Just by not being Dubya, President Obama has made a good start. But the record so far, according to this release from PEER, is mixed on key issues like montaintop removal coal mining.
By simply not being George W. Bush, President Barack Obama has already made a huge difference. Gone is the sense that each week brings a new secret industry-backed scheme to plunder the earth and pad profits. Instead, the new measure is how much progress we can make – rather than how much damage we can avoid.
On issues like energy efficiency standards and mercury pollution, there have been clear steps forward. In other areas the progress has been, shall we say, ambiguous. Look at three examples:
- On the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the administration has negated (but not yet repealed) Bush midnight regulations gutting key requirements. Then, Interior Secretary Salazar went ahead with Bush plans to remove ESA protections from wolves throughout the Rockies, except for Wyoming (whose management plan of shoot-to-kill could not pass muster);
- On mountain-top removal coal mining, EPA announces with great fanfare that it is registering its “considerable concern regarding the environmental impact these projects would have on fragile habitats and streams”. The next day, it issues a “clarification” that the agency “is not halting, holding or placing a moratorium on any of the mining permit applications. Plain and simple. EPA has issued comments on two pending permit applications.” The following day, the permits are approved while EPA has no further comment; and . . . (PEER/org).
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