Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Environmental policy during George Bush

What have George Bush and his administration done for environment in the last 8 years, and what will they do for the remaining time they still have in White House? The answer is simple, namely nothing good. Environmental policy during George Bush was, well in fact there was no environmental policy as administration did and still does all what it can to weaken almost all environmental laws that have some meaning.

This especially applies to weakening regulations that promote clean air and clean water and protect endangered species because Mr. Bush holds industry as only important thing, and with this belief Bush and his administration did everything in their power to keep industry happy. Though they do not have much time remaining in White House it is still enough to do a lot of damage to different environmental laws. Like for instance making significant exceptions to regulations that require expert scientific review of any federal project that could harm endangered or threatened species (one consequence will be to relieve the agency of the need to assess the impact of global warming on at-risk species), or trying to remove gray wolf from the endangered species list though their recovery plan wasn't fulfilled.

But hey that's not enough for them, many environmentalists believe how
Environmental Protection Agency will soon issue a final rule that would soften a program created by the Clean Air Act, which requires utilities to install modern pollution controls when they upgrade their plants to produce more power. Additional rule also expected, the one that would make it fairly simple for coal-fired power plants to be located near national parks because Mr. Bush (apparently doesn't need clean air as we all know that coal does not only pollute air but also gives more impact to global warming. And there is also this proposal that would make it much easier for mining companies to dump toxic mine wastes in valleys and streams.

The ones like Mr. Bush, Dick Cheney,
and Dirk Kempthorne will luckily soon leave the White House, but unfortunately not soon enough as they will still have enough time to additionally weaken already soft US environmental policy. The next president, whether Obama or McCain will certainly have his hands full to clean up this environmental mess that Mr. Bush left. Hopefully sanity will play its role in the mind of the next president, not to continue the same "environmental policy" that Mr. Bush did. There is only thing sure though, environment doesn't need another Bush. Two times was definitely too much.

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1 comment:

  1. i personally didn't like the way Mr. Bush ran the US at the time. nor do I like it how our current president is running. I feel that wolves should stay on the endangered species list until all of species such as the Red wolf, Mexican wolf AND the gray wolf bring up their numbers. but that's just my opinion of the subject.

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