John Ashcroft (Liar, Traitor, Criminal, Anti-Environment) 05/2002

FACT: During the Ashcroft confirmation hearings, Ashcroft insisted that if he were confirmed as Attorney General, he would faithfully enforce all federal laws, even those with which he disagreed. Last week, however, Senator Charles Schumer unveiled a study, which showed that under Ashcroft's watch, the Justice Department has been purposely shirking its responsibility to enforce our nation's environmental laws. Typically, the DOJ would show up for the court cases, but they just wouldn't try very hard. Eventually, they either (a) lose the case and then don't bother to appeal or (b) enter into a sweetheart settlement that lets their corporate buddies get off scott-free. 

COMMENT: When is Ashcroft going to start enforcing all the laws and not just the ones that suit his personal agenda? Never. He must be removed!

Jeb Bush (Anti-Environment, Anti Public Health)

FACT: Jeb pushed hard for a controversial bill which would allow untreated water containing human and animal feces to be injected into underground water zones, or aquifers, which are near wells where drinking water is stored. Apparently the untreated water is supposed to stay separate from the aquifer's drinking water supplies. And as we all know, things like this never go wrong. The Environmental Prevarication Agency has indicated that the bill is "not inconsistent" with Safe Drinking Water Act standards. 

Bush Administration (Anti Environment, Underlying Agenda) 06/2002

FACT: With today's computerized simulation systems and high-tech weapons testing protocols, bombing exercises are nearly obsolete. Unfortunately, Bush and House Republicans claim bombing islands and beaches where migratory birds and endangered species are clinging to a toehold on life is necessary to "protect our troops." They are lying. The truth is that they want the land for future development. Land where environmental laws have been eased and endangered species have already been wiped out is very attractive to developers (i.e. Friends and contributors). 
http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/05/05022002/ap_47096.asp

The Bush Administration (Environment, Corporate Interests) 05/2002

FACT: Bush's "Environmental Protection Agency" tried to create a new rule which would allow coal mining companies to fill streams, rivers and wetlands with industrial waste. The rule would overturn Army Corps of Engineers regulations that prohibit mining companies from dumping waste in nearby waterways. Fortunately a federal judge blocked the rule, calling it a violation of the 1977 Clean Water Act and saying that, "Only the United States Congress can rewrite the Act to allow fills with no purpose or use but the deposit of waste." 

George W. Bush (Anti Environment, Corporate Interests, Isolationism-Unilateralism, Lies) 

FACT: Abandoning his more moderate campaign promises, Bush decided to forget that pesky CO2 promise. You know the one where power plants' would have to curtail their carbon dioxide emissions.

COMMENT: Chalk up another trifecta for Bush Inc. 1) It pisses off our allies, stressing our bold independence from any sort of global responsibility 2) The environment gets trashed further and 3) Polluting corporations are free from those pesky profit-munching regulations. 

Bush (Lies, Fraud, Criminal, Corporate Interests, Anti-Environment, Punish the Citizenry) 

FACT: Bush announces he is preparing to let California roll back its air pollution requirements on power plants to help the state ease its electricity crisis, despite the fact that California pollution officials said the environmental restrictions had not interfered with power plants operations at maximum capacity. 

Bush (Anti-Environment, Unilateralism, Isolationism, Corporate Interests) 

FACT: The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 for controlling global warming is declared "dead" by Bush, who also backs off his campaign promise to regulate power plants for lower CO2 emissions. 

COMMENT: Corporate bigwigs hail the decisions in a fit of wallet fattening glee.

Bush (Anti Environment, Corporate Interests) 

FACT: In an interview with the Denver Post, Bush says that there is room in the nation's national monuments for oil drilling. 

Bush (Corporate Interests, Anti-Environment, Anti-Public Health) 

FACT: The Bush administration rescinds a regulation to update the arsenic standard from 50 ppb to 10 ppb. 

Dick Cheney - (Corporate Interests, Anti-Environment) 

FACT: After a prolonged energy crisis in California, Dick Cheney outlined the Bush Administration's approach to energy policy. He called for more energy production, and less reliance on energy conservation. The centerpiece of the Administration's proposal is their plan to drill for oil in Alaska's Arctic Natural Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), an environmentally disastrous idea that would provide little relief to Californians and not for years in the future.

Gale Norton (Corporate Interests, Oil, Anti-Environment)

FACT: On the Department of Interior website there is a short video titled "ANWR in Winter." The video produced by pro-drilling lobbyists, shows clips of a barren arctic tundra, which appears completely devoid of life. You see, Norton wants you to think "wasteland" not "pristine wilderness" whenever you think of ANWR. The fact of the matter is, however, it's illegal for agencies to distribute film "designed to support or defeat legislation pending before the Congress

COMMENT: The day used to exist when our Interior Secretary actually protected the environment. Unfortunately, OIL is the top priority for Norton and the rest of the Bush administration, whether the issue is ANWR, Afgahnistan, the middle east, California blackouts Venezuelan dictators or anything else.

Gale Norton (Corporate Interests, Anti-Environment, Despicable Behavior) 

FACT: Gale Norton recently appointed Camden Toohey as her special assistant on Alaska, and he will help in "managing and protecting Alaska's nearly 270 million acres of Interior Department land." What you may not know about Camden Toohey is that in addition to his new role as Gale Norton's special assistant, he also happens to be executive director of the pro-oil development lobbying group Arctic Power. You may also be interested to know that his appointment was not subject to confirmation.

Marc Racicot (Corporate Interests, Anti-Environment) 

FACT: Marc Racicot, the new head of the Republican National Committee, was also representing seven different lobbying organizations. Of course, the GOP claimed that there would be absolutely no hint of a conflict of interest. So it is interesting to note that the Bush administration is preparing to announce regulatory changes which would favor big corporations and seriously weaken the 1970 Clean Air Act. "If these changes are implemented as we understand, industry would be allowed to increase their emissions significantly more than what they would be allowed under existing law," said S. William Becker, executive director of the State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators and the Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials. Not that this is much of a surprise for an administration as anti-environment as this one. So what does this all have to do with Marc Racicot? Well,  one of the lobbying organizations he works for have been recently engaged in intensive lobbying to weaken the Clean Air Act. It looks like having the head of the RNC on your team can do wonders for your lobbying power. Conflict of interest? Nonsense!

Republicans (ANWR, Oil, Lies, Environment)

FACT: ANWR drilling proponents claim that it will take place in an area only one-fifth the size of Washington's Dulles airport (a figure oft-repeated by Dick Cheney), and yet will employ 700,000 people (according to Alaska Senator Frank Murkowski). This is a lie! The Truth: In 1980 Congress set aside 1.5 million ANWR acres for drilling, but Republican Congressman John Sununu of New Hampshire managed to get an amendment added to the energy bill which would limit drilling to just 2,000 of those acres. There's your Dick Cheney figure. But what proponents of drilling fail to mention is that that the 2,000 acres is spread out over the entire 1.5 million acres. According to a Time article, "Each drilling platform can take up as little as 10 acres. The pipelines are above ground. For space purposes, the amendment counts only the ground touched by the stanchions holding up the pipe." Road widths are conveniently left out of the calculation. According to a Sierra Club spokesman, "It's like a fishing net. If you count just the space of the string's width, that's small. But if you open up a fishing net and count the area it covers, that's much larger." The bogus figure of 700,000 new jobs is an estimate promoted, not surprisingly, by an eleven-year-old study commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute.