Worst environmental exploits of the year

Sierra Club readers have ranked Bush's 2003 attacks on the environment:

1. MERCURY RISING - Issued public health warnings to
pregnant women and children about mercury after announcing policy
changes to triple amount of mercury pollution allowed from power
plants. 2. SUPER DUPED - Became first administration to support
shifting burden of Superfund toxic waste cleanups from polluters to
taxpayers.
3. SOOTY SANTA - Dismantled provision of Clean Air Act that requires
oldest, dirtiest power plants and refineries to curb soot and smog
pollution.
4. BACK IN BLACKOUT - Proposed a national Energy Bill that did nothing
to reduce dependence on foreign oil, repair or address antiquated
electricity grid, or protect special places from oil and gas drilling.
5. DRILLING WILDERNESS - Opened nearly 9 million pristine acres in
Northwest Alaska to the oil and gas industry for exploration and
drilling.
6. STONEWALLING, BIG TIME (tied)- Continued to withhold documents from
secret meetings between Bush/Cheney Energy Task Force and energy
industry lobbyists.
6. DON'T AX, DON'T TELL (tied) - Promoted a wildfire policy that
expanded commercial logging in the backcountry but did little to
protect people where they live.
7. NEXT STOP, SHINOLA - Allowed untreated sewage to be blended with
treated sewage, cut funding for local sewage treatment, and didn't
require health officials to warn public about sewage in water.
8. CRITICAL CONDITION - Obliterated the process of critical habitat
designation for imperiled wildlife under the Endangered Species Act.
9. COP OFF - Continued pattern of willful negligence for enforcement of
even basic clean water and clean air laws.
10. POST 9/11 LIES - Discovered by EPA Inspector General to have lied
about post 9/11 environmental health hazards near Ground Zero.

These are just the top 10. Obviously there are many, many more.

Posted by flow Frazao on January 2, 2004 at 05:26 PM | Permalink