Bush Seeks to Ease Pollution Rules for Utilities
-Saturday, November 23rd
-Eric Pianin
-World wide news
The Bush administration and the EPA, are rolling back restrictions on utility companies. Formerly, when one of these facilities wanted to upgrade to produce more energy, or make repairs, the would have to meet the new EPA emissions guidelines. Now, power plants are able to make repairs, without being taken to court under the Clean Air Act, and plans are on the slate for power plants to be able to upgrade, without adding expensive anti-pollution devices to reduce emissions. Fifty power plants have been sued by government authorities under the Clean Air Act of 1970. The Clean Air Act, stipulated that when facilities are updated, they must install the best, newest, anti-pollution devices. Now, however it would seem that EPA stands now for Efficiency Protection Agency, at the expense of the environment.
English: President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the 1...
Governor Whitman frisking Sherron Rolax (1996)
Whitman CollegeI know. This is US domestic policy. Not international. I'm going to be docked five points. I know. However, the reason I chose this article (other that the news filled with namby-pamby foreign policy stories, ghostwritten by Ari Fleischer) is that the effect of these upcoming actions will be global. In my mind, domestic policy is stupid stuff. Paying for road repairs, setting taxes, readjusting welfare and Medicare while bringing down the debt. Those are things that, while important, really won't affect, bother or interest people anywhere else. Any where. However, as the largest industrialized nation in the world, we set the tone for keeping the world clean. We don't do a good job, we contribute to global warming more than any industrialized nation, but we were trying. Our air is their air. How can convince third world countries that cheap, inefficient coal is a bad source of energy when...