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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. -- Email sent to is never read. |
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