April 25, 2004

Bush’s Record on the Environment.

I heard recently that Bush has a very poor record on the environment, and in fact has been very bad for the environment. I hadn’t been following this issue, and I was concerned to hear this.

Larry Elder has an interview about this subject. The interview is with Dr. S. Fred Singer. Dr. Singer is a scientist, specifically an atmospheric physicist. He is also the author of books such as “Global Climate Change,” “The Greenhouse Debate Continued,” and “Hot Talk, Cold Science: Global Warming’s Unfinished Debate.”

Has the Bush administration trashed the environment?

On the eve of “Earth Day,” the Bush administration stands accused of trashing the nation’s environment. The New York Times similarly indicted the administration in its recent Sunday magazine cover story: “Changing the Rules How the Bush Administration Quietly and Radically Transformed the Nation’s Clean-Air Policy.”

...Larry Elder: John Kerry said that Bush has the worst environmental record in recent history, or in modern history. What’s your reaction to that?

S. Fred Singer: That’s just political hogwash. We have data that the environment is getting better. I mean, I don’t really think it’s because of Bush, but the Environmental Protection Agency has been continually enforcing standards, both on air and water pollution, and as a result, air and water are getting cleaner every year.

Elder: Has Bush quietly and radically transformed the nation’s clean-air policy? And, if so, is that a bad thing?

Singer: I don’t think there has been any such transformation. In fact, since Bush came to the White House, he’s announced a policy to control mercury emissions from power plants, which is something that had not been done previously, and I think he is going to enforce that. So I don’t see why the New York Times complains, but I suppose this is an election year and complaints of this sort are in order.

Elder: Bush has been criticized for, as the Los Angeles Times put it, “turn[ing] his back on [the] global warming treaty.” Remember the global-warming treaty? Congress unanimously passed a resolution saying that if Al Gore goes over to Japan and negotiates a global-warming treaty that excludes Third World countries, it is going to be dead on arrival. John Kerry is one of those who voted for that resolution, saying that we’re not going to ratify it if it excludes Third World countries. It does exclude Third World countries.

Singer: That’ll be a unanimous vote in the U.S. Senate.

...Elder: This is a political question, and you may not want to answer it. Why do you suppose the Republicans have such a black eye about the environment?

Singer: I think it has to do with the fact that the green organizations tend to be oriented toward the Democratic Party. It’s as simple as that. It’s been this way now for many, many years. They have been strong supporters of Al Gore, and they simply haven’t forgiven George Bush for beating Al Gore.

Read the whole thing. The interview also goes into the environmental legislation currently before Congress.