to injury, Bush just reversed long-standing air pollution regs, in order to speed up global warming. Chalk one more state up for the Dems!

Golly Gee, the NY Times is 'Exasperated' by Air Pollution Bushit
17-Jun-02
Environment

The NY Times editorializes, "The Bush administration's decision last week to relax air-quality rules governing older coal-fired power plants is exasperating... The power companies and the big refineries were thrilled. But the rollbacks inspired virtually unanimous condemnation from environmentalists, from state attorneys general up and down the Eastern seaboard and from James Jeffords, whose Senate committee will consider 'Clear Skies' if and when it arrives on Capitol Hill. To Mr. Jeffords, the notion of exchanging existing law for a diaphanous promise represented a 'devastating defeat for public health and our environment.'" Let's put it more simply - Bush is giving a green light to the polluters who fund his campaigns, just like he did in Texas. "Fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice, shame on me." Hey NY Times - have you no shame?

Bush Was a Polluter When Polluting Wasn't Cool
16-Jun-02
Environment

Texas is the most polluted state in the planet's most powerful country. The Guardian's Ed Vulliamy goes into George Bush's backyard to reveal how Big Oil got in bed with Big Politics -- and the price paid by the little people of Texas.

Christie Whitman Pimps for Polluters Once Again, Promoting Dirty Coal-Burning Power Plants
13-Jun-02
Environment

AP's John Heilprin writes, "In a victory for energy producers, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed relaxing air pollution rules to make it easier for utilities to upgrade and expand their coal-burning power plants. EPA's long-awaited announcement on the 'New Source Review' requirements of the Clean Air Act touched one of the most contentious air pollution issues facing the Bush administration. It would ease some of the most stringent measures that environmental groups say are a key element in forcing dirty, older plants to cut emissions by up to 95%." By the way, the Secret Cheney Energy Task force recommended these new regulations. It's time for Christie Whitman to resign!

Bush Speaks With Forked Tongue - This Time on Global Warming and Air Pollution
08-Jun-02
Environment

Here's an ethics puzzler: is it worse to deny a problem exists, or recognize the problem but do nothing to solve it? When it comes to global warming and air pollution, Bush's strategy is to do both at the same time. David Corn writes, "The world is becoming hotter and the air you breathe can give you cancer, according to two new EPA studies. But, the Bush administration says, don't worry about it... the Bush EPA - that's nearly an oxymoron - [posted two reports], one on global warming, the other on air toxics... The Bushies succeeded in burying the air toxics assessment. They failed with the global warming report... What a wonderful strategy for industry and its political comrades: they denied global warming for so long, until there is no longer a possible remedy. Now that pro-business Republicans finally concede global warming is under way and caused by human activity, they claim it's too late to do anything."

Gale Norton Lies to Cover Up Bush's Political Favors to Jeb
08-Jun-02
Environment

Proving that Bush doesn't care how patently transparent his political motives were in buying back Florida's offshore oil leases, Gale Norton told a laughably huge whopper to explain why the administration is refusing to do the same for California. She claims that "Florida opposes coastal drilling and California does not." Considering that California's opposition to drilling goes back about 40 years, that reasoning is as ridiculous and insulting as Cheney's statements blaming California for the Bush-Enron-engineered California Enronegy crisis. Norton is obviously grasping at straws to obfuscate the real reason Bush won't protect the coast of California: there's no fellow Bush running the state, facing re-election.

Bush Continues to Purge Dedicated Environmentalists from US Government
03-Jun-02
Environment

LA Times' Elizabeth Shogren writes, "That makes... a number of senior career officials across several environmental agencies who have quit since the Bush administration took over... Some of them left in protest, silent or loud. Others left because they believed the new administration had put them on a shelf, and they refused to stay there. But in each case, the decision to leave a well-paid job after years or even decades of service reflected concern over the Bush administration's efforts to make environmental regulations more friendly to businesses and promote energy extraction from federal lands... The departures also reveal that under the Bush team, divergent views in the top ranks of these agencies have been ignored and key career government officials who were seen to favor protecting natural resources over promoting their use have been removed from power."

Christie Whitman Loses ANOTHER Environmental Battle to Corporate Greed
24-May-02
Environment

Holly Rosenkrantz from Bloomberg writes, "The Bush administration backed off a plan that would have required construction companies to spend $4.1 billion a year on environmental protection...The Environmental Protection Agency had planned to require construction companies to take permanent steps, such as building ponds in office parks, to prevent pollution from dirt and other runoff after storms. The White House Office of Management and Budget rejected that plan... and instead proposed temporary measures such as water basins that may be removed as the bulldozers leave. "This is as favorable a decision for the construction industry that the administration could have made," said Leah Wood This is the latest example of the Bush admin is favoring businesses at the expense of the environment. "Temporary steps won't protect Americans from chemical and biological pollution after storms wash construction debris into the water supply, they say." Will Whitman EVER resign?

Bush's Environmental Record Is a Nightmare
23-May-02
Environment

The NRDC has compiled Bush's environmental record: Reneging on Kyoto, gutting the Clean Water Act, slashing billions from natural resources spending, overriding all opposition to nuclear waste transport, trashing Nuclear test ban treaty, dumping trashed mountaintop rubble into waterways, easing arsenic regulations for drinking water, pushing against overwhelming public opposition for drilling in ANWR, approval of mining in the Everglades, forcing officials in EPA and BLM who oppose Bush policies out of their jobs, OK'ing new strip mines in wilderness areas, overturning roadless areas ruling, letting superfund polluters off the hook for cleaning up their messes, illegal granting of coalbed methane leases in Wyoming, accelerating drilling in Rocky Mountain wildlands, backing federal "activist judges" with an anti-environmental agenda, easing air pollution rules for power plants, using industrial lobbyists as EPA "spokespeople" ... READ IT AND WEEP.

Costa Rica Says NO to Offshore Oil Drilling by Bush's Old Oil Company
13-May-02
Environment

Get ready for another nation to join Bush's "Axis of Evil" - and to face a US-sponsored coup. "Late last week Costa Rican environmentalists celebrated a major victory when their government killed plans to open the country's coast to oil exploration. In an eleventh-hour decision, Minister of Environment Elizabeth Odio rejected an appeal by a Harken Energy subsidiary to allow drilling along the southern Caribbean coast of Talamanca because the project would harm fragile coral reef systems and protected marine areas... The ruling was the culmination of a two-year campaign by a coalition of indigenous villages, nature-based tour operators, clergy and community groups." Harken was Bush's old oil company. He was (under)investigated by his Daddy's SEC for insider trading of Harken stock.

For Bush, Human Life is a Cost Benefit Analysis -- Guess Who Loses?
10-May-02
Environment

Ellen Nakashima writes in the Washington Post, "How much is a human life worth? In the Bush White House, John Graham decides... As the Bush administration reviews a host of rules that businesses object to, and as public advocacy groups push for stricter oversight, debate has crystallized on the question: How does government balance saving money and saving lives?... Wesley Warren [of the NRDC] sees Graham's office as a sophisticated version of Vice President Dan Quayle's effort... to end rules considered harmful to economic efficiency... Last week, his office signed off on a rule proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency that will let companies dump waste from mountaintop coal mining operations into rivers and streams. The rule reached [Graham's office on Wednesday -- It went to the printer on Friday]. Joan Mulhern, [an Earthjustice lawyer said] 'Because it was a gift to industry, it was rubber-stamped in record time.'"

How Does Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Destroy the Environment? See the EPA's Secret Slide Show for Yourself!
10-May-02
Environment

A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency slide show – prepared to privately brief Bush administration officials and obtained by Trial Lawyers for Public Justice and the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment on May 2, 2002 – documents wholesale deforestation, toxic pollution, burying of streams, and other environmental destruction caused by mountaintop removal mining. For example, the EPA's internal briefing materials state: 560 miles of Appalachian streams "have already been eliminated by valley fills;" Aquatic life forms downstream of valley fills are being impaired; and "Stream chemistry monitoring efforts show significant increases" in concentrations of selenium – a metalloid that according to the EPA "can be highly toxic to aquatic life even at relatively low concentrations" – downstream of mountaintop removal mining and valley fill operations. See the slideshow for yourself! (Warning: English speakers may find this bureaucratic product impossible to decipher.)

Coal Lobbyist LIES About Job Impact of Mountaintop Removal
10-May-02
Environment

This week, Chief U.S. District Judge Charles H. Haden II of West Virginia refused to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to dump toxic junk-laced mining wastes in the waterways and valleys of this beautiful state. Bush-coal lobbyist Bill K. Caylor tried to prevent the ruling, whining that the move will cost 15,000 jobs and shut down mining. Do Bush's pals in the coal industry really think West Virginians are that dumb? That they would actually believe that by taking the labor-cutting shortcut of just dumping wastes - rather than processing them properly (a whole job-creating operation in itself!) - that the industry will LOSE jobs? But the coal barons don't want ANY responsibility for either the coal miners or the coal miners' environment! Note: Trial Lawyers for Public Justice reposted the Washington Post's article and added links directly to the key source documents, so readers can examine the sources and draw their own conclusions. TLPJ deserves a Pulitzer for civic journalism!

Smackdown! Federal Judge Bars Companies Nationwide from Filling Streams with Waste
09-May-02
Environment

A federal judge in West Virginia ruled that the Bush administration violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) last Friday when it issued a regulation allowing companies to dispose of waste in streams throughout the US. In a 47-page decision, Chief U.S. District Judge Charles H. Haden II said, "under the CWA, with its purpose to maintain the integrity of the nation's waters, filling of rivers and streams cannot be undertaken simply to turn them into dry land, that is, simply to destroy them." Judge Haden barred the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from issuing any permits for the disposal of waste in America's streams. "This is a huge victory for coal field residents because it stops one of the most environmentally damaging practices in the country," said David Rouse of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. "Co-counsel Jim Hecker of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice added, "Congress never intended to allow companies to use the nation's streams for waste disposal."

Whitman Dismantled Clean Water Act to Help the Same Mining Companies Her Husband Owns Stock In
04-May-02
Environment

Has the public already forgotten that just a few months back, Christie Whitman was accused of a bigtime conflict of interest when she dismantled the EPA watchdog office that oversaw investigations of superfund sites? The case involved a mining company in Colorado. Not just any mining company - it's one in which her husband owns stock and by which she herself thus benefits. When EPA superfund watchdog Robert Martin's investigation found radioactive waste at the Shattuck mining site, sitting like a silent bomb near a residential community and had it removed, he was considered a hero by the community. His thanks from Whitman? A prompt transfer that made it impossible for him to talk to the press or lawmakers about his findings, followed by the dismantling of the watchdog office. So now, should we be surprised Whitman's going another step further to improve the profits for mining companies by allowing them to dump their wastes for free into our waterways?

Bush and Whitman Commit a 'Friday Night Massacre' of the Clean Water Act
04-May-02
Environment

What dark, demented planet is "Christie Todd" really from? Because here on Earth, there's no mentally competent human being who believes that burying streams, rivers, and wetlands under hundreds of tons of coal and other mining wastes is GOOD for water quality. "It says something when an administration takes an action like this late on a Friday -- that they hope no one sees it," said Joan Mulhern of Earthjustice. "This is a 'Friday Night Massacre' for our nation's waters and it's the biggest threat to our nation's waters in decades, perhaps since the Clean Water Act passed 30 years ago." The Whitman-Bush massacre was perpetrated DESPITE strong bipartisan opposition, despite all environmental outcry, both nationally and locally. In short, Whitman is more interested in kissing coal baron butt than she is in the future of her nation.

Is The Sierra Club Ready To Fight Bu$h Toe to Toe? Stay Tuned...
29-Apr-02
Environment

Amy Standen reports in Salon, "These are dark days for the environmental movement. Since the Bush administration came to office, nearly every week brings a 'what fresh hell is this?' feeling to eco circles... In the face of the Bush administration's pro-industry offensive, the leading environmental groups have seemed curiously quiet. [As a result] of their naive emphasis on lobbying, environmental leaders have allowed themselves to be showcased by government officials who seek to appear sympathetic to environmental causes, while doing nothing to actually advance them. [But] judging by Al Gore's recent rebirth as a fighting nature lover, environmental issues are likely to play a major role in the 2004 elections. Are the mainline environmental leaders also finally getting ready to roar? Carl Pope says he is learning from the movement's recent missteps."

Bush's 'Clear Skies' Plan is Clear Nonsense
27-Apr-02
Environment

"The government's own studies indicate that Clear Skies would achieve fewer pollution reductions than aggressive enforcement of present law. Indeed, Mr. Bush rejected a plan devised by the Environmental Protection Agency that would have reduced air pollution further and faster than Clear Skies. Even if Clear Skies achieved its national targets, it would still leave certain regions — like the Adirondacks — helpless against poisoned air because it would let companies choose which plants to clean up. If they chose not to upgrade their dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the Midwest, areas downwind of those plants would continue to suffer. It is precisely those plants that have done the most acid-rain damage in the Adirondacks. In addition, Clear Skies fails to regulate carbon dioxide, the main global-warming gas. The president is worried about the potential costs, and his big contributors in the power industry hate the idea of such a rule." So writes the NY Times.

Christie Whitman Gets Smacked Down Yet Again
27-Apr-02
Environment

EPA administrator Christie Whitman is a national joke. Every time she proposes regulations to cut pollution, she gets smacked down by the polluters who bought and paid for the Bush Regime. The latest example is Bush's "Clear Skies Plan" to reduce air pollution and acid rain. According to the NY Times, Whitman "argued that the amount of sulfur dioxide emitted nationally should be limited to two million tons per year by 2010. But the White House rejected that proposal, and when Mr. Bush announced his plan in February, he set a level of three million tons to be achieved by 2018. Sulfur dioxide causes acid rain and other environmental problems." Bradley M. Campbell, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, called Bush's plan "a huge gift to the electric generating industry." Hey Christie, you should have resigned a year ago!

Rocky Mountains Under Siege!
27-Apr-02
Environment

"The signature ploy of the Bush administration is to flout the law and seize the spoils. Starting with the election that put President [sic] Bush in office, his administration deploys that modus operandi in the service of its supporters. The result is an unholy alliance of government and parasitic corporations that consumes and ravages the resources that rightfully belong to every American citizen… The administration smelled blood, and realized that drilling ANWR had become a real possibility… Everything about the ANWR plan was misrepresented:… Those were not, by any stretch of the imagination, honest mistakes. They were outright brazen lies… Meanwhile, the Rocky Mountains are on the chopping block, with the ax already falling and much more to come." Read Connie Harvey's expose of what the Bushies have planned for those "purple mountains!"

Stop Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining - Send a Letter to Bu$h!
27-Apr-02
Environment

"I am writing in opposition to your administration's plans to go forward with the proposal to revise the definition of 'fill material' under the Clean Water Act in order to authorize the dumping of waste into our nation's streams, lakes, rivers and wetlands. This rule change appears to be motivated by an effort to legalize the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining, where coal companies blow the tops off of mountains and the waste generated is dumped into nearby valleys, destroying streams for miles and killing all stream life." Go to the Clean Water Network site and click on the "Take Action Now" button to sign the letter to Bush!

Bu$h Rule Will Let Coal Miners Fill Valleys and Streams With Debris
26-Apr-02
Environment

Katharine Seelye reports in the NY Times, "The Bush administration is preparing to allow the coal mining industry to fill waterways and valleys with the rock and dirt from mountaintop mining, particularly in West Virginia... Environmentalists oppose the regulation, saying that filling streams and valleys destroys the ecosystem of the waterways and forests... and is a serious rollback of the Clean Water Act. [Christie Whitman says] 'It is not a giveaway to the mining industry -- It does not allow activity that isn't already under way.' " Environmentalists say that the permitting process is illegal, and has already erased more than 1,000 miles of streams in Appalachia. Hey, Christie -- since George Bush has already stolen an election, does that make stealing elections legal?

Ray Berry Mourns Poisoned Hudson River
25-Apr-02
Environment

Ray Berry writes, "For the last two evenings I watched the brilliant four hour PBS special "The Hudson River, America's River" by Bill Moyers. Being an artist and an environmentalist I have often been quite overwhelmed at the awesome beauty and extreme sadness of the Hudson River... GE should have been fined billions of dollars by the EPA and not just a token five hundred million that is only going to be used to dredge a few hot spot areas that will not heal the river in my view. At the end of the tv show Jack Welch told Bill Moyers what a good job GE was doing because NOW they are only releasing a few ounces a day of PCBs into the river. That's Now! The PCB molecule will never break down in nature long after Jack Welch is dust. Who are these people running our selected President and our world? Think about it. Poison is poison! Politics today is the driving force of the natural health or death of our entire world today. My Hudson River is still filled with tears and so am I."

Bu$hExxonMobil Engineers Coup d'Etat in Global Warming Agency
24-Apr-02
Environment

"Bush administration representatives to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) succeeded today in ousting Dr. Robert Watson from the science panel's chairmanship...Lobbyists for ExxonMobil, Southern Company (the second largest U.S. electric company), and other polluting industries worked in Geneva with OPEC countries to round up the majority needed to oust Watson. This is the first time that the IPCC chair has been selected other than by consensus...Watson, IPCC chair since 1996, is a respected atmospheric scientist highly regarded for his strong leadership of the complex organization. But earlier this month -- immediately following closed-door talks with oil, utility and auto lobbyists -- the Bush administration announced it would not renominate him. That same week, NRDC (the Natural Resources Defense Council) released a confidential memo from ExxonMobil to the White House asking that Watson be replaced."

Mother Earth Sends Bush a Clear Message during Adirondack Visit
23-Apr-02
Environment

Dana Milbank writes "President [sic] Bush celebrated Earth Day today. Mother Earth declined to cooperate. The president, eager to burnish his conservationist credentials, scheduled an environmental speech and a visit to a hiking trail here in the Adirondacks, using scenic Whiteface Mountain as his backdrop. The idea was for photographers to take pictures of the sun-dappled president from a pontoon boat. But when Bush arrived in northern New York, temperatures were in the twenties and a wet late-April snow was beginning to accumulate. It was the latest of many strange natural phenomena to strike the area. Last week, temperatures reached 80 degrees in a historic heat wave. On Saturday, an exceedingly rare earthquake struck the region, breaking water mains and cutting electric power."

Earth Day Comments Prove Bush is Delusional!!
23-Apr-02
Environment

Bush's Earth Day comments about his environmental policies - and his reaction to Gore's criticisms - prove he is both delusional and arrogant. Bush thinks that just because he can pose under giant trees and wield an ax, pretending to help rebuild a road in the Adirondacks, that somehow makes him an "ardent environmentalist for whom 'Every Day is Earth Day'." (You mean, every day is 'Destroy the Earth Day', don't you Shrub?) Hey Shrub, if your record on the environment is so great, why are you arrogantly shrugging Al Gore off instead of defending your record? Maybe because it's typical Shrub behavior to ignore the truth when it hits home so hard!?

An Earth Day Warning: 'Coming Soon to a Theater Near You'
23-Apr-02
Environment

"In fact, a scrutinizing investigation of Bush's environmental record chronicles quite an eye-opening account full of disregard, neglect, betrayal, abandonment, and the subsequent sellout of historically Republican conservative values to the moneyed interests of big corporations…For fiscal year 2002, Bush has proposed cuts in research and development by 27% in energy efficiency and by 36% in renewables, while simultaneously increasing by $15 million money for oil drilling and mining exploration on public lands. He seeks to eliminate $500 million from the EPA budget, including a cut of $158 million for the enforcement of existing environmental laws. He hopes to slash $56 million from arsenic protection research and reduce by over $168 million, money earmarked for wildlife habitat, wetlands restoration, and endangered species. In all, he has cut environmental funding in the budget by over $2.1 billion." So writes Doreen Miller for the Yellow Times.

Rumsfeld Declares War on America's Marine Habitats
20-Apr-02
Environment

Rumsfeld now wants to overturn the Marine Mammal Protection Act so he can turn our coasts into a military playground for blowing things up and testing new high-tech toys like the sonar that killed dozens of whales in the Caribbean. The Marine Mammal Protection Act forbids harassing, hunting, capturing or killing whales, dolphins or any other marine mammals. Rep. John D. Dingell of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee (which has jurisdiction over pollution) is outraged and pointed out that instead of expanding its assault on the environment, the Pentagon "should concentrate on complying with the law and cleaning up the environment instead of seeking special preference to continue as the nation's greatest polluter."

Without Marine Mammal Protection, More Whales and Dolphins Will Die in Agony from High-Tech Military Testing
20-Apr-02
Environment

In March, 2000 the U.S. Navy, against advice of whale experts and environmental groups, insisted on conducting tests of its high-intensity sonar in the Caribbean. The sound was devastating to marine mammals in the area. Sixteen whales and a dolphin were stranded -- six of which eventually died. Researchers found that the sound had caused such severe damage to the whales that the animals were bleeding from the inner ear and around their brains. Can you imagine the agony these magnificent animals suffered before dying - or how many died or were permanently harmed that did not end up on beaches where aid was available? Now the Bush-Rumsfeld Pentagon wants to remove the only protections that marine mammals have against such military assaults!

Former EPA Enforcement Chief Says Bu$h Seriously Threatens Public Health
18-Apr-02
Environment

Eric V. Schaeffer, former chief of civil enforcement for the EPA until he resigned last month, released a report by one of the EPA's primary technical consultants on clean air asserting, "Pollution from eight utility companies cited by the Justice Department in 1999 and 2000 for violating the Clean Air Act leads to nearly 6,000 premature deaths yearly, according to a report released today. The analysis also estimates that pollutants from these companies lead to 140,000 asthma attacks and 14,000 cases of acute bronchitis every year…This report shows how the Bush Administration's failure to enforce the Clean Air Act is a serious threat to public health," said Schaeffer."

Shout it from the Mountaintops - While The Mountains Still Have Tops...
17-Apr-02
Environment

David Case writes in TomPaine, "There's an easy way to stop bank robbers from breaking the law: make bank robbery legal. That's exactly how the Bush administration is proposing to treat polluters under a vital section of the Clean Water Act, environmentalists say. It's part of the administration's ongoing effort to fulfill the extractive industries' wildest fantasies. In this latest rollback of environmental safeguards, the administration is pandering to corporations that practice mountaintop-removal coal-mining in Appalachia. Incidentally, coal mining companies and their allies at electric utilities donated $530,560 to President Bush during the 2000 campaign and coal interests gave nearly $3 million in soft money to the Republican party, according to Earthjustice, which tallied the numbers from the Web site OpenSecrets.org."

Environmentally Unsafe At Any Speed: Bu$h Eliminates Fellowship Funding
16-Apr-02
Environment

The Bush administration is eliminating a $10 million dollar fellowship program for graduate studies in environmental science, policy and engineering. "This is the only federal program that is specifically designed to support the top students going into environmental science," according to a senior scientist with a Washington-based environmental science advocacy group. Bush, who is consistent in saying one thing and doing another, "has consistently emphasized the importance of scientific research in environmental decision making." Of course, if you wanted to reduce the level of scientific environmental scrutiny while shifting clean-up costs from corporate interests to taxpayers, defunding is one way to do it!

George W. Bush, Eco-Terrorist
11-Apr-02
Environment

Editor Scott Galindez of Truthout.com counts the ways - in which Dubya is terrorizing the planet: unnecessary new oil drilling, storing nuclear waste at Yucca mountain, using the war on drugs to protect oil companies at the expense of indigenous people. "George, George, George...In one year you have threatened our planet with destruction that no terrorists could ever implement. Perhaps Ashcroft should classify you and your Administration eco-terrorists. Those currently classified as eco-terrorists actually defend the environment that your policies would destroy."

Here's a List of the Poisons Bush Wants Americans in All 50 States to Continue to Be Exposed to...Indefinitely
11-Apr-02
Environment

What kind of president would knowingly - and willfully - push to have millions of his fellow countrymen/women exposed to toxic substances so lethal that the sites they have contaminated must be given a special designation: Superfund? Not one who gives a damn about the average American, that is certain. After reading this information from PIRG on just what the toxics at these sites do to human health, there will be no doubt in your mind that the nation's well-being is being put at grave risk. By blocking the progress of superfund site cleanups, Bush has taken his obsession with protecting the wallets of corporations at the expense of all else to a new - and terrifying extreme.

Republicans Clean Up While Superfund Tanks and Taxpayers Ante Up
11-Apr-02
Environment

The EPA's Superfund program is slated to clean up about half as many sites under Mr. Bu$h as were cleaned up during the last years of President Clinton's administration. Superfund officials were asked to explain why 25 cleanup sites were struck from lists designated for restoration. Bu$h officials deny that the policy change is motivated by a desire to help chemical (Republicans received 81% of more than $11 million total contributed in 2000), oil (Republicans received 78% of almost $34 million contributed in 2000), and other businesses largely responsible for the toxic waste (waste management donors contributed over $1.5 million, 73% to Republicans). In addition to halving the program's effectiveness, the primary funding source has shifted from corporations to taxpayers, who will cover 54% of Superfund costs next year. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) noted "the pace of the cleanup and the principle that the polluter must pay - are now under attack by this administration."

Bu$h's OMB Proposal is a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
21-Mar-02
Environment

Bush knows he can't get away with blatantly scrapping environmental regulations, so he cloaks his actions in lies like "adopting a science-based approach" - as if the Clinton administration used voodoo to write the rules Bush wants to eliminate. This is what Bush is doing with his new initiative to overhaul the Office of Management and Budget, and environmentalists are justifiably crying foul. As Lisa Heinzerling, a Georgetown University law professor, says, "All this is really a lot of decorative stuff addressed mainly at reducing environmental protection in the name of sound [not] science and sound [?] economics."

Bush's BLM Is Gearing Up for Assault on Public Lands
20-Mar-02
Environment

Bush's oil cronies are complaining that environmental reviews required before the government can open up public lands to drilling are taking too long. So Bush's Bureau of Land Management, which manages energy resources on 262 million acres located mostly in the West, is more than eager to accommodate them. At a recent conference, BLM reps repeated the fallacious claim we've heard time and time again from industry lackeys in the administration like Gale Norton - that the administration can drill like crazy without spoiling the environment. They might as well also claim they can balance an elephant on the head of a pin. Jim Baca, who served as BLM Director in the first Clinton administration couldn't have put it better when he said of the BLM's plan to implement Bush's energy agenda, "I have never before seen such an assault on public lands and the quality of life in the Western United States."

Bush's Incessant Need to Drill: the States Fight Back!
20-Mar-02
Environment

The fight over drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been the most visible controversy over Bush's zeal to seemingly open up every last inch of coastline and pristine park land to drilling, but USA Today points out that battles between Bush and the states over other potential drilling spots are being waged all over the country. Bush keeps pushing, over the objections of legislatures and governors in California, Michigan, Alaska, and Florida - yes, he'll even sell out his own brother to help his oil buddies. Once again, the Repugnicants are selectively applying the concept of states' rights - Bush's need to pay back corporate supporters trumps states' rights every time!

Defenders of Wildlife Sponsors Endangered Species Essay Contest for Schoolchildren
17-Mar-02
Environment

"School children participating in essay contests sponsored by Defenders of Wildlife are learning about the Florida black bear and the California sea otter. Writing about the imperiled species, student essayists are competing for prizes of $1,000, $500, and $250 savings bonds." The Florida Black Bear contest is for children in grades 3-7, and the essay topic is "Florida Black Bear - an Umbrella Species." The California sea otter contest is for students in grades 6-8, and the essay topic is "Why the Sea Otter is Important to California." Hurry - essays must be e-mailed by April 1.

Bush's Doublespeak on Enviro Policy Must Have Orwell Spinning in His Grave
13-Mar-02
Environment

In recent weeks, Bush has implemented policies dismantling governmental environmental regulations in favor of voluntary controls, the kind that let polluters decide whether or not to protect the environment. Somehow administration officials manage to keep a straight face when they call this the "new environmentalism". Yeah, we all know how well this "new environmentalism" worked in Texas, with its hazy skies filled with toxic chemicals and its fecal matter-infested groundwater. Bush's lackey Christie Whitman says, "The president's philosophy is that not all wisdom lies in Washington...That's something both of us learned as governors." Gee, is that why Texas and New Jersey are two of the most polluted states in the union?

Stop Bush Before He Drills Again!
13-Mar-02
Environment

The Forest Service is attempting to open up over 140,000 acres of wildlands in the Los Padres National Forest, which runs along the California coast from Ventura County to Big Sur, to new oil and gas drilling. These beautiful lands are home to twenty threatened or endangered plants and animals, including the California condor. Drilling in these areas would be environmentally and financially costly for very little return: a five to ten day supply of fuel for the nation. But hey, when have the prospects of ruining the environment for very little return ever stood in Bush and his oil buddies' way? Are there NO natural treasures in our country that Bush isn't willing to destroy?

Bush's Latest Assault on Taxpayers and the Environment: Making US Pay for Superfund Clean-up!
09-Mar-02
Environment

The last three presidents, including Reagan and Bush Sr., all supported the Superfund and its slogan, "the polluter pays." However, the current Bush wants to give big polluters (and big donors) a break - at OUR expense! Bush must have known this was a pretty slimy thing to do, because he tried to hide this insult by burying his proposal to cut taxes on industrial polluters – the main source of Superfund money – in an obscure part of his budget. Go to Working for Change's website to urge your Senators to dump this toxic proposal and send Bush a message that we refuse to clean up after his cronies' messes!

EPA Official Quits, Blasts White House for Being 'Determined to Weaken Rules We Are Trying to Enforce'
01-Mar-02
Environment

"The head of regulatory enforcement at the Environmental Protection Agency has stepped down…claiming in a resignation letter that the EPA is 'fighting a White House that seems determined to weaken the rules we are trying to enforce'… In his resignation letter, Eric Schaeffer complained specifically about what he saw as attempts to weaken Clean Air Act regulations on coal-fired power plants. 'It is hard to know which is worse,' he wrote of a review of a key Clean Air Act provision, 'the endless delay or the repeated leaks by energy industry lobbyists of draft rule changes that would undermine lawsuits already filed' against power plants. 'At their heart, these proposals would turn narrow exemptions into larger loopholes that would allow old 'grandfathered' plants to be continually rebuilt (and emissions to increase) without modern pollution controls.'"

Christian Science Monitor Editorial Condemns Bush Plan as 'Voodoo Environmentalism'
27-Feb-02
Environment

"The idea of wealth-induced environmental conservation is not a new one," writes environmental geography professor William G. Moseley in CSM. "The problem is that increased wealth tends to foster increased consumption and its attendant pollution. A more advanced economy may allow us to pay for pollution abatement, but this does not necessarily put us ahead of the game if our energy consumption levels are increasing at the same rate - or faster." In short, wealth generates pollution, which, in turn, means wealth generates a need for more, not less, regulation of polluting industries. Bush's plan to tie pollution limits to growth is a voodoo fix: "While measuring emissions relative to the size of the economy tells us something about efficiency, such measures have no grounding in environmental reality."

The Need For An Environmental Olympics
22-Feb-02
Environment

"We need to start by celebrating the Environmental Olympians of at least the last thirty years. If I've learned anything at all by having the Olympics in my own backyard, I've learned that it is time to celebrate life rather than advocate for or prevaricate about death. It is time to celebrate diversity and biodiversity rather than monoculture. It is time to celebrate the future rather than the here and now. It is time to celebrate goodwill rather than greed. It is time to celebrate sustainability rather than boom-and-bust both economically as well as environmentally. Going for the Green actually has nothing to do with gold or money. Going for the Green truly has everything to do with a more livable world now and for the rest of time." So writes Marilyn Dinger.

Sign the Declaration of Energy Independence
11-Feb-02
Environment

"In the name of national security, powerful oil companies are trying to gain access to some of the most spectacular U.S. wildlands, including the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, Utah's Redrock Wilderness, and the Rocky Mountains. And the Bush administration is backing them up! But destroying our last wild places won't end our dependence on foreign oil -- quite the opposite. For one thing, these places don't hold anywhere near enough oil. For another, focusing on drilling keeps us from the only path to real energy security: cutting oil use by putting new technologies to work. Help stop this raid on our natural heritage. Sign the Declaration of Energy Independence by completing the form below. We'll deliver your declaration to the White House along with hundreds of thousands of others calling for a safe and secure energy future that won't destroy our last wild places." So writes the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Help Block the Sale of Groundwater in the Name of Corporate Profits!
06-Feb-02
Environment

"The Cadiz Project in southern California stands out as the 'poster child' that highlights many of the problems with selling water as a commodity. In the middle of the desert, a single property owner, Keith Brackpool of Cadiz, Inc., has claimed the right to stick a pipe down into the ground and suck out the water that lies beneath not only its own land, but under the vastly larger federal land encircling Cadiz... The Cadiz project will be the first direct purchase by [the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California] from a private company—it is a slippery slope from a few water sales to a completely private market for water, a basic necessity of life. Once trading begins, it will be difficult to put the privatization genie back in the bottle. If you like what they did to electricity, you're going to love what they do to our water." Send a fax to Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

With the Support of Gale Norton, Bush Erases Wetlands Protections under Clinton
21-Jan-02
Environment

"Developers no longer will have to restore or create new wetlands for every acre they drain or fill under new regulations issued by the Bush administration…The new Army Corps of Engineers rules, which revoke some Clinton-era requirements, also will enable developers to win speedy government approval for draining and filling permits under the Clean Water Act if the effect on streams or marshes is minimal. Instead of requiring acre-for-acre restoration on each project, the new regulations require only that there be 'no net loss' of wetlands in any of the Corps' 38 US districts…Left alone was a Clinton-era requirement that developers get a permit for any project involving more than a half-acre of wetlands. Until 2000, developers had to get government approval only if more than three acres of wetlands were affected. The new regulations also eliminate some restrictions on development in flood plains and revoke a prohibition on filling more than 300 linear feet along any stream."

Bush Has Exploited the National Focus on 911 To Make Stealth Attacks on the Environment
21-Jan-02
Environment

"The environmental community has grown increasingly concerned that the Bush administration is quietly rolling back water, air and land protections, making changes that have gone largely unnoticed as war and the economy have dominated the headlines. During the fall, for example, as the nation was in shock over the terrorist attacks, the administration moved to drop Clinton-era regulations regarding mining in sensitive areas and delayed a ban on snowmobiles in some of the nation's parks. And last week, the Energy Department recommended that nuclear waste be stored beneath Yucca Mountain in Nevada, a site opposed by state officials and environmentalists as unsafe. But particularly upsetting to some state officials and environmentalists is what they view as an effort by the administration to weaken the part of the Clean Air Act that requires power plants to upgrade pollution equipment when they expand [as it] applies to plants built before the act went into effect in 1970."

Bush Continues To Exploit His 911 'Trifecta' (His Words) To Let His Corporate Overlords Rape The Environment
28-Dec-01
Environment

"With the nation's attention squarely on war and terrorism, the Bush administration has ruled this fall in business' favor on a range of long-disputed environmental matters. It allowed oil drilling in the red rocks of Utah and canyons of Colorado. It permitted an open-pit gold mine on a California desert site that the Quechan tribe considers sacred. And it signaled to developers across the country that they can, in many cases, build on wetlands without creating ones to replace them…Environmentalists fear that the Clean Air Act may be hurt most by Bush's policies. The administration is expected to give major polluters a variety of exemptions from a costly Clean Air Act requirement that plants install updated pollution controls when they renovate." Moreover, "the Bureau of Land Management ruled that vehicles could be driven through national monuments on any track, wash or trail where any vehicle has been before."

Mysterious Oil Spill Killing Hundreds of Seabirds in Northern California
27-Dec-01
Environment

"Hundreds of oil-drenched California seabirds, each resembling a miniature penguin, are perched at the center of an oceanic mystery. More than 725 common murres have come ashore since Thanksgiving covered in thick, toxic oil. The source of the oil has eluded state and federal officials as well as the scores of volunteers who have worked around the clock to save the creatures. At least 410 birds have been brought in dead and 100 more have died in captivity--mostly the two-pound murres but also a few loons and grebes, officials said. Many were completely covered in oil. An additional 115 or more birds are being treated at the International Bird Rescue Research Center northeast of San Francisco. There, workers are laboriously scrubbing the oil from their scrawny bodies and nursing the birds back to health."

Lawsuit Seeks to Block BushCheney Plans to Drill Utah Federal Lands
07-Dec-01
Environment

"Environmentalists have sued the Bush administration in an effort to block the president's [sic] efforts to accelerate energy exploration on federal land. The lawsuit claims the Bureau of Land Management and its parent agency, the Interior Department, broke the law by not assessing the environmental and cultural damage that could be done or consulting with Indian tribes before opening a dozen parcels in southern Utah to oil and gas exploration. The environmental groups that filed the lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington said the administration was trying to cut corners to speed up processing of oil and gas leases. In doing so, the Bush administration has 'embarked on an aggressive stealth campaign to open up public lands for resource development,' said Johanna Wald, attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which filed the lawsuit in conjunction with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance."

Bush Nominees May Spell Beginning of the End for the Environmental Protection Agency
26-Nov-01
Environment

"This past week, Bush quietly nominated two people to EPA posts -- so quietly in fact that the only place you'll probably see it is here. And with good reason. These two nominees make it painfully obvious that Bush wants to convert the agency into a big hollow barrel he can fill with corporate pork...Paul Gilman was one of the 'experts' who, in 1997 testified before Congress that, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, that there was no relationship between the presence of nearby power lines in communities and the documented increase risk of childhood leukemia and brain tumors in those communities...[Linda Morrison] Combs has been nominated as 'chief financial officer' of the EPA. She brings to the job not so much as an atom -- no, make that a quark -- of appropriate experience." So writes Cheryl Seal for Unknown News.

'False Patriotism': Bush Exploits National Crisis To Quietly Reverse Environmental Policies
25-Nov-01
Environment

"In the last two months, the Bush administration has proceeded with several regulations, legal settlements and legislative measures intended to reverse Clinton-era environmental policies. 'They've used the smoke screen of the last two months to make key decisions out of public view,' said Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust. 'The most difficult situation we face is that the attention of the media is almost exclusively on Afghanistan and anthrax.' The moves include allowing road-building in national forests, making it easier for mining companies to dig for ore on public lands, easing energy- saving standards for air conditioners and, environmentalists say, making it easier for developers to eliminate wetlands...Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said the administration's view that oil drilling in Alaska [ANWR] is a matter of national security represents a 'false patriotism.'" So writes Katharine Seelye.

Bill Moyers Denounces the War Profiteers and Reaffirms the Need for Campaign Finance and Energy Reform
03-Nov-01
Environment

"Just one day after the attack, one day into the maelstrom of horror, loss, and grief, Republican senators called for prompt consideration of the President's proposal to subsidize the country's largest and richest energy companies. While America was mourning, they were marauding. One congressman even suggested that eco-terrorists might be behind the attacks. And with that smear he and his kind went on the offensive in Congress, attempting to attach to a defense bill massive subsidies for the oil, coal, gas, and nuclear companies. To a defense bill! What a shameless insult to patriotism! What a slander on the sacrifice of our armed forces! To pile corporate welfare totaling billions of dollars onto a defense bill in an emergency like this is repugnant to the nostrils and a scandal against democracy!" So declared Bill Moyers on October 16, just one part of a magnificent and inspiring speech preserved by Buzzflash.

Ignoring Allergy Testing, EPA Approves Genetically Modified Corn as Payback for BioTech Campaign Contributions
19-Oct-01
Environment

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency extended approval for genetically modified Bt corn for an additional seven years, the agency said Tuesday. According to the Environmental New Service (ENS) "The decision was applauded by the biotechnology industry, but roundly criticized by environmental and consumer groups." While Whitman's office claimed full testing had been done, the truth is that the agency did not do any allergy testing. EPA has no plans to carry out any human allergy testing, in spite of recommendations made in July. So a coalition of consumer groups, the Genetically Engineered Food Alert coalition, will send lab certified samples of genetically engineered corn to allergists nationwide, for use in testing patients with undiagnosed allergic reactions.

World Leaders Gather for Another Crucial War - on Ozone-Depleting Chemicals
11-Oct-01
Environment

400 delegates from 140 countries will gather in Colombo, Sri Lanka on October 16-19 to help governments of developing countries comply with their phase-out schedules for ozone-depleting chemicals under the 1987 Montreal Protocol. UN Environmental Programme Executive Director, Klaus Toepfer, says that "enormous cuts in ozone depleting chemicals" has been achieved, but enormous "ozone holes" continue to plague the arctic and antarctic poles.

Senate Republicans Resume Politics as Usual, Postponing Vote on Arctic Drilling While Issuing Threats
03-Oct-01
Environment

"The $345 billion defense bill cleared for passage 'when Republicans abandoned delaying tactics and agreed to forgo - although only for the time being - efforts to force a vote on legislation to spur energy production. The 100-0 vote to sideline such proposals came amid warnings from key Republicans as well as Democrats that a fight now over energy could shatter the fragile cross-party unity... But the fight over energy policy was clearly not over. GOP senators... vowed that, if Democrats refuse, they will try to attach some version of Bush's energy plans - including a controversial proposal to allow drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - to other bills that move through Congress before the end of the year. 'This issue will keep coming up, and it will make it difficult to do other things we need to do,' said Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.). 'We may not pull it back next time.'"

Fighting Back Against the Corporate Right Wing's Anti-Environmental Misinformation Campaign
10-Sep-01
Environment

There is a massive and escalating misinformation campaign being waged against America by the corporate right. This campaign is aimed at undermining environmental protections on all levels and at protecting the right of corporations to deceive the public and to pollute. We believe that the best way to fight misinformation is with the truth. Our new and hopefully regular feature Environmental Clearninghouse will arm our readers with true sound science to aid in countering the pseudoscience propaganda of the rightwingers. Here is our first installment!

Environmental Clearinghouse: Desertification, Supreme Court Sneak Attack on Clean Water Act, Crash Course in Fuel Cells
10-Sep-01
Environment

This is the second installment in this feature, which is aimed at fighting back against the anti-environmental misinformation campaign being waged by Bush and the corporate rightwing machine. There's no better weapon against lies than the truth, so we plan to keep our readers well-armed with facts!

While the Town of Libby, Montana Chokes to Death, GOP Governor Martz Defends The Corporate Contaminators
07-Sep-01
Environment

Be damn grateful if you don't live in Libby, Montana. And, be damn grateful if you don't have Judy Martz (R) for governor. Unbelievably contaminated with asbestos by the W.R. Grace vermiculite company, Libby is slowly, agonizingly, choking to death. "Eva Thompson lost both her parents to asbestosis, along with her husband," writes LA Times' Kim Murphy. "Eighteen other family members have been diagnosed with lung problems. Helen Bundrock's husband died on the front lawn two years ago when he left his oxygen bottle inside. Now she is sick. So are all five of her children. Neil Bauer and his twin brother have it. His father-in-law and his sister-in-law's father died 'the most horrible death that one wants to watch,' he said." But what does Martz have to say? Don't blame the company - just get over it and clean up. Her attitude was hailed by W.R. Grace rep. Alan Stringer as "encouraging." Yeah - to W.R. Grace, that is.

After the Toxic Dump Fiasco, Shrub Will Forever Be Known as 'Dirty Georgie'
30-Aug-01
Environment

"In American politics, there are crystalline moments. Something small happens to sum up things bigger. Jimmy Carter fights off a 'killer rabbit.' Jerry Ford stumbles. Michael Dukakis rides in a tank. The elder George Bush puzzles over a modern cash register. To that, we can now add: George W. Bush designates a dump in Fresno as a national historic landmark. A single image, one deed, and all the preceding speechifying and posturing fade like afternoon clouds. The air grows quiet. Nothing more needs saying. Carter went down as weak. Ford as a bumbler. Dukakis as a geek. The elder Bush as out of touch. And now his son can be seen for what he is: Dirty George. Yes, Bush's Interior Department quickly pulled back on landmark designation once someone noted that the oozing, gaseous California dump was a Superfund site, which had poisoned the surrounding water and forced the closure of playgrounds. But too late." So writes LA Times columnist John Balzar.

College of Southern Idaho Sells Out Students and First Amendment to Dairy and Beef Lobbyists
29-Aug-01
Environment

Jeremey Rifkin is a topnotch environmental writer and lively lecturer, a favorite among college students. Rifkin happens to be an outspoken and extremely well-researched critic of factory farming and genetic engineering in agriculture. This week, Rifkin's scheduled appearance at the College of Southern Idaho was canceled abruptly when CSI Pres. Jerry Meyerhoeffer caved into pressure from some lobbyists for the local livestock and dairy industries. The move trampled on CSI students' rights and on the first amendment. So what was the big complaint about Rifkin? Idaho Cattle Assoc. VP Sara Braasch whined that the writer has made "disparaging and inaccurate statements about beef." How awful for you, Sara (maybe you should seek post-traumatic beef counseling). Welcome to Bush world, a world in which no one would dream of putting a gag order on a public performance by Neo-Nazis spouting hate and venom, but where a respected writer is forcibly barred from making disparaging remarks about beef. God Bless America!

Bush's First Historic Landmark is - We Kid You Not - a Toxic Waste Dump!
28-Aug-01
Environment

"Citing its historic role in landfill design, U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton on Monday included the Fresno Municipal Sanitary Landfill among a list of 15 sites across America that she designated as her first national historic landmarks since taking office this spring. The former dump operated on Fresno's southern edge from 1935 to 1987 'is the first landfill to employ the trench method of disposal,' Norton said in a news release. But what the release didn't mention is that the area is also a Superfund site -- meaning it's one of the most polluted spots in America. The decision to place 79 million cubic yards of rotting junk alongside 2,100 other national historic sites, most of them venerable buildings, battleships, churches and stately homes, is believed to be the first of its kind." But why should we be surprised? Bush is the first Resident to have a toxic waste dump between his ears!

What This Country Needs Is a Hydrogen Age
28-Aug-01
Environment

According to columnist Glenn Sacks, "George W. Bush today has the opportunity to usher in the Hydrogen Age -- the coming era of nonpolluting, limitless hydrogen fuel cell power -- as John F. Kennedy did the Space Age. In so doing, he would be remembered as one of our nation's greatest leaders... Fuel cells emit no 'greenhouse gases' or pollution of any kind. A fuel cell's only emission is water vapor -- water so pure that scientists routinely gather it in a glass and drink it... The problem is cost:.. which is roughly two to three times that of conventional power. Yet even this obstacle is not inherent to fuel cell production, but is instead largely the result of a lack of an economy of scale... [Here's] what Bush should do: As Kennedy did with the race to the moon, Bush should announce that the United States will be the first nation to reach the Hydrogen Age." Unfortunately, Bush is a slave to the fossil fuel industry that WANTS global warming so they can sell more air conditioners.

Bush Wants to Increase Toxic Soup Allowance for Gold Mines
16-Aug-01
Environment

Bush is trying to ease environmental safeguards aimed at keeping gold mines from being eco-nightmares. Gold is processed with a toxic slurry of chemicals, including cyanide. Recent studies in the west of abandoned mines show that the poison, once introduced, doesn't go away -- it bioaccumulates. Want to know what kind of scenario "eased regulations" will unleash in the U.S.? Check out http://democrats.com/view.cfm?id=4099. Then call your Senators and Congressmen!!

Ten Back-to-School Ways to Help the Environment
15-Aug-01
Environment

Even though G. W. (Global Wreckingball) Bush's motto may be "Earth: Use It Up and Throw It Out," responsible progressives can show individual leadership in small, but cumulatively big ways. Before the new school year begins is a good time to initiate a few new eco-friendly habits that will go a long way if plenty of people adopt them. Here's a list of ten very simple things our readers with school-agers still at home can do Ii you aren't already doing them, as we suspect many are).

Tis' an Ill Wind that Blows No Good, and Bush has Blown Envrionmental Movement Back to Life
13-Aug-01
Environment

Sometimes, it takes the presence of evil to mobilize the forces of good. Such appears to be happening in response to the horrendous dangers posed by the Bush regime. Now the Annual Bioneers Conference is expected to be attended by the biggest collection of scientists, educators, authors, doctors, business leaders and grassroots activists in the Conference's 12-year history. Among the "stars" of the conference will be Andrew Weill, an expert on alternative medicine, J.L. Chestunt, the renowned civil rights attorney who spearheaded the largest successful class-action suit in the history of the nation against the USDA on behalf of black farmers, Julia Butterfly Hill, the activist who lived in a redwood tree for two years to protest the logging of old-growth forest, and many other people who actually possess some principles (unlike Shrub & Co.).

Bald Eagles Now Threatened by Water Shortage at Klamath Basin Thanks to Norton's Cowardice
13-Aug-01
Environment

Bald eagles and salmon belong to the Klamath Lake ecosystem and have evolved over millions of years in harmony with every-fluctuating resources. Farmers have been in the area for a few decades, growing crops that have no natural place in the ecosystem. Farmers can move, wait for better conditions, or change vocations. Bald eagles and salmon have no options. Norton vowed to uphold the federal law re: allocating the Klamath Lake water, but caved in when the farmers committed an act of vandalism of federal property by cutting the gates holding the water back from their land. Now, in addition to salmon, the bald eagle is threatened. No one has apparently been charged with any crime in this act of "terrorism." Meanwhile, less violent protestors against Star Wars now face federal charges. What is wrong with this picture?

Ruining it for Everyone: the American Recreation Coalition, Fighting for Your Right to Trash Wildlands
09-Aug-01
Environment

"It is difficult enough to get the government to demand that automakers increase the fuel efficiency of their vehicles," laments Jackie Alan Guiliano, "But that task is even more difficult because of a little known, powerful organization that claims to speak on behalf of millions of Americans. The American Recreation Coalition (ARC) lobbies Congress and other local, state, and federal agencies regularly. The members don't want protection for our precious public lands or fuel economy for vehicles. The ARC wants everyone to be charged to use nature and believes that the wilderness is best experienced on the back of a Jet Ski, snowmobile or in a high speed boat." As a result, the wildlands that were supposed to be last refuges for wildlife are quickly becoming "theme parks" for thrill-seekers whose lazy butts must be carted everywhere by a fume-belching, roaring engine.

Shades of Gray: Plight of Eastern Gray Whale Mirrors Global Environmental Conflicts
09-Aug-01
Environment

In frigid waters north of Japan, in the Sea of Okhotsk, fewer than 100 Western Pacific gray whales, until recently thought vanished from the planet, feed each summer. Imagine scientists' excitement at discovering this lost tribe -- and their dismay that their research is intertwined with massive oil and gas drilling that could wipe out the whales once and for all. In the Sea of Okhotsk, the views clash in a classic industrial development battle between the needs of man and mammal. Along the Eastern grays' migration path, indigenous cultures contend with environmentalists, each side energized by the certitude that their knowledge is not just scientifically but morally superior. The dilemma for the worried few with a global -- not parochial -- view is how to reconcile these varied views.

'$ellout'
05-Aug-01
Environment

"You use every last ounce of what is in you, lobbying for that which will harm your heirs ... an unlivable planet for an unlivable soul, yes you relish in your own destruction." So begins a poem by Mike Schiller that is dedicated to "Republicans and all toxic industry lobbyists, including the AFL-CIO and Teamsters for lobbying congress to approve drilling in Alaska."

Reclaiming Michigan's Rouge River: A Story to Take Back Home This August
03-Aug-01
Environment

The Rouge River in Michigan is an inspiring success story every legislator should study. Writes Keith Schneider of the MetroTimes, "The decades and billions of dollars yet to spend before it's clean enough for swimming and fishing, is a study in the ruinous economic and social costs of failing to understand the consequences of unbridled growth. Hundreds of elected officials and business leaders - and thousands of southeast Michigan residents - are now paying the price of poor planning, sprawling patterns of development, and weak leadership at every level of government... The Rouge cleanup proves: It costs much more in the end to pave over wetlands, farmlands and forests than to keep them working naturally to clean water and air and protect land and wildlife; Broad problems, like water pollution and traffic congestion, require regional solutions...; Strong, persistent, and credible leadership is essential for uniting independent thinkers behind a common goal." Read, clip and share!

In a Devastating Vote, Republicans Killed the SUV Fuel Economy Increase
02-Aug-01
Environment

This may have been the single most devastating environmental vote of the year, because SUV's are one of the worst contributors to global warming - for no good reason. Due to a loophole in the fuel economy standards, SUV's are treated like trucks rather than cars, and average an abysmal 20.7 MPG. The Markey-Boehlert Amendment attempted to eliminate the loophole so SUV's are treated like cars, which average 27.5 MPG, by 2007 - which is plenty of time for the auto industry to adapt. This was defeated 269-160 (roll call here: http://capwiz.com/dem/issues/votes/?votenum=311&chamber=H&congress=1071 ) by a coalition of energy producers (who WANT Americans to consume as much oil as possible, global warming be damned!), and car manufacturers, who don't want to invest the necessary funds, even though consumers will ultimately pay the bill. The Republican alternative will increase fuel economy by only 1 MPG, which will not make a dent in global warming. Our children will rue this vote.

Why We Must Protect The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
01-Aug-01
Environment

I have been fortunate enough to visit the Arctic Refuge three times, twice camping in the mountains and once on the Arctic coast, where they want to drill. The mountains are heartbreakingly beautiful. We went with friends who were accustomed to hiking in California and they were just stunned by the way you could hike to a peak - you could start your hike in the evening, because it doesn't get dark in the summer - and look down and see no roads, and no people. Just an eagle here and there, maybe a grizzly bear.

Urgent: Tell the House to Protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge!
01-Aug-01
Environment

The House is voting on the Bushcheney energy bill today (Wednesday). A key vote is scheduled on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Call your Representative (202-224-3121) today!

Bush Gets Clobbered Again - on Arsenic Rules
27-Jul-01
Environment

"In a new setback for the White House on environmental policy, 19 House Republicans joined with 198 Democrats today to bar the Bush administration from easing rules on arsenic in drinking water beyond those set under President Bill Clinton. The move was a defeat for the House Republican leadership, and it was latest in a series of congressional rebukes to President Bush and his team over such issues as offshore oil drilling, mining and energy exploration in national monuments. In each case, handfuls of Republicans have voted with Democrats to impose barriers to administration plans... 'This issue just has achieved a great resonance in the public and therefore in the legislature,' said Ed Hopkins, director of the environmental quality program for the Sierra Club. 'People do not want arsenic in their drinking water, and the legislators are responding to that.'"

National Academy of Sciences Buckles to Auto Industry Pressure on Fuel Economy
27-Jul-01
Environment

The SINGLE most important action America can take to reduce global warming is to increase our auto fuel economy standards. Next week, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) will issue a scientific report showing how this can be done relatively quickly and inexpensively. But the auto industry is furiously pressuring the NAS to water down its scientific report, because they don't want to invest in the necessary technology improvements - or discourage sales of highly profitable but CO2-belching SUV's. Tell the NAS (http://www.nationalacademies.org/cgi-bin/formfeed.cgi) to stand up for independent science!

Whaling Sanctuary is Blocked by 'Playground of the Rich' Carribean Countries Plus Norway, Japan, Korea, Ireland, China, and Denmark
26-Jul-01
Environment

Whales are struggling to survive in oceans increasingly filled with pollution, disruptive sonar, oil drilling noise and a host of other perils. They need all the help they can get. Yet a desperately needed sanctuary in the South Pacific was blocked when several Caribbean countries, including St. Kitts, Barbuda, the Grenadines, and Antigua voted against the proposal. They were aided by cowardly abstentions by Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Korea, China, and Norway - who think their quiet sabotage will avoid notice. Japan thinks the 14-year moratorium is enough - as if whales were like hamsters that can reproduce and mature in a few years. Avoid these places as vacation spots, drop your Japanese-based stock, and avoid all products from these countries. Progressives must take a strong, consistent stance against ALL anti-environmental actions.

World Bank To Tie Loans to Sustainability, Environmental Quality, and Human Health
24-Jul-01
Environment

Looks like the Shrubcheney Cartel may have a tough time getting the World Bank to help finance any of its plans to exploit the world environment. In response to the growing global outcry against the use of WB funds in projects leading to environmental degradation and loss of human health - the Chad oil pipeline being the most current case in point - the WB has changed its loan criteria. Now the bank will take environmental and human health concerns into account when making loans. The strategy, says WB reps is aimed at improving quality of life, insuring sustainability, and safeguarding the quality of the regional and global commons such as climate change, forests, water resources and biodiversity. "Climate change threatens to further undermine long term development and the ability of many poor people to escape poverty," the bank acknowledged in the strategy document. Too bad the US doesn't acknowledge this fact, too.

Bianca Jagger Speaks Out Against Bush and Exxon But Should Go One Step Further
23-Jul-01
Environment

In Sunday's (7/22) "Guardian," Bianca Jagger spoke eloquently and forcefully out against Bush and the greed-driven agenda of US corporations. We applaud her effort. We have been dismayed by the total silence on the part of most supposedly progressive stars since the election. These are the very people in a position to help "breach the walls" of the corporate empire, yet apparently, too many of them are afraid of the repercussions. Too bad. To Bianca, we wish to add - a boycott of Exxon products is a good start, but will disproportionately hurt small service station owners. A very telling blow to Exxon can be made by getting people to UNLOAD EXXON STOCK. We bet more than half of all people with a low-risk stock porfolio carry some Exxon stock, and may not even know it. Want to hurt Exxon - drop your stocks and demand that your employer and/or investment firm do the same.

Arctic Refuge Oil Drilling Bill Moves To House Floor - Take Action Now
22-Jul-01
Environment

The House Resources Committee has approved energy legislation that would mandate oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; give Big Oil companies billions of dollars in relief from royalties they would otherwise owe American taxpayers; and threaten energy development on most other federal public lands, like Wildlife Refuges and National Forests. Next stop for the bill is the full House, and your Representative needs to hear from you *now* with this message: Ripping up the Arctic Refuge and other public wild lands while ripping off taxpayers will do nothing to solve our energy problems.

Bush Wants Star Wars 'Shield,' But Has No Plan to Improve Safety of Corporate Chemical World on Ground
22-Jul-01
Environment

While Bush wants to pour $100 billion into fighting vague threats from beyond our borders, he has made no such commitment to address the far more tangible dangers posed by toxic hazards here on the ground. Although Baltimore's toxic train derailment received huge press, there have been 17 such incidents across the nation since July 1, some much worse (with mortalities involved). Each year, the chemical industry introduces ONE THOUSAND new chemicals. Yet it has not adopted a sufficiently responsible "cradle to grave" plan for the ones it is already pumping into the world. Why? The GOP Congress, now reinforced by Bush, just can't do enough for the chemical industry. Call your city or town officials and ask them what plans they have in place - and what kind of federal funding - for addressing hazmat dangers.

Bush Wants to Drain the Great Lakes for his Southwest Cronies
19-Jul-01
Environment

We already know that Bu$h wants his oil buddies in Texas to soak up every last dollar from US consumers, even if that causes a recession. Now he wants his southwestern agribusiness and real estate buddies to soak up every last drop of water from the Great Lakes. Is there no limit to Bu$h's greed?

Christie Todd Says Clean Water Act Needs Overhaul 'Cause Industry Lobbyists Say So
17-Jul-01
Environment

The same hour that Earthjustice alerted the public to the fact that Bush had filed in the 9th Circuit Court to stall out implementation of stricter regulations contained within the Clean Water Act, EPA head Christie Todd Whitman was firing off press releases. The releases are aimed at convincing the public that the delay is really a way to "improve the impaired clean water program." Christie says the rules must not be good, because so many industry lobbyists have challenged them! Huh? Aren't you supposed to be protecting the environment from lobbyists, Christie? Or are you just taking dictation from them (as in your bogus press releases)?

Not Content with More Arsenic in Drinking Water, Bush Now Seeks to Dismantle Clean Water Act
17-Jul-01
Environment

The EPA's Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program is designed to clean up the nation's most polluted waters and is one of the most critical elements of the Clean Water Act. Now Shrub is trying to use the courts to overturn a revision of the TMDL regulations, asking for an 18 month delay in their implementation. This will allow him time to not only get rid of the Clinton revisions, but to weaken the critical original program as well. "The only thing dirtier than our nation's polluted waters is the Bush administration's backdoor attempt to weaken the Clean Water Act," said Howard Fox, Earthjustice managing attorney in Washington, D.C. "This is another example of the Bush administration's approach of rolling back our environmental and public health protections." Please call 202-431-0816 and ask what you can do to help.

West VA Mining Companies Flagrant Violation of Regulations and Corporate Greed Main Cause of Devastating Flood Damage
15-Jul-01
Environment

For 10 years, federal officials have been trying to get West VA's strip-mining industry to comply with rules for preventing runoff and flooding. But instead of complying, the industry accelerated their devastating practice of "topping" mountains - removing the tops as if they were giant jars of coal. Any idiot could tell you that bare earth channels water like riverbed. The same loss of tree cover and erosion is what caused Hurricane Mitch to inflict 20 times more damage than it might have in Central America. But now Gov. Bob Wise (D) is acting like Shrubcheney and says he "doubts" the damage was related to mining and asks for a "study". We bet he doubts droughts are related to lack of rain. This is precisely the kind of attitude we DON'T need in our party! Fortunately, citizen lawsuits have been filed against eight mining cos. and two land holding cos. Now let's just hope the case doesn't get kicked up to the corporate welfare office (better known as the Supreme Court).

Government-Abetted Corporate Greed and Development Bring Kentucky Rural Life to Ugly, Devastating End
14-Jul-01
Environment

"It started with ground being broken on the Kentucky Speedway...It continues with a push for roads, hotels, gas stations and restaurants. Now, a $12.3 million interchange being built off Interstate 71 is slicing through the rolling fields farmed by the Stewart family for much of the last century - splitting both their property and the family.''We're devastated, just devastated,'' says 67-year-old Atha Stewart, 'It's completely wrecked our farm. I'm sitting here right now in the middle of the noise and mess while they're making a loop around our house. . . . But I've done my crying. There's nothing else I can do.'" So writes Shelly Whitehead of the Kentucky Post. The Stewarts are not alone. Across America, developers, aided by politicians, are ambushing rural communities and trashing them before local residents can mobilize to fight. With pro-development Bush in charge, things may get much worse, esp. since he wants the right to seize vast tracts of private property and use them to run a super powerline network coast to coast. Alas, the Stewart's story may soon become more the rule than the exception

Shrub Derails Justice Once More by 'Settling' Case in Favor of Snowmobile Industry and against Wildlife
06-Jul-01
Environment

On June 29, Shrub pulled one of his most deceptive and craven moves against the environment yet. Several environmental groups had sued the Dept. of the Interior and the Nat'l Park Service over snowmobile use in parks. Originally, they had demanded an Environmental Impact Statement that prompted Clinton to initiate a phaseout of snowmobiles in fed. parks. Now Shrub not only lets his buddies in the snowmobile industry off the hook by announcing a "settlement" of the suit (what right does he have to do this, anyway?), he is expected to lift the snowmobile ban. So, once again, justice and democracy have been derailed in a single corporate style power play, which brushes aside the lawsuit, the public, and the environment. Now Shrub's using one of his phoniest ploys and calling for "more science" on the issue. In Bushspeak, this means "I'm gonna do whatever I please."

Self-Serving Corporate Interests Hiding Behind Bogus Green Front Group Are Responsible for Trashing Endangered Species Act
05-Jul-01
Environment

The National Endangered Species Act Reform Coalition's only reason for being was to make sure that the ESA was weakened before its renewal in 1992. Since then, this phony front outfit has succeeded in trimming the endangered list from 4,000 species to just 400 (they callously called this action a "cosmetic change") and in creating new listing guidelines that will further downsize the list. Real green, huh? The NESARC is also pushing for the "primacy of state water rights." We found this puzzling until we discovered that their board of directors consists almost entirely of people from highly water-use intensive industries, incl. the power industry, and corporate western farms. Nary a scientist, an environmentalist or a non-corporate interest in the bunch (we don't count the names associated with other bogus groups like the National Assn. of Counties!). Here is the list of people responsible for trashing the Endangered Species Act. We suggest strong letters to all!

Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Scholars Present Evidence that Bush's Energy and Environmental Plans Are Sinful
05-Jul-01
Environment

Shrub's policies call for squandering natural resources to support energy over-consumption or to pander to a few snow-mobile/off-road vehicle joyriders. His plan will create an estimated 35% more air pollution, while ignoring global warming. He wants to build roads in national parks that will destroy more wildland and result in more gasoline burned. There is no giving, no stewardship, or anything else that might suggest his claim of being "a good Christian" is anything more than a five-cent act. Now religious scholars are saying "No" to becoming a party to what they consider outright affronts to God. Even Pope John Paul II has stated that protecting the environment will overcome the "structures of sin." Shrub has to drop one or the other: the phony Christian act or the anti-environmental stance.

Utah Judge Strikes Decisive Blow Against Bush's 'Interpark Highway' System
04-Jul-01
Environment

According to Utah rightwingers, stream bottoms and cow paths qualify as rights of way and thus can be described as "highways" that can be "developed." But when the Bureau of Land Management sent in the bulldozers to "grade" the cowpaths in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (as a prelude to Bush's interpark highway system) the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance sued. This week, a Utah judge sided with the Alliance and ruled that the monument must be protected, not exploited. Meanwhile, it may take decades for the fragile desert ecosystem of the monument to recover from the damage already inflicted by off road vehicle and bulldozing.

Natural Resources Defense Council Sues Bush Administration over Blocking Stricter Arsenic Standards
04-Jul-01
Environment

The NRDC was joined by several Senators, including Barbara Boxer (one of our favorites) in demanding a legal remedy to Bush's suspension of regulations aimed at reducing arsenic levels in drinking water. Those regulations should have gone into effect on June 22, 2001. The NRDC has filed a lawsuit against the administration, stating that the "EPA unlawfully reversed its position on the arsenic rule without scientific or legal justification". Furthermore, they charge that the agency "violated procedural and substantive requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act and Administrative Procedure Act" in suspending the arsenic rule. Bush has pulled his now tiresome ploy and delayed doing anything for at least a year, then says he might introduce the law in say...2006? By the way, arsenic is a cumulative poison - that means by 2006, it may be too late for some of us.

Federally Funded Trashing of the Environment: Campaign to Cut Polluter Pork Names Worst Offenders
29-Jun-01
Environment

The federal government spends or subsidizes billions of dollars on environmentally destructive activities such as paying corporate ranchers to destroy sensitive Western rangelands, providing tax breaks for coal mining and oil drilling, or promoting pesticide-intensive agriculture. Mining, timber, grazing and nuclear industries alone spent millions of dollars to hire lobbyists to deal with Congress and the Administration during the last six years. In that time, their political action committees contributed $39.5 million to congressional candidates, yet paid zero in taxes for these activities. For a list of the fattest toxic hogs, check out this link from The Campaign to Cut Polluter Porkers.

Conservative Columnist Defends Stossel's Deceitful ABC Anti-Environmental Special
27-Jun-01
Environment

You can really tell that activists are beginning to gain ground when conservative columnists start putting their wagons in a circle and firing wildly. Seems our concerned readers have ABC and Stossel on the defensive over their nature-bashing, environmental ed.-trashing show "Tampering with Nature" (formerly "Scared Green"), as this column by Stossel-booster Tim Cuprisin reveals. Cuprisin reports that on Tuesday (June 26), under pressure from outraged parents, ABC pulled comments by kids that had been taken out of context or elicited by leading questions. But Cuprisin dismisses ABC's critics as "anti-Stossel," or as environmental activists with an ominous agenda, while describing Stossel as a "myth buster," a brave lone warrior who is, refreshingly, trying to present "a different viewpoint." We have no problem with HONEST alternative viewpoints. It's deceit we have a problem with.

ALERT! John Stossel and ABC Try to Sneak 'Scared Green' Attack on Environmental Education into New Trojan Horse Package
26-Jun-01
Environment

When we were warned that ABC planned to run their "Scared Green" anti-environmental education show under a new title: "Tampering with Nature," we went to ABC's website to track down the show. It is NOT in their search engine. We found it in the TV guide site, but listed under "ABC News Special." The description seems like a different program, until you get to the last, slickly folded in bit: "Stossel presents the pros and cons of such hot-button topics as cloning, gene therapy, genetically engineered food and global-warming theories. And since kids say the darnedest things, Stossel also includes children's comments on what they're learning at school about global warming." Circulate this warning and call ABC to complain about the dishonest tactics used to make this show. 212-456-2051

'Frontiers of Freedom' (Talk about a Bogus Title!) Seeks to Use IRS as Anti-Environmental Weapon to Aid Corporate Agenda
24-Jun-01
Environment

One of the most vicious and thinly-disguised corporate front groups yet, the Frontiers of Freedom, is trying to use the IRS to undermine environmental groups. The group's ultimate agenda: turning the environment over to corporate interests. To achieve this, they're going after the most proactive green groups, starting with the Rainforest Action Network. This proves that rightwingers, empowered by the example set by the Supreme Court, (which is now a mere chisel in Bush's toolbox), and the recent use of the IRS as a cheap PR agency for Bush's tax agenda, hope to turn other arms of the Government into weapons.

Toxic Metal Contamination Levels on Alaskan Mining Road Worse than Most Polluted Sites in Eastern Europe
23-Jun-01
Environment

While industry "experts" (in corporatese = people receiving kickbacks for providing the "right" information) say Alaska's natural resources can be safely exploited, the evidence screams otherwise. Tests show that the land along a haul road for Alaska's Red Dog zinc mine operated by Cominco, is severely contaminated by lead, zinc, and cadmium - toxic heavy metals which do not break down, they accumulate. The pollution, which comes from dust and other residues from trucks, is worse than some of the most badly polluted sites in Eastern Europe and all of Western Russia. The amount of lead (400 parts per million) is so high that it is, under EPA standards, equivalent to a "spill" (the industrial limit is 1,200 ppm). And this is ONLY the road. The ANWR tundra is far more fragile. For example, in Arctic zones it takes 1,000 years for a single inch of topsoil to accumulate. Once it has been polluted or otherwise disturbed, there is no real recovery.

Christine Todd Whitman Wins Clean Air Trust's 'Villain of the Month' Award
20-Jun-01
Environment

When Christine Todd 'I'll Do Anything Bush Wants, Even Roll Over and Play Dead' Whitman was named EPA chief, many environmentalists were hopeful. She had made some good choices in NJ. However, Christie Todd (as the name implies) has become a bought and paid for Bush groupie and has been named by the Clear Air Trust as "Villain of the Month." Said the CAT, under Whitman the EPA now stands for the Environmental Propaganda Agency. She wins this award for failing to oppose a single significant move by the Bush administration to undermine the rights of Americans to clean air. Looks like Ms. Whitman will go down as little more than a negative footnote - if not a cautionary example - in future history books.

The U.S. Military and Bush Boys Battle Over Rights To Florida Gulf Coast Waters
18-Jun-01
Environment

Jeb and Georgie want to open the waters off the northwest coast of FLA to oil drilling for their rich buddies in Exxon and Shell, et al. But the military wants to keep the zone open for testing fighter planes, bombs, and other armaments. Now, with Shrub's vow (however sincere it may be) to close the Navy bombing range at Vieques, the military's territorial instincts are even more aroused. Afterall, they've had the run of the Gulf since both Bush boys were but evil gleams in George Sr.'s eye. In an unprecedented twist, the Dept. of Defense may find itself forming alliances with environmental activists eager to protect the Gulf, and who view the military's activities as the lesser of two evils.

The Ecological Disaster of Wildland Roads
18-Jun-01
Environment

Bush is using every sneaky trick in his corporate flimflam manual to push through his desire to open the last unspoiled wildlands to roads. He now plans to use his "pocket judges" on the Supreme Court to get his way, by instituting a federal case challenging the ban in Idaho. Roads are not just strips of land where trees have been cut down. They bring with them a myriad of damaging conditions that translate into inevitable environmental destruction. Here is a close-up look at the consequences of roads in Maine's wildlands, through the eyes of a former "Wilderness Miles" region resident.

Farmers and Ranchers Seek Help from Fed to Implement Sound Conservation Practices, But Face Typical GOP Skepticism
16-Jun-01
Environment

If farmers and ranchers were rewarded for their roles as caretakers of the nation's land, water, and wildlife - instead of being penalized and undercut at every turn - the environment and the American people would benefit. That was the message of reps. from the Soil and Water Conservation Society, who spoke on June 13 before a congressional subcommittee considering renovating the nation's farm bill. To make it economically possible for ranchers and farmers to implement needed conservation measures, at least $5 billion per year more will be needed. However, House conservatives are already souring the milk by acting as if conservationists and hardworking farmers and ranchers are fiscal pests. They sure didn't take that stance when dishing out the big bucks in their tax cut to the "idle rich!"

Tell Congress To Inflate Common Sense, Deflate Destruction
16-Jun-01
Environment

The American Petroleum Institute claims the coastal plain of the ANWR might produce as much as 250-thousand barrels of crude oil per day - albeit for less than five years. It turns out that this is about 105 million barrels per year - the same amount we could save annually by properly inflating our tires. Lenny Kohm shares such pearls of wisdom as he crisscrosses the country with "The Last Great Wildness" multi-media presentation to build awareness about why we must protect the "heart of ANWR." Few of us can comprehend what the coastal plain means to the Gwich'in people or the devastation oil development would have on the area. Kohm puts it in terms we can understand. "We wouldn't flood the Grand Canyon to build a hydroelectric dam. We wouldn't plug Yellowstone's Old Faithful to tap its geothermal energy. Yet this is what we are would be doing if we opened the coastal plain to drilling."

Bill Moyer's PBS Special
15-Jun-01
Environment

Bill Moyers' last special, "Trade Secrets," which exposed the deceptions of the chemical industry, ripped open public debate. His latest special "Earth on Edge", coming (June 19) just as Bush faces a showdown with world leaders over his stance on environmental issues, is likely to hit even more nerves. Moyers' is one of the last of the "grand old men" of journalism (in stature, Bill, not age!), who tells the truth with style and depth. Join him on PBS as he explores the state of five key habitats: coastal, forest, farmland, grassland, and freshwater -- taking us to Canada, Mongolia, Africa, Brazil, and the American plains.

Bush Lies As He Guts Clinton's 'Roadless Rule'
14-Jun-01
Environment

"On the same day that the Bush administration announced its support of a Clinton administration rule to protect national forests from new roads and logging, the Bush Justice Department filed papers in an Idaho district court that undermined that support... Environmental critics charge that the Bush administration has consistently mounted a lackluster defense of the rule and dragged its feet in the case. 'It's hypocritical,' says Doug Honnold, a lawyer with Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund. 'On the one hand, they're trying to convince the American public they uphold the rule, but everything they've done administratively and in the judicial process can only be seen to help gut the rule.'" (See our current commentary "The Ecological Disaster of Wildland Roads")

Americans Support Environmental Protection
13-Jun-01
Environment

Americans are unwilling to compromise on existing environmental regulations in spite of uncertainty about energy and the economy in general according to a national survey release by the League of Conservation Voters. Voters reject the notion that we must sacrifice a strong economy in order to have a clean environment. Bush's approval on both energy and the environment is low with just one-in-three voters giving him credit for a good job on each. The voting public wants an energy plan that does more than increase production of old fuels - oil and coal - and strongly endorses measures aimed at enhancing conservation, efficiency and the development of newer, cleaner renewable fuels. Issues involving clean air and clean water energize the electorate on the environment. Notably, lowering arsenic levels in drinking water and reducing carbon dioxide emissions garner significant support.

Coastal New Englanders Gear Up to Fight Shrubcheney Push to Open George's Bank to Oil Drilling
11-Jun-01
Environment

President Clinton and even George Bush Sr. realized that the world's richest fishing grounds - the legendary George's Bank that stretches from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, must not be exposed to the environmental risks of drilling for oil. But Shrubcheney has no such scruples and has charged Gale "if it moves shoot it, if it's green cut it down" Norton with determining if drilling should be permitted. After a proud 300 year history of providing a livelihood for thousands of dedicated fisherfolk, the Bank's fate now lies in the hand of a gun-totin', anti-conservation woman who wouldn't know the difference between a mackerel and a cod if one bit her on the...In fact, when asked at a hearing last week if she would allow drilling on Georges Bank, Norton admitted she didn't know what the Bank was. New Englanders, unite! Write your Reps ASAP demanding the Bank be kept drill-free.

Bush Nominates a Big Fat Environmental ZERO for U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Top Post
09-Jun-01
Environment

American rivers have been badly polluted, over-dammed, and abused in every way. No other single outfit has had such an impact on them (esp. the Mississippi) than the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps has been found guilty of gross negligence of its environmental responsibilities in exchange for big bucks by the Pentagon, the National Academy of Sciences, and even the General Accounting Office. Yet who does Shrub now nominate as its head? Former Mississippi Congressman Michael Parker, a man who not once but THREE TIMES received a zero rating from the League of Conservation Voters. But through Parker, Shrub apparently seeks to solidify his southern block of support - the only even semi-solid support he has left, at the expense of OUR environment. This is a key opportunity for our new Dem Senate to show its clout and torpedo Parker!

Bush-Cheney Evil Oil/Gas Empire Steps Up Attack on Western Wildlands
08-Jun-01
Environment

Darth W. Bush is pressing ahead with his own self-aggrandizing agenda more relentlessly than a Panzer tank, hoping to quickly crush everything in his path. Now he is seeking to rip down any reasonable protections on imperiled wildlife in Greater Green River Basin of Wyoming and Colorado so his oil/gas buddies can turn this already-embattled area into one giant oil/gas field. To pave their way, Bush has had a bogus DOE report made up that suggests the area, already over-exploited, is not open ENOUGH to the industry. "This biased report reads as if it was written by the oil and gas industry," says Dr. Mark L. Shaffer, senior VP of Defenders of Wildlife. "These special interests clearly hope to use it as a weapon in their battle to exploit more of our public land for profit." Where is Luke Skywalker when you need him?

GOP Trickle-Down Effect May Really be Working - But Not the Way they Planned!
07-Jun-01
Environment

There is evidence that the "trickle down" effect long-touted by the GOP is at work. But the form it's taking is a reaction AGAINST the party's pushy tactics - tactics such as allowing big business and developers to ride roughshod over the communities for the gain of just a few. In the small town of New Albany, Indiana, residents of one community have stood up and said NO! to a development that would benefit just one developer while harming the neighborhood. This is the way Americans will take back the country from special interests - one community at a time!

Army Corps of Engineers Wants to Open Streams and Wetlands to New Environmental Assaults by Developers
04-Jun-01
Environment

Under Clinton, a Pentagon investigation found the Army Corps of Engineers guilty of fudging studies to justify environmentally-damaging projects on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, and favoring massive projects just to keep its payroll padded. Now, six months later under Bush, the Corps is pushing to dump regulations designed to prevent the destruction of thousands of streams and wetlands. In response to criticism, Corps regulatory chief John Studt said - and we are not making this up - that it wouldn't matter because some streams are so small "most of the general public wouldn't view them as streams at all." Well, Johnny, most of the general public wouldn't view you as a regulatory chief at all, either.

'Christie Todd' Touts Shrub's Energy Plan as Environmentally 'Very Good' - Which Planet Is She Working On?
29-May-01
Environment

We can all rest easy! 'Christie Todd' (Shrub's cutsie groupie name for our EPA chief) is not a tortured soul in conflict with her better self over Bush's planet-trashing schemes. She's rolled her sleeves up and is digging right alongside him with both hands. At a UN forum on climate change, Whitman defended Shrub's drill and guzzle scheme: "From an environmental point of view, it in fact is a very good document." Sure, if you mean using it to line the hamster cage and thereby save on newspaper. When asked if she thought the plan would increase greenhouse gas emissions, she airly replied. "Oh, not at all, not at all." Not on Mars, anyway.

The Growing Need for Green Spaces: An Issue for the New Dem-Run Senate to Address
29-May-01
environment

When folks out in Cheyenne, Wyoming - long thought a region of wide open landscapes - start talking about needing more green space, you know the time has come to take up the issue. Even in Cheyenne, says local resident Don Bainter, "Residents in my area must drive at least two miles to get to the nearest park." He's not alone. However, as Mike Dowling of the Cheyenne planning commission points out, the problem is working with developers and finding the money. Maybe its time for the Senate to provide some direction....?

Dying Miners, Unpunished Fraud, and a Planet at Risk: The Same Thread Connects Them All
28-May-01
Environment

Shrub has bent over backwards to protect the mining industry and other corporate fat cats, while his own administration is a deadly vipers' nest of corporate conflict of interest. A case in KY points up: A) The sort of people Shrub is so eager to protect in the mining industry (and other industries) from any consequences of their disregard for people or the planet, and B) the misery and danger that allowing conflict of interest causes at many different levels, from the deaths of individual miners to the endangerment of the health of the planet - it's all the same rotten game.

Bush Administration Allows Billionaire To Drill At Native American Area That Has Sacred Rock Drawings
27-May-01
Environment

"A federal land agency on Monday upheld billionaire Philip Anschutz's right to drill an exploratory oil well in an area of south-central Montana where Native American tribes want to preserve sacred rock drawings. The site, called Weatherman Draw, has become an early flash point for the Bush-Cheney energy plan, which aims to ease access for oil and natural gas exploration on public lands...Opponents will now take their case to the U.S. Interior Department, where they will seek a ban on drilling in the 4,268-acre site, which harbors some of the best examples of rock drawings in the high plains." Sorry to say that their appeals will likely fall on deaf ears at the Interior Dept. – Gale Norton's Federalist Society shop.

The Truth - the Whole Truth about the Impact of Development on ANWR
24-May-01
Environment

We have discovered the most thorough, well-put-together and useful overview of the impact of exploratory and oil extraction activity in ANWR yet. It was put together by wildlife biologists who actually live and work up there (Fish and Wildlife Department folks, in fact!). SAVE THIS LINK (or download) AND PASS IT ON! Members of Congress especially should hang on to this - it may (God forbid) be needed in coming days. Refer especially to Part 4: Potential Impacts of Oil and Gas Development on Refuge Resources. VERY eye-opening, with great photos.

Natural Resources Defense Council Sues Shrub for Delaying Drinking Water Arsenic Standards and Right-To-Know Rule
23-May-01
Environment

The NRDC has condemned Shrub's suspension of a reduced maximum for arsenic levels in drinking water and an associated requirement that the public be informed of arsenic levels. Shrub's stance is not only illegal, but grossly defiant of overwhelming public opposition to the delay, says NRDC's senior attorney Erik D. Olson. "Unfortunately, President Bush apparently won't listen to reason, scientific evidence, or the will of the American public, so NRDC is left with no choice but to sue." Go get 'em, Erik! We're cheering you on!

Kofi Annan Decries Bush-Cheney's Abandonment Of The Kyoto Protocol
23-May-01
Environment

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told an audience at Tufts University: "There is concern throughout the world about the decision of the new administration to oppose the [Kyoto] protocol" for limiting CO2 emissions and Global Warming. As for Bush's claim that the Kyoto Protocol would be economically detrimental, Annan said, "the opposite is true. Unless we protect resources and the Earth's natural capital, we shall not be able to sustain economic growth." Annan also countered the Bush/Republican propaganda charging environmentalist 'scare tactics.' "Imagine melting polar icecaps and rising sea levels, threatening beloved and highly developed coastal areas such as Cape Cod with erosion and storm surges. Imagine a warmer and wetter world in which infectious diseases such as malaria and yellow fever spread more easily. This is not some distant worst-case scenario. It is tomorrow's forecast. Nor is this science fiction. It is sober prediction, based on the best science available."

EPA Thumbs Nose at Deadlines to Improve Drinking Water Safety and Quality Reporting To Protect Mining Industry
22-May-01
Environment

The EPA has made it final: there will be no new rules limiting arsenic, a known carcinogen, in drinking water, until at least Feb. 2002. The EPA will also delay instituting stricter requirements that residents be informed of how much arsenic is in their water. "We know the mining industry doesn't want to see tougher arsenic standards," says Maria Weidner of Earthjustic, a nonprofit law firm representing public interest clients for free. "The Bush administration is clearly more interested in keeping their corporate donors happay than they are in complying with Congress's directives." (Congress had originally set a June 1 deadline for the new regulations).

Religious Leaders Stage Rally on May 22 at Capitol to Protest Energy Policy
22-May-01
Environment

Over 300 relgious activists from 40 states across the nation are staging a rally on the Capitol steps calling for energy conservation and climate justice. The May 22 rally (12:30-1:30 pm) is the focal point of a three day meeting of environmental justice ministry leaders (sponsored by the National Council of Churches) that is being held at Catholic University in D.C. The conference will feature presentations on major environmental issues, as well as working sessions on grass roots organizing. Hallelujah!

Toxic Pollutant Treaty Ratification Week Is Here - Will Bush Actually Sign?
21-May-01
Environment

A month ago, Bush surprised and pleased the public by pledging to sign an international agreement to sharply limit persistent organic pollutants (POPs). However, signing was scheduled for May 21-23 and nary a word have we seen on the issue. Will he renege or make make good? Stay tuned...

Is Bush's Choice For Norton's Deputy Another Federalist Society Soldier?
20-May-01
Environment

"As a top official in the Interior Department under James G. Watt, J. Steven Griles argued for oil drilling off the California coast. He pressed to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration, and urged cutting the fees paid by coal companies for operating on federal land. On leaving government, Griles went to work for the mining industry he once regulated, then as a lobbyist for utilities and the oil business. [Tuesday] the Senate [began] considering President [sic] Bush's nomination of Griles as deputy secretary of the interior, the second in command at the department [under Gale Norton, also a Watt protege], with broad day-to-day responsibilities for everything from national parks and Indian affairs to mining, logging and mineral exploration on public lands... During his last stint at Interior, he was twice accused of suppressing department studies – one on offshore drilling, the other on federal coal royalties – that conflicted with his views, charges that Griles denies."

Bush Backs Off Investigation of Migratory Bird Slaughter by Logging Industry
18-May-01
Environment

How did Shrub celebrate International Migratory Bird Day May 12? In true Shrub fashion - by trying to do away with efforts now underway by the EPA to improve implementation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. One of Clinton's last gestures was to pledge to investigate allegations by Mexico and Canada that the U.S. is allowing the slaughter of migratory birds by logging operations. Now Bush wants to back off and, in essence, let the loggers blow the birds away. This must be yet another textbook example of compassionate conservatism.

Global Environment May Pay for G. W. (Global Wreckingball) Bush Bypass of Kyoto Protocol
16-May-01
Environment

World leaders had worked for years toward the goals of Kyoto. Most nations have already made some sacrifices toward the cleanup of Earth's atmosphere. Then along comes G. W. (Global Wreckingball) Bush, who says, in effect, F- you to everyone on the planet except himself and his oil buddies. Now the rest of the world is trying to take up the slack left by this selfish, tiny-minded boy (he's no man - real men care about things beyond themselves!) who is playing at being a leader. Let's boot his sorry butt out!

Companies Make Liar Out of Bush By Loss-Free Self-Regulation
16-May-01
Environment

Shrubcheney whines that stricter emissions regulations will send us all to the poor house, jobless and longing for the good old days of smog belching plants. But many multinational companies have already taken steps to reduce their emissions to save money and promote themselves as "green" to the public. Guess what? Companies are finding that their efforts not only have marketing value but don't cost that much, save mucho money in the long run, and are keeping the companies in the international game, where poor sports like Bush aren't appreciated anymore.

Bush Tries to Drive Wedge Between Unions and Environmentalists over Arctic Drilling
14-May-01
Environment

A meeting today between Bush and carefully selected labor leaders to discuss energy policy is shaping up as a crucial administration overture to the nation's labor unions, long among Bush's fiercest opponents. Several unions have already praised parts of the plan. The Teamsters and the Laborers, for instance, support energy exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. "The administration is trying to split the Democrats by wooing labor," said Phil Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust. "It's quite an obvious strategy." Carl Pope, the Sierra Club's executive director, said, "I think the Bush administration is trying to seduce organized labor." This is an obvious ploy by Bush and "Boy Genius" Karl Rove to drive a wedge between two important Democratic coalitions (just like Bush and Rove's "cherry picking" their kind of African-American "leaders" while ignoring the REAL influential leaders like Jesse Jackson and Kweisi Mfume). Lets see how many of these union leaders will be gullible (greedy??) enough to swallow Smirk's poison venom.

G. W. Death Energy Scheme Will Increase Mortality Rates and Infant Brain Damage By Up to 50%
14-May-01
Environment

Each coal-burning power plant emits 68,000 pounds of mercury per year. Each OUNCE of this heavy toxic metal in the environment is magnified ultimately many times via bioaccumulation in the tissues of fishes, birds, and humans. The stuff does not break down naturally, does not go away. Up to 60,000 U.S. children are now born with brain damage each year due to mercury. Mercury emissions are also associated with a host of health problems in adults exposed to it. Yet not only does G. W. Death want to build at least 1,300 new power plants, most of them coal-fired, he wants to keep older plants up and running - the same death traps Clinton wanted to close because he actually gave a damn about his countrymen.

Scared Green! How John Stossel, ABC, Rightwing Think Tanks, and the Chemical Industry Are Colluding to Trash Environmental Education
13-May-01
Environment

This spring, Oregon environmental science teacher John F. Borowski found himself in the unexpected and unpleasant position of eyewitness to an unfolding episode of journalistic fraud and corporate collusion with the media and rightwing think tanks. The media and corporations, John discovered, were willing to lie, entrap, and commit fraud in order to debunk the thing they feared the most: environmental education based on the truth.

The Assault on Science and the Environment by Corporate Propaganda: Part Two
13-May-01
Environment

Corporate propagandists attack environmental safeguards from behind the "green smokescreen" (an appropriate corporate oxymoron!) of Internet front groups that purport to be pro-environment and highly scientific. These groups have engineered their own version of "environmental science" in which "green" really means money and anything that regulates industry is "environmentally" unfriendly.

Robert Redford Tells Gale Norton To Fly a Kite
13-May-01
Environment

Gale Norton invited Robert Redford to join her in releasing a condor into the wild. Redford did not mince words in turning her down: "Sadly, since assuming the Interior Secretary post, you have compiled an abysmal record of capitulating to big businesses at the expense of the nation's public health, public lands and wildlife," he wrote. Way to go, Robert!

Bush's New Strategy for Trashing Wilderness: Sneak Attacks While Feeding Bogus Pledges to Public
11-May-01
environment

Bush has no intention of upholding the public's demand that the nation's last roadless forests be protected from roads and exploitation. Instead, he is using sleazy corporate flimflam tactics to make it seem as if he's going along with the public will, while knocking every protective leg out from under our wildlands. Don't let the greedy sleazoid get away with it! Bombard the Forest Service and your Reps with calls and letters!

Yet Another Event Notable by Its Absence from Mainstream Media and Bush's Comments
07-May-01
Environment

Last week, the National Acid Rain Conference was ignored by mainstream media and Bush. This week, they're snubbing National Drinking Water Week - a week devoted to "bringing attention to our most precious natural resource: water." Of course, it's obvious why Bush wants to ignore this event - he's not exactly our poster boy for safe water! Instead, last week Bush got all wrapped up in National Prayer Day. Gee, I hope he prayed for safe drinking water.

Will Rogers on the Dust Bowl; Poignant Reminder of GOP's Unchanged Attitude on Conservation
06-May-01
Environment

Cheney and Bush hope to convince us that the "energy crisis" is what is driving the GOP to bump the environment down on its list of priorities (not that it was ever more than about number 29). But the historic record tells a different story. It's just business as usual with a beefed up excuse (the "energy crisis") concocted for a more skeptical public. Will Rogers had the GOP pegged all the way back in 1935 at the height of the dust bowl. No one called a spade a spade quite the way Will did. Read his take on pioneers, Republicans, and conservation.

FUQ: Want Whiskey in your Water? Sugar in your Tea? How about Arsenic in your Water and Dioxin in your Food?
06-May-01
Environment

The businesses involved in the chemicals-to- plastics-to-dioxin food chain want to delay, if not suppress, the release of a very troubling EPA study on dioxin and cancer. But we all know what they do not want us to know – that dioxin in our food supply and arsenic in our water are much, much worse than mad cow disease and the hoof and mouth virus. The Bush administration is counting on you not to care.

Bush-Cheney Seize National Wilderness in Montana for Annexation to their Oil Empire
05-May-01
Environment

Ignoring the wishes of the overwhelming majority of Montana citizens and without even consulting Congress, Bush and Cheney have decided to open 380,000 acres of western wilderness to oil drilling. It is as clear as arsenic-laced water (you can't see it but it's deadly) that these two arrogant monsters are pressing ahead with plans to expand their oil dynasties no matter what anyone says or does. So it doesn't matter to them that the Lewis and Clark National Forest belongs to the American people - in the greedy minds of the oil-soaked duo, this forest of living trees and creatures is just another potential entry in their list of payoffs (to be collected after four years of national rape). The Revolution is coming, people. We just hope it's soon!

Acid Rain Conference Notably Absent from All Media Coverage
04-May-01
Environment

The Acid Rain Conference was a major event, held May 2-3 in the nation's capital, attended by representatives from more than fifty federal and state agencies, research institutions and environmental organizations, as well as many scientists, congressional leaders, and state officials. Yet just try to find any mention of it in the media! Why? A. One of the leading figures at the conference was Hillary Rodham Clinton and B. Coal-burning power plants - the kind Bush and Cheney want to build lots more of - are the major contriubutors to acid rain. Once, the press's criteria for a story was A. How important is the story to the public interest? Period.

Bush Will Kill Logging Road Ban Without Leaving his Fingerprints
04-May-01
Environment

Mr. "Honor and Integrity" Bush, the born-again environmentalist, is determined to kill the Clinton administration's regulations to protect our national forests through a ban on road building. But he doesn't have the guts to do it openly. So instead he is going to let it die from a thousand cuts from his Republican and industry allies. What a pathetic fraud he is!

Bush And DeLay -- Enemies Of Clean Air For Texas And Now The Nation
30-Apr-01
Environment

"Yet on one issue alone -- public transit, specifically rail transit – [House Majority Whip Tom] DeLay unceasingly has played Washington-style politics and has done more to subvert the interests and clean-air efforts of the Houston area than an array of belching smokestacks and bleating bureaucrats." The article continues. "Who can forget that DeLay is the politician who unsuccessfully offered a bill to exempt oil refineries from federal pollution controls? An industry lobbyist, in fact, bragged about sitting in DeLay's office while he drafted the appropriations rider." Of course, DeLay invokes the usual right-wing propaganda. "DeLay engages in further distortions, trying to paint those who question him on these issues as flag-wavers for big, heavy-handed government regulation and the enemies of free-market solutions."

Norton, Whitman, and Abraham: the Dream Team (as In Our Worst Nightmare Come True)
30-Apr-01
Environment

When environmental leaders talk about Bush's environmental team - Interior Secretary Gale Norton, EPA chief "Christy Todd" (her cutsie Bush-groupy nickname), and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham - the operative word is "scary." While Norton is identified as a rightwing extremist dedicated to trashing all federal protection of public lands, Christy Todd is merely a "pro-choice Norton." Meanwhile, Abraham has twice cosponsored bills calling for drilling in ANWR, has voted against funding for renewable energy development, and has an environmental voting record that is rated by the League of Conservation Voters as just 5 percentage points above zero. Go team go (as in far away)!

Bush Plans To Do Nothing About Uranium Threatening California's Water Supply
29-Apr-01
Environment

The Bush administration has omitted any money from the federal budget to continue cleanup of a huge uranium-slag heap in southern Utah that leaks radioactive waste into the Colorado River. At about 750 feet from the river edge near the town of Moab, the waste heap is the size of 130 football fields and holds 13 million tons of waste matter from a uranium mill that closed in 1984... 25 million people in the West depend on the Colorado for drinking water." Said Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), "Our entire water supply is threatened." The Bushes have distinguished themselves as enemies of safe drinking water -- first with Bush's scrapping of Clinton's safer arsenic levels, then with Jeb's plan to inject contaminated water into Florida's aquifers, and now this disturbing news.

Bu$h Seeks to Scuttle Clinton Ban on Logging and Roadbuilding in National Forests
29-Apr-01
Environment

Bu$h is trying to overturn a Clinton administration regulation protecting 60 million acres of national forests from logging and road building. "High-ranking White House policy officials instructed Justice Department lawyers to find a way to set aside the regulation until the administration can produce either a less restrictive proposal or eliminate the rule entirely." President Clinton announced the regulations January 5 after the Forest Service held extensive public hearings for over a year and recorded 1.6 million public comments. The regulation would protect more than a quarter of federal forests from commercial logging and new road construction.

Petition to Gale Norton: Change the Climate of Fear
27-Apr-01
Environment

"Dear Secretary Norton: The recent termination of US Geological Survey cartographer Ian Thomas has generated a significant amount of press attention around the world. Mr. Thomas was fired after posting a map of caribou migration patterns in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Because you have clearly stated that oil drilling in ANWR is among the top goals of your Interior Department, Mr. Thomas' abrupt termination has been widely perceived as a political decision by your office to silence or censor science... In order to counteract growing perception of retaliatory management within Interior, we strongly urge you to take the following actions: 1) Issue a statement that your Interior Department encourages and expects researchers and specialists to report their findings without fear of occupational retaliation; and 2) Institute and publicize a zero-tolerance policy against retaliation by Interior managers and supervisors." Send the letter from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

What's Worse than Arsenic in your water? Try a $32-Billion Bill for Cleaning Up the Mine it Came From
27-Apr-01
Environment

In exchange for a higher dose of arsenic in our water - much of it from the mining industry - Bush now plans to stick taxpayers with the industry's cleanup bill, which may top $32 billion. A report by the Mineral Policy Center and Taxpayers for Common Sense says Bush's proposed rollbacks of mining industry regulations will shift liability for toxic messes at active and abandoned mines to the public. "A Bush reversal would force taxpayers to write a blank check for mining cleanups," says TCS's Jill Lancelot. "This is corporate welfare at its worst." I wonder it the two-thirds of pollees who still insist Shrub is a nice guy will feel the same way when they get the bill for their toxic coffee and tea? Surely no one is THAT codependent.

Navy Wants Federal Go-Ahead to Blast Whales with Deadly Low-Frequency Sonar
26-Apr-01
Environment

The Navy plans to make the most of the anti-environmental attitude of the Shrub administration and has requested exemption from a federal law forbidding the harassment or killing of whales. The exemption will allow resumed testing of a powerful new LF sonar designed to hunt for superquiet subs. Trouble is, the sonar may also disorient and kill whales and other sea mammals. In addition, several independent researchers (i.e., not hired government science guns) have found evidence that LF sound can propagate for a few thousand kilometers, so there's no escape for sensitive marine mammals. Call your Rep. now before it's too late and protest!

Roots of Evil: The Insidious Attack by Corporations on Environmental Reality
25-Apr-01
Environment

After the environmental conference in Rio in 1992, a consensus was evolving on the global environment: that it was time to start cleaning up the planet, especially its air, before it was too late. In response, Earth's biggest polluters--the coal, oil, and chemical industries, joined forces to thwart all efforts to bring the regulatory hammer down. Since then, they have been buying "experts" to debunk global warming, barraging educational sites with pseudoscience material, making unfounded threats of economic disaster, and trying to create a "new environmentalism" in which up is down and down is up. They have no doubt spent more on this campaign than they have on any efforts to clean up their act. In 1995, Harpers exposed this war of deceit. But since then, alas, the corporate war has only escalated.

Bush Usurps Limelight at Teen Environmental Award Ceremony to Make Energy Policy Pitch
25-Apr-01
Environment

You'd think for one lousy hour that Shrubmeister could put his greedy little oil schemes aside and focus on the environment and the young people who care about it. But, oh no! Not President Green (as in dollars). On Tuesday (April 24) when the Oil Baron presented the Environmental Youth Awards at the White House, after making a few rambling, half-witted remarks, he launched right into this environmental "wise use" (a term that means rape and plunder in rightwing speak) and "we gotta drill!" pitch. He ended the spectacle with his usual pledge to make environmental decisions based on "sound science" (i.e., it sounds like science but really isn't!). What a class act!

Bush Humiliates Whitman Once Again
24-Apr-01
Environment

Christie Whitman has become the laughingstock of Washington. Last month, she was publicly humiliated in front of the world over global warming. Now she has been humiliated over drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Hey Christie - this administration exists only to maximize profits for Bush's buddies in the oil business. Why provide them with a fig leaf to pretend otherwise? Give it up and go home to New Jersey!

Number One Threat to National Wildlands is Bush, Says Wilderness Society
23-Apr-01
Environment

The Wilderness Society announced this week that of all the serious environmental hazards now facing America's national parks, forests, monuments, and other public lands, Bush's disastrous environmental policy poses the greatest threat. Even Shrub's efforts to "improve" national wildlands are disastrous. The new roads he wants to build in wildlands will fragment ecosystems, increase pollution, and destroy wetlands, while his plan to allow more snowmobiles and other off-road vehicles in parks may irreparably damage sensitive ecosystems. Way to go, Shrub!

The Ecology Center's Jeff Juel Nails It - 'Local Control' Is Bushspeak For Corporate Control!
22-Apr-01
Environment

"A presidential task force chaired by…Dick Cheney published the plan to exploit land along [Montana's] Rocky Mountain Front as part of the new administration's energy policy. Meanwhile, the 1.8 million acres of the Lewis and Clark National Forest, which includes some 380,000 acres of the Bob Marshall Wilderness, could be redesignated by the Bush administration for drilling without coming up before Congress...[Interior Secretary Gale Norton could simply] repeal administrative protections that former controversial Lewis and Clark National Forest manager Gloria Flora spearheaded during the Clinton years. " Jeff Juel of the Ecology Center says it all: "It's a pretty big irony, really. The comments on this issue were divided among outside oil interests that wanted to keep [the Front] open to drilling, and Montana citizens, who said 'No this should not happen.' Now Bush is saying the federal government is the outside interest and that the oil companies represent local control."

Bush Upholds Clinton's Regulations On Lead and Wetlands Protections In Timed PR Move For Earth Day
22-Apr-01
Environment

Bush's EPA will uphold a Clinton regulation requiring that manufacturers report lead emissions exceeding 100 pounds per year. This is much stricter than the previous 10,000 pounds requirement. That was a no-brainer. The only thing politically dumber than striking down this regulation would have been relaxing safe storage rules for plutonium. EPA head Whitman also announced that Bush will keep Clinton's rules to protect thousands of acres of wetlands. Fine - but what about the millions of acres they plan on letting their corporate overlords plunder elsewhere? Check out the many howlers in this article, including Dan Bartlett's orwellian scapegoating tactics. Meanwhile, Whitman states that they are not trying to "play both sides against the middle - that's not the way we operate. There is no subliminal agenda here..." But 'Friskie Todd' has no credibility - she says "yes, I have been" content with Bush's decisions. Which means she was lying before about wanting CO2 reductions.

Bush Again Penalizes Scientists Standing in Way of Corporate 'Progress'
21-Apr-01
Environment

The Smithsonian Institute is a national treasure - and not just because of its museums. The Institute is extremely active in environmental research around the world, including topics related to global warming. Now Shrub wants to "redistribute" SI's funding away from environmental research and to close the Conservation and Research Center in VA down completely. The SI scientist have lodged a formal protest - let's all show our support by calling, emailing or writing Secretary Lawrence M. Small to demand the restoration of their funding before Shrub's can do worse!

Earth Day Protesters in DC Say Pollution Starts at Chez Shrub
21-Apr-01
Environment

On April 19, protesters assembled before the White House holding signs that spelled out POLLUTION STARTS HERE, with big black arrows pointing to Chez Shrub. Speeches by several green group reps, including Earth Day founder Denis Hayes, followed. Greenpeace's John Passacantando summed it all up: "We want this Toxic Texan to know that trashing 30 years of environmental gains, then making a few token green announcements for Earth Day is an unacceptable environmental agenda."

Bush Will Sign A Treaty Reducing Chemicals (That Doesn't Directly Affect US Bidness); Will Also Reconsider Global Warming Folly
20-Apr-01
Environment

Bush "will sign a treaty aimed at reducing the release of dangerous chemicals into the environment [that are linked to]…cancer and birth defects." Known as the 'dirty dozen', these chemicals include DDT and PCBs. "Most of the chemicals have not been…produced in the United States since the 1970s, but environmentalists believe the treaty will spur efforts to deal with the problem in developing countries and elsewhere." Running scared, Bush will also revisit the global warming issue, since "some of the officials said they were taken aback by the furious reaction [to Bush's anti-Kyoto stance]. Environmentalists have begun distributing souvenir copies of a front page of [London' s] Independent newspaper headline…reading, 'President George W Bush, Polluter of the Free World.'" Check out Ari Fleischer's orwellian doublespeak that Bush's (?) orders to his staff have been to "take actions based on science, not based on public relations". Fulfilling corporations' quid pro quos is a science?

'Environmentally-friendly Oil Drilling': Yet another Bush Lie Exposed
19-Apr-01
Environment

For months, Bush and the oil industry have been peddling the idea that oil drilling in the Arctic is SAFE because of the advanced "green" technology at the industry's disposal. Of course, this is just a glossy little package of poop, which has now been opened and exposed, thanks to the courage of two BP Amoco employees. Turns out the platforms used in Prudhoe Bay (and no doubt destined for ANWR), are environmental and safety disasters that have already caused a major explosion and two worker deaths. The whistleblowers have repeatedly - but futilely - asked state regulators to step in. Another fine example of GOP-style "accountability!"

What Bush and the Power Plants Did Not Want You To Know
19-Apr-01
Environment

A month before the infamous Bush coup in November, 2000, a report was released by the Clean Air Task Force on the impact of soot from power plants on human health. The results are frightening: Power plant soot kills over 30,000 Americans each year and significantly reduces the life expectancy of residents closest to such plants. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are afflicted by asthma and cardiac and respiratory problems related to power plant soot, with children and the elderly most vulnerable. Power plants are the largest source of sulfates - the primary component of soot and the precursors to acid rain - in the U.S. With the implementation of just moderate controls, up to 18,000 deaths per year could be avoided by implementing stricter regulations. Yet not only did Bush sweep this information under the carpet, he wants to ease the existing emissions regulations of power plants. He calls that common sense. Some might call it murder.

Norton Wants to Turn Endangered Species over to Private Interests
19-Apr-01
Environment

Well, I guess we can all rest easy tonight. Gail Norton is going to get rid of all those pesky lawyers trying to protect endangered species and turn the job of conservation over to some "real" experts - like the folks at the Center for Private Conservation. Like all corporate front groups, that title sounds so solid. But scratch below the surface and I defy you to find one real scientist on the whole board. The best they could do was "fisheries economist." Private landowners, says Norton, "are often the best stewards of our land." At least until an oil drilling outfit makes them a better offer, eh?

Desperate Bush Tries to Soak up Some of Clinton's Light
19-Apr-01
Environment

Shrubmeister is getting desperate! He's not only stolen the Children's Defense Fund Slogan ("No Child Left Behind") now he's trying to soften his "environmental Nazi" image by standing under a light left behind by Clinton. At a press conference announcing the retention of the stricter lead regulations proposed by Clinton, you'd have thought Christie and Bush had thought the whole thing up themselves. Pretty transparent PR ploy, especially as Bush had initially placed the rules on his "on hold" (i.e., to be deep-sixed quietly later) list. Now if we could just get the lead out from between Shrub's ears...

After A Firestorm Of Criticism, Bush Says He Will Look Into Lowering Arsenic Levels
19-Apr-01
Environment

"The Bush administration, under fire for scrapping Clinton standards for arsenic in drinking water, announced plans Wednesday to tighten the standards within nine months. Christie Whitman, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said she was asking the National Academy of Sciences to examine the impact of a range of possible reductions...Whitman said she wanted a panel of scientists at the academy to examine a standard in the range of 3 to 20 parts per billion." Keep the pressure on! The Bush gang stole the election, but they still don't have absolute power!

For Bu$h, Oil is thicker than Blood
19-Apr-01
Environment

Jeb Bu$h is strongly opposed to oil drilling off the Florida gulf coast. But $hrub's closest relatives are the ones with oil in their veins, so he is moving to approve offshore drilling over Jeb's objections. Once again, we know the truth about Bu$h family value$. We also know that Bu$h lied during the campaign, when he told Floridians he would "he would oppose drilling off the state’s shores."

Boycott Bu$h Donors!
18-Apr-01
Environment

Here are the top 20 corporate donors to the Republicans who sell consumer products: Philip Morris, BP (ARCO), Amway, News Corp/FOX, Enron, Citigroup, MCI Worldcom, Federal Express, Pfizer, Chevron Texaco, Bristol-Myers Squibb , Revlon, Limited Inc, Glaxo-Wellcome, Disney/ABC, Anheuser-Busch, Archer Daniels Midland, Microsoft, Coca Cola, Schering-Plough. To protest Bu$h's sellout on global warming, a UK-based group called Ethical Consumer has announced a global boycott of these companies' products. "These companies have bought access at the highest level," says Rob Harrison of ECRA. "Now let them use it to tell Bush he is wrong on this one."

Think Bush's Buddies Can Deliver Oil Safely From The Arctic Refuge? Consider The Environmental Hazard Of Spilling On Just An Acre
18-Apr-01
Environment

"A hole in a pipeline used for transporting by-products at the Kuparuk oil field on Alaska's North Slope has resulted in the biggest spill of industrial material onto the tundra in recent years, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) said on Tuesday. The leak, discovered on Sunday night, caused a spill of 92,400 gallons of so-called 'produced water,' a mixture of salty water and oil, DEC said." Even though the spill was on less than an acre, it still requires major containment and damage control. "Phillips is working with DEC, the North Slope Borough and Alaska Clean Seas, an industry cleanup cooperative, to come up with a long-term plan for stabilizing the area."

International Boycott May Hit GOP in the Only Place They Have Any Feeling: Their Wallets!
16-Apr-01
Environment

Disgusted by the complete indifference of the Bush Administration to the global environment, a coalition of Green Party representatives from 60 countries may launch a massive international boycott of products and services of U.S. oil companies. The Greens say it's time to do more than just lobby - it's time for immediate action. The oil companies have 10 days to disengage from the Bush decision to reject Kyoto. Maybe we Dems should be standing ready to spread the boycott across the U.S. as well! Stay tuned...

Mining Industry Dumps 3.6 Billion Pounds of Poison into Environment while Bu$h Cheers Them On
16-Apr-01
Environment

The mining industry has polluted 40% of all western watershed headwaters, 12,000 miles of rivers and streams, and 180,000 acres of lakes. It dumps a total of 3.6 billion pounds of toxic chemicals into the environment each year - including 585 million pounds of arsenic. Bu$h's response to this outrage: He wants to eliminate or weaken any regulations governing toxic mine waste disposal, raise arsenic limits in water and increase the variety of toxic wastes allowable in drinking water, and exempt the industry from informing the public about toxic releases. With a president like this, who needs a foreign "Evil Empire"? He'll destroy the U.S. single-handedly.

'Bush: The Toxic Texan' - Greenpeace Activists Unfurl Banner On Crawford Water Tower
14-Apr-01
Environment

"The [Greenpeace] protesters hung a banner from the [Crawford, Texas] water tower that read "Bush the Toxic Texan: Don't Mess with the Earth" about 10 a.m. ET Friday. They refused to climb down and remove the banner, ignoring demands from the mayor, the county sheriff and the U.S. Secret Service. After a two-hour standoff, the activists -- two women from Washington and a man from Flower Mount, Texas -- came down and were taken into custody by the McLennan County Sheriff's Department." The Crawford tower is certainly an appropriate location for the protest -- first because it is next to Bush's ranch, and second because the water there has an excessively high level of arsenic. The amount of arsenic would have been reduced to safer levels had Bush not rescinded Clinton's regulations. Good show, Greenpeace!

The EPA Wants to Warn Us About Dioxin, but the Republicans Want More Time to Prepare a PR Offensive to Fight the Facts with Their Fictions
12-Apr-01
Environment

Another chilling example of Bush-inspired industry hubris (i.e., arrogance so overempowered it's right off the scale) has come to light. An EPA study completed last summer and due for release this June shows that dioxin-laced animal fat and dairy products can cause cancer in humans. Although the EPA scientists say they stand behind their findings, the beef and chemical industries are lobbying hard to suppress the release of the report (to give them time to launch a slick PR counter-offensive, no doubt). As always, industry claims the study conclusions are not based on science. Of course they do! The only science industry ever recognizes is the tailor-made type it buys for itself from its fact-laundering operations (better known as "conservative think tanks").

Bush Guts Endangered Species Act to Aid Industry Land Despoilers
12-Apr-01
Environment

Today, thanks to human encroachment, the number of species in danger of extinction is higher than at any other time in Earth's history except for the period that saw the demise of the dinosaurs. Bush's response to this desperate situation: Gut the Endangered Species Act! He has slashed the ESA budget and killed the crucial listing deadline that gave the public some clout against anti-conservation industry lobbyists. Worse yet, he now wants to play God and establish a "prioritized" list of which animals will -- in essence--live or die. With the ESA's pathetic new budget, most will inevitably die. In their place will be a dreary expanse of strip mines, clearcuts, oil derricks, and MacMansions. Hey! Over here you bullies! Is it too much to ask of the Republicans to fight with us rather than take it out on the environment?

The Anti-Wildlife Administration
12-Apr-01
Environment

"The Bush administration is asking Congress to remove from the Endangered Species Act a provision that allows environmental groups and others to sue the Interior Department to get rare plants and animals listed as endangered. The budget provision would still permit citizen lawsuits but effectively render them meaningless by placing severe limits on what the agency can do or spend to comply with them, according to Interior spokesman Mark Pfeifle." Once again, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) cuts through the Bush gang's bureaucratic straw men arguments (see spokesman Mitch Snow's propaganda line about a "rational system") and the Rovean doublespeak of "standstills" and the need "to work together in harmony instead of in conflict". Kerry "[decried the proposal as] an attempt to strip away the power of citizens who act to protect endangered species and instead puts that power in the hands of an administration that...has pursued an anti-environmental agenda through administrative edict."

Bush Gang To Shift Environmental Responsibilities To States - Corporations Dig It
11-Apr-01
Environment

"The Bush administration would begin to shift some responsibility for enforcing federal environmental protection laws from the Environmental Protection Agency to the states…As a first step, the administration's proposed fiscal 2002 budget would cut $10 million, resulting in a 9 percent reduction in the EPA's enforcement staff…The $7.3 billion funding plan for the EPA is $500 million less than…the current fiscal year... But overall spending on clean air and water programs, safe food and global pollution would be trimmed...the Bush administration eliminated…the $50 million Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration program [and other grants]. Overall, the department was cut 3 percent." Interior Secretary Gale Norton is all for this shift to the states, since she knows that states are more vulnerable to corporate predators. A Federalist Society member, Norton is schooled in their "Takings Project" to strip away environmental protections in favoring of the wealthiest (corporate) landowners.

Bush Breaks Second Campaign Promise On The Environment: "Read My Lips -- More Funding For Rainforests"
11-Apr-01
Environment

"Bush has abandoned a pledge to invest $100 million a year in a program for rain forest conservation, according to the budget he released yesterday...But in the new federal budget, Bush has arranged for just $13 million for the program. Even that sum isn't new funding; instead, it is diverted from the Agency for International Development." Remarked an environmental spokesperson, "they've zeroed it out." Like Bush's bogus campaign promise to reduce CO2 emissions, Karl Rove fashioned this rainforest position to dupe voters. "Bush introduced his expansion of the program at a critical time in the campaign, one week after the Democratic convention, as Vice President Al Gore's numbers were sharply on the rise." At the same time, Karl Rove and his minions accused Gore of being a "serial exaggerator" based on misleading stories that Rove's propaganda outfit created -- which the "liberal" media gladly smeared around. "Rove" should be listed in the dictionary as a synonym for "sociopath".

Logging Industry Sues Boy Scouts to Grab Forest Land
10-Apr-01
Environment

The logging, mining and energy industries are big on pumping up short-term profits but short on long-term resource management and public responsibility. Having stripped all of their own "industrial forest" land, the logging industry has turned to rain forests wildlife refuges and U.S. National Forests to sustain their disastrous "cut and run" policy. Now unchecked by Shrub, it looks as if they may soon be cutting on any acreage where trees are still standing--your backyard, perhaps? Bush- empowered greed is getting pitiful, indeed! But why not--the logging industry gave the Bush $300,000 and Gore a mere $25,000.

Koch Industries Agrees To Pay $20 Million For Violating Air Pollution Laws
10-Apr-01
Environment

"One of the country's biggest oil pipeline companies has agreed to pay a $20 million fine to avoid trial on charges it violated federal air pollution laws and then tried to cover it up. Koch Industries Inc. announced the settlement with the Justice Department on Monday, two days before the trial was to start in Corpus Christi, Texas… The [earlier] indictment focused a spotlight on a major Republican [and Bush] donor and the environment in President Bush's home state just weeks before the presidential election." Along with the Coors family and Richard Mellon Scaife, the Koch family have been among the major backers of the New Right network of think tanks that put Reagan and Bush Jr. in power, as well as attacking Clinton through their propaganda mills. The Kochs have played a key role in financing the Federalist Society, and they were major contributors to Tom DeLay's Triad money laundering scheme in 1996.

Activists Plead with Bush to Save Last Roadless Forests
09-Apr-01
Environment

Our National Forests are supposed to belong to the American people. But, they have been logged, mined, and drilled by a handful of aggressive corporate interests. Now thanks to Bush, we may lose the last unspoiled 58.5 million acrres. The Roadless Conservation Area Rule, designed to keep industry out of the people's forests, was supposed to be implemented on March 13. However, it was put on hold by Shrub as soon as he was was elected--even though it was the product of 600 public hearings and a record-breaking 1.6 million public comments. Now, due to a court battle in Idaho, the rule may soon be permanently axed by Shrub in the next week. Will the people's will prevail? Not likely, according to the Heritage Forests Campaign.

Bush/Norton Doing Everything They Can To Drill In National Treasures
07-Apr-01
Environment

"Millions of acres of federal land that contain protected wildlife and scenery would be opened for oil and gas drilling under a plan being finalized by the Interior Department...The centerpiece of that effort is winning congressional approval for drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge." Big surprise! "Bush and Interior Secretary Gale Norton have argued that modern technology makes possible greatly expanded oil and gas drilling on federal lands without environmental damage." Would you buy a used car from Norton? She is a member of the dangerous right-wing legal cabal "The Federalist Society" (Starr, Ted Olson, Bork, Spenser Abraham, Hatch, Meese et al.) that is intent on stripping away our rights and environment protections -- especially through their "Takings Project". Norton also worked for the insane James Watt, Reagan’s Interior Secretary. Watt believes there is no need to protect the Earth, since Armageddon is coming soon.

Common Sense, Accountability, and Sound Science: Beyond Bush's Grasp
06-Apr-01
Environment

Bush's empty rhetoric is stuffed with as many hollow platitudes as a bad country western song. While the rest of the world grapples with real crises, struggling to reach decisions that take future generations into account, a snickering Bush hosts a tea for Baseball Hall of Famers, lunches with members of a small-town Chamber of Commerce, and jokes at a dinner for news commentators that he put arsenic in their water as a "test." Past first ladies have had more dignity--and substance. Where does the "Idiot Prince" get his ideas on policy? The truth is revealed.....

Fossil Fuel Industry Circling Arctic Wilderness like Sharks
05-Apr-01
Environment

The fossil fuel industry in Alaska is strangely confident about the future exploitation of pristine Arctic wildlands. Now Jacob Adams of the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. in Barrow, which owns 91,000 acres of mineral rights around ANWR, says he's betting Congress will open the reserve to oil. The Bush-inspired feeding frenzy is intensifying. Now Cominco Corp and others say they plan to dig for coal and zinc as well. Plans for an Arctic Slope coal-fired power plant are now on the drawing board as are plans to construct a large-scale transportation infrastructure in the region. Sure looks as if these guys are sure of their purchase--namely Bu$h.

The 'Global Warming Gang of Five': Exxon, Mobil, BP Amoco, Shell, Texaco and Chevron
04-Apr-01
Environment

Bush and his corporate gangster friends want working class Americans to pay jacked-up fuel costs, while they want struggling citizens of developing countries to foot the bill for CO2 reduction. But only 122 major corporations produce a whopping 80% of the world's CO2 emissions. Just five of these--Exxon, Mobil, BP Amoco, Shell, Texaco, and Chevron (Condaleeza Rice's former boss) produce 10%. As these leeches are the biggest offenders, they SHOULD pay the highest price for cleaning up the environment. Instead, they want the right to pollute more. Why not? They paid good money for the Bu$h presidency!

Concerned Scientists Say Energy 'Crisis' Is Just an Excuse to Rape the Environment
04-Apr-01
Environment

Bush is "using energy needs as a pretext for assaulting the environment and proposiung actions that would actually make our aenergy problems worse." This is the assesment of the respected Union of Concerned (as in not on the take) Scientists. The report, released nearly two weeks ago, has been all but ignored in the face of the onslaught of the corporate junk science-spouting lobbyists converging on Capitol Hill. The report notes that by cutting the DOE budget and energy R&D (the 2% hike it received, after inflation, works out to a cut), Bush is ensuring US dependence on big oil.

Painful Contrast: Al Gore's Plans Versus Bush Reality
02-Apr-01
Environment

If Al Gore were president instead of Bush, Americans would not be feeling frustration and shame this week. Instead, they would probably be reading a report by the International Project for Sustainable Energy Paths. The report, prepared by researchers at some of the world's top science facilities, tells how carbon emissions can be drastically cut while actually pumping up the economy and using existing technologies. The report, ready for release in 1999, was suppressed in the U.S. But Gore had vowed to make it public if elected. Any doubts as to who the better man is should now be laid to rest.

Nick Calio is Mr. Global Warming
02-Apr-01
Environment

Nick Calio is Bu$h's top Congressional lobbyist - the same job he held under Bu$h $r. In between, he made $420,000 lobbying against air pollution restrictions for Tenneco Automotive, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of automobile exhaust systems. He also lobbied for oil giant ARCO, now owned by BP Amoco. On March 5, Calio persuaded Bu$h to reverse his policy on CO2 and global warming.

1500 Scientists Say the Globe is Warming Twice as Fast
01-Apr-01
Environment

A draft of a major scientific study to be published in May predicts that atmospheric CO2 levels could raise global temperatures by 6 C (11 F) over 1990 averages. The 1,500-member Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) now believes that global warming may increase twice as fast as estimated in 1995, leading to "the mass death of forests and significant rises in sea levels, as well as crop failures and extreme weather." The IPCC believes that CO2 emissions must be cut by at least 60 percent by 2050 just to keep climate changes "tolerable."

While the World Burns, Bush Fiddles
01-Apr-01
Environment

The U.S. currently contributes 25% of all the greenhouse gases to the global environment, though it is home to just 5% of the world population. Now a new report by the World Resource Institute finds that instead of reducing its pollution, the U.S. has been steadily increasing it--by nearly 30% since 1975! Yet Bush thinks allowing more pollution is "common sense," that wasting millions of tons of recyclable materials is "economically feasible." Guess this translates into his definition of "accountability" (his favorite word). Wake up and smell the carbon and landfills, Bush, before you bury us all.

World Leaders Condemn Bush as Arrogant and Too Small for Job
01-Apr-01
Environment

The verdict is in from the rest of the world: Bush is not only arrogant and isolationist, he is amoral and "just not big enough for his job." Although world leaders have been willing to give Shrub the benefit of the doubt for a few months, his torpedoing of the Kyoto agreement to reduce greenhouse emissions left no doubt in anyone's minds who they are dealing with. The Portuguese daily Publico described Bush as acting with "the arrogance of someone who thinks he owns the world." The Guardian described Bush's policy as a "Taliban-style act of wanton destruction." The only country to show support for Shrub is Mexico, which has such bad air that U.S. soldiers on duty in Mexico City are given "danger pay." Britain's Friends of the Earth Director summed Bush up concisely as "an ignorant, shortsighted, and selfish politician...jammed into the pockets of the oil lobby." Makes you proud to be an American, doesn't it?

Clinton's Kyoto Negotiator Says Bush Rejection Derails Allies' Global Warming Efforts
30-Mar-01
Environment

Frank Loy, President Clinton's representative in the international global warming discussions, denounced Bush's rejection of the Kyoto initiative as "a total, unmitigated disaster. He has pulled out without any alternative, no international back-up plan." Worse yet, says Loy, the move will undoubtedly derail the valiant efforts of other countries to curb greenhouse emissions, as the U.S. is the number one producer of carbon dioxide. At recent meetings with German Chancellor Schroeder, Bush promised to work out a CO2 reduction plan - a no-commitment promise as meaningful as those made by his friends in the energy and chemical industries.

A Cynical Man, a Catastrophic Error
30-Mar-01
Environment

"History will not judge George Bush kindly. It is hard to exaggerate the significance of his repudiation of the Kyoto treaty. It is not simply that the US President thinks his nation cannot meet the solemn commitments on global warming which it signed three-and-a-half years ago. It is that he does not care." So says the UK Independent.

Bush's Anti-Environmental Blitzkreig is 'Brazen Thuggery'
29-Mar-01
Environment

"'Brazen thuggery' pretty well describes the Bush administration's mandate-empty blitzkrieg on environmental regulation. Do not be lulled by the folksy image President Bush likes to exude; his administration is serious about forcing a radical realignment of the U.S. economy. Health, environmental safety, protection of natural resources and international environmental cooperation are being summarily jettisoned." So writes the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Bush Angers Europe And Japan With Anti-Kyoto Stance
29-Mar-01
Environment

"The Bush administration's decision to reject an international treaty to combat global warming provoked a stunned and angry reaction today among America's allies in Europe and Japan." Japanese environmental leader Mie Asaoka declared: "This will jeopardize all the efforts and progress made until 1997. The Kyoto accord will be a waste, and three years of efforts by many people after the accord to enact a new treaty will be broken. This is a serious, sinful statement." Meanwhile, EPA head Christie Todd Whitman, rather than taking a stand against Bush’s betrayal, has become his obsequious parrot. In a related article, Whitman stated, "No, we have no interest in implementing that treaty." If something isn't done about global warming, the Himalayan glaciers will melt in 15 years, and global temperatures will rise ten degrees within this century.

Norton's Wilderness Vision: Clanking Oil Drills, Roaring Snowmobiles
29-Mar-01
Environment

Gale Norton gives new meaning to "Secretary of the Interior"--she acts like she's never been outdoors, much less to a real wilderness. Besides acting as the energy industry's chief scout for federal wildlands to plunder for natural gas and oil, Norton now thinks snowmobiles roaring through Yellowstone aren't so bad afterall--despite piles of scientific evidence, 22 public hearings, and 64,000 citizen comments to the contrary.

Dems Challenge Cowboy Bush To Environmental Shoot Out
29-Mar-01
Environment

Since Bush charged into town, he's been smashing down environmental safeguards--like strict limits on poisons in drinking water, mining wastes, and greenhouse gases from power plants--like a drunken cowboy on a rampage. Now he's trashed the Kyoto Protocol and Joe Lieberman wants to fire back with the rarely-utilized Congressional Review Act. The CRA could be used to reverse some of Shrub's bad decisions via a joint resolution and a petition signed by 30 senators. Act fast, Joe, before Bush and his corporate beneficiaries turn the U.S. into Tombstone.

US Forest Service Chief Resigns Over 'New Direction'
29-Mar-01
Environment

Michael Dombeck, the US Forest Service chief, has resigned. According to his former aide, the Bush Administration wants to take the department in a "different direction"; i.e. away from Dombeck’s policies of conservation and towards a pro-industry position. "In a letter of resignation,[Dombeck] urged the Bush administration today to 'withstand political pressure' and leave in place rules that would bar road building across some 60 million acres of federally owned land." Dombeck wrote: "Doing so would undermine the most extensive multi year environmental analysis in history, a process that included over 600 public meetings and 1.6 million comments, the overwhelming majority of which supported protecting roadless areas." No doubt Dombeck’s appeal fell on deaf ears. The article also quotes a little character assassination of Dombeck by Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID).

Whitman Sells Out To Chemical Industry
28-Mar-01
Environment

Citing "national security," the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month rescinded a Clinton administration proposal to increase public access to information about the potential consequences of chemical plant accidents. Environmental groups say intense lobbying by the chemical industry led Congress in 1999 to block release of the accident scenarios and impose tight restrictions on the information. "It is just a smoke screen to shut down public information that is embarrassing to an industry that continues to use obsolete chemicals and processes that are inherently dangerous," said Rick Hind, legislative director of the Greenpeace toxics campaign.

Chemical Industry Secrets Revealed Online
27-Mar-01
Environment

The Environmental Working Group has published an awesome online database called the Chemical Industry Archives. Find out how the chemical industry spins, distorts, and twists the facts to suit its purposes -- and to prevent the public from finding out how dangerous their products really are. For example, find out what industry insiders knew but didn't tell us about the dangers of vinyl chloride and the active ingredient in Scotchgard, or about the severe contamination of a chemical company town in Alabama.

'We Need to Appear Engaged'
27-Mar-01
Environment

That's what EPA Administrator Christy Whitman told Shrub a week before he sandbagged her on global warming policy. Notice that she didn't advise him to actually BE engaged - just to "appear" engaged. Shrub is so completely DISengaged from policy that he couldn't even be bothered to create the appearance. What a pathetic excuse for a President.

European Union Stands Up to Bush on Global Warming
26-Mar-01
Environment

The U.S. media may buy Bush's global warming lies, but the European Union sees right through them - and is demanding meaningful action now. "The global and long-term importance of climate change and the need for a joint effort by all industrialized countries in this field makes it an integral part of relations between the USA and the EU," EU leaders wrote in an important letter to Bush and his oil industry masters.

Greens Are Bush's Public Enemy #1
25-Mar-01
Environment

To thank the Greens for helping him steal the Presidency, Bush is out to destroy the entire Green agenda. His plans incude: easing clean-air rules for coal-fired power plants; loosening federal standards on river flows to protect fish; giving refiners relief from diverse anti-pollution standards in different states; allowing states to control drilling rights on some federal lands; pushing construction of nuclear plants; and, the headline grabber so far, opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration.

Bush is Nature's Enemy
25-Mar-01
Environment

"Bush, a scion of the oil industry, has no mandate for [his war on the environment]. He not only misled the US voters, but he didn't even get their support. He was not elected President but merely declared it, and received fewer votes overall than the pro-environment Al Gore, not mentioning those cast for the green candidate, Ralph Nader. Bush did, however, get $47 million from energy companies." So writes England's Guardian Unlimited.

Bush Declares War on Environment
25-Mar-01
Environment

"How many ways did George Bush find to destroy the environment today? Chainsaw in hand, Bush has rolled back virtually every environmental regulation issued by Bill Clinton in his final months in office -- and turned environmental decision-making over to the major polluters." So writes columnist Bill Press.

How Corporate America Vetoed the Fight Against Global Warming
25-Mar-01
Environment

When you read the next story about the worsening problem of global warming, here are some of the environmental criminals you can thank: Thomas Kuhn of the Edison Electric Institute, Fred Webber of the American Chemistry Council, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, and Fred Smith of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. We demand an investigation!

Cheney Says 'Nuke Kyoto!'
23-Mar-01
Environment

Regent Cheney declared that new nuclear plants could reduce greenhouse gases better than a 'seriously flawed' Kyoto global warming treaty." Cheney told this howler to media gigolo Chris Matthews: "If you want to do something about carbon dioxide emissions, then you ought to build nuclear power plants. They don't emit any carbon dioxide. They don't emit greenhouse gases." Hey Dick, do you remember Three Mile Island and Chernobyl? Have you ever heard of plutonium? There is a good reason why no new nuclear plants have been licensed since the mid' 70's. Dick, read our lips - no nukes!

Drill for Oil in the Wildlife Refugees! Hey, It's Good for Us, Right?
23-Mar-01
Environment

Hey, the oil industry has got a friend in the White House, so they are pulling out all the stops. That's why they are going to run ads supporting drilling in wildlife refuges. Oil drilling can co-exist with nature, even if it kills it sometimes. But they don't tell you that it's all about money.

Try Not to Drink the Cyanide, Children
22-Mar-01
Environment

Hardrock mining - gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, uranium and molybdenum - was the nation's top toxic polluter in 1998. To extract minerals, firms often dig pits, dump waste rock and use chemicals like cyanide to remove the ore. The Clinton administration adopted rules requiring hardrock miners to post financial bonds guaranteeing they would clean up water and other environmental damage. So what does corporate gigolo George W. Bush do? Kill the rules, of course. "The barbarians are no longer at the gates, the barbarians have taken over," said Elliott Negin of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

500 Scientists Say Don't Drill In Arctic Wildlife Refuge
22-Mar-01
Environment

Nearly 500 leading U.S. and Canadian scientists called on President Bush today to stop trying to change the law that prohibits oil extraction in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The letter urged President Bush to "support permanent protection of the coastal plain's significant wildlife and wilderness values," including caribou, polar bears, muskoxen and snow geese.

Republicans Delay Arctic Drilling Vote
22-Mar-01
Environment

Facing stiff objections from Democrats and moderate Republicans, Republican leaders are moving away from including Arctic drilling legislation in their budget. There are still other ways for Alaska's Republicans to force the bill through, but this delay gives drilling opponents more time to organize.

Spencer Abraham Tells Lie That's Bigger than Alaska
21-Mar-01
Environment

On March 19, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham declared that "Based on December 2000 figures, [oil from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge] would free us from about 54 years of oil imports from Saddam Hussein and Iraq." Here are the facts: 1) The absolute biggest estimate for ANWR oil is 16 billion barrels - which would last the US 2 years, not 54. 2) In May 2000, the government estimated the chances of finding that much oil at 1 in 20. 3) There are NO December 2000 figures. Abraham's statement isn't fuzzy math - it's an outright lie that's bigger than all of Alaska. We demand an investigation!

Bush Is Morphing Into James Watt
20-Mar-01
Environment

Echoing what his Interior Secretary Gale Norton said earlier, Bush told the Denver Post that his administration will look at National Monuments as potential sites for oil drilling - without "despoiling the precious part". Who knows how he and his cabinet of oil toadies will define the "precious part?" Environmentalists are justifiably outraged, claiming that Bush's statements invoke images of the extremist James Watt, Gale Norton's mentor.

Scientist Fired Over ANWR Map Claims It Was A High-Level Political Decision
20-Mar-01
Environment

Scientist Ian Thomas writes, "I have been fired for posting to the internet a single web page with some maps showing the distribution of caribou calving areas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). My entire website http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/geotech/ has now been removed from the internet. [It was subsequently "unscrubbed] ...From my viewpoint my dismissal was a high-level political decision to set an example to other Federal scientists." This Orwellian scrubbing reminds us of how the Bush campaign tried to sue the "gwbush.com" site out of existence. Yes, Bush and his team of thugs do make it a point to "send a message"...of a threatening and malevolent nature.

Bush's Reversal On CO2 Damages Relations With Europe
20-Mar-01
Environment

Not content with alienating Asia, Bush is blowing it with Europe too. "U.S. President George W. Bush has spread gloom through Europe's climate change community by abandoning an election campaign promise to limit the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fueled utilities and reiterating his opposition to the United Nations Kyoto Protocol."

Bush and GOP Declare War on Public Lands
17-Mar-01
Environment

It's not just the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Now Bush and the GOP want to despoil National Monuments and outer continental shelves to get their greedy hands on more fossil fuels. The evil Republicans are not content to block actions aimed at slowing global warming - they want to warm the earth as fast as they possibly can.

NY Times Blasts Bush's Global Warming Sellout
15-Mar-01
Environment

The NY Times writes: "Bush's decision not to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas, does more than betray a campaign promise. It embarrasses the administrator of his Environmental Protection Agency, Christie Whitman, angers the Europeans and creates needless headaches for his secretary of state, Colin Powell." Not to mention devastating the planet. You blew this one big-time, George.

Tell Shrub to Stop Global Warming
15-Mar-01
Environment

Dear Shrub: "I am deeply disappointed that you have gone back on your campaign promise to reduce carbon dioxide from power plants. The science is clear that greenhouse gases are causing an unprecedented warming of our earth, and power plants emit 40 percent of U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide -- the greenhouse gas most responsible for global warming. Refusing to regulate these emissions is therefore a failure to take this issue seriously, at a time when the world needs American leadership on the issue. I urge you to reconsider your decision not to reduce power plant emissions of carbon dioxide. Please resist industry pressure and follow through on your commitment to fighting global warming." Fax this letter here.

Bush Fiddles While Earth Burns
14-Mar-01
Environment

In perhaps the single most important decision of his administration, Shrub killed international efforts to slow global warming. Under pressure from the Global Warming Gang of 6 - Regent Dick Cheney, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, and Senators Jesse Helms (R-NC), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Pat Roberts (R-KS), and Larry Craig (R-ID) -and the coal industry, Bush welched on his campaign promise to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a promise that Dick Cheney now calls "a mistake." The mistake was allowing Republicans to steal the Presidency - which we will have to remedy soon, if we want our grandchildren to inherit an inhabitable planet.

Global Warming Evidence Close to Bush's Home
13-Mar-01
Environment

Anyone who questions the potential impact of global warming should visit the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge near Chesapeake Bay, where rising waters are rapidly destroying a precious marsh habitat. "If we don't do anything about global greenhouse emissions, up to a third of this county where we're standing now will eventually become open water," he said. "We need to get organized now. Our policies are so lame. And now we have a new president (George W. Bush) who really doesn't believe global warming is an issue. He should come here," said environmental scientist J. Court Stevenson.

Wrecking Ball Swings in Arctic Too
08-Mar-01
Environment

"I do not accept the promise of clean exploitation. Take a look at the Prudhoe Bay oil fields, with the spills and pollution. Nor do I accept the idea that we need this oil for our ''energy independence.'' How many times do we have to read that this wilderness will provide only 3.2 billion barrels over 10 years? That's what Americans use up in six months. We can save that much with modest changes in fuel efficiency." So writes columnist Ellen Goodman.

More Illogic From the Bush Team To Justify Arctic Drilling
03-Mar-01
Environment

Bush and Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-AK) are priming the pumps to drill in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. "In Bush's plan, taxes and fees on Arctic oil leases would provide more than $1 billion for developing alternative energy sources. Try that one for logic: The way to break our dependency on fossil fuel is to drill for and consume a small ocean of fossil fuel." To counter the Bush junta, bills to protect the ANWR as a wilderness have been introduced by Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT), and Reps. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Nancy Johnson (R-CT).

Gas Hogs In Bush Era
02-Mar-01
Environment

Columnist Derrick Z. Jackson writes, "There is no sign that Bush reads anything from the National Resources Defense Council, which says Americans would save 70 percent more oil than what is likely to come from the Arctic merely by requiring that all tires be as good as tires that come as standard equipment on new cars. The council said that by raising fuel-efficiency standards to 39 miles per gallon, the savings would be more than 15 times the number of barrels of oil that would likely come from the far north." Also, news of Daimler Chryler's gigantic new SUV -- the "Uni[s]mog". Plus, reminders of how much Bush's johns - the oil & gas companies and automotive manfucturers - paid for his future services. By the way, the glaciers in the Himalayas will be melting in 15 years...

White House Flooded With E-Mails Against Arctic Drilling
26-Feb-01
Environment

Over 650,000 e-mails protesting plans to drill in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge have been sent to the White House. Join the campaign by Defenders of Wildlife and keep those e-mails coming.

Norton Chisels Clinton's Monuments
22-Feb-01
Environment

Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced that she will not try to reverse Clinton's monument designations. His first day on the job, Chief of Staff Andy Card had issued illegal orders to foil Clinton's designations. Now that Norton has backed down, over 5 million acres of land will be protected under Clinton's plan. But Norton and Bush still intend on "adjusting the boundaries", so that their corporate backers can mine as much as possible into these lands.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) Wants to Kill Global Warming Treaty
17-Feb-01
Environment

Next time you worry about global warming, think about Texas Rep. Joe Barton. Barton, who used to work for Arco, is the leading advocate of killing the Kyoto Protocol, which is the result of years of agonizing work by the world's nations to take a baby step towards controlling the overheating of the Earth. What would he replace it with? Bilateral deals with Britain, for example. Let's send a delegation of the world's children to meet with this enemy of all generations to come.

Global Warmers Lean on Their Man Bush
17-Feb-01
Environment

Bush's oil, coal, and natural gas industry backers are impatient with Bush's slow response to international efforts to reduce global warming. Bush's friends vehemently oppose the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which requires industrialized countries to cut combined emissions of greenhouse gases by 2012 to 5% below their 1990 levels. The US produces 25% of the world's emissions, primarily by burning oil, coal, and natural gas. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, working under the UN, is about to issue a scientific report with further evidence proving emissions cause global warming. But the corporate polluters want the US government to attack the credibility of this report so they can continue destroying our planet.

The Education of Josh Schonborn, a Texas Teen with Asthma
15-Feb-01
Environment

"My name is Josh Schonborn, and I am a thirteen year-old asthmatic who lives in Dallas... I worry about whether President Bush will listen to the views of people like me. I'm not a big company. I don't hire lobbyists. I'm just a kid with asthma."

John Kerry (D-MA) to Filibuster Arctic Drilling Plan
14-Feb-01
Environment

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) plans to filibuster any Bush plan to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The US Geological Survey estimates that there is only a 1 in 5 chance of any oil being found in the ANWR, and then it would satisfy only 6 month's worth (2%) of US energy needs for the next 25 years. The oilers would be taking a huge gamble with bad odds at the risk of an environmental disaster, although their gamble would no doubt be reduced by juicy federal subsidies from the Bush administration. Worse yet, that oil would probably be exported to fatten oil industry wallets. Kerry said, "Most Senators agree that drilling in A.N.W.R. is not just environmentally unsound, it gives false hopes to citizens suffering energy problems today."

Bush Allows Destructive Forest Roadbuilding to Continue
07-Feb-01
Environment

Environmentalists have fought for years to stop destructive roadbuilding through National Forests. The Clinton administration reviewed 1 million letters from the public before ban commercial logging, mining and energy development on nearly 60 million acres of federal land. The Bush administration simply reviewed their contributions from greedy special interests before putting Clinton's ban on hold.

The 15-Year Effort By Oil Industry To Raid The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
07-Feb-01
Environment

George W. Bush is determined to win the big prize other hardened-conscienced politicos-including his father - have tried to win for their corporate cronies: the right to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Can He Change The Law And The Constitution In Two Months?
05-Feb-01
Environment

Bush ordered a halt and delay to Clinton's ban on logging in our national forests. Yes, he knows legally he has to go through Congress to reverse Clinton's order. But look for some fanagleing from the Federalist Society (a.k.a. the White House Counsel's office) to set yet another legal precedent to promote corporate greed and environmental destruction.

Bush's Chief of Staff Led the Fight FOR Global Warming
03-Feb-01
Environment

Global warming may be the most critical environmental calamity the world faces. After a very difficult international negotiation, world leaders adopted the "Kyoto Protocol" which gave each nation targets for reducing global warming gases. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card was chief lobbyist for the American Automobile Manufacturers Association, which fought the treaty tooth and nail - because cars (particularly SUV's) are the worst contributors to global warming. What are we going to tell our children when it's too late to save the planet?

Petition: Save the Arctic Refuge!
03-Feb-01
Environment

Big Oil is lobbying Congress to drill in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is the only remaining 5% of Alaska's North Slope not already open to drilling. Please sign the petition to President Bush and Congress asking them to NOT drill in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge.

Media Twists Alaska Drilling Story to Suit Bush's Oil Pals
02-Feb-01
Environment

Americans oppose drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by 53% to 33%. But the oil industry wants Americans to believe that Alaska oil will reduce California's electric prices, and they are twisting the facts inside-out to get public support for drilling. First, California's problem stems from deregulation, which Alaskan oil can't fix. Second, Alaskan oil won't reduce the price of oil because of OPEC. Finally, California doesn't even use much oil to produce electricity. Alaskan oil has nothing to do with California's electricity prices. We will not be deceived!

Corporate Media Ignores Galapagos Oil Spill to Promote Bush Agenda
01-Feb-01
Environment

In years past, when a major oil spill threatening ANY coast in the world occurred, there would be extensive, day to day news coverage, especially on television. Yet now, when 190,000 gallons of oil are dumped into one of Earth's most precious environments--the Galapagos--there is very little coverage at all. Why? Because Bush is trying to push ahead with his Arctic Wildlife Refuge drilling plan. In 1990, Bush, Sr. was trying to push through a drilling plan for the refuge, too. What derailed it was the coverage of the Valdez disaster, with images of the struggling animals, ugly slick, etc. Now Bush, Jr. is not going to take any chances and as a result, we are the ONLY western nation not providing extensive Galapagos coverage. The BBC is FULL of the stories. By the way--the oil DID reach five of the islands and they say the full extent of the damage won't be known for years.

 


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