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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (368515)	3/8/2003 3:37:56 PM
From: Thomas A Watson	Respond to of 769670

LOL... a lying hypocrite should resign. Well I see vile and bile cannot post the lie and sees no problem with mr. bill lying still.... Does that seem hypocritical?????

To: American Spirit who wrote (368515)	3/8/2003 3:42:26 PM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Oil, gas industries exempt from new clean water rules By Jennifer Lee, New York Times WASHINGTON -- New clean water regulations requiring small construction sites to develop plans for storm water will not apply to the oil and gas industries, officials of the Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday. The new rules, which take effect on Monday, will require construction sites bigger than 1 acre to have plans to handle storm water, which can carry chemical and metal runoff from the uprooted soil. Existing rules already require such plans for sites larger than 5 acres. The agency says it is giving the oil and gas industries a two-year exemption from the requirement at the smaller sites while it conducts further study. Critics from national environmental groups and in Congress say the oil and gas industries are taking advantage of close ties to the administration to lay the political groundwork for broader exemptions to the Clean Water Act. John Millett, a spokesman for the EPA, said the agency had received conflicting information about the environmental impact of oil and gas construction sites. "It's different because of its short time frame compared to other construction," said Millet, adding that the agency did not have enough data to properly understand how the rule would affect the oil and gas industries. "All that information right now is residential and commercial construction." "Oil and gas differs sufficiently enough to warrant further evaluation," he said. Since 1990, construction sites, including oil and gas facilities, that are larger than 5 acres or in more densely populated areas have been required to obtain permits. Oil construction sites larger than 5 acres often dealt with the regulation by building ponds to collect the storm water and soil runoff. Sen. James M. Jeffords, independent of Vermont, the ranking minority member of the Environmental and Public Works Committee, criticized the exemption. "While small communities and small construction projects in every other sector of the economy must comply with strong storm water standards, the Bush administration is giving a free ride to the oil and gas industry," he said. Jeffords is one of six senators who have sparred with the agency since the exemption was proposed on Dec. 30. (STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS.) The agency said that when it proposed the original rule in 1999, it assumed that "few, if any" oil and gas production and treatment sites would be affected. Instead, the agency said, it has discovered that 30,000 oil and gas sites a year could be affected. "New information came to light that necessitated re-evaluation of oil and gas construction activities," said Millet, the agency's spokesman. But in a letter to the agency's administrator, Christine Whitman, the six senators say there is "voluminous evidence" of an oil and gas industry review before the rule was created in 1999. The senators also dispute the 30,000 number, saying that the industry number is inflated because it includes both offshore and onshore construction sites. In addition, they noted that the data that the agency said had come to light had been collected by the federal government since 1973 and available since 1978. RETURN TO TOP