The environment and energy policy of President Bush's administration is controlled by a group of current and retired executives of oil and chemical companies, who are trying to undermine America's ability to force it to reduce the dangerous rates of pollution in the Earth's atmosphere.
Al Gore New York Times
The environmental and energy policy of President Bush's administration is dominated by a group of current and retired executives of oil and chemical companies, who are trying to undermine America's ability to force a reduction in the dangerous rates of pollution in the Earth's atmosphere. The first step was to withdraw from the agreement reached in Kyoto, to start reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Then the administration canceled an agreement that required car companies to switch to vehicles with greater fuel efficiency.
Other acts of sabotage take place behind the scenes. Just as Enron executives were allowed at one time to interview candidates for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and to veto those they believed did not agree with the company's agenda - so ExxonMobil was allowed to veto whoever was chosen to head the intergovernmental panel on climate change. The memo from the country's largest oil company resulted in last weekend's failure of Dr. Robert Watson, the panel's respected leader, to be re-elected after the administration threw its weight behind another candidate.
Why is this happening? Because the biggest polluters know that their only hope of escaping the imposition of restrictions is to sow more confusion about global warming. Just as Enron needed accountants who didn't freak out when the company lied about the extent of its future liabilities, so the government needs scientific reviews that won't warn about the destruction of the planet's climate balance.
How long will they be able to get out of this safely? When women are wearing bikinis in Boston in the middle of spring, and in the face of widespread melting at both poles and almost every ice cap in the mountains, public awareness and concern is growing rapidly.
At a time when the world needed American leadership in an effort to mobilize all nations to end global warming, the administration is working overtime to block any progress in this area.
On this day, April 22, Earth Day, we need more than ever real forward-looking leadership and a renewed focus on the environment. Instead, the administration's "Clean Skies" initiative actually increases air pollution, as it allows more toxic emissions of mercury, nitrous oxide, and sulfur than the current law allows. Simply put: the Bush administration is selling America's future for short-term political gains.
True leadership means ensuring our national security and our role as a world leader, and one of the best ways to do that is by reducing our dangerous dependence on foreign oil. But instead the administration is now investing less in energy innovation and conservation and more in subsidies to oil exploration and nuclear power generation companies.
True leadership means ensuring an economy that rewards innovation and labor productivity. We can do this if we lead in investments in technological innovations in the world, the result of which will be environmentally friendly products and economic growth. But the current administration is working to increase our dependence on oil and outdated technologies.
On all those fronts, the government chooses to subsidize the solutions of the past. Instead of leading, he tries to mislead. Instead of sharing a vision with the people, he gives access to vested interests.
We can return to the days of record growth combined with record improvement in the air we breathe. We can see the environment as a crucial element of the nation we will become. We must get back involved in the discussion on securing our country's energy needs and implement environmental policies that will make us safer, more efficient and kinder stewards of our planet and our country's great potential.
The writer, vice president of the USA in 2001-1993, is a professor
at Fisk and Middle Tennessee Universities
