Philadelphia Inquirer Profiles Bush’s EPA

This entry was posted by harry s truman on Monday, December 15th, 2008 at 12:48 pm.

Frank Pasquale at Concurring Opinions wants the Pulitzer Committee to consider the Philadelphia Inquirer’s series on Bush’s environmental policy, titled ‘Smoke and Mirrors: The Subversion of the EPA‘:

According to the series, there is widespread exasperation in the courts (even among very conservative Republican nominees) about Bush-era extremism. As James R. May, (a Widener University law professor and chair of the American Bar Association’s annual Environment and Energy Resources conference) puts it, “All across the spectrum, judges are finding that virtually every environmental initiative of the Bush administration is illegal.”

In my mind, it’s not necessarily that Bush does not subscribe to my point of view—or even that he disagrees with the science behind it—but it’s that his disagreement with enviros and scientists (and me) actually seems personal.

The fact that Bush’s moves are often found to be illegal offers a glimmer of hope for those who look at actions of his EPA and Interior Department (most recently, the removal of protections for endangered species), and feel completely helpless.

Even with the election of Barack Obama—who appears to be an environmentalist—I am anxious that Bush’s demolition work remain be a lasting part of his legacy. Only time will tell, but it’s hard to think that Obama should put anyone other than the strictist environmentalists into office—if we expect to make a dent in what Bush has done.