Bush applies the industrial pollution controls that did not work in Texas to the nation

Oh, George, George, George.  You are not only a killer of terrorist and soon to be killer of Iraqis, you are also a killer of Americans with your "screw the environment" ethic.

The only thing that matters to George is money and power.  And that means sucking up to big business.  Nothing matters to George but money and power and so he allows businesses to pollute the environment and he turns the military on Saddam Hussein in order to take control of Iraqs 112 billion barrels of oil.

How does George collect all that campaign money?  It is simple for a man with no global ethic and only a business morality.  You just sell out to money and power.  You take the contributions from the big corporations and discount everything that gets in the way of making a profit.

There is no greater enemy of the world society and WorldPeace than George Warmonger Bush who would turn the entire world into one big cesspool for the sake of a campaign contribution.  I can only hope that two years from now Americans will be sick of his immoral business ethic, not to mention his socio-pathic killer instincts, and vote him out of office.  

John WorldPeace
November 24,  2002

Critics: Federal clean-air plan recycles state's

Changes to federal air pollution laws adopted by the Bush administration Friday reminded some Texans of the days when the president was governor.

The new federal rules -- which will loosen requirements governing when industrial plants need to install new pollution equipment -- read like Bush-backed legislation that passed in Texas, but failed to slash emissions.

"We are recycling an air pollution code that in Texas didn't work and turning it into a national model," said Ken Kramer, director of the Sierra Club's Lone Star Chapter. "It seems like a backward approach to cleaning up our air."

Peter Altman, executive director of the environmental group Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition said, "Industry has used Bush's presidency to ram through the same provisions."

But industry groups on Friday failed to see any similarities between the two programs.

"I see no connection," said Mary Miksa, senior vice president for the Texas Association of Business, which represents 3,000 companies in Texas, and 200 local chambers of commerce.

Neither did state environmental officials.

"Texas has programs similar to everything," said Steve Hagle, special assistant for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's Air Permits Division.

After more than a year of review, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday announced sweeping changes to a portion of the Clean Air Act known as New Source Review. The program requires older refineries, chemical plants and electric utilities to install modern emissions controls when making upgrades that increase pollution.

The changes announced Friday will make it easier for industrial facilities to modernize without installing state-of-the-art equipment.

Industry hailed the administration's action as increasing the law's clarity and flexibility, while environmentalists said it would lead to an increase in air pollution nationwide.

The revisions will have little effect in the Houston area, where a federal mandate to curb smog pollution is stricter, experts said. But the changes could loosen requirements on industrial plants in Austin and San Antonio, where air quality is better.

The parallel between the federal changes announced Friday and the existing state program regulating older plants lies in the fine print.

While the laws have different aims -- one to determine when these plants should install state-of-the-art pollution controls, the other to close a regulation gap between older and newer facilities -- their means are much the same.

And so will be their results, environmentalists warn.

Both allow industrial plants to continue use of 10-year-old technology, and both allow them to mask emission increases under a plant-wide cap, according to experts.

It's the same approach, said former Texas Sen. Buster Brown, R-Lake Jackson, who sponsored the Voluntary Emissions Reduction Program passed by the Legislature in 1999.

"They try and provide a way for plants to not shut down and lose the stability of electric production," Brown said. "It wouldn't be the first time the federal government looked to Texas for leadership."

The voluntary program, which was heavily endorsed by then-Gov. George W. Bush and would later haunt him during his presidential campaign, gave industrial plants operating on 30-year-old pollution laws the choice to be permitted for air pollution. The state environmental agency would evaluate whether a plant needed to reduce pollution at the time a permit was solicited.

But two years later, the program was ruled a failure. Only one of 800 grandfathered, or older, plants statewide had applied, according to a state report. That permit took 74 tons of pollution out of the air.

The Legislature passed a measure in 2001 that made it mandatory for facilities to seek a permit, closing the loophole.

Federal environmental officials on Friday said the changes were not based on any state programs. Many of the revisions were introduced by the Clinton administration in 1996, the EPA said.

"A lot of these ideas have been around for a long time,'' said Jeff Holmstead, an EPA assistant administrator.

How can we manifest peace on earth if we do not include everyone (all races, all nations, all religions, both sexes) in our vision of Peace?

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