It’s no secret that George W. Bush’s environmental record is less that perfect. His actions show that he not only fails to place the environment among his top priorities, but that he profits from his environmentally unfriendly policies by receiving donations and benefits from offending corporations. With evidence spanning from his days as the governor of Texas to his current administration in Washington D.C., it is clear that, no matter where he is, the only green Bush is protecting comes in the form of corporate donations.
The pro-corporate, anti-environmental legislation that is so popular among this administration began developing years before Bush ever reached the White House.
Although he likes to paint himself as an outdoorsman who enjoys the simple life on his ranch in Texas, the reality is quite different. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rated Bush’s Texas 47th in air quality and having the seventh highest rate of release of toxic industrial byproducts onto its land (i). On many occasions during his double term, the EPA confronted Bush about enforcing national regulations that are intended to protect residents and the environment.
In the fall of 1996, in response to increasing public awareness and impending EPA deadlines, the state environmental regulatory agency, the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC), began steps toward requiring significant pollution reductions from industrial plants, which account for over 900,000 tons or 37 percent of all industrial emissions. Working in secret with representatives from the oil and gas industry, Governor Bush’s administration developed a “voluntary� pollution abatement program to allow these facilities to obtain permits without significant reductions in emissions. The voluntary plan formed the basis of the state’s regulatory position (ii), which created the façade of taking positive action, when in fact, the state government was taking measures that covered up corporate pollution and dumping of toxic chemicals.
During the 2000 presidential election campaign, special interest groups, corporations and wealthy individuals contributed millions of dollars to both of the major candidates. Al Gore raised $45,307,907 in individual donations including from his top contributors, among which are lobby groups, securities and investment firms, civil and public servants and groups in the entertainment industry. George W. Bush more than doubled that, raising $101,520,773 in individual donations, with his top donors drawing from commercial banks, the automotive industry, the oil and gas industries, real estate groups and health professionals (iii). It’s no wonder the path of Bush’s policies has taken a very corporate-friendly shape.
In March 2001, George W. Bush reversed his former campaign position on carbon dioxide by making it clear to Congress that he would not impose mandatory emissions reductions for carbon dioxide on our nation’s power plants. Although reducing carbon dioxide is a key element in reducing the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and ergo global warming, Bush is able to evade these reductions because CO2 is not listed under the Clean Air Act. He justifies his actions by pointing out that in a cutback in the use of coal for energy (CO2 is a byproduct), there would be a greater shift to electric power, a more expensive form of energy, and electricity prices would increase.
Five months into his presidency, George Bush committed his first major offense against the environment by removing federal protections that prevent outside sources from making decisions about the natural resources within our national forests. Though he claimed this move was intended to boost the local economies of the areas surrounding national forests by providing a new source for industry, it mostly benefited the timber and trucking corporations and not the local population. As the natural resources are extracted from the area, the profits go to the people at the top and the land is left depleted, killing the local business that depends on tourism and recreation at the parks.
The following month, in May 2001, Bush released his energy plan for the next three and a half years. Despite promises to improve environmental conditions during his campaign, his National Energy Policy Development Group’s (NEPDG) report used the “energy crisis� as a means to avoid deregulating by the government in the rampant corporate production of energy (iv). Although the NEPDG would not make public its advisors for the report, it’s clear that its authors were under the influence of some of Bush’s biggest campaign contributors – the oil and gas industries.
Bush’s first months in office set the tone for his environmental agenda, which has only gotten worse during the past two and a half years. In September 2001, under Bush, the United States was the only industrialized nation that did not support the guidelines outlined in the Kyoto Treaty to reduce greenhouse gases. The following month Bush reversed several lawsuits that were filed by the EPA under Clinton against several power companies for violating sectors of the Clean Air Act.
Though generally preoccupied with destroying Afghanistan’s ecosystem after September 11, Bush still managed to release his global warming plan in February of 2002. Instead of introducing an initiative aimed at reducing greenhouse gases, Bush created a new system of measuring “greenhouse gas intensity� by factoring in the state of the environment into the state of the economy, so that the amount of greenhouse gas that is permitable is determined by the growth of the economy. After much verbose explaining of his plan, Bush allows for these caps to be voluntary, completely defeating the purpose of regulating industrial pollutants. Two weeks later Bush made taxpayers foot the bill for the cleanup operations of many polluted land sites. In his budget proposal, he explicitly says that he will not “pursue reauthorization� of taxes on corporations that pay for the cleanups, which means the public is responsible for the costs. If there was any confusion about Bush’s anti-environment policies during his 2000 election campaign, now there can be no doubt. Kicking Bush out of office in 2004 has to be a priority for all who want to protect our environment from further destruction of natural resources at the hands of corporate polluters.
i. www.pbs.org/newshour
ii. www.txpeer.org
iii. www.opensecrets.org/2000elect
iv. http://www.wage-slave.org/20010521. energy.html
Julia Donahue is a highschool senior, and a member of the
National Council of the Young Communist League.
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