Winds of Change Newsletter, February 2006     See sidebar for table of contents

The Worst Environmental President in US History

by Rep. Bernie Sanders, excerpts of a column

If we continue degrading our environment at our current pace, the planet we leave our children and our grandchildren will be dangerously inhospitable and unhealthy…

That is why we need leadership in Washington that moves us away from polluting energy resources, like coal and oil, and toward clean and renewable energy, like wind, solar, bio-mass and hydrogen. That is why we need strict enforcement of environmental laws that put the health and safety of our children above the bottom line of unscrupulous, polluting corporations.

Unfortunately, instead of responsible leadership, we are saddled with the worst environmental President in United States history. Since George W. Bush took office, his administration has proposed or implemented over 400 rollbacks in environmental protections, from permitting untreated sewage into our waterways to curbing restrictions on toxic mercury in our air and water.

These rollbacks are not accidental. President Bush has given new meaning to the old tactic of putting the wolves in charge of the henhouse. Nearly every agency of our government with jurisdiction over the environment is now run by the polluters it is supposed to regulate.

He appointed a rapacious timber industry lobbyist as head of the Forest Service… He put a utility lobbyist who has represented some of the worst air polluters in America in charge of the air division of the EPA. His choice to head up Superfund is a person whose last job was teaching corporate polluters how to evade Superfund law.

And those appointments make a difference.

… The EPA recently announced that in 19 states it is now unsafe to eat any freshwater fish because of mercury contamination, which is coming largely from coal-burning power plants. In 48 states, at least some of the fish are unsafe to eat.

A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control found that as many as 637,233 American children are born each year with mercury levels…associated with brain damage and loss of IQ. Much of this mercury is produced by 1,100 coal burning power plants that refuse to use readily available technology for reducing emissions.

Not coincidentally, one of the first things that Bush did when he came into office was to order the Justice Department and EPA to drop a series of 75 lawsuits against the nation’s worst-polluting coal burning power plants. These large companies were allowed to continue poisoning our children with impunity.

Why? During the 2000 campaign they had contributed $48 million to Bush’s presidential bid and have given $58 million since. They provide campaign contributions, and Bush allows them to pollute…

The United States used to be an international leader on environmental protection. Now, embarrassingly, on such issues as global warming we’re an outcast.

Our environmental laws, which were once the envy of countries around the world, are now being hacked to pieces from within for short-term profits and political gain.