Republicans Blast George Bush for Protecting Polluters and Destroying the American Environment

Commentary ~ July 21, 2004: An army of Republican state politicians, standing side by side with one of the Environmental Protection Agency’s earliest leaders – also a Republican – blasted George Bush this week for his dismal record on the environment.

Russell Train, a Republican, was the second chief to head up the EPA. He served under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. He said Bush’s record is so dismal he’s casting his presidential vote for Democrat John Kerry in November.

"It’s almost as if the motto of the administration in power today in Washington is not environmental protection, but polluter protection," he told the Associated Press. "I find this deeply disturbing."

Environment2004, an anti-Bush environmental group, released a report Monday titled "Damaging the Granite State." It criticizes presidential policies on energy, global warming, toxic waste and air and water pollution.

Aimee Christensen, the group’s executive director. said Bush has the worst record in modern history when it comes to the environment. She said the Bush administration is "systematically weakening our keystone public health protections and undermining decades of bipartisan leadership on the environment."

The report faults Bush’s energy policy for slashing renewable energy funding. According to the report, the cuts are holding back New Hampshire, which could produce 43 percent of its energy from wind power. The report also claims the state could add 5,000 jobs by 2020 with more renewable energy and efficiency investments.

"The Bush administration's attack on environmental safeguards jeopardizes the health and safety of New Hampshire citizens," said former State Senator Rick Russman of Kingston, former chair of the Senate Environment Committee. "These policies mean more smog, acid rain, and mercury from aging coal-fired power plants. These policies mean N.H. toxic waste sites not getting the funding they need for cleanup. And the Bush Administration's energy bill would mean taxpayers instead of oil companies paying to clean up drinking water contaminated by the fuel additive MTBE. These are bad policies for the people of New Hampshire."

"Environmental programs protect our health -- and our kids' health," said New Hampshire State Rep. Jim Pilliod, M.D. (R- Belmont), co-chair of the statutory Commission on Environment and Public Health. Dr. Pilliod is also a former President of the New Hampshire Medical Society. "As a pediatrician, I am alarmed about the impacts of the current administration's attacks on air pollution rules. They mean more smog-causing pollutants -and more asthma attacks. They also mean more toxic mercury in the fish that we eat."

Meanwhile, former Democratic Senator Max Cleland of Georgia accused Bush on Monday of feeding Congress and the American people "a pack of lies" as justification for the war in Iraq.

"We were flat out lied to by the president, by the vice president, and by the secretary of defense," he said.

"(Secretary of State Colin) Powell was set up, the Congress was set up, all on false premises to go to war in Iraq," he said. "Now, why did (President George) Bush go to war in Iraq? Because he concluded that his daddy was a failed president and one of the ways he failed is that he did not take out Saddam Hussein."

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