Bush is making progress on environmental issues

By Alan Caruba
web posted August 6, 2001

I would not want to be George W. Bush even if I did get free
lodgings in the White House, free rides in Air Force One, and a
chance to hang out with a lot of big shots. Being President has to
be one of the most thankless jobs. Then there's all those morons
going around saying you're too stupid to chew gum and walk a
straight line. These are usually the same people who won't
publicly criticize Congressman Gary Condit and have just added
a couple of million-dollar pork barrel projects to the budget so
the folks back home can enjoy a bike path. Named after them,
of course.

Trying to figure out what the Bush environmental policy is from
week to week takes a lot of work and, even then, it's like
watching some crazed break-dancer make up the steps as he
goes along. I think Bush wants to do the right thing, but all those
polls he's not supposed to be using to guide policy are coming
back saying, "environment issues will get you kicked out in 2004
if people think you want to chop down all the forests, drill a lot
of wells, and hate fuzzy little animals." There is only one, hard
fast rule in politics and it is "Get re-elected!"

It is testimony to the decades of brainwashing and lies that the
Greens have foisted on America, infiltrating the nation's
classrooms to make sure kids grow up thinking the Earth is
doomed, urban sprawl is threatening all the wildlife, generating
energy is a bad thing, the ozone is disappearing, pesticides will
kill humans, not the bugs, et cetera. Frankly, it is very hard for a
President to push too hard against this wall of ignorance.

So let's start by giving the President credit for dropkicking the
UN Global Warming Treaty into the twilight zone. In its current
form, meteorologists estimate it would reduce the calculated
temperature in 2050 by 0.02 degrees. That's one fiftieth of one
degree and an ordinary thermometer can't even measure it. It
already exempts nations like China and India. Combined, their
populations represent a huge chunk of humanity and, if global
warming was real, it would kill them like flies in a microwave
oven. Only, it isn't real.

No more than the Green threats of a coming Ice Age back in the
1970's. The Greens are stone killers, soulless liars for whom
their secret agenda of bringing about the triumph of Marxism
requires the destruction of industrialization and democracy.

The President is trying to cover his backside by pledging an
additional $120 million to study global warming. This is an utter
and total waste of money because the Earth has not warmed in a
half century of measuring such things. Politically, though, the
proposal gives him cover.

The professional environmental activist organizations have been
mounting a full-scale attack on things like Bush's effort to gut the
Endangered Species Act that would keep them from launching
an endless series of lawsuits like the one that ruined the lives of
1,400 formers in the Klamath Falls Valley. Ironically, the
proposal to change the Act comes from the US Fish and Wildlife
Service, the agency with the primary responsibility to enforce it.
What the Green groups are really worried about is the fact they
will lose millions of taxpayer's dollars that go into their coffers
when they get paid for successfully suing the government. Take
away that incentive and the lawsuits will end!

The Bush administration has been enjoying a number of victories
of late. In May a federal judge in Idaho blocked a new
government regulation that would "protect" 60 million acres of
national forests from logging and road construction, a leftover
from the Clinton years. Under Clinton, the US Forest Service
and environmentalists had worked hard to make sure that
Americans would never enjoy the use of their forests for the
reason they were set aside.

In mid-July, the administration announced that a rule aimed at
reducing storm-water and agriculture pollution of some 21,000
lakes and streams needed to be put on hold for closer
examination. Yet another leftover regulation from the Clinton
years, it would require billions of dollars be allocated to cleanup
these waterways, but the truth is no one really knows if any
"pollution" exists. A lawsuit challenging the program was brought
by the American Farm Bureau, along with other trade groups
who believe, correctly, that it exceeds the Environmental
Protection Agency's authority. EPA Director, Christie Whitman,
favors their position.

In another under-reported move, the Bush administration is
advancing a plan to cut federal environmental enforcement
operations and to shift resources back to the states. This is a
particularly clever notion-considering the man is supposed to be
a big dope-because most states are unable and unwilling to
vigorously enforce most of the federal environmental laws. Why?
Because they are idiotic, but mostly because they drain scarce
financial resources that would be better applied to maintaining
roads, bridges, and other needs. America's basic infrastructure is
in bad need of repair because of sheer neglect.

There is more evidence that EPA Director Whitman, is finally
getting good guidance on why she was chosen for the office.
Christie is the anti-Carol Browner, the woman who ruled the
EPA throughout all of the Clinton years. So, now we hear that
Christie is proposing sweeping changes in the regulations of
power plant pollution that would replace five of the government's
toughest programs with a single, flexible approach favored by the
utilities. Why is this a good thing? Because this more sensible
approach would encourage them to invest the billions needed to
upgrade existing generation facilities and build more. America
could face brownouts and blackouts from coast to coast without
these changes.

Two steps forward. One step backward. Christie has spoken of
proposing rules "to help sweep away the haze at many of
America's national parks." The scientific name for the haze is
volatile organic components. For those who slept through
science class or were probably never taught this, all forests
naturally emit VOCs. That's what trees do. They give off all
kinds of VOCs, especially when they die and begin to decay.
The real reason our forests have haze is that these trees have not
been logged or cleared away. It's also the real reason we are
encountering more and more horrendous fire fires. This is all part
of the Green agenda. They hate timber companies and love
forest fires. Meanwhile, the cost of building a new home has
soared and we're actually importing wood from Canada. That
makes a lot of sense, eh?

The Bush energy program is, of course, coming under fire
because the Greens fear that America might actually be able to
reduce its dependency on foreign oil by drilling in Alaska and in
the Gulf of Mexico for our own damned oil. So you will hear
them bleat and carry on about the horrid energy producers who
only want to profit off of heating your home or putting gas in your
car's tanks. This nation would go to hell in a week without this
energy.

As far as I can tell, the Bush administration is really trying to
make the right moves to pull the plug on a lot of bad
environmental laws and regulations that only serve to drive up the
cost of everything while strangling this nation's ability to provide
the energy we need, the food we need, the timber we need for
new homes, and everything else required to get our economy
back on the fast track.

Alan Caruba writes "Warning Signs", a weekly commentary
posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center. (c)
Alan Caruba, 2001

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