Bush overrides EPA science team, steps up to protect smog

March 14, 2008

Before we get too caught up in choosing the next president, it’s probably worth keeping in mind that the current president continues to make startlingly bad decisions that affect us all.

The Environmental Protection Agency weakened one part of its new limits on smog-forming ozone after an unusual last-minute intervention by President Bush, according to documents released by the EPA.

EPA officials initially tried to set a lower seasonal limit on ozone to protect wildlife, parks and farmland, as required under the law. While their proposal was less restrictive than what the EPA’s scientific advisers had proposed, Bush overruled EPA officials and on Tuesday ordered the agency to increase the limit, according to the documents.

“It is unprecedented and an unlawful act of political interference for the president personally to override a decision that the Clean Air Act leaves exclusively to EPA’s expert scientific judgment,” said John Walke, clean-air director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Perhaps, but Bush does stuff like this anyway.

With the EPA overriding the unanimous judgment of its scientific advisory council, which pushed for a more protective standard, it’s worth taking a moment to consider just how damaging the Bush gang has been for the EPA. The president and his team have decimated any number of federal agencies — many of which used to be effective and efficient — thanks to neglect and the promotion of political hacks, but the EPA’s demise has been especially striking.

Kate Sheppard noted some of the controversies from just the past week.

* The EPA’s big update of smog standards yesterday was significantly less stringent than the standards recommended unanimously by its own scientific advisory council, at the behest of Bush himself.

* Also yesterday, House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman issued a letter to administrator Stephen Johnson expressing concern that “multiple senior EPA officials” have disclosed that the EPA has “ceased their efforts” to abide by the Supreme Court ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA that they should be regulating tailpipe greenhouse emissions. Johnson was also called to appear before the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming on Thursday to discuss how the EPA and the Bush administration have “responded” to the case.

* Today the House Committee on Science and Technology’s Subcommittee on Investigations & Oversight held a hearing examining the closure of EPA regional and research libraries around the country, and the GAO released a report on the degree to which those closures have restricted staff and public access to records and information.

* And earlier in the week, the story broke that unions at the agency pulled out of their partnership with management, with union leaders registering complaints that Johnson and other top managers have ignored their advice and violated the agency’s scientific integrity.

I shudder to think how long it will take for the next president to clean up some of Bush’s messes, and how much worse things can get if McCain gives us a third term of Bush-like governing.

I shudder to think how long it will take for the next president to clean up some of Bush’s messes

My thoughts exactly. How many other things have they screwed with, that we don’t even know about?

I think that the recent discovery of how the RNC was looted is a good way to explain to the average idiot how criminal the Republican party has become. They can’t even keep their people from stealing from their own party, so how much do you think they worry about stealing from the taxpayers? Seriously, the Republican party is nothing but a criminal organization.

Thousands of people die every year from smog*, and Bush wants to raise the limits? He’s literally saying that his buddies need to make more money, even if it kills a lot of people. But since the people who will die live in the cities, which are usually Democratic strongholds, what does Bush care?

Reducing such ozone pollution, or smog, by about 35 percent on any given day could save about 4,000 lives a year across the United States, researchers concluded in the study funded in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

* http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6502986/

  • Anyone remember Bush in the 2000 election saying that his position on Protecting the Environment was same as Al Gore?

    Mark this one down as another promise that shrub has failed to live up to. I seriously don’t get this guy, is he that vacuos that he didn’t understand Al Gore’s commitment to the environment or just so nafarious that he does not care what he says. Or a third option, maybe its the Costanza Doctrine that explains this guy in that it is not a lie if you can make yourself believe it is not a lie.

    Oh, and he also promised to restore honor and dignity to the White House, and we know how that one has gone.

  • If (a) it would be against the law to throw Bu$h into the Potomac River and watch him float out to sea on the next tide, and (b) Bu$h does not care about doing something that is against the law, then (c) Bu$h will not care if the United States summarily throws Bu$h into the Potomac River and collectively watches him float out to sea on the next tide.

    Somebody remind me—what are the tide-flow schedules for the Potomac River/Chesapeake Bay marine region?

  • The sooner they cut down all those trees that are causing the smog the better.

    I have to think that Bush is getting paid to intervene in standards like this.

  • … And the bull looked around the china shop and spied a few pieces of china that had gone unscathed and with a ruthless efficiency made short work of them.

    A sure sign of evil at work is to witness how methodically and thoroughly it goes about its deeds. When looking at the legacy of the Bushies, we need to make sure we don’t confuse incompetence with deliberate malice. There’s nothing accidental about all the bad things that have happened these past seven years

  • Sticking your fingers in your ears and singing LA LA LA LA LA LA LA does not make the problems go away.

    It’s amazing how surprised I can continue to be. I keep thinking that with every infraction of insanity it’s the worst. Until anoter follows on its heels.

    I read somewhere that the EU was going to sanction the US for not signing Kyoto. Found some interesting Google entries (some subscription).

    http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=kyoto+us+sanctions

    Of course, WE are going to pay for this jerk’s policies. But then, we the people (sorta) elected him. (The fact that so many people voted for him…we really need some serious gene pool therapy.)

  • How many career government employees will:
    A) Never come back because of the disgusting treatment under Bush.
    B) Will never consider government service because if the political winds change they could be on the street.

    It is going to take many years to staff these agencies with enough competent people to be remotely effective.

    Now that Bush has set the bar, this is going to be really hard not to duplicate next time R’s hold the White House. By all indications, McCain would be even worse.

    How anyone thinks Bush’s legacy is going to anything but a stain on our Country amazes me beyond belief.

    OFF TOPIC, so how is that FEC/McCain election funds story playing out ? Just another ineffectual agency that doesn’t have enough Commissioners to do anything.

  • Seemingly, President Bush wants to protect smog so much, yet I can’t understand why he hasn’t put it on the endangered species list. Remember, he is the Decider – even if his decisions are a bit non sequitur in nature and outcome. (What a village idiot!) -Kevo

  • “It is unprecedented and an unlawful act of political interference for the president personally to override a decision that the Clean Air Act leaves exclusively to EPA’s expert scientific judgment…”

    Can we chalk this up to another brick in the temple of the Unitary Executive? Bush figures the EPA reports to the president, therefore the president can do EPA’s job for it, if he wishes. And if a statute assigns that task to someone other than the president, that statute is void because Congress can’t tell the Executive Branch how to function. (Notwithstanding Article I, section 8 “Congress shall have power… to makes rules for government…” and the “necessary and proper” clause.

  • Speaking of idiots who think they know about the environment, check this out:

    The founder of the Weather Channel wants to sue Al Gore for fraud, hoping a legal debate will settle the global-warming debate once and for all.

    John Coleman, who founded the cable network in 1982, suggests suing for fraud proponents of global warming, including Al Gore, and companies that sell carbon credits.

    “Is he committing financial fraud? That is the question,” Coleman said.

    “Since we can’t get a debate, I thought perhaps if we had a legal challenge and went into a court of law, where it was our scientists and their scientists, and all the legal proceedings with the discovery and all their documents from both sides and scientific testimony from both sides, we could finally get a good solid debate on the issue,” Coleman said. “I’m confident that the advocates of ‘no significant effect from carbon dioxide’ would win the case.”

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,337710,00.html

  • “I shudder to think how long it will take for the next president to clean up some of Bush’s messes….”

    Sadly, I believe it’s going to take more than one Obama administration to come anywhere near just handling the numerous messes he’s made. The consequences of our three trillion dollar war and the resulting indebtedness alone are staggering.

  • Hey, Commander Guy (Re #2)
    The only reason that the wingnuts STILL claim the “Honor & Dignity” thing (and they do, right, Steve?) is because the MSM wouldn’t go after Commander Codpiece gettin’ BJs from Jeff Gannon on the Oval Office.
    Or maybe Jeff was Karl’s bitch, or Cheney’s masochist leather slave. We will never know.

  • Ever since the bush league took office, scientists and policy analysts who are not political appointees have been muzzled in the administration. It is about time to figure out a way to cut off the funding for that part of the government. Just saying….

  • Ever since the bush league took office, scientists and policy analysts who are not political appointees have been muzzled in the administration. It is about time to figure out a way to cut off the funding for that part of the government. Just saying….

  • Ever since the bush league took office, scientists and policy analysts who are not political appointees have been muzzled in the administration. It is about time to figure out a way to cut off the funding for the White House. I don’t support taking money away from the troops, just away from the parties and other funding that goes on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It is just a dream, I know, because there is absolutely no way it would ever be done. But just saying….

  • Ever since the bush league took office, scientists and policy analysts who are not political appointees have been muzzled in the administration. It is about time to figure out a way to cut off the funding for the White House. I don’t support taking money away from the troops, just away from the dinner parties, the West Wing events, and other funding that goes on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It is just wishful thinking, I know, because there is absolutely no way it would ever be done. But just saying….

  • I know Bush has been pulling these criminal stunts ever since he took office, but now that he’s down to just a few months more in office, he’s pulled out all the stops. It’s payback time, meaning he’s launched an all-out effort to pay back his backers, and you don’t need me to tell you who they are. No law has ever stood in his way and certainly won’t now. Watch! You’ll see it happening in every area but especially where he’s trying to chop down every environmental protection that costs his buddies a little $$. And I’m going to stop now before I really get upset and write 10 or 12 pages!

  • Who in their right mind would ever vote another Bush family member into the WH???

    Anyone that is voting for Bush and Cheneys cousin that is who.

    Obama is cousins with Bush and Cheney.

    Attention all DEM voters: DON’T GET BUSHED WHACKED AGAIN!!!

  • Never has there ever been a more careless and irresponsible administration than the Bush Administration!!!! What in the world are they doing!!??!! Literally every, every decision that this administration makes is making things worse for the U.S.!!

  • IMPEACH HIM! Don’t let this man walk out of office on his own power, he is a criminal and a traitor and deserves the full force of American justice delivered to him, but at the very least we should throw him out, don’t let him skate out. His lies to the American people regarding Iraq constituted treason. Impeachment proceedings were brought against Clinton for lying about a BJ. Certainly lying about foreign intelligence, military matters and through deception of the American people committing us to war costing thousands of lives so far and billions of dollars (and then refusing to get out) must be impeachable. I don’t know why Congress isn’t doing it, except that they are all a bunch of spineless good-for-nothings or Bush bought them off. Stop your whining and demand that your Congressman initiate impeachment against him AND Cheney. Frankly I don’t care who replaces him – there isn’t anyone worse on the entire planet. And I used to be a Republican!

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