I've diaried about this before. The EPA career employees are under assault. These are people who have make "protecting" (you know - the "P" in EPA?) the enviroment their life. So, of course, there is a battle going on inside the EPA between Bush's appointed cronies and these career employees.
So, who do the cronies turn to now regarding environmental policy? The corporations, silly!
The [EPA] is illegally negotiating secret agreements with industry lobbyists over pesticide regulation, according to a lawsuit filed today by NRDC (the Natural Resources Defense Council). . . . NRDC contends the agreements have undermined public health safeguards by failing to restrict the use of these dangerous chemicals.
Believe me - this is happening.
Today I found out that EPA has instituted another hiring freeze affecting many different parts of the EPA (namely - surprise - Compliance and Enforcement). . .
. . . What better way for BushCo to wage its internal war at the EPA than by cutting off the resources of the career employees while keeping out those who do care about a career in saving the environment?
How does Bush achieve this? Here's an example, just from last week:
The Bush administration Monday proposed cutting the Environmental Protection Agency budget by nearly 6 percent to $7.57 billion in fiscal 2006 by targeting a program that helps cities replace aging sewage systems.
The EPA said the requested reduction was part of the federal government's overall belt-tightening, but environmental groups said it would hurt an important clean water program.
And, on cue, Bush's general of the war in the EPA leads the charge:
Acting EPA administrator Steve Johnson defended the plan as "a strong request that allows us to keep up the pace of environmental protections" and said the cuts were part of the administration's larger deficit-cutting plan. The White House is facing a record federal budget deficit [note: yeah, the war and the tax cuts for the wealthy had nothing to do with that].
So the head of the EPA is happy he's losing funding? Sure, if he's been charged to destroy his agency.
Gannongate, Social Security, Iraq - all major issues we must keep up with. But there is a silent struggle going on inside the agency charged to protect us from water pollution, global warming, species loss, etc. - and it's time that Dems and Greens everywhere rose to defend it. Let your Representatives and Senators know that they must take a stand for the EPA.