Friday, October 17, 2008

Bush rushes to enrich industry while stiffing the environment


Lame ducks they may be. But President Bush and Vice President Cheney are using their last months in the White House to cram more sweets into the goodie bags of industry with yet more of their public-be-damned orders to create more misery for nature and the environment.

First out of their bags of tricks was an order to the Bureau of Land Management to ignore the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which allows Congress to take emergency action when public lands are threatened.

An Arizona congressman, Rep. Raul Grijalva, has invoked the congressional authority to prevent hard rock miners from activating some 10,000 mining claims on BLM and Forest Service lands adjoining the Grand Canyon.

The Bush-Cheney response was predictable. Ignore the law and proceed with authorizing mining after the public is given 15 days—15 days?—to object. The White House doesn't even have the grace to wait until a court decides whether the law can be ignored.

But wait. There's more in store. Simultaneously, the White House told the Interior Department, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency they cannot consider greenhouse gases from coal-fired power plants or any other industrial source as threats to habitat or to species.

This despite indisputable evidence that greenhouse gases are responsible for the rapid meltdown of arctic ice, which threatens the habitat of polar bears.

The motive for these hurried orders is clear. Once industry gets the go-ahead to run over established laws, the next president will need months or years to prepare legislation and litigation to reverse Bush-Cheney mischief. Bush and Cheney could also be betting that courts might be reluctant to put an end to industrial projects allowed by the current White House.

The themes of the past eight years—ignoring laws and reducing restrictions on industry—have led the United States to its darkest years in recent history. The nation is engaged in its longest, costliest war. An economy is in ruin. The climate and environment are in peril. Public respect for Bush and Cheney has hit rock bottom.

These indices of impeachable presidential and vice presidential conduct seem not to matter to them. Bank on this: Before their terms end in January 2009, Bush and Cheney will defy constitutional government again and inflict more damage as their farewell gifts to the nation.

Why relax now when so many more rewards can be dished out to the political faithful?




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