Bush Becoming Environmental Odd Man Out

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Mon, 25 Apr 2005 13:14:54 GMT

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Bush Becoming Environmental Odd Man Out

 

April 25, 2005

 

Bush Greenwatch

 

Bush Becoming Environmental Odd Man Out

 

[Editor's Note: Following are excerpts from an Earth Day observation

by syndicated columnist Edward Flattau.]

 

The Bush Administration has become the environmental " odd man out " .

Europe has replaced us as the global leader in spreading progressive

environmental reforms. The European Union has much stricter regulation

of toxic chemicals than we do. There the burden of proof invariably

falls on the manufacturer to prove a product is reasonably safe before

it can enter the marketplace. We're not nearly so cautious.

 

Virtually the entire international community has been more aggressive

than us in setting deadlines and quotas for meeting pollution

reduction goals to alleviate global warming. Even in the developing

world, China is enacting tougher vehicular fuel economy and emission

standards than exist on our shores.

 

Europe has eclipsed us in launching the gradual transition from a

fossil fuel economy to reliance primarily on clean, renewable energy

sources. Applications of solar and wind energy are far more widespread

in Europe and Japan than here, even though we pioneered many of the

technologies.

 

The situation is not much better for Bush and company on the domestic

front. Americans of all political persuasions are backing away from

the president's environmental policies. Despite Bush's skepticism

towards the threats posed by global warming, many major American

multi-national corporations have taken their cue from stricter foreign

environmental requirements. They are instituting their own pollution

reduction and energy conservation programs.

 

Former Reagan Administration officials are urging President Bush to be

more aggressive than he has been on energy conservation and

alternative fuels.

 

Bush's concern that the cost of implementing global warming curbs will

have a chilling effect on our industrial output has been refuted by an

agency within his own bureaucracy. The Energy Information

Administration concludes that restrictions on carbon dioxide and other

greenhouse gases would have a negligible impact on the U.S. economy.

 

A number of states are not waiting for the president to see the light.

They are moving ahead with compulsory limits on auto and power plant

emissions far more stringent than federal standards. Although Bush has

reneged on his promise to regulate power plants' carbon dioxide

emissions contributing to global warming, the attorney generals of

eight states are seeking to set things right by suing five delinquent

electric utilities. Bush may be sluggish in mandating that utilities

commit to a certain percentage of renewable energy use, but 18 states

have enacted renewable energy standards that will save consumers more

than $10 billion.

 

The president is encountering growing resistance --often from

traditional allies--to his plans to drill for oil in the Arctic

National Wildlife Range's (ANWR) coastal plain and huge swathes of

remaining undeveloped land in the Rocky Mountain states. It's no small

wonder. By simply pumping up their tires to the proper pressure,

Americans would free up as much oil as is expected to be derived from

the unique ANWR wilderness. Regarding the Rocky Mountain region,

approximately 85 percent of its oil and gas is already available for

leasing.

 

Increasingly aware of these realities, a majority of Americans oppose

industrial activity in ANWR. The governors of New Mexico and Wyoming

have objected to Bush's proposed energy development plans in their

respective states. Long-time Republican ranchers, farmers and hunters

in the Rocky Mountain region suddenly find themselves parting ways

with their president and collaborating with environmental

organizations previously viewed as adversaries.

 

A typical example is Tweeti Blancett, a New Mexican rancher who ran

the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign in the northwestern part of her state;

she is now organizing ranchers against energy development on

federally-owned grazing land.

 

Other loyal constituencies are also distancing themselves from Bush's

environmental policies. A number of Evangelical Christian

organizations are lobbying for measures to reduce the threat of global

warming, and to strengthen the Endangered Species Act that the

president would like to see diluted.

 

George W. Bush may say the politically correct things to celebrate

Earth Day 2005, but his policies are inexorably propelling him towards

" green " isolation.

 

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