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In final weeks, President Bush aims to extend his environmental legacy Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com November 9, 2008 The Bush Aministration works feverishly in final weeks to undue laws protecting the nation's environment and wildlife.
Land Development and Mining
DOI is also planning changes regarding mountaintop removal for coal mining. Mountaintop removal is a relatively new mining process, begun in Appalachia in the 1970s. The process involves clear-cutting forests on mountain peaks and then blowing the mountain tops off in order to reach the coal inside. Currently the law requires that mountain top removal mining does not dump anything within a hundred feet of any stream. The rule change proposed by the DOI, however, will allow such dumping in water sources if the company states it cannot avoid the stream and that it is "mitigating" any harm done. The new proposals would even allow changing an entire river's course in order to mine, potentially affecting wildlife and water quality.
America's Air Pollution from power plants has also been on the Bush administration's radar. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had been looking at rule-changes for the New Source Review (NSR), a program that was intended to mitigate pollution from power plants. The EPA plans to change a detail in the rulebook that would essentially exempt all power plants already running from having to install new technology to curtail pollution. Under the new rule, the NSR would require power plants to keep an eye on hourly rates, rather than annual rates, allowing power plants to increase annual emissions without repercussions. The EPA is also planning to have no restriction on “fugitive” emissions from power plants. “Fugitive” emissions are those that come from any other source than smoke stacks, such as pipes. In other words, any toxins that come from these other sources would not be counted toward the power plant's total pollutants nor would there be any pollutant ceiling where at “fugitive” emissions must be curtailed. The administration is also attempting to lessen rules regarding air pollution near national parks. The EPA hopes to incorporate new rules that would allow power plants, and their pollution, to be built closer to America's parklands. Endangered Species The Bush Administration has been denying and weakening protection for endangered species for eight years. Now, before its final term runs out the administration is working overtime to leave a lasting imprint on the act itself. Although increasing number of American species are threatened by climate change—the polar bear, pika, and numerous amphibian species, among others—the administration plans to add rules to make it impossible for the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to be used in anyway to regulate CO2 emissions.
The administration is also continuing battles regarding particular species. Despite a recent court order to put wolves back under the ESA's protection, the administration is continuing its fight to de-list wolves, which would allow them to be hunted. The administration is allowing only a thirty day comment period regarding the de-listing. Conservationists believe that hunting wolves in the lower forty-eight at this time would threaten the stability and longevity of wolf populations, while the Fish and Wildlife Service states that they have achieved their objective in having at least 300 wolves in the Rocky Mountain region. What's Next? Conservationists do not believe the Bush Administration's rule changes and plans for land development plans are at an end. Many suspect a number of further announcements. In fact, the most recent took place on election-day when the Bureau of Land Management released new maps updating their plans in Utah, including development in the areas adjacent to parkland.
President-elect Obama will have the opportunity to overturn some of these rule changes when he takes office. But the process can be laborious, fraught with difficulty, and sometimes even impossible. For example, once land is sold to a oil or mining company a new administration cannot simply demand it back. In other words, Bush's dubious environmental legacy is likely to live well beyond his presidency.
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