Bush To Appoint Coal Industry Champion To Head Consumer Safety Commission
Bush To Appoint Coal Industry Champion To Head Consumer Safety Commission
Throughout Bush’s presidency, the White House has used the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to put business interests over the public interest:
– Bush’s first CPSC chair, Harold Stratton, assured the business world that he would “break the barrier of fear” by making it more difficult to order product recalls.
– Bush’s nominee to replace Stratton, Michael Baroody, opposed asbestos regulations, highway safety reform, and government action to combat global warming.
– The current acting head, Nancy Nord, opposed Congressional efforts to strengthen the CPSC, even after millions of toys made in China were recalled this fall for containing dangerous levels of lead. Together, Nord and Stratton also took nearly 30 trips since 2002 at the expense of industries and companies the CPSC is supposed to regulate.
Apparently, Bush has not learned his lesson. On Saturday, the Washington Post reported that the White House was considering nominating Gail Charnley to head the CPSC.
Besides being a consultant for the tobacco industry “from the early 1990s through 2001,” Charnley has a long history of shilling for coal:
– Charnley wrote a 2006 op-ed in the St. Louis Dispatch opposing restrictions on coal emissions. She was writing on behalf of coal-industry front group Americans for Balanced Energy Choices. [Washington Post, 1/26/08]
– Charnley lobbied state officials on behalf of Center for Energy and Economic Development (CEED), another coal front group. “Her work involved telling state officials in Idaho, Indiana, Georgia, and who knows where else, that mercury from power plants is simply not the problem environmentalists are making it out to be.” [Pump Handle, 1/28/08]
Charnley has also consistently hidden her industry ties. In a 2004 letter to a technical journal about a study on human testing of pesticides, Charnley did not disclose that the study had been partly funded by pesticide makers.
She also neglected to disclose her work with CEED in a published article on WebMD’s Medscape on the risks of mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. Nor did she reveal her relationship to the coal group when testifying to the Pennsylvania state senate on mercury emissions.
Like her predecessors at the CPSC, Charnley opposes government regulation at all costs. She dismisses the need to regulate environmental hazards to children’s health because “government agencies do not know which environmental exposures actually pose risks to children.” She also wrote that, since mercury emissions was a “global” problem, “limiting US power plant emissions alone will have little impact.”
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31 Responses to “Bush To Appoint Coal Industry Champion To Head Consumer Safety Commission”
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Almost certainly another Regent U grad praying for corporate fascism to make her rich.
January 28th, 2008 at 7:08 pmCoal Ash Is More Radioactive than Nuclear Waste
January 28th, 2008 at 7:09 pmhttp://www.sciam.com/ article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste
How can this enabler survive the approval process?
January 28th, 2008 at 7:11 pmExecutive Order Alert
January 28th, 2008 at 7:11 pmOn Jan 23, 2008 Bush signed a new Executive Order, I suggest one of you Legal Experts take a in depth look at it and soon. It changes many long standing policys.
Give the man credit, he’s consistent. He may be consistently idiotic and moronic and consistently turns his back on reality, but he’s consistent.
January 28th, 2008 at 7:14 pmImpeach Cheney and Bush and Save the Constitution!
Just another piece of trash appointment by Chimpy. Don’t worry, her time will soon be over. Everyone associated with Bush is going to find life a lot more uncomfortable after the regime falls in the next election. The stigma of working for Bush will be like the stigma faced by the Baathists in Iraq.
January 28th, 2008 at 7:18 pmTrivial, I know but…
January 28th, 2008 at 7:19 pmHer face is askew. Left eyebrow is arched (making her left eye larger than her right one), and right side of her mouth cocked almost conveying something sneaky is going on and she is the only one that knows it. A very odd picture indeed.
Fascist Brownshirters Lemmings, signers of the Bush loyalty oath, this entire administration needs to be on trial for their crimes against Amercia and the World.
Bush/Cheney/Repukes
Hague Trials ‘09
Buck Fush
January 28th, 2008 at 7:21 pmComment by Merlin — January 28, 2008 @ 7:19 pm
It’s like she’s trying to do a Stephen Colbert eyebrow arch.
January 28th, 2008 at 7:22 pmHang them high!
January 28th, 2008 at 7:25 pmShe certainly has that “up to something” look about her…………
January 28th, 2008 at 7:25 pmOne Crank, \\mighty interestin stuff. Foreign investments will now be scrutinized by a committee that can negate them, or the president who can negate them… And no definition of what a ‘national security’ interest is…
January 28th, 2008 at 7:27 pmcaption:
“Meet me in the powder room, I’ve got some kick ass coal dust…”
January 28th, 2008 at 7:27 pmShe looks like she just swallowed the canary. If she were to open her mouth, feathers would come floating out.
January 28th, 2008 at 7:28 pmRaising of the eyebrows is thought to be one of those subconscious signals of sexual interest. She isn’t tilting her head nor leaning forward but that right eye is really disturbing. Wood eye. Wood eye?
January 28th, 2008 at 7:29 pmAnother completely useless RePugniScum!!
Go ahead, join this war mongering admin and go to jail with the rest of them!!!
Or stand up for democracy and the rule of law, girl friend, and tell Botch to go phu(k himself!!!
Otherwise, bless your teeny tiny heart!!
January 28th, 2008 at 7:29 pmI never knew that Lilith from Cheers gave up psychiatry and went into government service!
Gail Charnley and Bebe Neuwirth - seperated at birth!
January 28th, 2008 at 7:50 pmSo to sum up.
On TV, we have propaganda specialists from various think tanks, masquerading as subject experts
and
In regulatory agencies, we have industry lobbyists masquerading as public servants.
Hoo boy, hooray for our version of democracy…
January 28th, 2008 at 7:52 pmamericangoy, did you mean our version of demagogocracy?
January 28th, 2008 at 8:00 pmSo to sum up.
On TV, we have propaganda specialists from various think tanks, masquerading as subject experts
and
In regulatory agencies, we have industry lobbyists masquerading as public servants.
Hoo boy, hooray for our version of democracy…
Comment by americangoy — January 28, 2008 @ 7:52 pm
Actually, you’ve described Facism 2.0 (new and improved!!)
January 28th, 2008 at 8:03 pmAnother Regent University graduate, perchance?
Cheers,
January 28th, 2008 at 8:15 pmSounds like a perfect Bush nominee; another fox guarding the henhouse.
January 28th, 2008 at 8:17 pmWood eye?
Naughty pine…..eye wood…
January 28th, 2008 at 8:21 pmComment by RUCerious — January 28, 2008 @ 7:28 pm
How did I miss this? This is perfect!!
January 28th, 2008 at 8:27 pmAnyone appointed by Bush, especially in his last year, should get the magnifying glass and lots of time under investigation before they get anywhere. We’ve seen enough incompetence and cronyism to last a lifetime.
January 28th, 2008 at 8:30 pmthe audacity of these “people” is incredible
January 28th, 2008 at 10:57 pmShe is cute. Shouldn’t she be in the kitchen making her manly man a chicken pot pie?
January 28th, 2008 at 11:10 pmMaggie Gylenhall would be appalled.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:32 pmBad hair w/raised eyebrow: a dog whistle for something, but what?
January 29th, 2008 at 7:03 amCan someone please pork this woman? She clearly needs it. I’d do it, but I’d be throwing up in my mouth…
January 29th, 2008 at 3:43 pmoh, and I can’t wait find out how much damage has been done…. i don’t think I will be sleeping well tonight, tyvm.
January 29th, 2008 at 3:46 pm