Bush's Environmental Agenda
With the ‘will of the people’ now behind him, Bush has begun to move forward his environmental agenda.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/politics/08enviro.html
With his Republican majority, Bush wants to push free-market principles into environmental policy with measures such as distributing a $40 billion in Congress appropriations to private landowners and farmers for preservation of wetlands and wildlife habitats. Another priority is new controls on ocean resources. This is where the positive side ends. Among the first measures of his administration will be to pass the Clear Skies initiative, which only has moderate support in the senate. Clear skies sets lower emissions standards for pollutants like NO2, SO2 and Hg, but environmentalists say it doesn’t reduce them enough and argue more would be accomplished by simply enforcing the Clean Air Act. The head of the EPA says that either way, he intends to enact the Clean Air Interstate Rule, which would allow companies to trade ‘pollution credits’ and slowly reduce emissions with flexibility. For now Bush has no intention of plan to regulate greenhouse gases like CO2. Bush has consistently ignored global warming, and giving corporations ‘flexibility’ just means we won’t strictly enforce emissions standards. What will the company trade for? ‘If you let me increase dangerous emissions, I’ll stop contaminating the water supply’? If we’re not firm, companies will take advantage of us.
Another target is the Endangered Species Act. Efforts are being made to ensure it is harder for scientists to push government recognition of new endangered species, and to cut back on the amount of critical habitat, leading to land use control. On ranching, hydropower and logging, humans will be considered a part of the natural environment, competing for use. Also proposed is an energy bill that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for ‘energy exploration’ along with areas in New Mexico and Colorado. New Mexico’s Otero Mesa is only an hour away from my house, so I’m more than a bit concerned. Bush has never been a proponent of conservation, but just how bad is he going to get?
For more biased coverage of Bush’s environmental record you can read the following:
http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200409/sins.asp
http://www.environment2004.org/documents.php
http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/politics/08enviro.html
With his Republican majority, Bush wants to push free-market principles into environmental policy with measures such as distributing a $40 billion in Congress appropriations to private landowners and farmers for preservation of wetlands and wildlife habitats. Another priority is new controls on ocean resources. This is where the positive side ends. Among the first measures of his administration will be to pass the Clear Skies initiative, which only has moderate support in the senate. Clear skies sets lower emissions standards for pollutants like NO2, SO2 and Hg, but environmentalists say it doesn’t reduce them enough and argue more would be accomplished by simply enforcing the Clean Air Act. The head of the EPA says that either way, he intends to enact the Clean Air Interstate Rule, which would allow companies to trade ‘pollution credits’ and slowly reduce emissions with flexibility. For now Bush has no intention of plan to regulate greenhouse gases like CO2. Bush has consistently ignored global warming, and giving corporations ‘flexibility’ just means we won’t strictly enforce emissions standards. What will the company trade for? ‘If you let me increase dangerous emissions, I’ll stop contaminating the water supply’? If we’re not firm, companies will take advantage of us.
Another target is the Endangered Species Act. Efforts are being made to ensure it is harder for scientists to push government recognition of new endangered species, and to cut back on the amount of critical habitat, leading to land use control. On ranching, hydropower and logging, humans will be considered a part of the natural environment, competing for use. Also proposed is an energy bill that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for ‘energy exploration’ along with areas in New Mexico and Colorado. New Mexico’s Otero Mesa is only an hour away from my house, so I’m more than a bit concerned. Bush has never been a proponent of conservation, but just how bad is he going to get?
For more biased coverage of Bush’s environmental record you can read the following:
http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200409/sins.asp
http://www.environment2004.org/documents.php
http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/