Read and weep:

WASHINGTON -

Tripling allowable levels of mercury pollution, shifting the burden of
toxic clean up from polluters to taxpayers, and undoing rules for
cleaning up America's dirtiest power plants topped a laundry list of
Bush administration exploits to weaken decades environmental progress
in 2003.

"The Bush administration is systematically turning back 30 years of
environmental progress," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club executive
director.

"You really have to go back to the McKinley administration in the late
19th century to find so many gratuitous giveaways to special interests
looking to exploit our air, water, and natural areas. Americans want a
21st century administration that can deliver forward-thinking
environmental solutions."

The Sierra Club surveyed subscribers of RAW, the organization's
twice-weekly electronic newsletter tracking the Bush administration's
environmental record, to determine the worst-of-the-worst decisions
affecting public health and the environment.

Mercury pollution, toxic cleanup, and soot and smog registered as the
greatest concerns, from a list that also included oil drilling on
sensitive lands, a secret amnesty deal for giant factory farms, and
lax environmental enforcement, among others.

The survey also found that the public is largely unaware of the broad
scope of the Bush administration's assaults on the nation's air, water
and lands, Pope said.

Many respondents expressed surprise that they haven't heard more about
the administration's environmental record from mainstream media.

"Trying to limit my vote to three big ones is beyond difficult," wrote
one RAW reader in a typical response.

"This administration is doing more damage than the Reagan & Bush Sr.
ones did. And I didn't think that was even possible! Thank you for
making the effort to educate Americans about what this administration
is really doing to this country!"


The full list of 2003 Bush administration actions, ranked according to
the survey response, appears below.


1. MERCURY RISING - Issued public health warnings to pregnant women
and children about mercury after announcing policy changes to triple
amount of mercury pollution allowed from power plants.


2. SUPER DUPED - Became first administration to support shifting
burden of Superfund toxic waste cleanups from polluters to taxpayers.


3. SOOTY SANTA - Dismantled provision of Clean Air Act that requires
oldest, dirtiest power plants and refineries to curb soot and smog
pollution.


4. BACK IN BLACKOUT - Proposed a national Energy Bill that did nothing
to reduce dependence on foreign oil, repair or address antiquated
electricity grid, or protect special places from oil and gas drilling.


5. DRILLING WILDERNESS - Opened nearly 9 million pristine acres in
Northwest Alaska to the oil and gas industry for exploration and
drilling.


6. STONEWALLING, BIG TIME (tied)- Continued to withhold documents from
secret meetings between Bush/Cheney Energy Task Force and energy
industry lobbyists.


6. DON'T AX, DON'T TELL (tied) - Promoted a wildfire policy that
expanded commercial logging in the backcountry but did little to
protect people where they live.


7. NEXT STOP, SHINOLA - Allowed untreated sewage to be blended with
treated sewage, cut funding for local sewage treatment, and didn't
require health officials to warn public about sewage in water.


8. CRITICAL CONDITION - Obliterated the process of critical habitat
designation for imperiled wildlife under the Endangered Species Act.


9. COP OFF - Continued pattern of willful negligence for enforcement
of even basic clean water and clean air laws.


10. POST 9/11 LIES - Discovered by EPA Inspector General to have lied
about post 9/11 environmental health hazards near Ground Zero.


11. ROAD WARRIOR - Expanded the legal loophole that allows obnoxious
road claims through federally protected wilderness, national parks,
and public lands.


12. HOG WASH - Secretly negotiated backroom deal to exempt giant
animal factories from laws governing air and toxic pollution.


13. POLLUTED LOGIC - Refused to classify industrial carbon emissions,
linked to global warming, as an official pollutant under the Clean Air
Act.


14. HOT AIR - Proposed fantasy hydrogen power initiative to improve
auto fuel efficiency rather than promoting more proven technologies
like gas-electric hybrids.


15. ESTATE TOX - Ended a 25-year ban on the sale of PCB-laden real
estate.
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