December 8, 2003 6:06 AM

Clean air doesn't pay the campaign bills

Crimes Against Nature: Bush is sabotaging the laws that have protected America's environment for more than thirty years

Not exactly the Environmental President, eh??

Anyone who lived in the Great State of Texas during the reign of Guvn'r Dubya is aware of his record as the "Not Exactly Environmental Governor". If you've ever driven down Highway 225 through Pasadena and Deer Park past the grandfathered factories, you know that clean air wasn't exactly a priority during the Dubya Years. Sadly, that legacy is being continued by Governor Goodhair, but that's another story.

For now, George W. Bush has taken his "Clean Air Doesn't Feed The Bulldog" Tour to Washington. If you care about our environment, you should be very, very frightened. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tells us why:

George W. Bush will go down in history as America's worst environmental president. In a ferocious three-year attack, the Bush administration has initiated more than 200 major rollbacks of America's environmental laws, weakening the protection of our country's air, water, public lands and wildlife. Cloaked in meticulously crafted language designed to deceive the public, the administration intends to eliminate the nation's most important environmental laws by the end of the year. Under the guidance of Republican pollster Frank Luntz, the Bush White House has actively hidden its anti-environmental program behind deceptive rhetoric, telegenic spokespeople, secrecy and the intimidation of scientists and bureaucrats. The Bush attack was not entirely unexpected. George W. Bush had the grimmest environmental record of any governor during his tenure in Texas. Texas became number one in air and water pollution and in the release of toxic chemicals. In his six years in Austin, he championed a short-term pollution-based prosperity, which enriched his political contributors and corporate cronies by lowering the quality of life for everyone else. Now President Bush is set to do the same to America. After three years, his policies are already bearing fruit, diminishing standards of living for millions of Americans....

Bush's Environmental Protection Agency has halted work on sixty-two environmental standards, the federal Department of Agriculture has stopped work on fifty-seven standards, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has halted twenty-one new standards. The EPA completed just two major rules -- both under court order and both watered down at industry request -- compared to twenty-three completed by the Clinton administration and fourteen by the Bush Sr. administration in their first two years....

The White House has masked its attacks with euphemisms that would have embarrassed George Orwell. George W. Bush's "Healthy Forests" initiative promotes destructive logging of old-growth forests. His "Clear Skies" program, which repealed key provisions of the Clean Air Act, allows more emissions. The administration uses misleading code words such as streamlining or reforming instead of weakening, and thinning instead of logging.

In a March 2003 memo to Republican leadership, pollster Frank Luntz frankly outlined the White House strategy on energy and the environment: "The environment is probably the single issue on which Republicans in general and President Bush in particular are most vulnerable," he wrote, cautioning that the public views Republicans as being "in the pockets of corporate fat cats who rub their hands together and chuckle maniacally as they plot to pollute America for fun and profit." Luntz warned, "Not only do we risk losing the swing vote, but our suburban female base could abandon us as well." He recommended that Republicans don the sheep's clothing of environmental rhetoric while dismantling environmental laws.

The fact of the matter for Bush is that not only does the environment not vote, it doesn't contribute any money to Republican campaign war chests. What President Bush fails to realize, though, is that there is a significant portion of the American electorate that cares deeply about the environment. These aren't just "Wingnut Environmentalists"; these are normal, everyday Americans who want to be able to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and eat fish untainted by high mercury levels.

Under Bush, the Environmental Protection Agency has been turned into a parody of itself. Of course, anyone familiar with his record as Governor could hardly claim to be surprised by this turn of events. When is the last time a tree or a river donated to the Republican Party?

As if we needed any more ammunition, this is yet another reason to work to defeat Bush in November. Let's just hope that Americans are paying attention.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on December 8, 2003 6:06 AM.

The boy in the bubble was the previous entry in this blog.

You want to do WHAT with that scalpel?? I don't think so.... is the next entry in this blog.

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