Word: epa
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...address, word leaked from the White House that the speech had a line on an initiative to force power plants to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Opponents protested, and the reference was apparently dropped. Bush also neglected to mention that his budget calls for a 6.4% decrease in the EPA's projected spending...
...same time as Bush claims to be championing land conservation and clean air, his budget proposal includes an estimated seven percent cut in EPA spending over the next year. Under the circumstances, it is difficult to reconcile such a drastic reduction in EPA funding with Bush's grandiose pledges to continue many of the agency's programs at full strength. True, some of the cuts have been balanced by the shifting of federal funds to the state level. But given the collective action problems associated with many environmental issues (like clean air), this shift may wind up helping different regions...
Then there is the question of the people whom Bush has chosen to head up environmental policy in his new administration. As a native of New Jersey, I was shocked at the selection of Whitman (formerly the Republican governor of New Jersey) for EPA director. The appointment clearly had less to do with Whitman's experience in the field than with political maneuvering: Whitman wanted a cabinet position, but Bush was leery of allowing anyone with such a strong pro-choice stance to get too close. The EPA position provided a sensible compromise from the standpoint of protecting the Republican...
...interests of big business. She was famously lax when it came to regulating pollution by private companies, as evidenced by the fact that the Garden State remains the number one location for Superfund sites (and also the number one target for "smelly Turnpike" jokes). Coincidentally, and unfortunately, the EPA's major area of jurisdiction involves patrolling private companies. God help us if the whole country winds up like Newark...
...crucial environmental issues looming on the horizon--the question of whether or not to drill for oil in Alaska, a revaluation of America's stance on Kyoto, the fate of millions of square miles of federal land in the West--Norton, Whitman and Bush's lukewarm support of the EPA may turn out to be every Sierra Club member's worst nightmare. It is good to see that Bush has made some sort of gesture with the diesel emission initiative and his support of the Clean Air Act. However, his pro-environment posturing will prove meaningless if he prioritizes private...