Bush won't be regulating greenhouse gases
On Friday, the Bush administration decided not to pursue the regulation of greenhouse gases. This comes despite the recent G-8 summit at which he agreed to a policy declaration seeking a 50% reduction by 2050.Why? They claim that such measures would be too hard on the economy.
Bush's Environmental Protection Agency, in a 588-page federal notice discussing whether global warming poses a threat to people's health, miraculously made no finding.
This document backtracks from common sense and science, as well as an earlier determination in December that found that such gases were a danger to our health and welfare. It also reverses previous drafts from May and June that stated that the Clean Air Act could be used effectively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The EPA made the determination that the Clean Air Act is no longer an effective means of regulating greenhouse gases. They cited several set-backs and road-blocks they had faced when attempting to take measures to reduce gases, claiming in a letter that the burdens were "insurmountable" and not worth the "likely limited benefits of using the Clean Air Act." Basically, they want to quit because it was hard.
Although they listed some possible methods by which gases might be reduced, EPA-administrator Stephen Johnson passed the bag, saying "it is really at the feet of Congress."
Which is just great, considering Congress has yet to be able to win a majority of votes supporting the regulation of greenhouse gases. In fact, despite many hearings, not a single bill has been put to vote.
Even though Bush's daughter Sophia has claimed that she'll never again date a man who isn't green-minded, and his recent support of bio-fuels, he has effectively taken a hands-off approach to environmental policy-making, leaving the decision up to the next elected administration.
Frank O'Donnell, president of the environmental advocacy group Clean Air Watch, claims that "the White House...is only attempting to stall any kind of clean up" and that it appears that "the Bush administration is trying to ignore the Supreme Court and to pretend it doesn't exist."
Sometimes, I pretend that my asthma doesn't exist, but I think I need some more coaching.
Says the chairman of the House Select Committee on Global Warming, Rep Edward Markey, "the White House has taken an earnest attempt by their own climate experts to respond to the Supreme Court's mandate to address global warming pollution and turned it into a Frankenstein's monster."
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