Companies in Texas were authorized to monitor their own nasty pollution on a voluntary basis. As long as they reported their mistakes... and promised to clean up – there would be no fines, no public disclosure and no government follow up.
Dick Cheney: It turns out Cheney wasn’t just the CEO of Halliburton between his White House assignments. He was also fundamental in developing and promoting "Wise Use" – a pseudo-practical way of perceiving the earth as something to "use wisely" – which applies cost/benefit analysis (short-term money-making) to decide how best to use up the planet.
Remember how Cheney protected the privacy of the meetings he held within days of hitting the White House -- with Enron and other energy leaders -- all the way to the Supreme Court, where his friend of 30 years, Antonin Scalia, backed him up in his secret schemes?
What went on behind those doors was betrayal – the corporations that control those utilities we have come to rely on, without which we cannot function, went to the White House with detailed wish lists. It was payback time, and their wishes – for greater profits, less restrictions, and more accessibility to the goodies of the land – took priority over the well being of the people – those fools who must be kept foolish – who believe their leader and pay more; who believe and shop; who believe and attack those who don’t believe.
So we are supposed to stand loyal, while the Vice President is fighting tooth and nail to keep knowledge away from us. Shouldn’t that make us curious? Would we walk away from a child fiercely defending the door of his closet? Wouldn’t we know that we’d better get a look?
That’s why distractions were so important.
However, the inevitable effect of this mis-prioritizing is hitting us where we are most vulnerable – our children.
Asthma, from increased particulates in the air, is now the most common childhood disease, with death rates increasing steadily, regardless of improvements in treatment.
At the same time, one out of every six American women has so much mercury in her womb that her children are at risk for autism, blindness, mental retardation and heart, liver and kidney disease.
In August, the EPA announced that all fish in 19 states are now unsafe to eat because of mercury contamination, as well as at least some of the fish in 48 states are now unsafe to eat. Actually, the only two states where they’re considered "safe" are Alaska and Wyoming, where Republican legislatures wouldn’t pay to test the fish.
The greatest source of the polluting particulates in the air, as well as the mercury in our water and fish are the 1,100 older coal-burning plants that have failed to make improvements to meet new standards. Clinton’s administration had initiated serious investigations and prosecutions against the 70 worst of these plants. Then Bush arrived.
This is an industry that donated $48 million to President Bush and the Republican Party in the 2000 cycle and has given $58 million since.
One of the first things that Bush did when he came into office was to order the Justice Department to drop those lawsuits.
Dick Cheney: It turns out Cheney wasn’t just the CEO of Halliburton between his White House assignments. He was also fundamental in developing and promoting "Wise Use" – a pseudo-practical way of perceiving the earth as something to "use wisely" – which applies cost/benefit analysis (short-term money-making) to decide how best to use up the planet.
Remember how Cheney protected the privacy of the meetings he held within days of hitting the White House -- with Enron and other energy leaders -- all the way to the Supreme Court, where his friend of 30 years, Antonin Scalia, backed him up in his secret schemes?
What went on behind those doors was betrayal – the corporations that control those utilities we have come to rely on, without which we cannot function, went to the White House with detailed wish lists. It was payback time, and their wishes – for greater profits, less restrictions, and more accessibility to the goodies of the land – took priority over the well being of the people – those fools who must be kept foolish – who believe their leader and pay more; who believe and shop; who believe and attack those who don’t believe.
That’s why distractions were so important.
However, the inevitable effect of this mis-prioritizing is hitting us where we are most vulnerable – our children.
Asthma, from increased particulates in the air, is now the most common childhood disease, with death rates increasing steadily, regardless of improvements in treatment.
At the same time, one out of every six American women has so much mercury in her womb that her children are at risk for autism, blindness, mental retardation and heart, liver and kidney disease.
In August, the EPA announced that all fish in 19 states are now unsafe to eat because of mercury contamination, as well as at least some of the fish in 48 states are now unsafe to eat. Actually, the only two states where they’re considered "safe" are Alaska and Wyoming, where Republican legislatures wouldn’t pay to test the fish.
The greatest source of the polluting particulates in the air, as well as the mercury in our water and fish are the 1,100 older coal-burning plants that have failed to make improvements to meet new standards. Clinton’s administration had initiated serious investigations and prosecutions against the 70 worst of these plants. Then Bush arrived.
This is an industry that donated $48 million to President Bush and the Republican Party in the 2000 cycle and has given $58 million since.
One of the first things that Bush did when he came into office was to order the Justice Department to drop those lawsuits.
The Justice Department lawyer said that this had never happened before in American history, where a president accepts money from industries targeted for investigation and prosecution, and then orders the justice department to drop those investigations once he gets into office. There were 70 utilities involved here and, according to the EPA, just the criminal exceedences from those 70 plants killed 5,500 Americans every year.
Then the administration rewrote the Clean Air Act, gutting the New Source rule, which means those plants will be able to discharge ozone and particulates forever.
-- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., October 7, 2004, Mother Jones Magazine
They got their ticket, all right.
Please understand that the above is merely an example of the multitude of appointments and regulation rollbacks that Bush has ordered, with unusual diligence, selling out the natural resources we depend on – not just for recreational activities and tree-hugging – but for our survival, while we’ve been looking elsewhere.
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