Why I don’t like Bush, Part IV, Environmental Policy (Part I, Part II, Part III)

As I mentioned before, being an “environmentalist” is how I was raised. It’s part of the respect that I was raised to have for others. But as I don’t see how someone can live on this planet and not be an environmentalist, I also don’t see how it is possible to be an environmentalist and support Bush.

Mountiantop Removal

This one is personal.

For several decades now, there has been in West Virginia a shift towards tourism, with West Virginia Tourism becoming a major source of income for the state. Which is a good thing, because it’s beautiful here. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem likely to remain beautiful here as the Bush administration is pushing to reduce restrictions on Mountaintop mining and watershed pollution. For an idea of what I mean, check out this site full of aerial photographs of mountaintop removal and coal slurry impoundment sites. We (as a state) are trying to bring people into the state, so I can not comprehend why knocking mountains tops off of into valleys should be considered a good idea.

It’s possible that the horrors of strip mining and clear cut logging and mountaintop removal are only clear when you actually see the sites for themselves. If you’ve seen a wooded mountain for years, only one day to come upon the entire area, completely devastated. You can trust me that it brings a sick feeling to the pit of your stomach.

Clean Air Act

The Clean Air Act was created in the 1970 to combat the health dangers of air pollution. The Bush administration has attempted to weaken the Clean Air act with its changes to the “routine maintenance” clause for older, higher polluting power plants that would allow such high pollution plants to avoid adding making costly upgrades to reduce pollution.

Why is this important? Air pollution isn’t just a matter of depleting the ozone and increased levels of greenhouse gasses (although these things are bad.) Because air pollutants have health effects and can cause problems such as: asthma, reduced lung function, chronic respiratory diseases, and they can exacerbate heart disease.

Appeals court blocks Bush clean air changes

Clean Water Act

The Clean Water Act was created in 1972 in response to public concerns over water pollution. Unlike the clean air act which focuses upon health problems caused by air pollution, the Clean Water Act deals with water quality that affects recreation and fishing. The Bush administration wants to stop applying Clean Water Act protections to most intrastate, nonnavigable wetlands and headwater streams despite an EPA report stating that doing so would have “profound and far reaching impacts”

Why is clean water important? Besides the pleasure of clean streams and rivers, dirty water can spread a variety of diseases, including cholera, giardiasis, amebic dysentery, hepatitis A, and cryptosporidium. Other problems stemming from polluted water are pfiesteria and dead zones.

Mercury

The Bush administration also wanted to relax regulations on mercury pollution, to roll back the deadlines for emissions reductions for industry, despite the dangers that mercury poses.

“(I)ndividuals whose diet included large amounts of fish had dangerously high levels of mercury in their blood. Fish accumulate methylmercury in their blood, and it cannot be cooked out. Even modestly excessive exposure to mercury has been shown to impair human immune, reproductive, and cardiovascular systems.”

CAFE Standards

The Bush administration, instead of increasing CAFE standards for SUVs, which would increase fuel efficency, and decrease gasoline consumption, proposes to make it easier for SUVs and other light trucks (which are used not as trucks but as passenger vehicles). Combined with the fact that contrary to common opinion, SUVs are not safer than cars, and in fact are no safer than compact and sub-compact cars. Combine that with the SUV tax credit that allows small businesses to take a tax write-off of up to $25,000 for a vehicle weighing more than 6,000 pounds, and you arrive where we are today, a country where light trucks outsell cars. Needless to say, legislation to improve the situation has gone nowhere.

“The difference between the fuel efficiency of new vehicles and that of the nation’s existing vehicle fleet continues to shrink and may even have disappeared.”
“In the United States, the transportation sector accounts for one-third of our total energy consumption and produces one-third of our CO2, the principal global warming gas. The US transportation sector is 97 percent dependent on petroleum. About half of the oil used by the U.S. is imported. In a “business-as-usual” scenario, the Energy Information Administration predicts transportation fuel use to grow by nearly 50 percent by 2020.”
“Jeffrey Runge … the US government’s road safety chief, and a former ER doctor, (is) calling on the automobile industry to make these beefed-up hybrids of cars and vans much safer. In testimony to Congress last week, he said that some types of SUV are so dangerous that he will not let members of his own family drive them.”
“(T)he U.S. government grants massive tax breaks to purchasers of SUVs. The original intent of the provision was to increase capital investments by farmers and other small business owners who rely on light-trucks or vans (ie. construction companies).”