Bush ‘Intervened At The 11th Hour’ To Kill Climate Protections
Bush ‘Intervened At The 11th Hour’ To Kill Climate Protections
Yesterday, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen Johnson decided to modestly tighten smog standards, a decision directly “overruling the unanimous advice of its scientific advisory council for a more protective standard.”
According to the LA Times, President Bush personally intervened to overrule EPA staff who were pushing to protect forests and crops:
President Bush intervened at the 11th hour and turned down a second proposal by the EPA staff that would have established tougher seasonal limits on ozone based on its harm to forests, crops and other plants, according to documents obtained by The Times. Federal scientists had recommended those growing-season limits as a way to keep vegetation healthy and capable of trapping carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas linked to global warming. […]
Memos between the EPA and the White House Office of Management and Budget in the last week show that White House budget officials objected to proposed seasonal standards as being illegal over-regulation. EPA officials countered, but Bush weighed in late Tuesday, and a written order reflecting his decision turning down the proposal was completed.
Johnson has a history of ignoring his staff when they recommend tough environmental protections. His determination to politicize the EPA has led 19 EPA unions to withdraw from their partnership with the agency because Johnson has consistently “ignored the advice of unionized workers and the agency’s own principles of scientific integrity.”
In a related story, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) wrote to Johnson yesterday expressing his concern that “multiple senior EPA officials” have told him that EPA’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions have been stymied. Since the EPA informed the White House in December that CO2 levels from motor vehicles needed to be reduced, “the work on the vehicle efforts has stopped.”
UPDATE: OMB Watch notes that in the months leading up to Johnson’s industry-friendly decision, the EPA “held numerous closed-door meetings with representatives from the oil, electric, and auto industries.” One of those meetings was attended by a representative from Vice President Dick Cheney’s staff, although “Cheney’s office rarely involves itself in specific rulemakings.”
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herr dubyah is too busy getting our troops killed and cutting taxes for the rich to worry about the environment.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:38 pmJeebutz! The greenhouse gas lobby strikes again!
Would that the chymp would go suck a tailpipe and tell us all how that was for him.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:38 pmWell, he’s the Deciderer. If he decides to let corporations pollute more, you just have to suck it, America…
March 13th, 2008 at 12:40 pmHow many days, hours, minutes, and seconds until tis chump’s reign ends?
March 13th, 2008 at 12:43 pmherr dubyah is too busy getting our troops killed and cutting taxes for the rich to worry about the environment.
Comment by Dr. Matt — March 13, 2008 @ 12:38 pm
Oh, I beg to differ, Dr. Matt. If Herr Dubya really were too busy, then environmental restrictions would increase because that’s what most Americans want.
So in fact Dumbya has to take his attention AWAY from getting our troops killed and paying for it with tax cuts for the rich, in order to make sure the environment stays dirty and smog-choked.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:43 pmMan, rust never sleeps. He’s such a little beaver!
March 13th, 2008 at 12:45 pmThe presidential campaigns must focus on the role of the corporate elite in running this government. There are numerous examples in EPA, HUD, DoD and other agencies as well as the legacy of Duke Cunnigham, Abramoff and other as to the ascendancy of money over democracy. McCain will attempt to show himself as a maverick of the Republican party. However, we need to attack his consistent pattern of pandering to the right, wealthy interests and the conservative base in order to gain the nomination. Put “Straight Talk” on trial for his inclusion of so many lobbyists on his campaign staff. Nail him on his flip flop to support tax cuts and so many other Bush initiatives that support an elite section of our society. Ask the question - can one who supports so many of the Bush policies and uses the Bush political staff really be any more ethical
March 13th, 2008 at 12:46 pmHow many days, hours, minutes, and seconds until tis chump’s reign ends?
Comment by The Republic of Stupidity — March 13, 2008 @ 12:43 pm
312 d 12 h 13 m 45 s
March 13th, 2008 at 12:46 pmBush ‘Intervened At The 11th Hour’ To Kill Thousands of Asthmatic Inner City Children
March 13th, 2008 at 12:48 pmKill, burn, destroy! Bush economics.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:48 pm312 d 12 h 13 m 45 s
Comment by OleHippieChick — March 13, 2008 @ 12:46 pm
Thank you. We can trust the clock isn’t running backwards?
March 13th, 2008 at 12:50 pmHow many days, hours, minutes, and seconds until tis chump’s reign ends?
Comment by The Republic of Stupidity — March 13, 2008 @ 12:43 pm
312 d 12 h 13 m 45 s
Comment by OleHippieChick — March 13, 2008 @ 12:46 pm
Translation: Far too many.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:50 pmWe can trust the clock isn’t running backwards?
I check it several hundred times a day, at the least. ;-P
March 13th, 2008 at 12:52 pmIt’s the factory setting.
It’s the factory setting.
Comment by OleHippieChick — March 13, 2008 @ 12:52 pm
Just… checking. Glad to know SOMEONE reliable is keeping an eye on it.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:53 pmMarch 13th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
The countdown clock was made in China. :-PPPP Maybe they’re having us on.
OleHusseinishHippieChick
March 13th, 2008 at 12:55 pmEvilPoet posted the summary of it all..dubya’s creedo..
Does Cheeennneeyyyy have this posted in his home??
“What is Fascism? The moment has come to give fascism a usable short handle, even though we know that it encompasses its subject no better than a snapshot encompasses a person. Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.†-Robert Paxton, The Anatomy Of Fascism
Comment by EvilPoet — March 13, 2008 @ 12:53 pm
March 13th, 2008 at 12:56 pmMeanwhile, coldest winter on record causes Canadians to loose their cool:
March 13th, 2008 at 12:56 pmhttp://www.reuters.com/ article/ oddlyEnoughNews/ idUSGOR25761920080312?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&rpc=22&sp=true
“President Bush intervened at the 11th hour” to rescue us all from regulation and to ensure the world would proceed toward destruction on schedule. Yay, Bush! We continue to have the freedom to spew as much CO2 as we want!
Is Bush’s “11th hour” crap merely to look more like a super-hero in his own mind?
March 13th, 2008 at 12:57 pmEPA, FDA, USDA, FAA - who needs’em? Not billionaires, that’s for sure. That means nobody needs’em and we shouldn’t have them.
Is there a regulatory agency of our government that the Cheerleader hasn’t intentionally hobbled?
Are there actually Righties who would be pleased to know that their food, water, medicine, etc., etc., are dangerous in ways they can’t identify, that lead to their illness, or injury, or their children’s illness or injury?
“I’m a Righty, and I don’t care if I feed poison baby food to my baby”
“I’m a Righty, and I don’t care if my water is full of toxins”
“I’m a Righty, and I don’t care who made those pills, I’m taking them”
Seriously, righties - do you even know what it is you’re pushing for??
March 13th, 2008 at 1:01 pmJMOHR…re corporate influence:
I agree in in significant part with your comment.
Once the Dem candidate has been determined the effects of corporate interests on national policy should be injected into every debate by the Dem–not just as an issue of money buying influence, but the practical consequences of that influence buyin on the public.
The majority of the issue will however have to be dealt with AFTER the elections, when, given a massive Dem majority and gains in seats derived from grassroots support (weakining or displacing Blue Dog influence), so that we move from debate to practical change.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:04 pmSo if the EU goes ahead with sanctions against the US because of this dolt, does the chimp declare them terrorists too?
March 13th, 2008 at 1:05 pm19 - What that really means Molly, is that he finally realized that no one was going to do it for him (’cause they thought it was wrong), and he had to get up off his lazy cheerleader ass and do some work for himself (which prolly really made him mad)
March 13th, 2008 at 1:06 pmIs Bush’s “11th hour†crap merely to look more like a super-hero in his own mind?
Comment by missmolly — March 13, 2008 @ 12:57 pm
Does this mean he’s gonna start wearing a cape ‘n tights?
‘N some sorta freaky lookin’ molded rubber physique, kinda like in the Batman flicks?
March 13th, 2008 at 1:10 pm“Seriously, righties - do you even know what it is you’re pushing for??”
Comment by tombaker
They know…
Food for thought bubble:
March 13th, 2008 at 1:12 pmSay TP could you do this old woman a favor and stop posting this ass h**** picture….I’m sick enough reading about all his shit, can’t stand looking at his miserable face as well…..Thank’s in advance….Blessings
March 13th, 2008 at 1:13 pmFirst of all, if Johhson…who IS a scientist…had any integrity, he would flat resign. Secondly, action should have been taken beginning in Jan. of 2007 to impeach Cheney and Bush. Pelosi took it “off the table.” So ALL the B.S. this administration has pulled since that date is as much her fault as Bush’s. My hope is that we will win even larger majorities in both the House and Senate in 2008, and that Pelosi and Hoyer (and Reid) will all be replaced with true Progressives. Screw “centrism.” We’ve had the radical right running this government for far too long, and the only way to really reverse it is to move quite a bit left of center. (In reality, the “center” has moved quite far right of center over the years.)
March 13th, 2008 at 1:13 pmMaybe they’re having us on.
OleHusseinishHippieChick
Comment by OleHippieChick — March 13, 2008 @ 12:55 pm
Aw, maaaan… why’d ya hafta tell me that? All I kin see now is that famous “laughing face” that Chinese artist has made so popular the last few years.
Shit… dang! It’d be just like those wily Oriental devils ta pay us back fer all our BS like that… tellin’ everyone that Egg Fu Yong is Chinese, ‘n the Charlie Chan movies… payback is a Beeyatch, huh?
March 13th, 2008 at 1:14 pmBush is going to Hell.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:16 pm25 - In that case, if they really know, then they’d better not turn my way for sympathy when Grandma dies from tainted medicine, or their kid loses an eye or a limb to an unsafe product, or when their spouse’s plane falls from the skies.
They can all have a nice case of the screaming e.coli sh*ts for the rest of their miserable lives for all I care. It is, after all, what they’re spoling for.
No one should have to witness the ruination of their homeland at the hands of a mob of people who were just too damned ignorant to know better.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:18 pmNapier I read your link and it says nothing about record cold but record snow…..nice try.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:20 pmMeanwhile, Chuckie Napier posts another wildly off-topic comment and collects another nickel for it.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:21 pmIE Snow is cold but record snowfall is NOT record cold as water freezes well above zero [32 deg F above 0] Can you comprehend that Napier?
March 13th, 2008 at 1:21 pmcollects another nickel for it.
Comment by ralph the wonder llama
Poor Napier hasnt noticed yet they are wooden nickels.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:23 pmI flagged CJN on that one.
It’s tombaker’s official zero-tolerance day today.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:23 pmJust one more thing to impeach this barstood for….better yet, try him for crimes against humanity - and hang him.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:25 pmThe President’s precise comment was “Ozone? What’s the problem with ozone? I’m in it all the time and it hadn’t hurt I.”
March 13th, 2008 at 1:27 pmCorporate power run amok. The definition of Facism and the GOP.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:28 pm313 days and counting.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:28 pmJust another example of how the US is “leading the world and will continue to do so” in environmental issues.
This proves the fallacy of this statement and this man - and I use that term loosely.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:30 pmNapier I read your link and it says nothing about record cold but record snow…..nice try.
Comment by Xisithrus — March 13, 2008 @ 1:20 pm
Yer 100% right, X. Not a dang thing in the article about record COLD.
However it did say this: “Recent Canadian winters have been mild …”
One year does not a trend make…
And the article also said this: In Montreal, police said a man had produced a toy gun during a heated dispute…
Needin’ help makin’ bail, Chucky?
March 13th, 2008 at 1:30 pmA SECRETARY GETS FIRE FOR NOT DOTTING THEIR I’s or CROSSING THEIR T’s… FIRE THIS SON-OF-A-BlTCH NOW!
March 13th, 2008 at 1:30 pm30 - You reap what you sow.
[Sets aside atheism] I can only imagine what all this might look like to God. He’s probably LHHAO at all the petty silliness and unbridled arrogance. On the other hand, if Proverbs 6:16-19 is any indication - he will not be pleased one bit. Silly Christians, did they somehow forget that this God guy they claim to love so much hates things like killing, lying, and hypocrisy? According to the laws written in the Bible, those are very serious violations. If I were them I would be very concerned that my eternity might not be as heavenly and blissful as I had hoped it would be. I know one thing for sure, I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end when this God guy opens up his can of Divine Whupass. If it’s anything like what’s written, it won’t be pretty. [Picks up atheism and resumes normal operation]
March 13th, 2008 at 1:31 pmPoor Napier hasnt noticed yet they are wooden nickels.
Comment by Xisithrus — March 13, 2008 @ 1:23 pm
He’s gonna be awfully disappointed when he finally gets to Chuckie Cheese…
March 13th, 2008 at 1:32 pmcomment by ralph the wonder llama — March 13, 2008 @ 1:32
Heh.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:37 pmLike I said yesterday: The rapture is going to fix all this environmental stuff for W. All he has to do is make sure that a war rages in Israel before the year is up and then he can declare a state of emergency and martial law. Why bother with the air, the water or the food supply when you’re busy preparing for the second coming of Jeebus?
March 13th, 2008 at 1:38 pmWhich law is Bush referring to? Is it the law that says “scientists should not be trusted”?
March 13th, 2008 at 1:38 pmMeanwhile, coldest winter on record causes Canadians to loose their cool:
Comment by Charles James Napier — March 13, 2008 @ 12:56 pm
And yet with all this evidence, you still deny that Climate Change is real.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:48 pmBush code - The GOP wants contributions from polluting corporations, and if they do something about pollution then those corporations won’t give as much money to the GOP.
We call it corruption at the highest level.
Bush/Cheney
March 13th, 2008 at 1:55 pmHague Trials ‘09
BushitCode
Let’s get corporate profits maximized whilst we wait for the CRapture…
March 13th, 2008 at 1:57 pmNapier I read your link and it says nothing about record cold but record snow…..nice try.
Comment by Xisithrus — March 13, 2008 @ 1:20 pm
More importantly, record snowfall is actually an indicator that temperatures are warming, not cooling:
http://www.weatherimagery.com/blog/too-cold-to-snow/
March 13th, 2008 at 2:10 pmWhy does Bush hate Mother Earth?
March 13th, 2008 at 2:15 pm52 - ’cause she wouldn’t put out for him in college.
March 13th, 2008 at 2:19 pmHe’s gonna be awfully disappointed when he finally gets to Chuckie Cheese…
Comment by ralph the wonder llama — March 13, 2008 @ 1:32 pm
Dat’s funny, ralph… Cheezy Chuck at Chuckie Cheese.
March 13th, 2008 at 2:23 pmMeanwhile, coldest winter on record causes Canadians to loose their cool:
http://www.reuters.com/ article/ oddlyEnoughNews/ idUSGOR25761920080312?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&rpc=22&sp=true
Comment by Charles James Napier — March 13, 2008 @ 12:56 pm
Thanks for advance our cause, extreme weather behavior supports the Global Climate Change stance. So, a record snowing (as described in the article you link), or record cold, or recold heath, simply show that the climate is acting wildly, due to changes in wind, heath, sea temperatures, ice caps, etc.
March 13th, 2008 at 2:36 pmWonder if we will see this news on any of the CORPORATE MEDIA manifestations as in the NIGHTLY PROPAGANDA with Brian Wiliams ? If not, why not ?
March 13th, 2008 at 2:55 pmThose countdown clocks are off by 36 hours. They will reach zero at Midnight, January 19, 2009. They ignore the facts that 2008 is a leap year and the inauguration occurs at noon, not midnight.
March 13th, 2008 at 4:24 pmCan Bush possibly be more evil? We will see what this is all about after he’s gone when, finally, we can follow the money and see how exactly Bush, Cheney and all the other Republicans got rich off this war.
I sense Bush has no care for the lives of anybody involved except for his rich peers. Bush is a psychopath in the way that he will screw over 100% of the world’s population just to help out a few of his business buddies.
March 13th, 2008 at 5:49 pmmay my sh!t come to life and kiss him on the face.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:21 pmco(ksu(ker!
To #18, do some research. That article was based off a statement that January 2008 was much colder than Juanuary 2007. In fact, January 2007 was the warmest on record. The first 11 months of 2007 were the 8 warmest on record. GISS states that the warming is particularly surprising given the cooling effect of El Nino?La Nina and the reduced solar activity. NASA HAS NOT claimed winter 2008 is particularly cold. It sits at 31st warmest. Do the research. Go to climate science by climate scientists to read more.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:31 pmIt’s part of Bush’s retirement plan to replenish the coughers.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:32 pmOf course he did. Can’t wait for him to leave office.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:08 pmWorst President Ever
March 14th, 2008 at 11:36 amCheck out what former EPA administrator Carol Browner has said about ignoring science - http://www.ondayone.org/node/995. While you’re at the site, leave your own idea of what the next president should do on day one of his or her administration.
March 14th, 2008 at 2:01 pm