What's an Environmentalist to do?

“Let the animals sort it out”

“Drain all the lakes and cut down all the trees! That will teach em.”

“LOL”

“even notice that environmentalists don't drive the honda Insight or a toyota prius, but big gass guzling F150's”

“I drive a F150.

Does that make me an evironmentalist whacko?”

“wow, Tea. what a stunningly accurate observation.”

“bacpac, I think the general concensus is that you'd be a whacko whatever you drove! Even if you walked to work, you're still wacko!”

“3 Top Enforcement Officials Say They Will Leave E.P.A.

By JENNIFER 8. LEE NY Times

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 — Three top enforcement officials at the Environmental Protection Agency have resigned or retired in the last two weeks, including two lawyers who were architects of the agency's litigation strategy against coal-burning power plants.

The timing of the departures and comments by at least one of the officials who is leaving suggest that some have left out of frustration with the Bush administration's policy toward enforcement of the Clean Air Act.

"The rug was pulled out from under us," said Rich Biondi, who is retiring as associate director of the air enforcement division of the agency. "You look around and say, `What contribution can I continue to make here?' and it was limited."

Cynthia Bergman, a spokeswoman for the agency, said of the departures, "This is an office of several hundred employees — and to have one political appointee and two career employees leave is not indicative of unrest or departmentwide frustration."

In August, the administration changed air pollution rules to give utility companies more leeway to modernize their power plants without having to upgrade their pollution control equipment. That change prompted the agency's enforcement division to drop investigations into about 50 power plants for suspected violations of the Clean Air Act. Last month, however, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the administration from enforcing the new air pollution rules.

The head of the agency's enforcement division, J. P. Suarez, announced his resignation on Monday to take a job as general counsel at a division of Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, in Arkansas. Mr. Suarez has been at the agency for 18 months. The E.P.A. announced in November that it was going to suspend investigations into utilities after the administration loosened the sections of the Clean Air Act that govern aging coal-burning power plants.

In the last two weeks, Bruce Buckheit, the head of air enforcement division, and Mr. Biondi, his deputy, who had worked at the agency since 1971, retired.

The two, who took a buyout offered to senior agency employees, join other top enforcement lawyers who have resigned or retired. Eric Schaeffer, the former head of civil enforcement, resigned in spring 2002 with a scathing letter criticizing the administration's enforcement of the Clean Air Act. Sylvia K. Lowrance, the acting assistant administrator for enforcement and a career enforcement official, retired in August 2002.

"We will see more resignations in the future as the administration fails to enforce environmental laws," Ms. Lowrance said.

Mr. Suarez said on Monday in an interview, "While Bruce and Rich bring tremendous experience to their job, we are blessed with talent that will pick up where they left off."

Mr. Buckheit is considered a driving force behind the agency's pursuit of utilities that started in the Clinton administration.

"It is a huge loss for clean air enforcement as Bruce was one of the most energetic and passionate Clean Air lawyers in the country," said Peter Lehner, the head of environmental litigation for the New York attorney general's office, which has joined in several of the lawsuits against power plants.

The suits used a once-obscure provision of the Clean Air Act, known as new source review, which says that power plants, refineries and other industrial boilers had to install pollution controls if they modernized in ways that increased emissions generally. But "routine maintenance was exempt." The power companies protested the suits, saying the Clinton administration was misinterpreting the law.

Nonetheless, Mr. Buckheit had reached agreements with some electric companies, including Virginia Electric Power and Cinergy, by 2000. Many other negotiations stalled, however, after the Bush administration came into office.

Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force urged the administration to study industry complaints about federal enforcement actions. Last summer, Virginia Electric Power, now known as Dominion Power, completed an agreement to install $1.2 billion in pollution controls.

Mr. Suarez joined the E.P.A. in 2002. Before, he had been director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.”

“It's sad to see people who have dedicated their lives to ensuring that our environment is safe feel that they must leave their jobs.
Maybe some former Enron execs can be hired in their place.”

“Better than seeing the energy companies go bankrupt.”

“I had more than a few differences with Christy Whitman when she was our governor but she was an active outdoors person who took action on preservation and pollution control. It was too bad she left the EPA in frustration. I think she really thought she’d accomplish something there.”

“PHB, you are a gem.
The people who bankrupt the energy companies are, most often, the CEO's and greedy board members. Remember Enron?”

“Some people seem to think they must worship the corporations or loose our precious "way of life".”

“ahem... or Harken?”

“Really dunadan. Actually it was the greedy employees who kept buying and buying stock running up the price hoping to get rich. It was sheer supply and demand.”

“the millions of dollars in artwork, houses and cars for executives was probably irrelevant in the fiscal structure of the company huh heatpacker?”

“You people are so slow that you cant comprehend the need for corporate image and the value of investments in things like artwork.”

“That last post by peanutbutterbear has to go in the Classic TT quotes thread!!!!!
I totally LOVE that one, PHB. If you really believe that, then I suggest learning how to read.”

“There was a good story in the Washington Post on how Bush's voluntary polution schemes just aren't working.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46212-2003Dec31.html" TARGET="_blank">interesting”

“Oh gosh, your right heatpacker, as I am now recalling from Enron's auction news releases, their astute investing in artwork served their shareholders well.

NOT!!!”

“I know how to read and how to think for myself and not blindly follow some liberal doctrine.

Why is it you liberals hate corporate america so much? Because they make money the honest way?”

“I don't hate corporate america, without it I wouldn't have a livlihood. I do hate corporate thieves, especially when they violate their fiduciary responsibility to manage a corporation in the best interest of their shareholders in favor of their own pocketbook and social life. Your actually sitting there defending the Enron execs, some of the biggest crooks in corporate American history!”

“You completely overlook how many people they made rich who bought their stock low and sold high. I havent seen any legal proof of theivery.”

“you should check the indictments, and follow the upcoming trials, oh and the confessions from the CFO and controller, you might look at those too.”

“I think there were very few of those "high sellers" - except for some of the execs who sold their shares quietly while telling the 401(k) invested employees to hold on, better times are ahead...”

“Why is it that some people decry the waste of tax dollars, when the "private sector", through their greed and dishonesty, have cost the American taxpayer much, much more money than have taxes? I guess the government should begin to "overstate" their profits, huh?”

“This is one well-fed troll.”

“At least corporate america makes money and contributes to our economic health except the ones supporting gun control”

“Tilt, he's blind in one eye too”

“Ah.... cyclops, eh? LMAO

Ignore it and it'll go away. They always do.”

“Every one of you liberals finally resorts to name calling. It must be what you are taught in the brainwash camps.”

“"Brainwash camps"???

One of the things I go camping is to wash my brain of most notions of civilization.”

“The sky is falling! THe sky is falling!”

“why does he think I'm such a raving liberal?

brainwashed, I wish.”

“The sky is falling! THe sky is falling!"
Nigal
03:14:29 PM
01/06/04

That's the same thing Rush said for years when Clinton was in the White House.”

“What annaual reports is packinheatbear reading. In the 90's all corporate america did was buy other companies which on paper made the parent company look more valuable. That also included all the dot.com start ups. It merely inflated the value of the company with out producing anything more. Now the bills are coming in and there are no new products, no increase in sales\. so now what happenes. Recession,downsizing and outsourcing. Restructuring is the catch word of 2004. The leaders of corporation are not giving up there share points, rather they are reducing overhead and personel. The public has to carry this burden by higher taxes, unemployment and insecurety.”

“Thanks to Buddha for reminding us of that. During Clinton, it was the Repubs crying, crying away. New contract with America. Empeach B.C. We need more morality in the White House. Bla Bla Bla. Yadda Yadda Yadda. How soon some forget.”

“I'm afraid that if this administration 'clarifies' any more rules, we may as well disband the EPA.


WASHINGTON (AP)- The Bush administration proposed on Wednesday revising a policy that limits mining activity near streams, changes environmentalists say will encourage a particularly destructive way of obtaining coal.

The method, dubbed "mountaintop mining," involves shearing off the tops of ridges to expose a coal seam. Dirt and rock are pushed into nearby stream beds, a practice known as valley fill.

The Interior Department's proposal would eliminate an existing policy that says land within 100 feet of a stream cannot be disturbed by mining activity unless a company can prove that the work won't affect the stream's water quality and quantity.

In the proposed rule, the department said that the standard is impossible to comply with and coal operators must instead prevent damage to streams "to the extent possible, using the best technology currently available."

Environmentalists said valley fills are a violation of the existing buffer zone rule and that the Bush administration is caving into the industry, which wants to protect its ability to use the increasingly popular mining technique.

"Instead of changing industry practice to conform to the law, the Bush administration is changing the law to conform to industry practices," said Jim Hecker, a Washington-based environmental lawyer. He is involved in a West Virginia court case challenging the practice of mountaintop mining.

A federal judge in West Virginia previously ruled that mountaintop mining violated the "buffer zone rule," but an appeals court decided that the judge lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case, saying it should have been tried in state court.

The Bush administration argued the new rule is needed to clarify the intent of the buffer zone rule, which was last amended in 1983 and which federal officials say wasn't designed to prevent mountaintop mining altogether.

more...”

“What's an environmentalist to do? JUMP FOR JOY!!!



White House official who edited global warming reports resigns


WASHINGTON (AP) -- A former oil industry lobbyist who changed government reports on global warming has resigned in a long-planned departure, the White House said Saturday.

Philip Cooney, who was chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, left Friday, two days after it was revealed that he had edited administration reports on climate change in 2002 and 2003.
His departure was "completely unrelated" to the disclosure, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
snip

Cooney, a lawyer without a background in science, once headed the oil industry's lobbying on climate change.

snip

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/06/11/climate.official.resigns.ap/index.html
last edited: 6/12/05 5:43:20 PM”

“Wow...just goes to show you the lengths these righty-buisness men- coal lovers will go to in order to hide the freakin truth.”

“Yep, and guess who appointed him?? Yeah, him!!”

“that is good news.”

“Is the report which was rewriten going to be thrown out?
Is that rewriten report going to be rewriten again?
Will the first report be used?
How many more of those types of people are rewriting reports so that they will support "the lie" aka: "the agenda"?”

“He may be gone, but the folk who put him in place are still there, the policies are still in place, and the rape of the environment will go on until...well, until there's nothing left to destroy, I guess.”

“You are right Bob. It is quite sad really.”

“...until there's nothing left to destroy, except you know who...”

“bushs policies have done much damage to this country-”

“How many Bush admin figures have resigned to "spend time with his/her family"?”