During his introductory address,
the new Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Mike
Leavitt, told of a visit to President Bush’s Crawford ranch:
“I’m from the West, and I know love of the land when I
see it,” he said. Leavitt then announced plans to implement
Bush’s Clear Skies Initiative, which, among other things,
allows coal-fired power plants to send more mercury into the air.
Under the plan, rather than cleaning up their act, polluters can
trade “pollution credits” with less-polluting plants
(HCN, 9/29/03: Who’s at the helm?).
“Instead of enduring season after season of
devastating fires, my administration acted to remove the
causes of severe wildfires,” said President Bush when he
signed the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, a law that boosts
logging on 20 million acres of public lands. (HCN, 12/8/03: Forest
protection on the honor system). At the ceremony, Bush thanked top
officials from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Interior,
Republican lawmakers, firefighters, scientists — and Chuck
Leavell, the Rolling Stones’ keyboard player, a “tree
raiser,” in Bush’s words, who was attending the
ceremony.
Under orders from Washington
to privatize federal jobs, the Forest Service has just
completed its first round of lay-offs: In August, the agency purged
members of the Content Analysis Team, which analyzes public comment
on the agency’s environmental analyses. In November, 20 more
employees lost their jobs (HCN, 9/1/03: From Washington, D.C.,
comes a new spoils system). The jobs have been outsourced, despite
a study that shows the agency can do the job $425,000 cheaper than
private contractors.
Former government
officials are fuming over the White House’s
environmental record — and some of them have come out
swinging. A new group, Environment 2004, is hoping to make
environmental issues a priority of Democratic candidates in the
next election. Prominent members include Bruce Babbitt, Interior
secretary under Clinton; Carol Browner, Clinton’s EPA
administrator; and David Foster Hales, a high-ranking Interior
Department official under Jimmy Carter.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Follow-up.
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