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Dec, 2001
It's official -- corporate profits now trump public health and other public benefits. The Bush Administration has appointed Harvard Professor John Graham to head the Office of Information and Regulatory affairs, with instructions to analyze all proposed regulations in terms of a strict cost-benefit analysis. Graham's office will have the power to hold up regulations almost indefinitely, and has already done so with regard to a proposed snowmobile ban in Yellowstone National Park. According to a letter signed by 25 academics, Graham's career reflects "a persistent pattern of conflict of interest, of obscuring and minimizing dangers to human health with questionable cost-benefit analyses, and of hostility to government regulation in general." Graham believes, for example, that regulation of chemical pollution is not worth the cost -- never mind that it's the polluters that profit from lack of regulation while it's the people that suffer the health consequences of the poisoning. Further, while cost benefit analysis may have some legitimate limited role in the assessment of regulations, elevating it to the prime position is clearly unjustified. Economists simply do not know how to put money values on intangibles such as the survival of endangered species or pure air and peace and quiet in Yellowstone. (See "Harvard Professor Shakes Up Regulatory Policy," Science vol 294)
Dec 11,2001
In a very dangerous development, Bush announced today that he is withdrawing the US from the ABM treaty. This is a provocative and entirely unnecessary move, and one that will be hard to reverse. Sensible testing and research on missile defense could have proceeded for at least five years more before treaty-imposed limits would be reached, and negotiations with Russia would have allowed more extensive testing without abrogating the treaty. Instead, Bush has dragged us into development of an expensive, destabilizing and unworkable system. Worse, it's one that makes it harder to address the real threat, which is the loose control of weapons-grade plutonium in the former USSR, which is in real danger of falling into the wrong hands and being made into a nuclear weapon which could be smuggled into the US and detonated on the ground or in an airburst from a light airplane. If drug-runners can routinely get a ton of cocaine into the country, a small nuke would be child's play to get in, either assembled or in pieces. The President unfortunately has the authority to unilaterally withdraw from treaties. Let us hope that the Senate has the wisdom and courage to block spending on wasteful and dangerous ABM deployment.
Dec. 7, 2001
Attorney General John Ashcroft is big on suspending civil rights in pursuit of suspected terrorists, even when such actions are mostly window-dressing with little effectiveness. Military tribunals of dubious constitutionality, eavesdropping on lawyer-client conversations, and detention without charges are all OK. However, when it comes to keeping guns out of the hands of terrorists, even the slightest infringement of gun-owners privileges is out of the question, in Ashcroft's view. Today, Ashcroft refused an FBI request to check lists of suspected terrorists against Brady-Bill mandated records of background-checks of people who have attempted to purchase guns. The gun lobby already won concessions on the Brady Bill, forcing the Justice Department to destroy records after 90 days (instead of 180). Now, Ashcroft advocates destroying records after only 24 hours. When he was a senator from Missouri, Ashcroft attempted to mandate that records be destroyed immediately.
August 3, 2001
The Wall Street Journal reports the extent to which the Bush anti-regulatory push has pervaded the administration. Enforcement has been put on hold across a broad spectrum of government agencies. Among other things, at the request of Vice President and oilman Dick Cheney, the Environmental Protection Agency has frozen a probe of more than 100 energy companies suspected of violating the Clean Air Act.
[**Gap. Discuss issue of Cheney energy plan and nuclear proliferation. See policy piece by Frank Von Hippel in Science regarding this, and perils of plutonium shipments andnuclear fuel reprocessing.]
August 2, 2001
Under intense pressure from the White House, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives today passed the Bush energy plan in essentially the form that Bush wanted. The vote was 240-189, largely though not exclusively along partisan lines. The bill opens up the Arctic National Wildlife refuge to oil and gas drilling, and includes approximately 30 billion dollars in giveaways to oil, gas and coal producers. The oil subsidies provide taxpayer assistance to an industry that is already enormously profitable. Conservation gets only a pittance, and the amount alotted to energy efficiency research doesn't even make up for cuts made elsewhere by the Bush administration. Also in line with the Bush plan, the House refused to require SUV's to meet the same fuel efficiency standards as cars, including only token improvements in the fuel standards. The bill was passed with substantial lobbying help from the Teamsters Union, which allowed itself to be hornswoggled by specious estimates of job creation due to the energy plan (estimates based on an American Petroleum Institute study which is contested). [**Insert description of Prudhoe Bay.] This raises an interesting question, both regarding Prudhoe Bay and drilling in ANWR, if worst should come to worst. Who is responsible for cleaning up the debris left behind by oil drilling and exploration? Are companies required to dismantle equipment and return the land to its original state? Are they required to post a bond to assure compliance in the event of bankruptcy? There has been complete silence on this issue, and the only thing that is clear is that Prudhoe Bay is a mess. Bush threatens to do the same to the coastal plane of ANWR. In the fall, the action moves to the Senate. Hopefully, the worst provisions can be stopped there.
July 27, 2001
The Bush administration continued its assault on international treaties designed to promote global security. For some time, the administration has been working to withdraw from the ABM treaty so that it can pursue its ill-conceived missile defense scheme. In the past several weeks, the administration managed to kill two lesser-known treaties. The first was a UN accord designed to control traffic in small arms (machine guns, grenades, etc.), which take a great toll on human life. The US objected to all the substantive provisions, largely on the grounds that anything that might imply that controlling guns (even perhaps in the US) would be a bad thing. As a result, the accord was eviscerated, leaving in meaningless and ineffective. In another mood culminating this week, the Bush Administration withdrew from further negotiations on a Germ Warfare Treaty, designed to inhibit further development of biological weapons. The Administration grounds again were that the treaty would constitute an undue interference in US domestic affairs. Rather than working to find common ground, the administration scrapped the draft treaty entirely.
May 4, 2001
Bush took another step towards overturning the Clinton-era ban on building logging roads in national forests and roadless areas. It was announced that the rules would be re-written to allow local forest managers to make the ultimate decision as to whether to allow new roads. This is just another back-door attempt to allow unrestrained road-building without taking the heat for an unpopular decision. A Chicago Tribune editorial today pointed out that taxpayers lost $126 million on subsidized logging in 1998, much of it due to the cost of roadbuilding. It is not possible to argue against the roadless area protection on the basis of timber supply, since roadless areas affect only 1/4 of a percent of the US timber supply. The Clinton measures were the result of 600 public hearings taking into account 1.6 million recorded comments, and enjoyed overwhelming public support. [**Fill gap in from clippings files]
May 2, 2001
In rejecting a reduced arsenic limit in drinking water, Bush cited a lack of science supporting the lower limits, and claimed that the cost per life saved was too high. This week Bush began his major push to sell a National Missile Defense system, but evidently when it comes to missile defense, cost and sound science are not concerns. The President seeks to take irreversible action to commit the nation to a missile defense, without there being any scientific evidence that such a defense could succeed, and with much evidence that it couldn't. Further, since 1985 the nation has spent nearly $60 billion on missile defense, much of it on national defense and advanced weapons. Yet, not a single American life has been saved as a result, nor is a life likely to be saved, given that an enemy could easily take out San Francisco, Seattle or Manhattan with a small nuclear weapon smuggled in on a sailboat. If cost is a consideration in policy, then National Missile Defense makes arsenic regulation seem like a real bargain, any way you slice it.
April 6, 2001
A little something to go with that arsenic in your water my dear? Yesterday, Bush Administration officials in the Department of Agriculture declared that mandatory salmonella testing of ground meat destined for school lunches would be halted. The testing had been heavily opposed by the food processing industry. After widespread criticism, the Administration backed off from its decision, but the priorities of this Administration are abundantly clear. One can only wonder what is going on in all those recesses of the Bush government that haven't yet been exposed by the Press.
April 5, 2001
Energy crisis? What energy crisis? When it comes to justifying drilling in wildlife preserves or backing out of global warming agreements, the Bush administration is happy to talk about the "Energy Crisis." However, when conservation and efficiency measures come up, the "Energy Crisis" mysteriously disappears. Today it was revealed that the Bush Administration budget cuts back the Department of Energy's efficiency, conservation and renewable energy progams by a staggering 15%. Internal discussions among administration officials had proposed cuts of up to 30%. Stay tuned. It has been estimated that efficiency improvements cut $200 billion per year off American energy bills. Refrigerator improvements alone save the electricity equivalent of the entire annual output of all America's nuclear power plants. Yet, mandatory extension of such efficiency to new air conditioners was quashed by the Bush administration. Who could object to saving all tha money -- except (big surprise) the people who make their money selling energy?
March 28, 2001
Christie Whitman, Bush's chief of the Environmental Protection agency, declared that the Bush administration has no plans for, and in fact "no interest in" implementing the Kyoto treaty. The Kyoto treaty was intended as a first step towards reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming. The formal announcement of the Bush position on the treaty is hardly a surprise, but adds to a series of decisions by the administration which block any progress on the issue. Whitman stated that Bush believes that global warming is an issue of concern. So far, however, the only "concern" revealed by Bush's actions is for the state of the oil and coal industry. In another expected move, Mike Dombeck, the Forest Service chief under the Clinton administration, resigned under pressure from the Bush administration. Dombeck was a major advocate for conservation on national lands, and protection of roadless areas. The Bush adminstration wants to take the Forest Service in "a new direction." I guess we can guess what that direction will be.
March 23, 2001
The Bush administration took steps to roll back more environmental protection rules imposed by President Bill Clinton, this time suspending restrictions on hard-rock mining operations. The Clinton rules would have given the Federal government power to prohibit new mine sites on federal land, and to enforce pollution-control standards to prevent mining contaminants from reaching streams and other water systems. It also would have required heavy-metal miners to post a bond guaranteeing clean-up of hazardous waste. The Bush administration is also attempting to use a back-door approach to Clinton's ban on building new roads in roadless areas of National Forests. Idaho had filed suit to block implementation, and rather than defending the Federal position, the Bush administration attempted to block implementation of the roadless policy until the courts resolved the suit -- but then asked the court to delay hearings indefinitely. This approach was turned down by the courts, but it is probably not the last trick the Bush administration will try to pull on this issue.
March 21, 2001
--A little arsenic with your tea, my dear? In another victory for polluters, the Bush administration today blocked a Clinton rule that would have reduced the amount of arsenic permitted in drinking water. The proposed rule was issued in January, after years of study and had been scheduled to take effect within days. Arsenic pollution limits have not been updated since the 1940's. Although some municipalities had complained about the cost of complying with the regulations, the fiercest opposition came from the mining industry, which produces a great deal of arsenic pollution in the course of hardrock mining for metals. (Press coverage: Chicago Tribune, "EPA stops new limits on arsenic in water." see also March 21 New York Times for connection with the mining industry.) --Big Oil consolidates its hold over Bush energy and environmental policy Last week Steve Griles was nominated for the No. 2 post in the Department of the Interior. Griles has been an industry lobbyist in Washington, and was an undersecretary of the Interior during the dark (environmentally speaking) days of the Reagan administration.
March 14, 2001
Bush today reneged on a campaign pledge to control CO2 emissions from power plants. During the campaign, he promised to control CO2 along with other power plant emissions. Bowing to pressure from the Global Climate Coalition and other industry lobbying groups, Bush now claims that including CO2 as a pollutant was a "mistake." Bush cited an "energy crisis" in support of his turnaround, and also claimed that there was too much uncertainty in the science linking CO2 to global warming. Coal burning power plants produce about half of US electricity, and account for a large part of US CO2 emissions. The emissions controls were supported by Bush's EPA chief, Christy Whitman, as well as his Treasury secretary (a former CEO of Alcoa who has been outspoken on the subject), and several moderate Republican Senators. All have been hung out to dry. The coal industry donated more than $3.8 million to the Bush campaign and Republican causes in the last election. James Harless, president of International Industries, a West Virginia mining company, was one of Bush's largest individual supporters, raising or donating more than $200,000 for Bush. (Chicago Tribune, March 21, "West frets over energy policy.") Press clippings: See Chicago Tribune editorial (LumpOfCoal.txt) and NYT Op-Ed (BushWarmsUp.txt)
Feb. 7, 2001
Bush moves to open up US borders to Mexican trucks, who will be allowed to haul freight nationwide. Such a move is required ultimately by NAFTA, but had been on hold because spot checks found that 41% of Mexican trucks fail to satisfy US safety and air pollution regulations. In moving to allow in the trucks before an effective inspection and enforcement mechanism is in place, Bush shows yet again his bias for the requirements of big business over clean air and public safety.
Feb. 6, 2001
Bush delays implementation of regulations protecting roadless areas of national forests from logging. After a long rule-making process involving hundreds of public hearings, these regulations had been put forth in the last days of the Clinton administration. One of Bush's first acts in office was to put a freeze on printing Clinton's new regulations in the Federal Register, pending review. Bush's actions are widely seen as a delaying tactic, buying time to seek ways to overturn the regulations.
Jan. 26, 2001
In reaction to the California power crisis, W's bright idea is to roll back air pollution regulations in California. California officials say air pollution regulation is not the problem, and that they don't need or want such a rollback. The fact that W thinks immediately along these lines shows where he stands on air pollution. Anybody for Dallas air? (Story in Chicago Tribune/AP 26 January)
First week in office (January 2001)
Appointments to cabinet. John Ashcroft (rabidly anti-choice No abortions even for rape or incest.; shoddy racial politics). Gale Norton (protoge of James Watt. Wants to drill in ANWR. Wants to restore snowmobiles to parks. How about Jet Skis?) Christie Whitman to EPA (in a NYT interview, says the science of global warming is "uncertain," but then went on to completely mix up the ozone hole problem ("I read that the hole is closing") with global warming.) Bush's first executive order is to restore the Global Gag Rule, denying international family planning aid to organizations that provide, counsel, or even talk about abortion -- even if they don't use US funds to do so.