The Bush war on science and climate continues

On issue after issue, the US environmental protection agency has ignored its own science advisers and ruled in favour of polluters.

Why is it that, in the Bush administration, the desires of well-heeled polluters always trump the analyses of government scientists? The answer is that the top political appointees – and the president himself – personally weigh in on the side of industry…

“President Bush intervened at the 11th hour and turned down a second proposal by the EPA staff that would have established tougher seasonal limits on ozone based on its harm to forests, crops and other plants … . Federal scientists had recommended those growing-season limits as a way to keep vegetation healthy and capable of trapping carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas linked to global warming.”

But why worry about greenhouse gases? It’s not like anyone thinks the planet is warming up dangerously thanks to human emissions, is it?

Ignoring climate science is, of course, an EPA and Bush administration specialty…

Once an agency charged with protecting the environment loses its scientific integrity, what has it got left? Besides corporate contributions for the boss’s boss, that is.

2 thoughts on “The Bush war on science and climate continues

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  1. That is a great article.

    On Tuesday, March 11th, the President personally flexed his expert scientific muscles, and overruled the public welfare standard for ozone selected according to the scientific judgment of the EPA Administrator. Instead, the President ordered adoption of an ozone standard preferred by White House economists, a standard that EPA recognized to “lack scientific support.” And in doing so, the President relied upon the very cost considerations that the Supreme Court had ruled illegal in 2001.

    That last bit says it all.

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