It's hard to believe, but the environmentalist don't like Bush...breaks my heart to hear that.
Clinton really threw a wrench at Bush when he passed all the last minute environmental "Laws" that he knew would never fly!
Isn't it terrible that little is known about the task force Cheney is heading??? How many people knew what Clinton had done before he did it? What about Hillary's health care, she said the people didn't have the right to know who was serving on her committee, or what they were planning..
It's not hard to find bias in reporting, is it?
accessatlanta.com
Environmentalists united in anger at Bush
Scott Shepard - Cox Washington Bureau
Sunday, April 22, 2001
Washington --- George W. Bush's presidency is three months old. Already, it has produced a string of budget proposals and policy actions that, on today's 31st observance of Earth Day, industry is applauding and environmentalists are condemning.
In fact, environmentalists are calling today's celebration "Take back the Earth Day." Organizers are staging demonstrations to challenge the Bush White House's fondness for fossil fuel solutions to energy shortages and to promote a transition to energy efficiency and renewable energy.
"Sitting back and waiting for the political winds to change is a risky gamble with unacceptably high stakes," said Jan Thomas, U.S. program director of the Earth Day Network.
Rarely have environmentalists been as united as they are in their fury with Bush. But Bush's predecessor, Bill Clinton, sewed some of the seeds of the conflict with a flurry of pro-environment rules and regulations in the final days of his presidency.
Bush, in one of his first official acts after taking office in January, ordered a 60-day suspension of all such rules. They included:
Tougher bond and permit requirements for mining on federal land.
Beefed-up permit and public review of wetland development.
Reductions in the amount of arsenic, a mining byproduct, allowed in drinking water.
"The timetable was set for us," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said in explaining the swiftness with which the new administration took the actions that have outraged environ- mentalists.
But on March 13, Bush retreated from his most significant and explicit campaign promise to protect the environment, by abandoning a pledge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
Two weeks later he decided against supporting ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
With allies still fuming over Kyoto, Bush released a budget proposal to cut funding for natural resources and environmental programs by 7.3 percent, from $28.8 billion to $26.6 billion.
The president's actions have alarmed even some fellow Republicans. They fear he is handing Democrats a political club for next year's election.
"It could become a real problem," said Sen. Olympia Snowe, a moderate Republican from Maine. "Republicans could be cast as anti-environmental."
'Payback' to big oil?
Bush came to office with Christine Todd Whitman to direct the Environmental Protection Agency. As governor of New Jersey, Whitman had championed tough controls on air pollution and initiated land preservation.
But when power outages hit California, the new administration initially blamed environmental restrictions. The new president seized on the West Coast energy problems to begin calling for expansion of oil and gas exploration, despite its lack of immediate impact.
Deb Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters, said Bush's shift was "a political payback" to the oil and gas industry.
Even some Republicans agreed. Bush's environmental policy "definitely looks like payback time," said Martha Marks, president of the Republicans for Environmental Protection.
Bush spent much of last week reversing course. He said the United States would sign a global treaty aimed at curbing toxic chemicals.
The administration also announced it would keep two regulations from the waning days of the Clinton administration, to expand reporting requirements on lead for 3,600 businesses and to protect wetlands threatened by development.
The week ended with the White House announcing that it would abide by a 1999 executive order issued by Clinton that subjects future trade agreements to environmental reviews.
Fleischer denied widespread speculation that the announcements were timed to repair Bush's image in advance of Earth Day.
He characterized the events as ''part of a continuing pattern'' by Bush of making ''significant announcements . . . where he brings attention to his environmental initiatives.''
While environmentalists and their allies have condemned some of Bush's moves, the business community has welcomed them as restoring balance to environmental policy.
"Americans can be provided with reliable and affordable energy supplies and a clean environment," said Mark Rubin of the American Petroleum Institute, which represents 400 energy companies. "This is not an either-or situation."
Clearly, it is time to revisit our nation's energy policies to ensure energy producers . . . can continue to fuel the economic growth," said the institute's president, Red Cavaney.
Task force meets in secret
The oil and gas industry went all out for Bush in last year's election. It poured $1.8 million into his campaign and pumped $23.8 million more into other Republican political coffer. It gave $6.6 million to Democrats.
Bush himself is a former Texas oil wildcatter. His vice president, Dick Cheney, earned millions running Halliburton Co., a giant oil service company in Texas.
It is the Bush administration's revisiting of energy policies, not the flurry of pro-green competition leading up to Earth Day, that will mark the real fight with environmentalists, however.
The clash will come later this spring, when a special White House task force headed by Cheney presents recommendations to address the nation's energy problems.
Little is known about the task force, which has operated almost entirely in secrecy. But the Cabinet-level task force has consulted regularly with oil and industry executives while directing environmental representatives to the White House Council on Environmental Quality, a midlevel agency that still has no Bush-appointed director.
The Cheney task force recommendations are likely to reflect the industry from which the president, the vice president and their staunchest political allies come. They are expected to include:
Opening a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other federal lands to drilling.
Building more refineries and pipelines.
Constructing new nuclear power plants.
Other areas under review are expanding offshore drilling, easing restrictions on companies doing business with Iran and Libya, allowing the EPA to ease standards on gasoline sold in high-pollution areas and continuing fees at popular national parks. |
