[an error occurred while processing this directive] Ventana Chapter - The environmental LIES of George W. Bush
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The environmental LIES of George W. Bush
Suppressed or falsified science documented by Waxman Report and New York Times

by Richard Stover

The environmental LIES of George W. BushCriticism has been growing about the Bush administration’s interference in the scientific research and analysis done by federal agencies. Much of that research involves environmental issues. Bush’s interference has led to false statements by the President, false statements given to Congress, suppressed reports, altered web sites, and more.

Congressional Representative Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) commissioned a study to document these falsehoods. The report by the Special Investigations Division of the House Committee on Government Reform can be reviewed here.

While many of us have heard about the Administration’s lies, distortions, and interference, it is still shocking to see so many of them documented in one publication. The report identifies one common attribute of the interference: it benefits powerful Bush supporters including business interests and political conservatives. The interference sacrifices the credibility of Federal research and harms the American public (and the world) in order to promote a political and ideological agenda.

Specific examples are summarized below:

Bush Lie: Feedlots

The US Department of Agriculture suppresses research and information related to agricultural pollution. In one case they prevented a researcher from presenting his results from a study showing antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the air near hog confinements in Iowa and Missouri. The USDA suppressed this research at the request of someone from the National Pork Producers Council. USDA scientists must now seek prior approval (from USDA Bush appointees) for any manuscripts related to agricultural practices with negative health or environmental issues.

Bush Lie: Arctic Refuge

Interior Secretary Gale Norton gave false written testimony to Congress regarding drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge when she said that ANWR’s caribou calving occurred mostly outside ANWR while her own department’s research showed the opposite. She also deleted important findings by her own scientists that indicated that caribou calving and survival could be harmed by drilling activities in ANWR.

Bush Lie:

Water Quality Perchlorate, the main ingredient in solid rocket fuel, is a serious health threat. Research in 1997 showed significant health risks, even at low levels, especially for infants and developing fetuses. The Bush Pentagon has systematically suppressed information on the levels of perchlorate in ground water and soils at numerous sites contaminated by the military and its contractors. Instead the Bush Administration is pushing for legislation to protect the polluters from liability.

Bush Lie: Environmental Health

In an effort to make sure science facts don’t interfere with Bush pollution policies, in 2002 the administration appointed persons with strong ties to polluting industries to an important environmental health advisory body of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Bush Lie: Global Warming

When Bush rejected the Kyoto protocol on global warming, that was bad enough. But then Bush personally lied when he said his global warming policies would be “science-based.” The truth has been the opposite. At the behest of ExxonMobil, Bush had the State Department request the removal of Dr. Robert Watson as chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate. Watson had produced a report predicting 2.5 to 10.5 degree global temperature increases by 2100. This conflicted with the Bush policy of global warming denial.

As part of the policy of denial Bush tried to suppress other information on global warming. In 2002 the Bush administration left global warming out of an annual report on air pollution. In 2003 a major EPA report on the environment also contained no information on global warming. The report originally had a section on global warming, but Bush’s political operatives demanded changes that were not true or that distorted the scientific findings. This created enough of an uproar among EPA scientists that EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman decided to drop the global warming section completely.

Additionally the EPA has withheld reports from Congress that show that a proposed alternative to Bush’s “Clear Skies Act” would be much more effective, would cost very little more, and would save 17,800 lives from reduced pollution. The alternative would also reduce carbon dioxide emissions, a major contributor to global warming. Bush policy is opposed to reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Bush also refused to let the EPA release a study requested by Congress which showed that the financial impact to the U.S. economy from controlling greenhouse gas emissions would be 50 to 100 times less than the amount claimed by the White House.

Bush Lie: Environmental Lead Poisoning

Recent research indicates that the current federal standards for lead exposure in children are too high. In a damaging (to children) attempt to block any changes in the standards, the Bush administration has replaced members of CDC’s Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention with persons from the lead industry. It turns out that the lead industry had a direct hand in picking some of these people. Even though research shows that childhood learning ability is impaired at the current federal limits and that those limits need to be reduced by a factor of 2 or more, one of the Bush appointees to the committee actually claims that lead levels 7 times higher than the present standard are safe for children’s brains. No one outside the lead industry holds that discredited view.

Bush Lie: Oil Drilling

Halliburton (headed formerly by Vice President Cheney) uses an environmentally damaging drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing that injects benzene and other carcinogens into the ground. In an attempt to cover up potential ground water contamination from this practice, the EPA changed data in a report to Congress. The report in its original form showed that there was real potential for contamination, but at the request of the oil industry the data were changed to show no potential for contamination. The White House also deleted discussion of the environmental hazards of hydraulic drilling from the White House National Energy Policy document.

Bush Lie: Wetlands

Soon after Bush took office the U.S Army Corps of Engineers changed its policy from protecting wetlands to one of destroying wetlands. U.S. Fish and Wildlife scientists concluded that proposed rule changes on wetlands would lead to significant environmental damage and that the Corps’ own data supported this conclusion. Interior Secretary Norton suppressed this information by failing to present the Fish and Wildlife scientists’ report to the Corps. The proposed harmful rules were enacted.

Bush Lie: Yellowstone

A report written by Park staff detailing several ongoing environmental concerns at the Park was edited to remove any mention of these concerns. The Bush Interior Department used the altered report to argue that Yellowstone should be removed from a list of parks in danger and in need of international attention. The United Nations World Heritage Committee removed Yellowstone from the list based on the bogus report.

Bush Lie: World Trade Center

In a sickening disregard for the health and lives of Americans, the White House pressured the EPA not to warn the public about the potential health effects of the smoke, dust, and debris from the collapse of the World Trade Center. This was apparently done in order to get the New York Stock Market reopened as quickly as possible. The White House prevented the EPA from issuing guidelines about cleaning apartments and offices. Indeed the EPA made false statements about the safety of the debris and dust without any monitoring data to back it up, and they gave false advice on how to do the cleanup.

The Towers were known to contain thousands of pounds of lead, tons of asbestos, and thousands of gallons of chemicals which when burned produced dioxins and other highly toxic byproducts. While the EPA already had procedures in place for dealing with the health and environmental problems of a major terrorist attack, the EPA did not follow its own procedures. As a result tens of thousands of residents and workers in Manhattan have been put at risk for serious, long-term health problems, and much of the contamination still remains in the environment at dangerous levels. All of this information, including the direct involvement of the White House in falsifying EPA reports and press releases, is contained in a report by the EPA Inspector General. Although the report was suppressed by the White House, a copy was leaked to the New York Times and the full report is now available. This lie came to light after the Waxman report was released.

Read the entire Waxman and EPA Reports, here.

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