Yes of course. Through 2001 and 2002 it actually lessened by 20%,
while the new Administration got its new regulations in place. Then
over 2003 and 2004 it backslid to a net 10% improvement. What that
news show didn't tell you eas the the improvement curve has been
reversed under the current Administration. Two years from now we'll be
back to 0.

OK, I made those numbers up, but the point is that for much of this
Administration's first term we were still coasting on the improvements
made due to increased environmental regulation over the previous 20
years. e.g., a Clinton-era or Bush I-era rule requiring an industrial
plant to install exhaust-scrubbing equipment by 2000 would not show
results until the Bush II Administration, even though the improvement
was in no way the result of Bush II policy. Similarly, if the current
Administration now tells other plants of the same kind that they don't
have to install such new equipment after all, the ones who have already
installed it will probably not remove it, so you will not see an
immediate reduction in the relevant air-quality indicator... but you
will cease to see the further improvements that would have occured if
the new Administration were not in the business of gutting the Clean
Air Act.


-Richard, His Kanubic Travesty
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Richard Hopley Winston-Salem, NC, USA
.. rhopley[at]earthlink[dot]net
.. Nothing really matters except Boats, Sex, and Rock'n'Roll
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.. OK, OK; computer programming for scientific research also matters
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