RESPONSE: Environmentalist Bush - a hard concept to grasp
Letter to the Editor published in August 3, 2007 Laguna Beach Independent.
Environmentalist Bush - a hard concept to grasp
Editor:
I was amazed to read Gene Felder’s letter last week. Regardless of one’s political views, the suggestion that G.W. Bush is a great environmentalist is a hard concept to grasp.
Gene is correct that Mr. Bush does own a house in Texas, which is as Green as they come. This house has been designed to reduce the need for space heating and air conditioning and to meet its own power and water supply needs.
So why does our president own such a house?
Lets us bear in mind that this is the same president who reversed his campaign pledge to regulate CO2 as a pollutant as soon as taking office. This is the same president that in March 2001 had the EPA Administrator announce that the US had no further interest in negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol. I guess that is okay considering the USA is 5% of the world’s population but produces 25% of the world’s pollution! What a wonderful way to ensure that the world’s largest polluter maintains that impressive title.
This is the same president that has opposed minimum fuel efficiency standards for our cars. I guess standards would hurt the US car industry. This is the same president whose lack of environmental leadership has forced 590 US cities to take it upon themselves to combat climate change by joining the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement (the same goals as the Kyoto Protocol).
The list is almost never ending:
Dec 2002: EPA exempts oil and gas industry from storm water pollution rules.
Dec 2003: Bruce Buckheit, director of the EPA’s air enforcement division, cited the administration’s lax litigation strategy against utility companies who violate the Clean Air Act’s new source review program as the reason he will retire after nearly 30 years.
April 2004: National Council of Churches, representing 50 million people in 140,000 denominations, sent a letter to President Bush expressing “grave moral concern” for the administration’s air pollution policies.
Jan 2005: The energy industry got the go-ahead to construct 50,000 new natural gas wells in Montana and Wyoming with no regulations on air pollution built into the contract. The Bureau of Land Management approved the deal despite grave warnings from environmentalists and scientists from the BLM, National Park Service, EPA and Forest Service.
So why does Mr. Bush have a home that is capable of running completely “off grid”?
I don’t think it’s for environmental reasons. Maybe he knows that in the near future oil prices will skyrocket since almost all sources agree we have passed peak production and that wars will be fought over potable water as our climate changes and populations grow. Water will become our most scarce and essential resource.
Of course, G.W Bush-hugger will be sitting pretty in his self-sustaining house.
Max Isles
Laguna Beach
Environmentalist Bush - a hard concept to grasp
Editor:
I was amazed to read Gene Felder’s letter last week. Regardless of one’s political views, the suggestion that G.W. Bush is a great environmentalist is a hard concept to grasp.
Gene is correct that Mr. Bush does own a house in Texas, which is as Green as they come. This house has been designed to reduce the need for space heating and air conditioning and to meet its own power and water supply needs.
So why does our president own such a house?
Lets us bear in mind that this is the same president who reversed his campaign pledge to regulate CO2 as a pollutant as soon as taking office. This is the same president that in March 2001 had the EPA Administrator announce that the US had no further interest in negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol. I guess that is okay considering the USA is 5% of the world’s population but produces 25% of the world’s pollution! What a wonderful way to ensure that the world’s largest polluter maintains that impressive title.
This is the same president that has opposed minimum fuel efficiency standards for our cars. I guess standards would hurt the US car industry. This is the same president whose lack of environmental leadership has forced 590 US cities to take it upon themselves to combat climate change by joining the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement (the same goals as the Kyoto Protocol).
The list is almost never ending:
Dec 2002: EPA exempts oil and gas industry from storm water pollution rules.
Dec 2003: Bruce Buckheit, director of the EPA’s air enforcement division, cited the administration’s lax litigation strategy against utility companies who violate the Clean Air Act’s new source review program as the reason he will retire after nearly 30 years.
April 2004: National Council of Churches, representing 50 million people in 140,000 denominations, sent a letter to President Bush expressing “grave moral concern” for the administration’s air pollution policies.
Jan 2005: The energy industry got the go-ahead to construct 50,000 new natural gas wells in Montana and Wyoming with no regulations on air pollution built into the contract. The Bureau of Land Management approved the deal despite grave warnings from environmentalists and scientists from the BLM, National Park Service, EPA and Forest Service.
So why does Mr. Bush have a home that is capable of running completely “off grid”?
I don’t think it’s for environmental reasons. Maybe he knows that in the near future oil prices will skyrocket since almost all sources agree we have passed peak production and that wars will be fought over potable water as our climate changes and populations grow. Water will become our most scarce and essential resource.
Of course, G.W Bush-hugger will be sitting pretty in his self-sustaining house.
Max Isles
Laguna Beach
posted by Gene Felder at 2:56 PM
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