The Bushies are about to trash the environment (some more)

Bush sets out plan to dismantle 30 years of environmental laws

By Geoffrey Lean, 05 December 2004, The Independent (UK)

Washington - George Bush's new administration, and its supporters controlling Congress, are setting out to dismantle three decades of US environmental protection.

In little over a month since his re-election, they have announced that they will comprehensively rewrite three of the country's most important environmental laws, open up vast new areas for oil and gas drilling, and reshape the official Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

They say that the election gave them a mandate for the measures - which, ironically, will overturn a legislative system originally established by the Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford - even though Mr Bush went out of his way to avoid emphasizing his environmental plans during his campaign.

"The election was a validation of the philosophy and the agenda," said Mike Leavitt, the Bush-appointed head of the EPA. He points out that over a third of the agency's staff will become eligible for retirement over the President's four-year term, enabling him to fill it with people lenient to polluters.

“ … Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, said last week that the previous Bush administration had largely contented itself with weakening environmental legislation, but the new one intended to go much further. He added: "We will now see an assault on the law which will set the US in the direction of becoming a Third World country in terms of environmental protection."

A 51% majority entitles you to destroy the environment. Astonishing! It’s a shame that our own “liberal media” doesn’t see fit to report this on the front page. Nonetheless, this might bite Dear Leader and his lackeys. Most of us, even the Bush fans, care about the environment - with the exception of the fundamentalists. They actually believe that the end will come before the world will be totally trashed, so it doesn’t matter. Perhaps that’s what’s driving the Administration policy.

Hey global warming and fundamentalism - both give you a warm feeling!