Public Employee Press

BushWatch
PEP keeps an eye on the most anti-labor, anti-minority,
anti-woman president in American history

Turning green to greenbacks

On Earth Day, April 12, President George W. Bush spoke in Knoxville, Tenn. “This is a day we recommit ourselves to being good stewards of the land,” he said.

His stewardship includes backing off from a campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, abandoning the Kyoto agreement to reduce global warming; allowing new oil and gas leasing on fragile grasslands; leasing more of the Rocky Mountains to oil and gas companies; repealing President Clinton’s plan to save one-third of the national forests from new roads and development.

Bush’s record has earned the criticism of scientists, including a top NASA climate expert on global warming and the National Academy of Sciences. The 2005 index of environmental sustainability ranked the U.S. 45th of the 146 countries studied. Japan, Botswana, Bhutan and most of Western Europe came out ahead of the U.S.

— JLT