Saturday, November 30, 2002

UK Independent News -- Bush giving loggers and polluters free rein

New moves by the Bush administration to lift regulations on logging companies and big industrial polluters have been denounced by environmentalists, who say an unprecedented assault is being made on 30 years of legislation protecting America's forests, water, air and seashores.

Two low-key announcements in the past week, appar-ently timed to minimise media coverage, have removed environment-friendly provisions from the Clean Air Act and from rules governing the management of specially designated national forests.

The White House has also given tacit approval to the incursion of oil prospectors and mining companies in a number of national parks. Oil and gas drilling has already started in one previously protected area, the Padre Island National Seashore in south-west Texas, and is likely to be approved soon in other parks in Ohio, Texas and Louisiana.

Unless it is to get votes right before an election the Bush policy is to rape the environment. In his PR he is smarter than Reagan, usually letting others in his administration take the actions, but in practice he is worse.

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