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

To: bentway who wrote (690714)	7/21/2005 11:54:07 AM
From: TimF	Respond to of 769670

Assuming we take this one source as being authortive... The specifics that he states are more along the lines of backing off from the unusually aggressive enforcement of Clinton, than "not enforcing the regulations". "And when President Bush assumed office, they wasted little time blocking this new momentum toward cleaner air" "Blocking new momentum" Not ignoring regulations or enforcing them in a manner much different (and worse) than pre-Clinton presidents. "directed EPA to expand loopholes that allow 40- or 50-year-old power plants to continue pumping out 12 million tons of sulfur dioxide a year, without implementing modern pollution controls" They where already allowed to pump out the pollution without modern controls. This permission would have been removed if the plant was upgraded. So the plants continued using older technology and design to avoid the cost of complying with new rules. The rule that Bush changed was originally put in place with the hope that old dirty coal plants would be phased out and their replacements would have to meet new rules. But they never were phased out, or upgraded enough to require new standards. An upgrade, even one that didn't meet the standards for new plants, would reduce the amount of pollution, as well as increase effecancy, but it never happened because the old "new source" regulations. when the EPA last year overturned Clinton-era regulations to reduce arsenic in drinking water "Clinton-era" regulations is a little misleading. Clinton was fine with the old regulations that the Bush administration planned to return to. He kept them at that level through his whole administration, only changeing them on the last day before he left. In any case the Bush administration did not actually go back to the old standards. So the standards under Bush are stricter then the standards where under Clinton. Cutting the enforcement budget by 13 percent, as President Bush has proposed Proposed, not implemented. There is more, but I don't have the time to write a book right now. Tim