[MAGI]

:eek:

for and by, corporate greed!

"March 17th, 2006 10:05 am
Kempthorne Picked for Interior


Idaho Governor Hailed by Bush, Assailed by Environmentalists

By Peter Baker and Juliet Eilperin / Washington Post

President Bush named Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne as the new secretary of the interior yesterday, choosing a popular Western Republican with Washington experience and a disputed environmental record to oversee the nation's parks and public lands.

If confirmed, Kempthorne would succeed Gale A. Norton, who announced her resignation this month at a time when her department is tied up in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Kempthorne, 54, a two-term governor who served in the Senate in the 1990s, presumably should have little trouble winning the approval of his former colleagues.

"Dirk understands that those who live closest to the land know how to manage it best," Bush said as he introduced his nominee to reporters in the Oval Office late in the day. "And he will work closely with state and local leaders to ensure wise stewardship of our resources."

Bush said Kempthorne would help "develop the energy potential of federal lands and waters in environmentally sensitive ways."

But environmental groups immediately assailed the selection, calling it the latest example of the Bush administration selling out to development and energy industry interests. Environmentalists noted that Kempthorne fought to open national forests to logging, mining, and oil and gas drilling. They said he worked to weaken water safety and endangered species laws.

"At a time when these controversial issues need a leader who can find common ground, the president could not have chosen a more divisive nominee," said Philip E. Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust.

The League of Conservation Voters offered a two-sentence response: "During his career in Congress, Governor Kempthorne earned a paltry 1 percent lifetime LCV score. Enough said."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6227

[JamesP]

A breath of (not so fresh) air: There are still some checks and balances on the Bush Administration's crusade to further line the pockets of industry at the expense of the environment:

WASHINGTON, March 17 — A federal appeals court on Friday overturned a clean-air regulation issued by the Bush administration that would have let many power plants, refineries and factories avoid installing costly new pollution controls to help offset any increased emissions caused by repairs and replacements of equipment.

But on Friday, the court said the agency went too far in 2003 when it issued a separate new rule that opponents said would exempt most equipment changes from environmental reviews — even changes that would result in higher emissions.

With a wry footnote to Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass," the court said that "only in a Humpty-Dumpty world" could the law be read otherwise.

"We decline such a world view," said their unanimous decision, written by Judge Judith W. Rogers, an appointee of President Bill Clinton. Judges David Tatel, another Clinton appointee, and Janice Rogers Brown, a recent Bush appointee, joined her.

The winners this time —more than a dozen states, including New York and California and a large group of environmental organizations — hailed the decision as one of their most important gains in years of litigation, regulation and legal challenges under the Clean Air Act.

"This is an enormous victory over the concerted efforts by the Bush administration to dismantle the Clean Air Act," Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney general, whose office led the opposition from the states, said in an interview.

Mr. Spitzer, who is running for governor, said the ruling "shows that the administration's effort to misinterpret and undermine the statute is illegal."

[wimzkl]

Global warming is a contentious issue between liberals and conservatives. The liberals contend that pollution is having disastrous effects on the environment. CosCons say there is no convincing evidence.

Who knows? However, the incidence of asthma in America is skyrocketing. Now, you are talking about America’s most valuable asset – our children! We should all put aside our differences and demand that Corporate America clean up its act and our air. How can the necessity of corporate profits compare with the health of our populace and especially our children? Certainly the standard of the public interest would demand that we seriously investigate this problem.

[MAGI]

And muffle the very people who KNOW the TRUTH and CARE about our planet:

From Think Progress:

"Under the Radar

SCIENCE -- NASA CLIMATOLOGIST SPEAKS OUT ABOUT ADMINISTRATION'S ATTEMPTS TO SILENCE HIM: James Hansen, the head of NASA's top institute studying the climate and arguably the world's leading researcher on global warming, told CBS's 60 Minutes last night that the Bush administration is censoring what he can say to the public. As proof, Hansen displayed a 2004 email he received that read, "The White House [is] now reviewing all climate related press releases." Hansen believes global warming is accelerating, pointing to the melting Arctic and to Antarctica, where new data show massive loss of ice to the sea. "In my more than three decades in the government I've never witnessed such restrictions on the ability of scientists to communicate with the public," said Hansen. The White House disputes the science behind global warming. While Bush ignores the counsel of the world's leading scientists who warn of pending environmental disaster, he solicits the opinions of fiction author Michael Crichton who tells him the science on warming is underwhelming. The White House has also relied on the advice of oil industry lobbyist Philip Cooney who, while he worked on the Council on Environmental Quality, edited government climate reports to play down links between greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Hansen explains the danger of the White House's ignorance: "If the ice sheets begin to disintegrate, what can you do about it? You can’t tie a rope around the ice sheet. You can’t build a wall around the ice sheets. It will be a situation that is out of our control."