[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 83 (Wednesday, June 16, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H4268]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       BUSH ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, ``environment'' is a dirty word in the 
current administration and they have the record to prove it.
  The administration has turned over environmental stewardship to 
special interests. The Vice President held secret meetings with energy 
companies to craft the new energy policy. It does not address renewable 
resources or energy efficiency. Instead, the Cheney Special Interest 
Energy Task Force called for more oil drilling and more coal 
production.
  Efforts by the public to learn for about these secret meetings were 
unsuccessful. That is because Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a 
new directive urging all Federal agencies to deny all Freedom of 
Information requests whenever possible.
  The administration's actions go far beyond our own borders. A new 
film, ``The Day After Tomorrow,'' depicts a world plunged into a new 
ice age because we refuse to address global warming. They say the truth 
is stranger than fiction.
  The President called the U.S. out of the so-called Kyoto Protocol. 
Mr. Speaker, 160 nations had agreed to work together to address 
critical global warming issues.
  Under democratic President Bill Clinton, the U.S. had agreed to be 
part of this worldwide global initiative to save the world. This 
President not only withdrew from Kyoto, he also worked to reduce clean 
air standards at our oldest and most polluted power plants. The 
administration could not get Congress to reduce Mercury standards, so 
the administration reduced them on their own.
  The administration has proposed something they call a Clear Skies 
Initiative. They could have called it the Dark Cloud Policy. The effect 
of dark cloud is to gut clean water and air standards. If they get it 
through, the industry would have another reason to pollute, direct from 
the White House. Now, that is a new definition of environmental 
stewardship.
  The administration does not just propose new pollution legislation. 
This administration has been redefining existing definitions to help 
industry pollute. A case in point: older coal-fired power plants, among 
the worst polluters, have a new definition of ``upgrade'' that allows 
them to avoid installing new technology to reduce pollution.
  In one of America's great places, Yellowstone National Park, we now 
have, surprise, calls by the administration to let snowmobiles continue 
to pollute the air and noise. But the Park Service plans to phase in 
banning snowmobiles from the park suddenly needs, yes, more study. That 
is administration speak for special interests.
  There are plenty of places in America, millions of acres available 
for snowmobiles, but the snowmobile lobby went right through the oval 
office.
  Now, Congress is trying to save Yellowstone from the administration's 
tactics.
  The President turned his back on his own campaign pledge to reduce 
industry carbon dioxide emissions, a major contributor to greenhouse 
gases. Oil drilling has been given a green light in the Padre Island 
National Seashore. It is off the coast of Texas, and it is the fist 
national park to be open to drilling. It has dramatically increased 
logging in the Pacific Northwest, and is trying to convince the world 
that fake salmon are better than natural salmon.
  The list of environmental transgressions is so long that 5 minutes is 
not enough, 5 hours is not enough, and 5 days would not be enough to 
help the American people understand what has happened to our 
environment since this President took office. They are polluting the 
air, polluting our water, and it affects human beings as much as it 
affects environmental degradation. Ask any one of the youngsters in 
this country in the epidemic of asthma.
  None of this matters to the administration. The special interests 
have spoken and given hundreds of millions of dollars to Republican 
political campaigns.

                              {time}  2300

  That buys access to the Oval Office and, they hope, to places like 
Yellowstone.
  The rest of us are told there is no problem. We are just 
reactionaries. The evidence is overwhelming, we are told we need more 
research. Big tobacco always said that about cigarettes and lung 
cancer. They said it every time someone else new was diagnosed with 
lung cancer. Why do we not do some more studies?
  Well, this administration is doing exactly what big tobacco did. 
First, deny, deny, deny. Then attack your critics. Then say we need 
more study. Then attack the study and call for research.
  At a time when the world needs environmental leadership, the 
Administration offers environmental plunder. We can no longer accept 
that.
  Everyone has heard of Lord of the Rings. In fact, many have seen it. 
In J.R.R. Tolkien's Return of the King, the character Gandalf says 
something that should guide us all.
  ``It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do 
what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, 
uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live 
after may have clear earth to till. What weather they shall have is not 
ours to rule.''
  The environment is not for sale. The American people need to know 
that. Look at the record. Save the environment while there is still 
time. November 2 is coming.

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