Word: whitmans
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There is, however, some cause for hope. Christine Todd Whitman, whom Bush selected to run the Environmental Protection Agency, attended a G8 (a group of the eight leading economic superpowers) meeting in Trieste, Italy, over the weekend and discussed the issue of global warming. According to Whitman, at least, the president views global climate change as "the greatest environmental challenge that we face" and wants to "take steps to move forward...
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...
...while Whitman does have a respectable track record when it comes to clean air, shore protection and farmland preservation, she has consistently supported the 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...
Worse still, all of Whitman's best "green" assets, particularly with regard for open space, are countered by a Secretary of the Interior (Gail Norton) who, according to one New York Times letter writer, has "pro-business views [that] make Christie Whitman look like John Muir." Her record on environmental issues is similarly murky, and there is evidence that, in her position as the attorney general of Colorado, Norton rejected the prosecution of a number of pollution cases which would have hurt business interests. Two of the largest lawsuits were subsequently pursued by private environmental groups and resulted...
With a number of 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...