A guide to the Bush administration's environmental doublespeak

[Guest guest]

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=opinion & story_id=081904b5_guestenvir\

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Thursday, August 19, 2004

 

Guest Opinion:

A guide to the Bush administration's environmental

doublespeak

 

ROB SMITH

Tucson Citizen

 

Many citizens may be confused about what the Bush

administration has been doing to our environment and

public health. That's understandable when one

considers that our water now is getting dirtier for

the first time in 30 years, that America has stopped

funding toxic waste cleanup, and that the

administration has removed protections for more land

than Teddy Roosevelt managed to protect during his

entire presidency.

 

To clarify what the Bush administration means when

they seem to say one thing but do another, we've

developed a quick reference guide:

 

Healthy forests - Leave no tree behind. The result is

a Forest Service starved for funding to thin brush at

Summerhaven prior to the Aspen fire two years ago, but

with plenty of dollars to plan the East Rim Timber

Sale and log old growth ponderosa 48 miles from the

nearest town near the rim of the Grand Canyon.

 

A better solution is to target Forest Service projects

around communities at greatest risk from wildfire, and

thin the fire-prone small trees and brush while

protecting old growth and leaving the fire-resistant

big trees standing.

 

Clear skies - Life support for dirty old power plants.

The Bush administration's Environmental Protection

Agency has proposed weakening programs that would

require power plants built last century meet modern

pollution control standards when they expand.

 

A better solution would be to simply enforce the

existing Clean Air Act to clean up dirty coal plants

and keep making progress on cleaner air.

 

Clean water - A truly mercurial policy. On the one

hand, the Food and Drug Administration has issued

warnings to pregnant women to avoid eating tuna fish

because of accumulated mercury from the water. On the

other hand, the administration's EPA proposes to delay

mercury cleanup at coal-fired power plants, the major

source of airborne mercury contamination of water.

 

A more consistent solution is to simply enforce

previous programs to clean up mercury from industrial

sources so fish are safe for mothers and children to

eat.

 

Energy policy - Drill America first. Although the

United States has only 3 percent of the world's oil

and imports nearly two-thirds of what we use, the Bush

administration has made using up our supply of

nonrenewable fossil fuels, such as oil, gas and coal,

the top priority for our public lands, from the Arctic

National Wildlife Refuge to ranch land and forests

across the Rocky Mountain West.

 

A better solution is to develop renewable solar and

wind energy and increase energy efficiency, including

miles per gallon standards for vehicles.

 

Forest roadless area protection - Bulldoze roads to

nowhere where clean water, trails and wildlife now

exist in our national forests. The Bush administration

is still looking for ways to remove protections

against unneeded new roads into the last remaining

wild places on our national forests, such as areas

approaching the Grand Canyon and within the Salt River

watershed.

 

A better answer would be to acknowledge the

record-breaking support for saving our undeveloped

forest to provide open space, protected watersheds and

wildlife habitat for future generations.

 

Bald eagles and the Endangered Species list - A bird

off the list is worth two in the Bush administration.

However, the unique, desert-nesting bald eagle living

in central Arizona still needs the protections

provided by the world's strongest wildlife

conservation law since only 41 nesting pairs remain in

our state.

 

A better choice is to maintain existing protections,

which brought back our nation's symbol from the edge

of extinction.

 

Climate change (global warming) - A means to import

melting ice from the Arctic Sea to new beachfront

property in Arizona. The administration has ignored

worldwide concern and general scientific agreement

that global climate change is real, happening and

could be caused by industrial pollution. Global

climate change could aggravate Arizona's current

drought conditions.

 

A more responsible policy is to support the Kyoto

agreement on limiting air pollution from coal-fired

plants, among other sources of carbon dioxide, and

lead the world to a cleaner and safer energy future.

 

Rob Smith is the Southwest field director for the

Sierra Club, based in Phoenix.