Green Options » george w. bush

Climate Change Bill Has a Coming Out Party

Dave Levitan — Sat, 16 May 2009 13:00:14 +0000

Well, I’m guessing they didn’t call it a coming out party. But Democrats in the House of Representatives did unveil the already heavily discussed Waxman-Markey bill on Friday, formally known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act. It is 932 pages long. And no, I haven’t read all of it. So don’t feel too bad.

When Will Obama Restore Science?

Fred Etcheverry — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:27:40 +0000

The previous administration was hostile to science. Political appointees, who believed that the notion of global warming was a “liberal thing,” often trumped scientist writing about global warming and the “greenhouse effect.” Attempts were made to insert Creationism into the curriculum. Funding was banned for embryonic stem cell research. The CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) neglected lead laden toys while wagging war on science education.

Obama has placed scientists in key positions. He promises to reinstate funding for embryonic stem cell research. Obama’s stimulus package provides for an increase in basic science research and immediate construction of green energy projects. A movement is under way to remove Nord as head of the CPSC.

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Worst U.S. President Ever: There’s Competition

Timothy B. Hurst — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:27:38 +0000

Although, the case has been made that George W. Bush was the Worst President Ever, a recent survey found that James Buchanan should earn the dubious distinction. Buchanan may not have been the reason the U.S. plunged into civil war, but he didn’t do much to prevent it either. Watch it:

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Drill Baby Drill? Not so Fast: Interior Dept. Scraps Bush Offshore Drilling Plan

Tom Schueneman — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:51:17 +0000

Citing the need for a longer period of public review, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar announced today that he will “send back to the drawing board” the last-minute offshore drilling plan proposed by the Bush administration.

Submitted on January 16, their last day of official business, the Bush plan called for a 60-day public comment period of its 5-year offshore drilling plan. Salazar will add another 180 days to the review process.

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Trade Wars: Can They Disrupt World Renewable Energy Cooperation?

Fred Etcheverry — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:23:41 +0000

The World Trade Organization will meet in Brussels Monday (Feb. 9, 2009) to head-off the rising wave of protectionism. A trade war could put the world into a deep depression and threaten cooperation on renewable energy. Ten EU commissioners are on their way to Moscow to meet with Putin and other Russian officials over trade bearers.

Russia has raised tariffs and subsidies. The European Union claims that the “Buy American” proposal in the US stimulus plan violates WTO rules.

Under the Bush administration, the US imposed traffics on French cheese in retaliation for French health rules that restricted the sale of US chicken and beef. As Bush left office he was celebrated by the poultry industry for this retaliation. Such irrational lose-lose behavior is absurd, which is why it’s called “war.”

Until the recent slowdown, world trade was expanding and increasing world prosperity. According to Fareed Zakaria in his recent book, The Post-American World, “China’s growth alone has lifted more than 400 million people out of poverty. Poverty is falling in countries housing 80% of the worlds population.”

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Letterman: Greatest Moments in Presidential Speeches [video]

Timothy B. Hurst — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 21:02:34 +0000

“Well, it’s a sad night because we’ve reached the end of George W. Bush’s presidency and that means we have to unload what was a tremendous, rich, heavy-laden vein of comedy for us - like mining a dense vein of coal by god…” - David Letterman, January 16, 2009

The late night TV hosts have made their living over the last eight years thanks to the guffaws of the forty-third President of the United States, George W. Bush. But now that Bush is leaving the White House, the same late-night denizens of the airways have made a cottage industry talking about how they will have no material to make fun of after Obama takes office. Letterman recognized the end of the George W. Bush era with a video tribute to some of the President’s “rougher” moments [3:46].

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Restorative Resolutions for 2009 and Beyond

John Ivanko — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:44:41 +0000

With a campaign tag line, CHANGE WE NEED, President-Elect Barack Obama and a large portion of the American population should have some rather meaningful New Year resolutions for 2009.

For many of us, as we review the financial carnage of 2008 and the dismal outcomes of poorly conceived foreign policy decisions on the part of the George W. Bush Administration over the course of his term (practically rubber stamped by the majority of Congress), we are looking forward to the New Year, a new start, and a renewed sense of hope.

Among the first steps, before we usher in the New Year, is a New Year’s Resolution. But unlike years past, will we embrace the responsibility, sacrifice and curtailment so necessary in these times of climate change, ecological collapse, peak oil and the economic hardship experienced by so many, caused in a large part by our debt-based, growth-on-an-infinite-planet obsessed approach to capitalism? Or do we just try to refinance our house one more time, to take advantage of the latest Red Tag Sale?

Here’s some restorative resolutions for 2009:

Stop being a consumer: Let’s get back to an era, as imperfect as it was, where we were citizens or people, instead of being nothing more than consumers.
Break our fossil fuel addition: Our fossil-fuel-based luxuries and lifestyle are coming at a dire cost to the planet (if not, also, leading to unprecedented exploitation of people to provide those goods or services at cheap prices). Plus, there’s a good chance that fossil-fuel-based energy is going to get a lot more expensive in the coming years. Let’s cut fossil fuel use out of our lives like we might cut a cancer out of our bodies. Renewable energy is in abundance around us, so why not embrace the sun, one of my “Strategies of Abundance for ecopreneurs“.

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Bush Hearts Mountain Biking, Lifts Restrictions in National Parks

Timothy B. Hurst — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 22:59:47 +0000

On Thursday, Assistant Interior Secretary Lyle Laverty ordered the National Park Service to ease existing mountain biking restrictions, possibly opening nearly eight million acres of recommended or proposed wilderness lands in approximately 30 parks to mountain biking.

The Bush administration has released several controversial rule changes and “clarifications” over the last few months that have put even the most critical of Bush’s environmental record into a state of disbelief at the potential environmental consequences of those regulations. But this one is a little different.

The rule change issued Thursday pits the sometimes-allied (non-motorized) recreational environmentalists against the “preservationists,” who see the rule change as just another human incursion into pristine areas that would further degrade its ecological integrity. Opponents argue that mountain biking can lead to erosion thus threatening stream health and that mountain bikers are often at the root of on-trail conflicts with hikers and horseback riders.

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Big Three Bailout Imminent, Car Czar to Oversee the Rescue

Fred Etcheverry — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:22:12 +0000

The White House and Congressional leaders announced that a bailout of the carmakers was imminent. The House signed on, but the Senate opposed the deal. The Big Three and the U.A.W stood united. The final breakdown in negotiation with the Senate occurred when Senator Corker of Tennessee and the U.A.W. came to an impasse. But the bailout will happen. Apparently, Bush will do it with some of the money from the financial bailout.

According to the latest proposal, a “Car Czar” would be appointed to oversee the rescue. It’s unclear how this “Czar” could be more effective than a U.S. trustee appointed by a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy judge. A trustee might be more likely to be free of special interest and partisan bickering. There are strong special interests in the Congress over the automotive industry.

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Bush Reacts to Getting Shoe Thrown at Him by Iraqi Journalist [video]

Timothy B. Hurst — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:22:35 +0000

Agree with his politics or not, you’ve got to hand it to President Bush for his snappy reflexes.

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Bush Ignores Clean Water Act in New Mountaintop Mining Regs

Timothy B. Hurst — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:59:09 +0000

The latest in a flurry of environmentally-devastating, last-minute rule changes from the Bush administration will give the go ahead for coal mining companies to fill valleys with the mining debris left over from lobbing-off mountaintops.

Earlier this week, the EPA and the White House Council on Environmental Quality approved a rule change that will allow coal mining companies to lawfully bury stream valleys and fill them with the tops of mountains that have been carved off for the coal they contain.

For years, coal mining companies were allowed to file for exemptions to a 25 year-old rule prohibiting the dumping of fill from mountaintop removal mining within 100 feet of streams and were granted them the vast majority of the time. In practice, the government had essentially been ignoring the rule for years; now they have codified that ignorance into a regulatory standard.

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Obama Plans to Undo Bush Rules on Oil Drilling on Public Lands, Among Others

Timothy B. Hurst — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:23:37 +0000

He’ll reverse the Bush executive orders that opened public lands to oil drilling, the co-chair of his transition team said Sunday.

John Podesta, co-chair of Barack Obama’s transition team, indicated on Sunday that the president-elect would quickly use executive powers to reverse several Bush-era administrative rules, a few of which would have an immediate impact on U.S. environmental policy. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Podesta, the Former chief of staff to Bill Clinton said, “There’s a lot the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we’ll see the president do that.”

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Bush Administration Believed to Be ‘Fast-Tracking’ Change in EPA Pollution Rule

Timothy B. Hurst — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:00:13 +0000

EPA officials have been working on a fast track to meet a Saturday deadline for a new rule that would weaken pollution regulations for power plants, allowing them to increase emissions without adding new controls, according to reports.

In essence, the Bush administration’s proposal would open a loophole and allow power plants to upgrade without installing costly new air pollution equipment.

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EPA Clouds Its Enforcement Record Under Bush Administration

Tom Schueneman — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:14:41 +0000

The report was requested by Reps. John Dingell (D-MI), the Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Bart Stupak (D-MI), Chairman of its Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation.

In a statement released by Dingell’s office, the GAO report was said to have found “shortcomings in the measures used by the Environmental Protection Agency to report the effectiveness of its civil and criminal enforcement programs to Congress and the public.”

The report says the EPA overstated it enforcement of environmental violations by including fines that may never be paid when tallying its penalties.

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Civilized Communication About Global Warming, Energy, Environment And Stuff; Naysayers, I’m Open for Persuasion

Adam Williams — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:09:56 +0000

Why do we have give-and-takes like this?

A: “Global warming exists. Let’s do something about it.”

B: “Screw you! Global warming is a commie, liberal farce!”

A: “We should harvest the wind and sun for energy.”

B: “Screw you! My car is set up for petroleum; my house likes coal-fired electricity…commie, liberal farce!”

“We should care about Earth and each other. Nothing stays the same; we’ve got to evolve.”

“Screw…farce!”

And so on.

Oh, and on the relatively civilized tip…

A: “Science demonstrates that global warming exists.”

B: (In the eloquence of Dick Cheney…) “So.”

I’m perplexed of late by the glaring contrast of view points on some important issues in our world. Not to mention the venom and vitriol that charges so many of the outbursts. And not to mention that facts seem irrelevant to many people, even when they honest-to-goodness exist.

Republican or Democrat? Conservative or Liberal? Science or Religion? United States or Everyone Else? Rich or poor? Self or Others? Us or Them?

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New-Clear? Palin Speechwriter Still ‘Hooked on Phonics’

Timothy B. Hurst — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:21:07 +0000

If you think about it, “manure” is really not that bad a word. I mean, it’s “newer,” which is good, and a “ma” in front of it, which is also good- “ma-newer.” - George Costanza (1990)

In what is either another sign that the McCain camp is angling for more distance from George W. Bush or that strategists are trying to reframe the nuclear issue in a more positive light, speechwriters for Alaska Governor Sarah Palin inserted the phonetically modified neologism, “new-clear,” in place of the word “nuclear,” at the vice-presidential nominee’s acceptance speech on Wednesday night. I should also mention that Ms. Palin’s speech was written by one of President George W. Bush’s speechwriters, Matthew Scully. Perhaps Mr. Scully was so accustomed to writing for the President - whose pronunciation of the word “nuke-u-lar” has become stuff of legend - that he forgot to ’smarten it back up’ for a person who can pronounce such tricky words.

>>More on the Republican National Convention at RG&B

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What George Bush (Will Ferrell) Really Knows about Global Warming

Jennifer Lance — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:08:52 +0000

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New Law Buoys U.S. Efforts to Make Ocean-Going Ships Cleaner

Timothy B. Hurst — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:38:41 +0000

U.S. agencies have taken another step forward in implementing a key international agreement to reduce air pollution from large ships. Yesterday, President Bush signed into law the Maritime Pollution Protection Act of 2008, which clears the way for U.S. ratification of the international treaty regulating emissions – known as MARPOL Annex VI - from large diesel-powered, ocean-going vessels.

Under MARPOL Annex VI, container ships, tankers, cruise ships and bulk carriers must limit NOx emissions from their category three diesel engines. It also sets a cap on the sulfur content of the fuel they burn and includes a program for designating areas where more stringent fuel controls apply, such as near coastlines that have more severe air quality concerns.

According to the EPA, MARPOL stakeholders will work to strengthen NOx and SO2 standards and the sulfur requirements in fuel this October. If adopted, these stronger international standards have the potential to yield significant environmental and public health benefits in the U.S. and around the world (Read more about reigning-in the pollution caused by oceangoing vessels at the EPA’s website.)

Should President Bush Be Telling Americans to Conserve Gas?

Timothy B. Hurst — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:47:39 +0000

At a Tuesday White House press conference that focused mostly on the current economic downturn, President Bush indicated that he has no intention of calling on Americans to conserve gasoline, according to a report at Politico.

President Bush said, “They’re smart enough to figure out whether they’re going to drive less or not…the consumer’s plenty bright.”

The President explained the justification for his position by saying, “It’s a little presumptuous on my part to dictate how consumers live their own lives.”

But past examples show that President Bush has had no problem dictating how “consumers live their own lives,” at least when it syncs with his own political agenda. Surely you remember December of 2006, when teetering on the brink of a national economic recession, the President implored Americans to shop more:

“As we work with Congress in the coming year to chart a new course in Iraq and strengthen our military to meet the challenges of the 21st century, we must also work together to achieve important goals for the American people here at home. This work begins with keeping our economy growing. … And I encourage you all to go shopping more.”

Of course, there was also the notorious Bush call to go shopping in the time after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when President Bush insisted:

“Americans must get back to work, to go shopping, going to the theatre [sic], to help get the country back on a sounder financial footing.”

I am not arguing that it is necessarily the President’s job to recommend that consumers drive less, nor urge us to find other ways to conserve gasoline (though that would be nice). I am not looking for my government to become a so-called “nanny state” that micromanages all the details of my daily economic life.

I am arguing that the President of the United States is supposed to be a leader - sort of a ‘first citizen,’ if you will - that has the ability to send signals (both subtle and overt) that can have an appreciable impact on what we do and how we do it. Even a Lame Duck President with a 28 percent public approval rating has the ability to influence someone, right? Yes, the American people are smart, but economically determined aggregations of individual rational choices do not always work out to be the “best” ones at the collective level.

The problem is that President Bush cannot reconcile our need to cut carbon emissions with his belief that we cannot do so without “crippling the economy.” And remember we are talking about a (former) Texas oilman. Perhaps President Bush’s affinity for “product,” as he sometimes refers to it, creates an internal conflict that prevents him from suggesting that we somehow use less of it, when all he wants to do is drill for more of it.

The fact that Mr. Bush can’t recognize Americans may need some political leadership to help stabilize energy consumption and rein-in carbon emissions has stood in the way of any substantive action on climate change in the seven and a half years President Bush’s tenure.

Bush Lifts Executive Ban on Offshore Drilling - Why it Matters and Why it Doesn’t

Timothy B. Hurst — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:37:55 +0000

In a largely symbolic move, President George W. Bush ordered to lift the Executive Order banning the drilling of offshore oil wells in the U.S.. However, the move will have no effect on the current regulations on offshore drilling because there are two prohibitions on offshore drilling, one imposed by Congress and another by executive order signed by Bush the elder in 1990.

“Today, I’ve taken every step within my power to allow offshore exploration,” Bush told reporters today at the White House. “This means the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress.”

But actually, there are a few other things standing between the American people and “these vast oil resources,” the most significant being capitalism and global energy markets.

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Green Options » george w. bush

Climate Change Bill Has a Coming Out Party

When Will Obama Restore Science?

Worst U.S. President Ever: There’s Competition

Drill Baby Drill? Not so Fast: Interior Dept. Scraps Bush Offshore Drilling Plan

Citing the need for a longer period of public review, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar announced today that he will “send back to the drawing board” the last-minute offshore drilling plan proposed by the Bush administration.

Trade Wars: Can They Disrupt World Renewable Energy Cooperation?

Letterman: Greatest Moments in Presidential Speeches [video]

Restorative Resolutions for 2009 and Beyond

With a campaign tag line, CHANGE WE NEED, President-Elect Barack Obama and a large portion of the American population should have some rather meaningful New Year resolutions for 2009.

Bush Hearts Mountain Biking, Lifts Restrictions in National Parks

Big Three Bailout Imminent, Car Czar to Oversee the Rescue

Bush Reacts to Getting Shoe Thrown at Him by Iraqi Journalist [video]

Bush Ignores Clean Water Act in New Mountaintop Mining Regs

The latest in a flurry of environmentally-devastating, last-minute rule changes from the Bush administration will give the go ahead for coal mining companies to fill valleys with the mining debris left over from lobbing-off mountaintops.

Obama Plans to Undo Bush Rules on Oil Drilling on Public Lands, Among Others

He’ll reverse the Bush executive orders that opened public lands to oil drilling, the co-chair of his transition team said Sunday.

Bush Administration Believed to Be ‘Fast-Tracking’ Change in EPA Pollution Rule

EPA Clouds Its Enforcement Record Under Bush Administration

The report was requested by Reps. John Dingell (D-MI), the Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Bart Stupak (D-MI), Chairman of its Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation.

Civilized Communication About Global Warming, Energy, Environment And Stuff; Naysayers, I’m Open for Persuasion

New-Clear? Palin Speechwriter Still ‘Hooked on Phonics’

If you think about it, “manure” is really not that bad a word. I mean, it’s “newer,” which is good, and a “ma” in front of it, which is also good- “ma-newer.” - George Costanza (1990)

What George Bush (Will Ferrell) Really Knows about Global Warming

New Law Buoys U.S. Efforts to Make Ocean-Going Ships Cleaner

Related Posts on Air Pollution and Marine Vessels:

Should President Bush Be Telling Americans to Conserve Gas?

Related Posts:

Bush Lifts Executive Ban on Offshore Drilling - Why it Matters and Why it Doesn’t