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.

bush: last 12 days

Although there are only a handful of days before the inauguration of our new President, the legacy of the Bush Administration will remain for days, months, and maybe years, to come.

In his final days, we have seen the passing of a handful of midnight rulings that will greatly impact the environment. In addition, it was announced today that the administration will ending efforts to come up with better fuel efficiency rules, leaving that to Obama. (Which may benefit from being in the better hands, honestly.)

Here is some information of the midnight rulings that have a negative impact on the environment.

Endangered Species Act: A rule change was put in place removing a provision that requires Fish and Wildlife Service scientists to make sure that endangered species won’t be harmed by federally approved logging, mining and road-building projects. The evaluations will now be handled by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Highway Administration. But many argue that their best interest is in the approval and implementation of the new projects, not the species affected.

In a separate announcement, the Fish and Wildlife Service said that it will prevent the effect of greenhouse gases on threatened wildlife from being factored into the Endangered Species Act.

Oil-Shale: An issuance of new rules that take the first step toward tapping an estimated 800 billion barrels of oil trapped in sedimentary rock in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado.

Oil shale is a sedimentary rock that contains trace amounts of oil, which can be extracted at high temperatures. But turning shale into usable oil is expensive, and the industry hasn’t been able to do it in a way that is profitable yet. There are also serious environmental consequences at every step. Digging the shale out of the earth damages the landscape, refining it dirties the air and both steps require massive amounts of water and energy.

Hazardous waste and air pollutants: The list of regulations about to get approved is astounding. Essentially, the EPA has opened the doors to a host of hazardous chemicals into our air and water. Here is a sampling:

-the definition of solid waste is revised
-fungicide limits are relaxed
-power plants are exempt from pollution controls
-ease of restirictions on power plants by national parks and wilderness
-hazardous waste to be used as fuel
-less reporting of animal pollution
-factory farms allowed to decide if they need a permit, or not, prior to dumping animal waste discharge
-lead standards lowered in air quality

and, believe it or not, the list goes on

Mining waste to be dumped in rivers and streams: The 25 year old ban disallowing the dumping of mining waste within 100 yards of rivers and streams has been lifted. Companies are allowed to place the bi-product of mining anywhere they like, even if it blocks the flow of important waters leading to towns or other ecosystems.

You can get a full listing of the midnight regulations from 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.

midnight ruling, 12/16/08

This is a good one….

Rule OK’s chemical tankers through cities, via the Christian Science Monitor.

The Bush administration has finalized a controversial regulation that will allow railroads to continue to ship dangerous chemicals through major cities.

Federal security officials have long considered railroad tankers full of such chemicals as chlorine or anhydrous ammonia to be potential weapons of mass destruction. If attacked by a terrorist or disturbed individual in the middle of a city they could cause thousands of deaths.

In this instance, the regulation leaves the decision of which route to take with deadly chemicals primarily in the hands of the railroads. Critics contend that this leaves too many communities vulnerable to a serious security threat and that state, local, and federal officials should have more input to ensure the chemicals are transported along the shortest, safest, and most secure routes.

I don’t think more needs to be said…. read the article

37 days and counting

In 37 days, we will have a new president. However, in the meantime, we will have announcement after announcement of rulings by the current administration.

Yesterday, was no exception.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a new regulation yesterday exempting an estimated 118,500 tons of hazardous waste annually from strict federal incineration controls, and it separately exempted factory farms from a requirement to report hazardous air pollution to the federal government.

The incineration control ruling is of particular interest because the language can be loosely translated as “if you can burn it, it is not hazardous waste.” Which we all know is just simply not true.

This ruling is also particularly timely as the EPA is coming under attack for not testing the air quality around schools, as investigated by USA Today. The FDA and the EPA seem to be passing rule after rule that supports big business and not the citizen.

The article can be found HERE, via Washington Post.

I would like to remind the EPA, however, on their own mission statement, as found on their website:

EPA leads the nation’s environmental science, research, education and assessment efforts. The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect human health and the environment. Since 1970, EPA has been working for a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people.

i don’t need to explain

The Bush administration on Thursday eliminated one step in the effort to protect endangered species, as it will now allow federal agencies to bypass consultation with government scientists about whether new rules will harm threatened wildlife.

The U.S. Interior Department issued a rule that allows agencies to avoid consulting with the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service if Interior concludes that any actions they fund would not harm an endangered species.

are you chicken?

In the final days of Bush’s administration, there will be many press releases on last minute rulings. As has been posted in the past, this administration seems to have it out for the environment.

One of the midnight regulations expected to occur is a ruling on poultry farms that exempts them from having to report there emissions due to ammonia or other noxious pollutants. This comes on the heals of an investigation from the Environmental Integrity Group (EIP) that shows the levels of ammonia released from these farms is at higher levels than most factories.

Multiple studies have shown that broiler producers in the top 10 states released an estimated
481,764,049 pounds of ammonia in 2007, or more than eight times the combined total reported
by industrial sources – such as steel mills and oil refineries. Egg laying operations released an estimated 221,551,888 pounds of ammonia in 2007

Ammonia is an irritant to the mucus membrane system (eyes, nose, throat), causing burns and respiratory issues. Although the EPA has never placed limits on acceptable levels, OSHA has. The concentrations released at factory farms greatly exceeds OSHA levels. The poultry industry has requested the exemption under the “right-to-know” laws; which essentially translates into “if they don’t ask, don’t tell”. Implications are that rural towns could be completely left in the dark about the air quality in their towns and the potential health impact.

You can get more information through the EIP press release, HERE.

do you know what would happen if i used something “off-label”?

Back in July, under pressure from the citizenry and the American Medical Association, the FDA placed a ban on certain types of antibiotics that are used in the livestock industry.

The antibiotic in question is cephalosporin. This is a very powerful antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections and is structurally similar to penicillin.

The issue at hand is, first, that it is being used off label. That means that the drug has not been approved for veterinary use. However, that has not prevented Pfizer from selling it, or members of the industry from using it to treat livestock with severe infections. Many critics argue that use of this antibiotic can affect the human population by building up resistance to bacteria, making infections lethal and not treatable.

In July, the FDA placed on a ban on off label use of this drug and said it would “crack down” on ranchers that used the medication. In fact, the veterinary director for the FDA, at the time, stated: ‘We have [bacterial organisms] moving around the world that we have never seen before,’ he told a conference, according to Dairy Herd Management magazine and that “antibiotic-resistant bacteria are becoming more common in cattle.”

Despite this, today, under pressure from the pharmaceutical industry and the livestock industry, the FDA reversed its ban on the use of these antibiotics.

Many things can be said about the FDA practices and the impact this will have. What will not be mentioned and needs to be is the ongoing research into the large effect the livestock industry has on the environment and the need to reduce the intake of meat. And, not only that, but have you ever wondered why your meat is filled with disease? Why would you want to eat something that has been sick enough that it needed STRONG medication?

If humans drastically reduced, although I would prefer gave up, their intake of meat, animals could be raised in ways that do not harm the environment and are not getting sick.

hope you saw before this…

Are there no limits to where this man goes?

In the latest attempt for George Bush to destroy the environment, he has found his way to the Grand Canyon. If you can believe it, he has reversed a congressional ruling that stops all mining in the area until adequate research can be done on the impact to the area if mining were to occur.

The issues surrounding this are very interesting, to say the least. It seems that Congress put an order in place that the Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, had to immediately the withdraw the public land surrounding the Grand Canyon from mining. He never did. In response, three major groups, including the Sierra Club, filed a law suit against the government calling for an immediate cease and desist.

In response to the lawsuit, and instead of complying with the law, the Bush administration is attempting to change the rules by removing its own regulation requiring compliance with the congressional resolution. Adding insult to injury, the Administration allowed only 15 days for the public to comment on its proposed withdrawal of this significant rule. The proposed rule was published on October 10th, and the final rule will be published December 5th.

“We are deeply disappointed that the Bush administration places a higher priority on helping the mining industry than it does on protecting the Grand Canyon,” said Roger Clark, of the Grand Canyon Trust. “They are attempting to erase emergency provisions enacted in 1976 rather than comply with federal law. Their actions are contemptuous of Congress and an insult to the American people.”

You can find the whole article HERE, via ENN

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.

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