Bush on the Environment: Wrong and Proud of it, Until the Very End (via HuffPo)

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-jacquot/bush-on-the-environment-w_b_112576.html

Perhaps no single moment best encapsulated Bush's (dismal) record on the environment than his final meeting at the G8 summit. Fists pumping defiantly into the air -- much to the surprise (and, one can assume, consternation) of his fellow world leaders -- Bush gleefully proclaimed: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." While many have dismissed this comment as a poorly conceived joke, I can't think of a more frank, emblematic statement from a president who still refuses to acknowledge the severity of global climate change.

Granted, Bush has hardly been the chief obstructionist in his administration when it comes to climate change talks and regulation. That dubious honor certainly goes to Mr. "conservation-is-a-personal-virtue" Cheney, whose influence has only seemed to grow during the Bush presidency's final months (of course, one could argue that it has always been at its peak). Yet, whether it be through his early and consistent opposition to the Kyoto Protocol and other emission targets or his renewed embrace of offshore drilling (alongside his good friend, John McSame), the Decider has pulled out all the stops to ensure "science" doesn't get in the way of his shenanigans or those of his friends from the oil industry.

As he did on most of his early (somewhat commendable) 2000 campaign promises, Bush quickly reversed his pledge to regulate carbon dioxide as an air pollutant and ditched all efforts to give even a remote semblance of governing from the middle (remember that "compassionate" conservative talk?) by booting all independent-minded bureaucrats in favor of his ideological, incompetent cronies. Predictably, that resulted in years of censored climate science research, little to no progress on the issues of conservation and alternative energy and, of course, giveaways galore to the already uber-profitable fossil fuel industry

>> More at the link.