Bush's EPA Helps Polluters To Pollute More

[ECW]

Environmental Delinquency

Frank O'Donnell

August 10, 2006

(Frank O'Donnell is president of Clean Air Watch, a 501(c)3 nonpartisan, nonprofit organization aimed at educating the public about clean air and the need for an effective Clean Air Act.)

A federal judge sounded more like a tough-talking truant officer when he dressed down the Environmental Protection Agency last week for failing to enforce the Clean Air Act.

"EPA has been grossly delinquent,� noted U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman, who assailed what he branded “the foot-dragging efforts of a delinquent agency.�

Since most of the major media failed to report on this remarkable ruling, it might be worth taking a minute to examine just what prompted Friedman, a judge appointed by President Clinton, to use such unusually blunt language.

The case involved a lawsuit by the Sierra Club, which pointed out that the EPA had ignored a congressional directive to set toxic air pollution standards for literally dozens of industries, including manufacturers of plastics, paints, chemicals and pesticides. These are among the biggest sources of cancer-causing chemicals in urban areas. EPA’s failure was recently highlighted by a Government Accountability Office report, which noted that 95 percent of Americans face an increased risk of developing cancer as a result of breathing air toxins.

In its lawsuit, the Sierra Club also observed that the EPA had blown deadlines to set standards for various products that emit smog-forming pollution—perhaps one reason why the Clean Air Watch Smog Survey found smog problems in 38 states last month.

The EPA had a pretty lame alibi: It was busy.

Friedman noted that EPA was busy all right—busy trying to cut deals for polluters. The agency, he said, “currently devotes substantial resources to discretionary rulemakings, many of which make existing regulations more congenial to industry, and several of which since have been found unlawful."

The agency’s priorities reflect the Bush administration’s cozy relationship with polluters.

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It appears that the EPA has become the fox watching the hen house instead of the farmer. I guess campaign contributions to the GOP actually do buy lessened restrictions on polluters so they can continue to poison our air and water.

The Whole Truth Is Here (http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/08/10/environmental_delinquency.php)

[Mayberry]

The air and water is a lot cleaner today than it was 20 years ago. I think anything from the Sierra Cult is overblown and unrealistic. If all the changes those kooks wanted were implemented, business here would grind to a halt and we'd all be living in caves. They need to get real.

[ECW]

Yes, the air and water is cleaner, no thanks to GOP watch dogs who let the polluters in the hen house. If it wasn't for people like those in the Sierra Club, you would be drinking sludge from your faucet and breathing smog on your jog. (See I can over-exaggerate, too.)

Sad part of this is the Bushies have opened up government to sell to the highest bidder and none of that makes us safe. Do you feel good about industry lobbyists, who are looking out for their own interests and their own companies, manipulating our laws to benefit themselves and possibly put you at risk? If you do feel safe about stuff like that I strongly recommend that you go to Blockbuster and check out "Erin Brockovich." You don't have to drink the Kool-Aid, son, just the water.

[Mayberry]

If you do feel safe about stuff like that I strongly recommend that you go to Blockbuster and check out "Erin Brockovich." Seen it. Environmental kooks are harmful to business, especially small business. Republican kooks are harmful to, well, everything. Somewhere in the hazy middle ground is the place to be. Environmentally responsible, yet financially realistic. The two can coexist.

[ECW]

If you do feel safe about stuff like that I strongly recommend that you go to Blockbuster and check out "Erin Brockovich." Seen it. Environmental kooks are harmful to business, especially small business. Republican kooks are harmful to, well, everything. Somewhere in the hazy middle ground is the place to be. Environmentally responsible, yet financially realistic. The two can coexist.


Best answer yet.

There is a middle ground but, as the article points out, we are not there and we won't get there with Bushbots crackpots selling us out at every turn. This doesn't have anything to do with enviro-nuts but a federal judge jumping on the EPA for failing to do their jobs.

[Nathan Brazil]

Sad part of this is the Bushies have opened up government to sell to the highest bidder and none of that makes us safe.

Of course, we won't mention that Governor Gray Davis of California quadrupled the admissable dioxin emissions into San Francisco Bay to help out a friendly oil company, will we? And he only charged them 55 grand for the favor.

No, we can't mention that, Democrats never ever take bribes. The world really is as one sided as ECW would like it to be.

[ECW]

And we certainly won't mention that it was the price manipulations of a certain Enron corporation (who was buddy-buddy with Chimpy and his minions for years) that caused the energy crisis in California that led to Gray Davis' ouster. We won't mention the thousands of faithful Enron employees who were bankrupted by the crash of Enron that Kenny Boy did not see coming and the thousands that will never see their hard earned pensions while most of the white collar cronies of Lay walked away with small fortunes.

No, Republicans believe in personal responsibility until something they do could land them in jail and then they run from their deeds like Osama runs from our troops. The shining light of the Fratboy from Andover has blinded you to the real world and the manipulative nature of the lobbyists that are working hand-in-hand with Bushbot cronies to repeal 30 years of environmental protective legislation.

[Rider]

How do you explain the trial and conviction of Lay and others during the Republican administration?

[Mayberry]

And we certainly won't mention that it was the price manipulations of a certain Enron corporation (who was buddy-buddy with Chimpy and his minions for years) that caused the energy crisis in California that led to Gray Davis' ouster. What have you been smoking? The California "energy crisis" was caused by lack of investment in new power production, mostly due to the NIMBY treehuggers on the left coast. It seems that windmills and solar panels couldn't keep up. They want all this environmental regulation, then cry when the lights go out. Interestingly enough, many new California power projects were "fast tracked" after this fiasco. Arizona and Utah also saw a mini boom of plant construction to feed California. When demand outpaces supply, the lights go out. What did Enron have to do with that? Nothing.

[ECW]

How do you explain the trial and conviction of Lay and others during the Republican administration?


The same way I explain the trial and conviction of public misdeeds in ANY administration: dedicated public servants who ignore the politics and follow the law.

[ECW]

And we certainly won't mention that it was the price manipulations of a certain Enron corporation (who was buddy-buddy with Chimpy and his minions for years) that caused the energy crisis in California that led to Gray Davis' ouster. What have you been smoking? The California "energy crisis" was caused by lack of investment in new power production, mostly due to the NIMBY treehuggers on the left coast. It seems that windmills and solar panels couldn't keep up. They want all this environmental regulation, then cry when the lights go out. Interestingly enough, many new California power projects were "fast tracked" after this fiasco. Arizona and Utah also saw a mini boom of plant construction to feed California. When demand outpaces supply, the lights go out. What did Enron have to do with that? Nothing.


WHAMMO! (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/01/eveningnews/main620626.shtml)

[Mayberry]

WHAMMO! Touche ECW. Very interesting article. But you must admit that California's energy woes were partially due to a lack of new generation. SEVERAL new plants have been built since then, both in Cally, and along the borders with Arizona and Utah. But a very interesting article indeed. Where is the public outcry, media frenzy that surely should accompany such information? I would think investigations/ criminal charges are in order.

[Nathan Brazil]

And there's another thread that argues the media isn't biased. Yet here's ECW linking to an article from SeeBS that claims California was stung by a flirtation with energy "de-regulation", when any honest report would acknowledge that it was simply re-regulation.

[/quote]The tapes, from Enron's West Coast trading desk, also confirm what CBS reported years ago: that in secret deals with power producers, traders deliberately drove up prices by ordering power plants shut down.[/quote]

Yeah, like we Californians didn't notice that it was almost exclusively Sacramento that enjoyed the rolling blackouts that year. We're so stupid in this state none of us ever figured that Sacramento happens to be where the legislators live and...well, I can't really say they work there. Where they rake in the money, shall we say?

And the biggest dopiest legislator was the executive idiot named Davis, who really was too stupid to understand what was going on. That's why he got canned halfway through his second term, of course.

[Nathan Brazil]

g the borders with Arizona and Utah. But a very interesting article indeed. Where is the public outcry, media frenzy that surely should accompany such information? I would think investigations/ criminal charges are in order.

What? With the legislature dominated by Democrats you think they want' any investigation into how California was running it's behind-closed-doors energy deals? No, there won't be any in-depth investigation into any hint of a story such yellow journalism reveals. Neither wing of the dominant political party wants that.

It's like Clinton's corruption, neither party wanted to do anything about it because all of them had been swimming in the same sewage collection tank for decades.

[ECW]

WHAMMO! Touche ECW. Very interesting article. But you must admit that California's energy woes were partially due to a lack of new generation. SEVERAL new plants have been built since then, both in Cally, and along the borders with Arizona and Utah. But a very interesting article indeed. Where is the public outcry, media frenzy that surely should accompany such information? I would think investigations/ criminal charges are in order.


I'm happy to meet in the middle on this one. I followed the Enron debacle in Texas and only got into what happened in California because of what certain execs were found doing to perpetuate the crisis. There is no doubt that new plants need to be built with the expanding population out there. I defer to your expertise on this matter.

[ECW]

And there's another thread that argues the media isn't biased.Â*Â* Yet here's ECW linking to an article from SeeBS that claims California was stung by a flirtation with energy "de-regulation", when any honest report would acknowledge that it was simply re-regulation.

Here's a perfect example of Shooting The Messenger. Don't like what the source reports, discredit the source instead of the story.

California got stung by Enron manipulating the crisis. Here's proof from other sources.

Source #1 (http://foi.missouri.edu/usenergypolicies/mystenron.html)

Source #2 (http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=5662)

Source #3 (http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/news/pressreleases/spence06.asp)

Any honest report shows Enron was full of crooks. Just like the current EPA.

[Nathan Brazil]

And there's another thread that argues the media isn't biased.Â*Â* Yet here's ECW linking to an article from SeeBS that claims California was stung by a flirtation with energy "de-regulation", when any honest report would acknowledge that it was simply re-regulation.

Here's a perfect example of Shooting The Messenger. Don't like what the source reports, discredit the source instead of the story.

California got stung by Enron manipulating the crisis. Here's proof from other sources.

Source #1 (http://foi.missouri.edu/usenergypolicies/mystenron.html)

Source #2 (http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=5662)

Source #3 (http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/news/pressreleases/spence06.asp)

Any honest report shows Enron was full of crooks. Just like the current EPA.


California got stung because politicians are the nation's leading criminal class. I'm not going to argue that Enron wasn't corrupt. But I do know where the real problem was, and is. It's government.

[Churchel]

I suggest you all watch "the smartest men in the room" it gives the history of enron, and explains the market manipulation.

Its interesting that ken lay was in with the secretive energy talks with cheney, the ones where the president was not invited.Â*Â*I do not know if that was for plausable deniability, or that in the early presidency cheney did not want to re-explain all of those big words.

My next question stemming from that is if they are using the same tactic for the rest of the world by destablizing the middle east.

As far as the enviroment, yes things are hosed and they are getting worse.Â*Â*Until everyone stops bellyaching and just starts doing the right thing there is not any way that progress will be made.Â*Â*I know the overall costs for clean industry, possilby its time to start cutting china out of our manufacturing sector so US companies can compete with "greener" products.

[Nathan Brazil]

Â*Until everyone stops bellyaching and just starts doing the right thing there is not any way that progress will be made.

So you're going to stop voting for Demcorats! Excellent. Every little step in the right direction counts.

[ECW]

While we "try" and get China out of our manufacturing base, The Bushies are selling us out to those same companies on the cheap and re-polluting the water and air and soil we've been fighting for years to clean up.