To: JohnM who wrote (66842 ) 1/19/2003 4:29:03 AM From: stockman_scott Respond to of 281500 ~OT~...Who's protecting our water supply and our nation's environment? ----------------------------------------------------- Bush has made more than 50 policy changes on environment BY SETH BORENSTEIN Knight Ridder Newspapers Posted on Sun, Jan. 19, 2003 bayarea.com <<...But Bush's administration has slipped a number of major policy changes under the public's and the media's radar by quietly issuing executive orders that don't require congressional approval, making announcements late on Fridays, rewriting highly technical environmental regulations and muzzling dissent within the administration. Knight Ridder asked three dozen experts in the environmental-protection and business communities to assess the administration's environmental record at midterm. They cited more than 50 major changes in policy, including: Dramatically stepping up drilling for oil and natural gas on public land. Loosening environmental restrictions on logging and mining on federal property. Easing rules that require environmental impact assessments before thinning national forests, starting certain military activities such as bombing practice and building major transportation projects such as airports or highways. The Bush administration is cleaning up 31 percent fewer Superfund sites per month than the Clinton administration did, and polluters are paying 64 percent less in fines per month than they did during the late 1990s, according to a Knight Ridder analysis of settlements published in the Federal Register. Rejecting a worldwide treaty to curb global warming and pushing a comprehensive energy plan that stresses reliance on fossil fuels, which cause global warming and air pollution. Proposing to weaken the cornerstone air and water pollution laws enacted in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Proposing to slash air pollution from power plants by 70 percent and to limit diesel engine emissions. Environmental-protection groups and many ecologists call the Bush's record deplorable. "The administration has been like carbon monoxide, hard to detect and deadly with respect to the environment," said David Wilcove, a Princeton University ecology professor...>>