curtoid
10-13-2004, 05:18 AM
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Bush's administration is filled with former industry lobbyists. Gale Norton became his Secretary of the Interior, despite her having argued before the Supreme Court that the Endangered Species Act is unconstitutional, and tapped J. Steven Griles as her deputy, though he continues to earn money from his past position as a lobbyist for the oil and gas industries.
The proposed drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the adminstration's considering weakening laws against new oil and gas drilling off the coasts of Florida and California - putting wildlife populations at risk in all three regions.
One of Bush's first acts as President was to revoke protections for forests by voiding the Roadless Area Conservation Rule in Alaska. Now he proposes opening more than 58 million more acres of protected forests to road-building and logging projects.
He has reneged on a campaign promise from four years ago to fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which provides matching grants to states and local governments for the conservation of public outdoor recreation areas. His budgets over the past three years have failed to fund the LWCF at its authorized level of $900 million, averaging less than half that, and leaving key conservation programs underfunded.
Through both direct regulatory action and actions through the court system, the administration has worked to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act. Bush has repeatedly called for exemptions to NEPA for Department of Defense Activities, highway building, and energy drilling leases on public lands.
The Bush administration proposed a plan to eliminate Clean Water Act protections for more than 20 million acres of America's wetlands, abandoning the plan only under considerable pressure from conservation groups, hunters and anglers, and a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Still on the table is a White House "policy guidance" that would dump Clean Water Act prohibitions on pollution in so-called "isolated" streams, ponds, and wetlands.
Courts have found the Bush administration in violation of the Endangered Species Act more than 60 times in just three years in office. Furthermore, the administration has listed only 25 species under the Act in three years, every single one of them the result of a court order. (His father's administration listed an average of 58 species per year, and the Clinton administration averaged 65 additions per year.)
President Bush has proposed allowing electric and coal companies to emit nearly seven times more mercury than is allowed under our current law, placing hundreds of thousands of children and pregnant women at risk for damage to developing brains and nervous systems.
Meanwhile, while the President is scampering about using his new catch phrase on Senator Kerry ("He can run, but he can't hide from his record"), Kerry has one of the best environmental and conservation ratings in Congress.
Senator Kerry has led the fight in the Senate to protect the fragile Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from drilling, voting repeatedly against opening the Refuge to oil corporations; instead of supporting timber industry giveaways, he has a clear record of protecting America's national forests from the ravages of logging and road construction; he voted against Bush Administration efforts to roll back Clean Air Act regulations and opposed the Administration's plan to allow mercury to poison America's lakes and streams; he supports EPA-recommended regulations, blocked by the Bush administration, that would reduce mercury emissions by 90 percent over the next four years, and Senator Kerry supports enforcement of the laws that will limit that threat.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v64/curtoid/20.jpg
"One of our normal friends." - RB
This message was edited by curtoid on 10-14-04 @ 11:53 AM
Bush's administration is filled with former industry lobbyists. Gale Norton became his Secretary of the Interior, despite her having argued before the Supreme Court that the Endangered Species Act is unconstitutional, and tapped J. Steven Griles as her deputy, though he continues to earn money from his past position as a lobbyist for the oil and gas industries.
The proposed drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the adminstration's considering weakening laws against new oil and gas drilling off the coasts of Florida and California - putting wildlife populations at risk in all three regions.
One of Bush's first acts as President was to revoke protections for forests by voiding the Roadless Area Conservation Rule in Alaska. Now he proposes opening more than 58 million more acres of protected forests to road-building and logging projects.
He has reneged on a campaign promise from four years ago to fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which provides matching grants to states and local governments for the conservation of public outdoor recreation areas. His budgets over the past three years have failed to fund the LWCF at its authorized level of $900 million, averaging less than half that, and leaving key conservation programs underfunded.
Through both direct regulatory action and actions through the court system, the administration has worked to weaken the National Environmental Policy Act. Bush has repeatedly called for exemptions to NEPA for Department of Defense Activities, highway building, and energy drilling leases on public lands.
The Bush administration proposed a plan to eliminate Clean Water Act protections for more than 20 million acres of America's wetlands, abandoning the plan only under considerable pressure from conservation groups, hunters and anglers, and a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Still on the table is a White House "policy guidance" that would dump Clean Water Act prohibitions on pollution in so-called "isolated" streams, ponds, and wetlands.
Courts have found the Bush administration in violation of the Endangered Species Act more than 60 times in just three years in office. Furthermore, the administration has listed only 25 species under the Act in three years, every single one of them the result of a court order. (His father's administration listed an average of 58 species per year, and the Clinton administration averaged 65 additions per year.)
President Bush has proposed allowing electric and coal companies to emit nearly seven times more mercury than is allowed under our current law, placing hundreds of thousands of children and pregnant women at risk for damage to developing brains and nervous systems.
Meanwhile, while the President is scampering about using his new catch phrase on Senator Kerry ("He can run, but he can't hide from his record"), Kerry has one of the best environmental and conservation ratings in Congress.
Senator Kerry has led the fight in the Senate to protect the fragile Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from drilling, voting repeatedly against opening the Refuge to oil corporations; instead of supporting timber industry giveaways, he has a clear record of protecting America's national forests from the ravages of logging and road construction; he voted against Bush Administration efforts to roll back Clean Air Act regulations and opposed the Administration's plan to allow mercury to poison America's lakes and streams; he supports EPA-recommended regulations, blocked by the Bush administration, that would reduce mercury emissions by 90 percent over the next four years, and Senator Kerry supports enforcement of the laws that will limit that threat.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v64/curtoid/20.jpg
"One of our normal friends." - RB
This message was edited by curtoid on 10-14-04 @ 11:53 AM