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Bill Press is a syndicated columnist and the co-host of CNN's Crossfire, which airs Monday-Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET, and The Spin Room, which airs Monday-Friday at 10:30 p.m. ET.

Bush declares war on environment

WASHINGTON (Tribune Media Services) -- How many ways did George Bush find to destroy the environment today?

Chainsaw in hand, Bush has rolled back virtually every environmental regulation issued by Bill Clinton in his final months in office -- and turned environmental decision-making over to the major polluters. Whatever the logging and mining companies want, the logging and mining companies get.

In barely 60 days, Bush has attacked clean air, clean water, national forests and federally protected lands. And he hasn't even started on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge yet. This guy makes Ronald Reagan look like John Muir.

How far is Bush willing to go? Consider this. He'll even leave more arsenic -- yes, arsenic! -- in your drinking water, if that's what the mining companies want. They do. He just did.

Acting on orders from the White House, EPA Administrator Christie Whitman stopped implementation of new rules, scheduled to take effect March 23, reducing the level of arsenic in drinking water. Current regulations, adopted way back in 1942, allow 50 parts per billion; new rules would have reduced that to 10 parts per billion.

You almost have to feel sorry for the hapless Whitman. She came to Washington, having built a good conservation record as governor of New Jersey, hoping to be the chief environmentalist of the new administration. Instead, she's been made to play the role of chief hatchet lady. She tried to defend suspension of the tougher, new arsenic rules by saying more scientific study was needed. Nonsense.

Excessive levels of arsenic in drinking water -- caused, in part, by run-off from mining operations in Western states -- have been identified by the National Academy of Sciences as a cause of bladder, lung and kidney cancer. How much more study is needed? The problem wasn't lack of scientific evidence. The problem was opposition from the mining industry.

It was the second straight day Bush caved in to mining interests. In another little-publicized action, the EPA cancelled new regulations on mining on federal lands. These rules, also adopted during the last few weeks of the Clinton presidency, merely required hardrock miners, operating on federally-owned lands, to post a bond guaranteeing to clean up their sites when finished in order to prevent groundwater contamination. One would think that would be standard procedure. But mining companies balked. And Bush walked.

At the same time, the Justice Department is in federal court, seeking to delay implementation of a ban on new roads and virtually all logging in 58.5 million acres of national forests. Those rules were adopted 3 days before Bill Clinton left office. The timber industry doesn't like them. Out the window!

But Bush's environmental assault doesn't stop there. That's just the beginning. Just last week, remember, he first forced Christie Whitman to walk the plank, reversing her commitment -- and breaking his own campaign promise -- to add carbon dioxide to the list of regulated pollutants in order to help prevent global warming. Again, science said yes. Utilities and mining companies said no. Bush suddenly changed his mind.

Now Prime Minister Dick Cheney has taken the anti-global warming crusade one giant step further. Appearing on MSNBC's "Hardball" on March 21, Cheney said the solution to clean air was to bring back nuclear power plants: "If you're really serious about greenhouse gases, one of the solutions to that problem is to go back and let's take another look at nuclear power, use that to generate electricity without having any adverse consequences."

No adverse consequences? Tell that to the people of Chernobyl. Or Three Mile Island. There's a good reason why no new nuclear power plant has been authorized in the United States since 1975. But that won't stop Cheney and Bush in their zeal to destroy the planet.

Next target, of course, is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. No doubt Bush will soon unveil plans to hand over to big oil companies our last and greatest expanse of wilderness, first recognized and protected as a national treasure by Republican President Dwight Eisenhower. But that's not all. Department of Interior sources say Bush's energy plan will also call for new drilling off the coast of California. Damn the environment. Full speed ahead!

Now here's the spin. Bush and Cheney say they aren't out to destroy the environment, they're just out to provide a little "balance." Balance? After clear-cutting the forest, strip-mining the land, polluting the air and water and destroying the wilderness, where's the balance on the other side? There is none. There is no environment left.

George Bush has declared war on the environment. Quick! Does Ralph Nader still believe there's no difference between Bush and Gore?



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