Op-Ed

No Polluter Left Behind: Energy and Environmental Policies of the Bush Administration

Energy and Environmental Policies of the Bush Administration

Alex Wilson

To say that I’m discouraged with energy and environmental policy trends is an understatement. As someone with a generally optimistic outlook, I keep assuming that the policies of the current Administration can’t get any worse. But then I open the morning paper or turn on the radio and learn of the latest action—or inaction.

I’ve just been reviewing the environmental track record of the Bush Administration. The more digging I do, the more clearly I learn that these are policies of the polluters, by the polluters, and for the polluters. Consider the following.

On global warming and energy:•After pledging to reduce carbon dioxide emissions during his campaign, Bush deferred to oil and coal company interests, pulling the U.S. out of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and reneging on a campaign commitment to regulate CO

2 emissions from power plants.

•Environmental interests and renewable-energy proponents were almost entirely excluded from the Energy Task Force chaired by Vice President Cheney. While the Administration has refused to release records from the closed-door meetings, it is clear that the fossil fuel and nuclear power industries—and their lobbyists—crafted that plan, which promotes expanded production of fossil fuels (including opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR) and nuclear power at the near exclusion of energy conservation and renewables.

•The Administration has opposed nearly all efforts to raise vehicle efficiency, despite the fact that readily achievable improvements in fuel economy of vehicles could save far more energy than ANWR could produce and do so far more quickly. ANWR is projected by the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy to provide up to 800,000 barrels of oil per day by 2020. The Union of Concerned Scientists, meanwhile, in the 2001 report

Drilling in Detroit, projected that raising the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards to 40 miles per gallon (17 km per liter) by 2010 and to 55 mpg (23.4 km/l) by 2020 would reduce oil consumption by 1.5 million barrels per day after only eight years and by 5 million barrels per day by 2020.

•Bush rolled back a Clinton-era air-conditioner efficiency rule increasing the minimum efficiency of central air conditioners from SEER 10 to SEER 13, so that the new minimum would be SEER 12. A federal appeals court overturned this measure, and the Administration—to its credit—opted not to appeal that decision, as we report in this issue.

On air pollution:•The euphemistically titled “Clear Skies Initiative” would significantly weaken air pollution provisions of the Clean Air Act—which currently mandates dramatic reductions in power plant emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO

x), sulfur dioxide (SO

2), and mercury by the end of this decade. Bush’s plan would allow power plant emission violations to continue until at least 2015; it would allow more than twice the SO

2 emissions and one-and-a-half times the NO

x emissions for nearly a decade longer than the current Clean Air Act.

•Under a plan released in late January 2004, the nation’s 1,100 coal-fired power plants would be able to emit more than five times as much mercury as allowed by current law for a decade longer—by redefining mercury as a standard air pollutant instead of a hazardous air pollutant. Current regulations require 90% reductions of mercury by 2008.

•In August 2003, the Bush Administration gutted the “New Source Review” provisions of the Clean Air Act, which required that power plants, refineries, and industrial plants be cleaned up when they are upgraded. Now, these plants can be upgraded without bringing pollution controls into compliance with current law (see

EBN

Vol. 12, No. 10).

On toxics, water pollution, and wetlands:•In October 2001, the Bush Administration reversed the “no net loss” of wetlands policy established under the first Bush Administration. The Administration then went even further by announcing its intent to eliminate protection through the Clean Water Act of all “isolated” waters—effectively removing protection for 20 million acres (8 million ha) of wetlands.

•The Administration legalized a practice known as “mountaintop removal” in the coal-mining industry by redefining “fill” to allow discharge of mining wastes into streambeds.

•The Administration suspended a rule to restrict manure runoff from livestock feedlots—one of the largest sources of water pollution in the country.

•In October 2003, the Superfund trust fund effectively ran out of money, following the Bush Administration’s change to have taxpayers—not polluters—pay for the fund.

On enforcement of environmental regulations and permitting:•Immediately after Bush took office, former General Motors lobbyist and now Bush Administration chief of staff Andrew Card initiated a moratorium on all recently adopted regulations. Since then, the few environmental “victories” have occurred when the Bush Administration has failed to eliminate or weaken a regulation from the Clinton era or earlier.

•According to the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Robert F. Kennedy in a November 2003 article, since Bush took office, EPA has halted work on 62 environmental standards, USDA has halted work on 57 standards, and OSHA has halted 21 new standards.

•The Bush Administration has cut EPA environmental enforcement staffing by 210 positions.

•Since the start of the Bush Administration, civil pollution cases referred to federal prosecutors by EPA are down by 25%, while new criminal case referrals are down by 40%.

I could go on—and on and on—with examples of the Bush Administration’s efforts to roll back environmental gains—gains that have been made in both Republican and Democratic administrations dating back to the Nixon Administration. Protecting the environment should not—and need not—be a partisan issue. Ensuring a clean environment should be a priority for all Americans: young and old, black and white, rich and poor—people who want a cleaner, healthier environment for their children and grandchildren. Conserving our resources and our natural heritage should be the most “conservative” of causes.

You can stop the pollution politics of the George W. Bush Administration only by getting involved. Raise your voice. Whether you are Republican or Democrat, Libertarian or Socialist, express your views to your elected officials, and work to inspire more people—especially America’s underrepresented youth—to participate in the political process.

Published May 1, 2004

(2004, May 1). No Polluter Left Behind: Energy and Environmental Policies of the Bush Administration. Retrieved from https://www.buildinggreen.com/op-ed/no-polluter-left-behind-energy-and-environmental-policies-bush-administration

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