first action: reverse bush

Almost as soon as Obama was inaugurated yesterday, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel sent a memo that stops all pending regulations set forth by the Bush Administration. 

Since November, when Obama won the election, the Bush Administration submitted over 100 midnight regulations to be passed prior to the end of his term.  It is unclear how many have not taken effect.  

Many that have already taken effect are ones that are deleterious to the environment.  Most of them contain some version of limiting scientific review for environmental impact, for example in the approval of dams, power plants and timber sales.  Most notably was the change to the Endangered Species Act, in which many animals were removed from the listing, as well as the approval leaning towards corporations without regard for the impact to animals.

The Obama Administration has vowed to reverse the rulings made by Bush, however it will take a while as the process has to start all over again, for each and every ruling.

another midnight regulation passed

 

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a new rule yesterday that will make it easier for industrial plants, refineries and paper mills to expand operations without applying for new pollution permits under the Clean Air Act, according to the Washington Post.

This is another rule under the seemingly endless list of rules the Bush is trying to get passed in the last few days in office.  This would affect approximately 3,500 facilities nationwide, and will make it easier for them to expand without regard for the increase in pollution.

The EPA says that they felt that any expansion that will be done will have a negligible affect on air quality.  Everyone else seems to whole heartedly disagree.

news-in-brief, 1/9/09

In Obama’s Team, Two Camps on Climate, via The New York Times
Today, as the climate-change debate once again heats up, Mr. Summers leads the economic team of the incoming administration, and Ms. Browner has been designated its White House coordinator of energy and climate policy. And Mr. Gore is hovering as an informal adviser to President-elect Barack Obama.

As Mr. Obama seeks to find the right balance between his environmental goals and his plans to revive the economy, he may have to resolve conflicting views among some of his top advisers……

This CAFE Is Closed: Bush admin. won’t implement fuel efficiency rules, via GRIST.org

The administration’s move drew a sharp reaction from one of the biggest congressional backers of CAFE. “Apparently the Bush administration was too busy giving midnight regulatory handouts to its corporate cronies to complete its work on fuel economy standards for consumers,” said Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. “I look forward to working with President Obama to implement this landmark CAFE legislation and get our national energy policy back on track.”

The new administration of president-elect Barack Obama takes over on January 20. Obama has selected Republican representative Ray LaHood to head the agency.

US judge dismisses pollution case against Cargill, via MSNBC

The Cargill lawsuit alleged the company used chemicals linked to illnesses including lung congestion and organ damage, and that the hazardous substances eventually reached the groundwater and several private wells.

Cargill processed and stored agricultural seed at the plant from 1981 to about 2000.

For those who don’t know, Cargill is one of the main manufacturers of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Many credit Cargill and Monsanto as being the leading corporations that has turned our agriculture away from food farming and into commodity farming.

Tehran looks to the skies for cheap power from the sun, via The Guardian UK

Mention energy and Iran in the same sentence and you’re duty-bound to express some concern about the country’s ambitions for nuclear power and, as a result, raise dangerous questions about weapons. But while that are-they-aren’t-they game has been going on between the country’s leaders and the wider international community, renewable energy experts in Iran have been quietly working on capturing sunlight to power their country.

According to officials, Iran has started 2009 by inaugurating a pilot solar plant in Shiraz, Fars province. It is a concentrating solar power (CSP) system, using parabolic mirrors to focus sunlight onto a tube of water that is super-heated to make steam that is then used to turn electricity-generating turbines.

california dreaming

Two bits of environmental news bits came out of California today that are of interest.

Bush eyes oil reserves off California coast, via ENN

The federal government is taking steps that may open California’s fabled coast to oil drilling in as few as three years, an action that could place dozens of platforms off the Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt coasts, and raises the specter of spills, air pollution and increased ship traffic into San Francisco Bay.

The bans that protected both of the nation’s coasts beginning in 1981, from California to the Pacific Northwest to the Atlantic Coast and the Straits of Florida, ended this year when Congress let the moratorium lapse.

Brown Takes on “Audacious” Bush EPA Plan, via NBC

California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed suit in federal court to block an “audacious attempt” by the Bush Administration to gut provisions in the Endangered Species Act mandating scientific review of federal agency decisions that may threaten endangered species and their habitat.

The new regulations, initially proposed by the departments of the Interior and Commerce in August 2008 and made final on Dec. 16, largely eliminate a requirement in the Endangered Species Act that mandates scientific review of the agency decisions that could affect endangered and threatened species and their habitats.

The changes allow federal agencies to undertake or permit mining, logging and other commercial activities on federal land and other areas without obtaining review or comment from federal wildlife biologists on the environmental effects of such activities.

do you like clean water? then, you better pay attention…

The Colorado River is the water (and power) source for millions of people; it provides power to 3 million homes, waters 15% of our agriculture in the West, and gives one in 12 people something to drink. That is why many are concerned about its sustainability and longevity as a provider. In fact, many do not know this, but one environmental group has called listed it as the “most endangered” waterway.

The reason: the region could contain more oil than Alaska’s Arctic Wildlife Refuge and people want to get at it. And, now.

Rulings under the Bush Administration have not helped, either.

In the eight years George W. Bush has been in office, the Colorado River watershed has seen more oil and gas drilling than at any time in the past 25 years. Uranium claims have reached a 10-year high. Last week the departing administration auctioned off an additional 359,000 acres of federal land for gas drilling projects outside Moab, Utah.

As still more land is leased for drilling and a last-minute change in federal rules has paved the way for water-intensive oil shale mining, politicians and water managers are now being forced to ask which is more valuable: energy or water.

 

“The decisions we are making today will be dictating how we will be living the rest of our lives,” said Jim Pokrandt, a spokesman with the Colorado River Conservation District, a state-run policy agency. “We may have reached mutually exclusive demands on our water supply.”

It is estimated that if all the oil and natural gas drilling that has been requested to be done, were in fact, done, the annual demand would be the equivalent of shutting off the water to all of Southern California for five days. Oil shale drilling is the equivalent of 79 days.

And then there is a question of contamination. The major mining companies claim that they adhere to the EPA guidelines, but those guidelines are getting less strict every day. Add on top of that, Uranium mining, and there is the potential of radioactive material infecting our water supply.

Scientists say some degree of pollution is inevitable, because mining sometimes uses toxic chemicals like cyanide. It also exposes naturally toxic metals that would otherwise remain deep underground.

Drilling for uranium creates pathways where raw, radioactive material can migrate into underground aquifers that drain into the river. Surface water can seep into the drill holes and mine shafts, picking up traces of uranium and then percolating into underground water sources. The milling process itself creates six pounds of radioactive and toxic waste — including ammonia, arsenic, lead and mercury — for every ounce of uranium production.

So, this has become a question of competition: food and water for the citizenry or lack of dependency on foreign oil. Not to put too much pressure on the Obama Adminsistration, but many are looking to them to undo the leniency allowed by his predecessor and to come up with a happy medium between the two.

The full article can be found at ProPublica.

i think i beg to differ

In an exit interview with Fox News, President Bush said that he “didn’t compromise his soul” during his administration. I know that this is going to ruffle some feathers, but I ask, what kind of person has a soul that has no issues with destroying nature and the people he is supposed to ‘lead’?

In the next month we are going to see countless examples as midnight rulings take affect under this administration. Of the 50 or so rulings expected, 36 of them directly affect the well being of our citizenry, either in aiding the destruction of our planet or in the allowance of toxins into our environment, affecting our health.

In another move that solidifies the Bush policy into the American public, it seems the EPA is undergoing a reorganization.

According to an employee of the ORD (EPA’s, Office of Research and Development) — who asked to remain anonymous to avoid reprisals — a department-wide staff meeting on 18 December reiterated plans mooted in recent months, including abandoning many small projects led by a single principal investigator (PI) in favour of broad, multi-agency, multi-disciplinary projects. It is not yet clear when these changes will take place.

The move is seen by many scientists not as sensible streamlining, but rather as an attempt to push through Bush administration objectives before the keys to the White House are passed to Obama.

ORD labs are in 13 locations around the United States and employ 1,900 people, including support staff. Much of their research focuses on the environment, human health and risk of exposure to pollutants.

I will leave it to you to make your own opinions about the move. Maybe, we should trust the EPA when they say that this is just a standard re-organization. Maybe we should look at the type of people who will lose their jobs in January 20th when Obama takes over and wonder what their motives may be. I do think it is very interesting timing.

The whole article is HERE.

getting away with murder

New information alleges that Bush Administration officials broke the law. Shocker.

Bush’s Interior Department Interfered With Scientific Work To Limit Endangered Species Protection, via Huffington Post:

A high-ranking Interior Department official tainted nearly every decision made on the protection of endangered species over five years, a new inspector general report finds, concluding she exerted improper political interference on many more rulings than previously thought.

Julie MacDonald, a former deputy assistant secretary overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service, did pervasive harm to the department’s morale and integrity and may have risked the well-being of species with her agenda, Interior Inspector General Earl Devaney said in his report out Monday.

The Interior Department last year reversed seven rulings that denied endangered species increased protection, after an investigation found that MacDonald had applied political pressure in those cases. The new report looked at nearly two dozen other endangered species decisions not examined in the earlier report. It found MacDonald directly interfered with at least 13 decisions and indirectly affected at least two more.

It should be noted, she is NOT on the EPA’s Most Wanted list.

Bush Administration Covered Up 500+ Blocked Water Pollution Cases, via Environmental News Service:

The results of a Congressional investigation released today detail the collapse of the Clean Water Act enforcement program in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that clouded the question of whether rivers, streams and wetlands remain protected from pollution and development.

“One of the legacies of the Bush Administration is its failure to protect the safety and health of the nation’s waters,” said Chairman Waxman. “Our investigation reveals that the clean water program has been decimated as hundreds of enforcement cases have been dropped, downgraded, delayed, or never brought in the first place. We need to work with the new Administration to restore the effectiveness and integrity to this vital program.”

they have me so confused

It seems that for every handful of bad deeds performed by the EPA, they counter with one good deed. I feel like I am in a bad relationship where I stick around through all the terrible, because the good is just oh-so-good.

This posts “Top Ten” list is of a different nature and comes from the EPA. They have created their version of the FBI Most Wanted list, by posting pictures and data on the men with the most heinous environmental crimes.

A top EPA enforcement official said the people on the list represent the “brazen universe of people that are evading the law.” Many face years in prison and some charges could result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

“They are charged with environmental crimes, and they should be brought before the criminal justice system and have their day in court,” said Pete Rosenberg, a director in the agency’s criminal enforcement division.

The list includes men like John Karayinnades who dumped oil contaminated grain off the coast of Florida or Joseph O’Connor who dumped pollutants off the coast of San Diego.

But my one question for the EPA is: where are the CEO’s of Ford or GM for polluting the air with high emissions SUV’s sold by the millions? Or, the United States Navy for their illegal practice of dumping trash off the air craft carriers, polluting our oceans? Or, our current President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for allowing ruling after ruling, in favor of the planet, to be vetoed or overturn at the behest and benefit of a power company, pharmaceutical company, chemical company or the like?

And while I think the list is important, and does include people that need to be charged with crimes, I think their crimes pale in comparison to the onslaught against the environment that other men have committed. However, I am also aware that the nature of our country is that the men missing are the men we reward… with $15 million.

You can find the EPA list, here: http://www.epa.gov/fugitives/

a list of midnight rulings

Propublica published a list of all the Bush Administration’s Midnight Rulings that are on the table prior to his leaving office. HERE is the link to the full site. Below are the items I am the most concerned about. Many of these will require immediate focus by the Obama Adminstration to overturn, taking away valuable time for other causes… like employment.

EPA Won’t Regulate a Contaminant in Drinking Water

FDA Rule Would Cover Genetically Engineered Meat and Milk

The Interior Department Could Approve Construction Projects with Less Concern for Protected Species

Public Lands May Be Leased for the Development of Oil Shale

EPA Lets Factory Farms Decide If They Need A Permit to Discharge Animal Waste into Waterways

and the list goes on… there are 36 regulations of the table. There are things on there that WILL affect your daily life.

edit. note: I will write about the individual environmental ones in more detail as the weeks go on.

water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink

President-elect Obama’s to do list is getting mighty long. However, many people think they know what should be at the top of the list: our water.

Over the past decade, a potent combination of Supreme Court decisions, Bush administration regulatory actions, and congressional inaction—coupled with recent droughts and the specter of more pronounced problems from climate change—has helped breed crises of both water quality and water availability.

At the top of their priority list: reviving federal laws—particularly the Clean Water Act—that have been weakened or narrowly interpreted in recent years; boosting funding for the nation’s faltering and aging water infrastructure; and strengthening the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulation of water pollution from industry and power plants.

Bottom line: we are running out of water and the water we do have is traveling through a poor infrastructure, including not going through proper treatment facilities. Under Bush, the Clean Water Act funding has been reduced by half and the Supreme Court has lessened the water that is under Federal control.

I think we would all agree that water is vital to our survival. We need to figure this out and not import water in the way we import oil.

You should go HERE for the article

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