Paul Krugman writes in today's New York Times that Bush is doing a conservation ad campaign in order to cloak their next round of drill-and-burn legislation. The irony of it is that the character the Bush administration is using for that ad campaign is a big, fat cartoon pig.
Not only have fuel prices gone to almost $3 per gallon, natural gas prices have doubled in the last year. And, as Krugman writes, polls show that people blame the Bush administration for not doing enough to control price gouging and oil companies for living -- off the hog.
The strategy of the Bush administration is clear -- shift the blame from the oil companies to the environmentalists. One of their favorite complaints is that environmentalists have stopped the construction of any new oil refineries for the last 25 years. But that is a straw man and is not true. Oil companies were not interested in building them for much more mundane reasons according to Krugman -- there was excess capacity.
Krugman says that our best chance is demand destruction. But the problem is, people in rural areas cannot afford to simply stop driving their cars. They must drive 10-15 miles out of their way just to buy gas. They must drive 20 miles a day to work or to farm. There is no public transportation out there.
And people can't just turn off their gas in the winter; they will die of freezing. Or, they could get electrical heating. But that would drive up their electric bill to unreasonable levels.
Persuasion would work better in the suburbs and cities. And Krugman writes that it can be done; California solved its conservation crisis in 2001 through just such a campaign.
But Krugman says correctly that the Bush administration lacks the conviction to make such a campaign work. The one thing Bush seems to have any kind of conviction on these days is Iraq. During the interview with Diane Sawyer after Katrina, Bush was totally in shock and on the verge of tears. One of the few moments he regained his self-conviction was when he was asked if the war in Iraq would be affected.
Krugman goes on to frame the energy crisis as a national security issue; he also talks about the need to reduce greenhouse gases. But the Bush administration is not doing any concrete steps to address these issues. Instead, in a brazen abuse of power, they held the floor open for hours armtwisting reluctant Republicans to change their votes to open areas for drilling and refining.
All of this, doubtless, will be framed as driving down the price of gas. But the Iraq War was framed the exact same way. We were told that oil would go down to $30 a barrel. But that was simply a lie.
The passage of HR 3893 is more of the same from the Bush administration. They called other pro-pollution bills the "Clean Skies Initiative" or the "Healthy Forests Initiative."
This all goes back to what I have been saying about the sanctity of human life. The passage of HR 3893 is a prime example of the Bush administration placing profits over lives. It will not yield any significant amounts of new oil, it will not bring down the price of gas, and it will only pad the profits of the oil companies like Exxon-Mobil while burning off more pollutants and driving up the cancer rates in this country.
And the passage of HR 3893 is just the tip of the iceberg. Here are some prime examples of Bush's track record on the environment:
Bush opened a huge loophope in clear air laws, allowing 17,000 aging power stations to increase carbon emissions with impunity.
Bush, as governor of Texas, allowed industrial plants to write their own pollution regulations.
The Clean Skies Initiative, which would gut key provisions of the Clean Air Act. The bill was killed in committee by a 9-9 vote.
While Bush was governor of Texas, 64% of Texans lived in areas which didn't meet clean air standards.
Backed by ExxonMobil, Bush supports the drilling of the ANWR.
In response to a warning about mercury poisoning, the Bush administration gave utility companies 15 years to reduce mercury emission levels. Mercury gets into fish, causing massive health problems.
Got a bill passed in the House that would gut the Endangered Species Act. It is now in the Senate.
As governor of Texas, Bush repeadedly undermined inspections of polluters by allowing them to weasel out of paying fines.
Federal prosecutors charged polluters with significantly fewer violations (almost 33% less) than the Clinton administration.
Bush failed to cut down on diesel pollution despite the fact that it creates more smog than all cars combined.
As governor of Texas, Texas was:
#1 in the Emission of Ozone Causing Air Pollution Chemicals
#1 in Toxic Chemical releases into the Air
#1 in use of Deep Well Injectors as method of Waste Disposal
#1 in counties listed in top 20 of Emitting Cancer Causing Chemicals
#1 in Total Number of Hazardous Waste Incinerators
#1 in Environmental Justice Title 6 complaints
#1 in production of Cancer causing Benzene & Vinyl Chloride
#1 Largest Sludge Dump in Country
By his own admission, Bush does not believe in lawsuits against polluters.
Carl Pope's book documents the various people who Bush hires who are hostile to environmental issues.
The Natural Resources Defense Council has documented the impact on people's lives that Bush's pollution policies are having:
Scientists have shown that power plant pollution is linked to serious health effects and environmental damage:
Premature death: In the eastern United States, sulfur dioxide is the primary component of fine particles that can be inhaled deeply into the lungs, and are linked with respiratory disease and premature death. Power plants emit two-thirds of U.S. sulfur dioxide pollution and are responsible for shortening the lives of an estimated 30,000 Americans each year.
Asthma: Nitrogen oxides are major ingredients in ozone pollution (smog). During 1999, ozone pollution levels rose above the level the EPA deems healthy more than 7,694 times in 43 states and the District of Columbia. Smog and fine particle pollution are especially damaging for the 14.9 million asthma sufferers in this country, including 5 million children. In 1997, smog triggered more than 6 million asthma attacks and sent almost 160,000 people to the emergency room in the eastern United States alone.
Mercury contamination: Mercury can cause serious neurological and developmental damage, including birth defects, subtle losses of sensory or cognitive ability, and delays in developmental milestones such as walking and talking. Power plants are responsible for 34 percent of all mercury emissions, which settle into our waters, where they accumulate in fish. In 41 states, officials warn against eating fish from mercury-contaminated lakes and rivers.
Acid rain: Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from power plants form acids in the atmosphere that fall to earth as rain, fog, snow or dry particles. This "acid rain" is often carried hundreds of miles by the wind. Acid rain damages forests and kills fish, and can also damage buildings, historical monuments and even cars.
Global warming: Power plants emit 40 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide pollution, the primary cause of global warming. Scientists say that unless global warming emissions are reduced, average U.S. temperatures could be 3 to 9 degrees higher by the end of the century -- with far-reaching effects. Air pollution will worsen. Sea levels will rise, flooding coastal areas. Heat waves will be more frequent and intense. Droughts and wildfires will occur more often in some regions, heavy rains and flooding in others. Species will disappear from their historic ranges and habitats will be lost. Many of these changes have already begun.
The fact that Bush's policies support pollution is serious. People are dying and gasping for air as the result of his policies. That is why we need a President and a Congress who will place human life over corporate profits.