EPA's Revolving Door W. Industry, Right-Wing Think Tanks - Newsday

[hatrack]

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"Bush appointees say they resent being stereotyped as corporate clones, and invariably describe themselves as independent thinkers. Besides, they say, if environmental activists can be appointed by Clinton to senior positions, then Bush has every right to appoint people who truly understand how environmental regulations impact businesses. "It's important to have people in government who can reflect the perspective of the private sector EPA regulates," said John Spinello, a Bush appointee who served as the agency's associate deputy general counsel until he resigned last year to take a job as a corporate lawyer in New Jersey. "The people who are served by government agencies deserve a well-rounded workforce that includes a diversity of perspectives outside the government," Spinello said.

The Newsday analysis, however, shows that Bush's appointees to senior environment-related jobs actually have less diverse backgrounds than the people Clinton picked during his first three years in office. Bush's choices were more likely to be lobbyists or executives in their previous job, while Clinton's were distributed more evenly among the worlds of business, academia and advocacy. Specifically, Bush appointed 22 lobbyists, lawyers, consultants or business executives to top environmental policymaking jobs in federal agencies and the White House, while Clinton named 14. And while Bush named six academics and just one employee of a non-profit group, Clinton named 10 from academia and seven from non-profits.

The remaining top appointees -- 26 by Bush and 27 by Clinton -- came from other government jobs, generally staff positions in Congress or in state governments. "It's very significant where these people come from because it tells you something about their fundamental values, about how they feel about regulation and private property rights and the use of natural resources," said Stephen Meyer, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Project on Environmental Politics and Policy. "Where they worked is usually a surrogate for what they believe," agreed Neil Kerwin, a political science professor and director of the Center for the Study of Rulemaking at American University in Washington. "You're learning something about their political preferences and their attitudes about regulation."

While the Newsday analysis included only the highest-level positions, those requiring confirmation by the Senate, several career EPA officials said in interviews that they believe the contrast between the Clinton and Bush administrations is even sharper in mid-level political jobs like the one Jaeger held at EPA. "The Clinton people were less predictable. With this administration, it seems like everybody at the political level here has either a close attachment with industry or with an ultra-conservative think-tank or legal organization," said one longtime EPA attorney, who asked not to be identified out of fear of retribution from supervisors."

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Long, fascinating article.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/ny-usenvr1012,0,6984767.story?coll=ny-nationworld-nation-utility

[klook]

1. Sickening

Under Bush it's become the Environmental Predation Agency.

[RegexReader]

2. and how it this unexpected??

:mad:


RegexReader
$USA =~ s/Republican/Democrat/ig;