The protection was short-lived.

Within four years, the area was opened to oil and gas exploration. Under the Bush administration, 2.6 million acres of Utah land that had been shielded from development were suddenly open for business.

While the energy industry applauded the rule change, more than a dozen state attorneys general appealed it, asking the federal courts to reinstate New Source Review as a necessary enforcement tool. Buckheit says it was the hammer that helped him forge that landmark agreement in Tampa...

Phillips: "What's the biggest enforcement challenge right now when it comes to air pollution?"

Buckheit: "The Bush Administration. An opportunity to reduce pollution just as we saw in Tampa is being foregone."

Phillips: "Are you saying this administration just doesn't care about air pollution?"

Buckheit: "Yes. I'm saying this administration has decided to put the economic interests of the coal fired power plants ahead of the public interests in reducing air pollution."

Phillips: "That's a pretty serious allegation."

Buckheit: "Well, I was the head of the air enforcement division up until a couple weeks ago and I watched it happen."

Before he retired last December, Buckheit was ordered to shut down further New Source Review investigations at other utilities.

Buckheit: "We had several dozen investigations."

Phillips: "Ongoing."

Buckheit: "Ongoing. Strong cases, where I had to tell the regional engineers and lawyers, stop.  Put your documents in the box, so that hopefully we can get back to it someday.  But otherwise, you know, stop your investigation."

But William Wehrum, a senior adviser to Holmstead who also represented industry clients before joining the Bush administration, told the dozen or so employees that comparative studies would be postponed indefinitely.

"I was floored," one participant said. "We pointed out that the studies were required ... that the data runs were promised to a federal advisory committee."

Holmstead did not respond to the expressions of concern, participants said. "There was an awkward silence," one recalled.

After the meeting, two staff members said, Holmstead informed them the studies would not be conducted partly because of "White House concern."

From 1989 to 1993, he served as associate counsel to President George H.W. Bush, advising him on environmental policy. Holmstead also served as an adjunct scholar for Citizens for the Environment, a libertarian group founded and funded by oil giants Charles and David Koch.

Holmstead is overseeing the administration's overhaul of Clean Air Act rules, which will allow industrial plants to expand without installing better pollution controls. When EPA scientists came up with data indicating that the administration's "Clear Skies" proposal would increase pollution, he reportedly replied, "How can we justify Clear Skies if this gets out?"

Is Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Leavitt going to bring professionalism back to the regulatory process or be a Bush administration puppet? His decision on mercury pollution could provide the answer.

Even Leavitt seemed surprised to learn that, before his appointment, EPA had bypassed the usual scientific method in adopting mercury abatement rules. Instead, the agency borrowed whole paragraphs from suggestions by the utility industry, whose coal-fired power plants produce most mercury pollution. When Leavitt discovered those shortcomings, he ordered more analysis and insisted he wanted the regulation process "done right."

The threat is real. According to EPA experts, as many as 630,000 infants born during the 12-month period studied could have unsafe blood mercury levels. Airborne mercury ends up in the nation's lakes, rivers and coastal waters where it accumulates in fish. Even a small amount of contaminated fish in a pregnant woman's diet can threaten her fetus and lead to developmental delays. Older children and adults can also suffer neurological damage from ingesting too much mercury.

The Bush administration is required to have rules in place by the end of the year to reduce mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, but a curious thing happened along the way. EPA staffers were told to postpone studies that would have provided a scientific rationale for choosing among regulatory alternatives, according to the Los Angeles Times. Then a federal advisory panel that was supposed to use that data to make a recommendation had its meetings canceled. Panel member John Paul, a Republican, concluded that EPA officials chose a process "that would support the conclusion they wanted to reach."

The official who made those decisions is Jeffrey Holmstead, head of the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation. He was a utility industry lobbyist prior to his appointment. Staffers told the Los Angeles Times that Holmstead cited "White House concern" as his reason for ignoring the established rulemaking procedures.

FACT: Newsweek reported that "In the months before 9/11, the U.S. Justice Department curtailed a highly classified program called 'Catcher's Mitt' to monitor al-Qaida suspects in the United States." Additionally, AP reported "though Predator drones spotted Osama bin Laden as many as three times in late 2000, the Bush administration did not fly the unmanned planes over Afghanistan during its first eight months," thus terminating the reconnaissance missions started during the Clinton Administration. [Sources: Newsweek, 3/21/04; AP, 6/25/03]

CLAIM: "We bolstered the Treasury Department's activities to track and seize terrorist assets."

FACT: The new Bush Treasury Department "disapproved of the Clinton Administration's approach to money laundering issues, which had been an important part of the drive to cut off the money flow to bin Laden." Specifically, the Bush Administration opposed Clinton Administration-backed efforts by the G-7 and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that targeted countries with "loose banking regulations" being abused by terrorist financiers. Meanwhile, the Bush Administration provided "no funding for the new National Terrorist Asset Tracking Center." [Source: "The Age of Sacred Terror," 2003]

CLAIM: "We moved quickly to arm Predator unmanned surveillance vehicles for action against al-Qaida."

FACT: According to AP, "the military successfully tested an armed Predator throughout the first half of 2001" but the White House "failed to resolve a debate over whether the CIA or Pentagon should operate the armed Predators" and the armed Predator never got off the ground before 9/11. [Source: AP, 6/25/03]

CLAIM: "We increased funding for counterterrorism activities across several agencies."

FACT: Upon taking office, the 2002 Bush budget proposed to slash more than half a billion dollars out of funding for counterterrorism at the Justice Department. In preparing the 2003 budget, the New York Times reported that the Bush White House "did not endorse F.B.I. requests for $58 million for 149 new counterterrorism field agents, 200 intelligence analysts and 54 additional translators" and "proposed a $65 million cut for the program that gives state and local counterterrorism grants." Newsweek noted the Administration "vetoed a request to divert $800 million from missile defense into counterterrorism." [Sources: 2001 vs. 2002 Budget Analysis; NY Times, 2/28/02; Newsweek, 5/27/02]

During the 1990's, government regulation greatly reduced mercury emissions from medical and municipal waste incineration, leaving power plants as the main problem. In 2000, the E.P.A. determined that mercury is a hazardous substance as defined by the Clean Air Act, which requires that such substances be strictly controlled. E.P.A. staff estimated that enforcing this requirement would lead to a 90 percent reduction in power-plant mercury emissions by 2008.

A few months ago, however, the Bush administration reversed this determination and proposed a "cap and trade" system for mercury that it claimed would lead to a 70 percent reduction by 2018. Other estimates suggest that the reduction would be smaller, and take longer...

So how did the original plan get replaced with a plan so obviously wrong on the science?

The answer is that the foxes have been put in charge of the henhouse. The head of the E.P.A.'s Office of Air and Radiation, like most key environmental appointees in the Bush administration, previously made his living representing polluting industries (which, in case you haven't guessed, are huge Republican donors). On mercury, the administration didn't just take industry views into account, it literally let the polluters write the regulations: much of the language of the administration's proposal came directly from lobbyists' memos.

Here on ice patches of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the hunt looks nearly as brutal as ever. For as far as the eye can see, dozens of burly men bearing clubs roam the ice in snowmobiles and spiked boots in search of silvery young harp seals. With one or two blows to the head, they crush the skulls, sometimes leaving the young animals in convulsions. The men drag the bodies to waiting fishing vessels or skin them on the spot, leaving a crisscross of bloody trails on the slowly melting ice.

On November 20, 2003, Senator Carl Levin introduced a bipartisan resolution calling on Canada to end the commercial seal hunt. The resolution condemns the hunt as a commercial slaughter that fails to adhere to basic animal welfare regulations, and asks the Canadian government to put an end to the hunt.

"I've been in government since Richard Nixon. I've been through the Reagan administration, Carter and Clinton. I've never seen anything like this."

What he's talking about is what he calls a government cover-up of an investigation into a disaster 25 times the size of the Exxon Valdez spill.

The investigators were going to cite the coal company for serious violations that would probably have led to large fines and even criminal charges.

But all that changed when the Bush administration took over and decided that the country needed more energy -- and less regulation of energy companies. The investigation into Massey Energy, a generous contributor to the Republican Party, was cut short...

Originally, Spadaro says his investigating team wanted to cite the company for eight violations. But in the end, Massey Energy was only cited for two violations, and had to pay approximately $110,000 in fines - not a lot for the fifth largest mining company in America.