SIERRA CLUB PICKS WORST BUSH ADMINISTRATION ENVIRONMENTAL
EXPLOITS OF 2003
SIERRA CLUB
Tripling allowable levels of mercury pollution, shifting the burden of
toxic clean up from polluters to taxpayers, and undoing rules for cleaning
up America's dirtiest power plants topped a laundry list of Bush administration
exploits to weaken decades environmental progress in 2003.
"The Bush administration is systematically turning back 30 years
of environmental progress," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club executive
director. "You really have to go back to the McKinley administration
in the late 19th century to find so many gratuitous giveaways to special
interests looking to exploit our air, water, and natural areas. Americans
want a 21st century administration that can deliver forward-thinking environmental
solutions."
The Sierra Club surveyed subscribers of RAW, the organization's twice-weekly
electronic newsletter tracking the Bush administration's environmental
record, to determine the worst-of-the-worst decisions affecting public
health and the environment. Mercury pollution, toxic cleanup, and soot
and smog registered as the greatest concerns, from a list that also included
oil drilling on sensitive lands, a secret amnesty deal for giant factory
farms, and lax environmental enforcement, among others.
The survey also found that the public is largely unaware of the broad
scope of the Bush administration's assaults on the nation's air, water
and lands, Pope said. Many respondents expressed surprise that they haven't
heard more about the administration's environmental record from mainstream
media.
"Trying to limit my vote to three big ones is beyond difficult,"
wrote one RAW reader in a typical response. "This administration
is doing more damage than the Reagan & Bush Sr. ones did. And I didn't
think that was even possible! Thank you for making the effort to educate
Americans about what this administration is really doing to this country!"
The full list of 2003 Bush administration actions, ranked according to
the survey response, appears below. To subscribe to RAW, visit http://www.sierraclub.org/raw.
1. MERCURY RISING - Issued public health warnings to pregnant women and
children about mercury after announcing policy changes to triple amount
of mercury pollution allowed from power plants.
2. SUPER DUPED - Became first administration to support shifting burden
of Superfund toxic waste cleanups from polluters to taxpayers.
3. SOOTY SANTA - Dismantled provision of Clean Air Act that requires
oldest, dirtiest power plants and refineries to curb soot and smog pollution.
4. BACK IN BLACKOUT - Proposed a national Energy Bill that did nothing
to reduce dependence on foreign oil, repair or address antiquated electricity
grid, or protect special places from oil and gas drilling.
5. DRILLING WILDERNESS - Opened nearly 9 million pristine acres in Northwest
Alaska to the oil and gas industry for exploration and drilling.
6. STONEWALLING, BIG TIME (tied)- Continued to withhold documents from
secret meetings between Bush/Cheney Energy Task Force and energy industry
lobbyists.
6. DON'T AX, DON'T TELL (tied) - Promoted a wildfire policy that expanded
commercial logging in the backcountry but did little to protect people
where they live.
7. NEXT STOP, SHINOLA - Allowed untreated sewage to be blended with treated
sewage, cut funding for local sewage treatment, and didn't require health
officials to warn public about sewage in water.
8. CRITICAL CONDITION - Obliterated the process of critical habitat designation
for imperiled wildlife under the Endangered Species Act.
9. COP OFF - Continued pattern of willful negligence for enforcement
of even basic clean water and clean air laws.
10. POST 9/11 LIES - Discovered by EPA Inspector General to have lied
about post 9/11 environmental health hazards near Ground Zero.
11. ROAD WARRIOR - Expanded the legal loophole that allows obnoxious
road claims through federally protected wilderness, national parks, and
public lands.
12. HOG WASH - Secretly negotiated backroom deal to exempt giant animal
factories from laws governing air and toxic pollution.
13. POLLUTED LOGIC - Refused to classify industrial carbon emissions,
linked to global warming, as an official pollutant under the Clean Air
Act.
14. HOT AIR - Proposed fantasy hydrogen power initiative to improve auto
fuel efficiency rather than promoting more proven technologies like gas-electric
hybrids.
15. ESTATE TOX - Ended a 25-year ban on the sale of PCB-laden real estate.
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