LIEBERMAN
CHALLENGES BUSH ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD
BLAMES ADMINISTRATION FOR BREAKING
“BIPARTISAN
CONSENSUS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 7, 2002
WASHINGTON - Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman
Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., Thursday chided the Bush
administration for working to undermine a number of laws and
regulations that safeguard the environment and the public’s
health and safety and he accused the administration of
interfering with the historically bipartisan consensus for
environmental protection that has existed in Congress for
decades.
At an oversight hearing called to examine the
implementation of environmental law, Environmental Protection
Agency Administrator Christie Todd Whitman defended the
administration’s record.
She was followed at the witness table by Eric
Schaeffer, who resigned in protest last week from his job as
EPA’s director of regulatory enforcement, saying the White
House “seems determined to weaken the rules.”
Lieberman chided the administration for trying to
market proposals that weaken existing law with a “false
promise of innovation... The environmental initiatives of this
administration have been both disappointing and somewhat
deceptive,” he said. “I
only wish the administration were as tireless and resourceful
in trying to solve our common environmental challenges as it
seems to be in devising ways to take the teeth out of
important environmental rules and regulations.”
Lieberman cited administration policy on a number of
initiatives, including global warming, clean air, the rollback
or attempted rollback of a variety of regulations, including
ones to lower the level of arsenic in drinking water and
increase the efficiency savings of air conditioners.
Most notable, Lieberman said, was the
administration’s rumored overhaul of
rules which govern how power plants comply with the
Clean Air Act. These rules, known as New Source Review, are
intended to ensure that when old power plants upgrade their
operations, they upgrade their emissions reduction technology
as well.
Lieberman cited new research, published in the Journal
of the American Medical Association, that links, for the
first time, long-term exposure to air pollution from
coal-fired power plants, factories and diesel trucks to an
increased risk of dying from lung cancer. A Washington Post
article reported that “as many as 30,100 deaths a year are
related to power plant emissions... By comparison, 16,000
Americans are killed each year in drunken driving accidents
and more than 17,000 are victims of homicides.”
“This is serious business, which, frankly, the Bush
Administration is not treating seriously enough,” Lieberman
said. “That’s undoubtedly one reason why Eric Schaeffer
resigned last week...
Mr. Schaeffer’s
resignation is powerful evidence that this Administration is
not following a balanced environmental policy. It is listening
and responding to the views of those who are the source of
pollution, without giving the views, voices and values of
others the weight they deserve...
“In my opinion the Bush Administration has undermined
many critical environmental and public health protections and,
as a result, has broken the bipartisan consensus for
environmental protection that has existed for years...
“This hearing is intended as a direct challenge to
the Bush Administration to defend its environmental record and
hopefully to improve it before it gets worse,” Lieberman
said. |