LAT editorial on new outrages by the Bush EPA: "The Wrong-Way Agency"

[Nothing Without Hope]

This is, of course, the predictable result of having enrichment of Big Oil and other industrial cronies as the highest priority. Not only does the EPA continue to worsen in its non-performance of its job of oversight and restriction of pollution, but it is keeping the states from moving forward on their own. And a continuing thread through all of this is the Bushie political appointees at the EPA "ignoring" (actually often even more blatant, like blacking out mentions of global warming in documents) their scientific advisors' own factual statements and recommendations in order to support continuing outrageous policies.

It's getting even worse, as this editorial update shows. I recommend you read the entire article.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-warm28jan28,0,3487522.story?track=tothtml,0,5491068.story?track=tothtml
January 28, 2006
latimes.com : Opinion : Editorials
EDITORIALS: THE SATURDAY PAGE

THE EPA FOLLIES
A wrong-way agency

FOR TOO LONG, THE EPA HAS BEEN AWOL. Once a proud protector of public well-being, the Environmental Protection Agency has become an agency that too often ignores science and must be dragged into taking even the smallest steps. Even worse, it prevents other public agencies from moving forward with plans to protect the environment.

The EPA was criticized last week by the Government Accountability Office for its weak efforts to keep lead out of drinking water. Its own inspector general reported last year that the agency ignored scientific evidence in its poorly planned effort to come up with soft limits on mercury pollution. Its requirements for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada were thrown out of court in 2004 because they fell far short of those called for by the National Academy of Sciences.

Now the EPA would like to weaken rules on toxic reporting, and it is ignoring a key recommendation of its own Scientific Advisory Committee — a first, according to many veterans — to propose keeping annual levels of particulates at their current levels. The microscopic particles are a stubborn pollutant in Southern California's air and can cause heart disease, asthma and poor lung development in children.

Perhaps most frustrating to the rest of the world — and many U.S. states — the EPA wants nothing to do with regulating greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Twelve states, including California, sued to force the EPA into doing its rightful job, but the courts ruled against them; the EPA claims it lacks the authority to regulate greenhouse gases.

(snip)

[Nothing Without Hope]

1. kick

I have to leave now - I hope this thread is seen. The Bush Administration is actively and knowingly PROMOTING pollution that contributes to global warming and other ills while deliberately deepening the catastrophic dependence on fossil fuels.

[NoFederales]

2. I fight this fight every goddamned day and will not cease. nt

NoFederales

[rodeodance]

3. recom. and k

[rodeodance]

4. KICKYPOO

[Nothing Without Hope]

5. PROOF that the Bushies are secretly & deliberately promoting greenhouse

gas emissions WORLDWIDE, and doing it for the profits of giant corporations:

From the Independent/U.K., reported in this DU thread on Dec 8:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x36484
thread title (12/8/05, Environment/Energy Forum): Leaked Memo Reveals Sweeping Corporate Plan To Wreck Climate Action In EU

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article331768.ece

How America plotted to stop Kyoto deal

By Andrew Buncombe in Montreal
Published: 08 December 2005

A detailed and disturbing strategy document has revealed an extraordinary American plan to destroy Europe's support for the Kyoto treaty on climate change. The ambitious, behind-the-scenes plan was passed to The Independent this week, just as 189 countries are painfully trying to agree the second stage of Kyoto at the UN climate conference in Montreal. It was pitched to companies such as Ford Europe, Lufthansa and the German utility giant RWE.

Put together by a lobbyist who is a senior official at a group partly funded by ExxonMobil, the world's biggest oil company and a fierce opponent of anti-global warming measures, the plan seeks to draw together major international companies, academics, think-tanks, commentators, journalists and lobbyists from across Europe into a powerful grouping to destroy further EU support for the treaty. It details just how the so-called "European Sound Climate Policy Coalition" would work. Based in Brussels, the plan would have anti-Kyoto position papers, expert spokesmen, detailed advice and networking instantly available to any politician or company who wanted to question the wisdom of proceeding with Kyoto and its demanding cuts in carbon dioxide emissions.

It has been drawn up by Chris Horner, a senior official with the Washington-based Competitive Enterprise Institute and a veteran campaigner against Kyoto and against the evidence of climate change. One of his colleagues who describes himself as an adviser to President George Bush, was the subject of a censure motion by the Commons last year after he attacked the Government's chief scientist. Mr Horner, whose CEI group has received almost $1.5m (£865,000) from ExxonMobil, is convinced that Europe could be successfully influenced by such a policy coalition just as the US government has been.

(snip)

While there is nothing illegal about the lobbying, the documents reveal a rare insight into the well-funded efforts within the US to influence opinion at senior levels of European corporations. Campaigners say the campaign is similar to a notorious lobbying effort carried out during the 1990s to undermine support for Kyoto within the US. The revelation comes as international negotiators in Montreal are discussing the next step within Kyoto and the possibility of introducing new emissions targets. The Bush administration which has rejected the treaty has insisted it will not agree to any measures that legally bind it to reduce emissions. Mr Horner has been present this week in Montreal.

(snip)

[Nothing Without Hope]

6. kick n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

7. kick n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. kick for the late night crowd n/t

[Auntie Bush]

9. A kick for Nothing without Hope

:kick: Bush stinks! I hope when they do an Autopsy on him they find his deformed brain full of mercury.

[NoFederales]

10. kick

[DeepModem Mom]

11. K&R!