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BUSH’S OTHER WAR: The War on the Environment

© John Rutherford

As America's war against terror wages on, the Bush Administration is fighting another war - a war on the environment. For two years, the environmental community has struggled with this administration. The Republican-led 108th Congress, which convenes in January, will only exacerbate that struggle.

Two crucial committee chairmanships in the Senate will pass from two conservation-minded senators to two men with woeful energy and environmental records. These guys are not exactly Roosevelt Republicans.

Pete Domenici of New Mexico, the new Energy Committee chairman, has worked previously to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling and is likely to use his new position and power to go after the Arctic again, and other public lands as well.

James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the new Environment and Public Works Committee chairman, is a consistent backer of oil and gas interests, and a long-standing detractor of the Clean Air Act. He supports the administration's recent announcement to allow new oil and gas drilling on national lands.

From the beginning of his presidency, Bush has pushed an unprecedented anti-regulatory agenda. The recent election outcome likely only encourages the administration to further undermine environmental law. Their dogged efforts to satisfy corporate allies at the expense of the environment shows no sign of diminution. Clean water, clean air, and unspoiled natural places, are being eroded by the administration's policies to near irretrievable proportions. The environmental community's efforts will now have to be so concentrated on preventing rollbacks that actually moving forward will be all but impossible.

Most recently, the Bush administration unilaterally relaxed regulations governing pollution from old coal-fired power plants, gutting the clean air laws. Power plants can now avoid installing simple anti-pollution equipment when they upgrade and modernize. This departure from the Clean Air Act will prolong the life of out-of-date power plants, not only contributing to growing rates of childhood asthma, but also to the unsightly haze that pollutes our cities and taints the beauty of our most scenic vistas and magnificent national parks like the Great Smoky Mountains. The administration has the audacity to claim that less regulation will give flexibility to the industry and lead to reduced emissions. Not only is this president diminishing the nation's environmental laws, he is undoing some of the very environmental regulations his father put in place. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush supported amendments strengthening the Clean Air Act.

The administration has also delayed implementation of a rule to reduce sewage in waterways, despite that fact that some 300,000 miles of rivers and shorelines and five million acres of lakes remain polluted. Over 40 percent of our nation's public lakes, rivers, and streams are too dirty for fishing or swimming. These problems clearly need to be addressed.

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