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Bush Administration Hostile to the Environment {Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, became a United States Senator representing California in January 1993 after 10 years of service in the House of Representatives. She was elected to a second, six year term in 1998. She delivered this speech January 3, 2003.} On the afternoon of December 31st, while most of us prepared to celebrate the New Year, the Bush administration issued a ruling that will undermine the "dolphin-safe" tuna label. It was a fitting end to a year in which the administration repeatedly and relentlessly attacked the natural environment. Now it seems that no one is immune from these attacks - not even the innocent dolphin, whom we have protected for the past 12 years under a program that was popular with consumers and fishermen alike. In all my years in public life, dating back for more than a generation, I have never seen an administration more hostile to our environment than this one. At every turn, they have sacrificed our environment on the altar of narrow special interests. In doing so, they have endangered our people and our planet.
The Bush administration's war on the environment comes at a time when we need environmental protection more than ever. Asthma is now the leading cause of hospital admissions for children. One in four Americans, including more than ten million children, live within four miles of a toxic waste dump and are at risk for numerous health problems. Nearly one million children under the age of five still suffer from lead poisoning in this country. The threat from chronic exposure to a variety of toxics increases as their number and quantity increase. Since 1975, at least 75,000 new chemical compounds have been released into the environment through consumer and industrial products, many without basic toxicological testing. Protecting our environment has long been a basic American value embraced by Republican and Democrat administrations alike. Early in the country's history, statutes were passed protecting wildlife and forest resources. It was a Republican, Richard Nixon, who signed into law the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act. A Democrat, Harry Truman, signed the Clean Water Act. Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, first set aside for protection the land now known as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Another Republican, George H. W. Bush, signed the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments into law. And a Democrat, Jimmy Carter, signed the Superfund law. One hundred years ago, Republican President Teddy Roosevelt said, "The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value." Unfortunately, President Bush does not subscribe to Roosevelt's sentiment and does not share the values of past Presidents from both parties. Instead of protecting our natural resources, he allows them to be squandered. Instead of protecting our environment, he offers plans and prescriptions to plunder it. Since his first day in office, President Bush has worked to roll back more than 200 laws and regulations that protect our public health and environment. One of his first initiatives was a failed attempt to keep the level of arsenic in drinking water at high levels that were established back in 1942, before arsenic was a known carcinogen. Soon afterwards, the President did an abrupt about-face on his campaign promise to address climate change, withdrawing from an international treaty and refusing to take concrete steps to address the issue. He proposed to deny Medicaid testing of poor children for lead poisoning, a proposal withdrawn after public outcry. But then he stacked the expert panel on lead poisoning with industry representatives. President Bush has vigorously pursued oil drilling in some of America's most pristine places, targeting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge despite evidence that drilling would devastate the landscape and the native people's way of life for a pittance of oil. He is also trying to drill along California's coast. President Bush has opened 58 million acres of public forests to roads, logging, and other forms of destruction and is now working at further weakening forest protections, especially those that benefit wildlife.
The administration is supporting a Department of Defense request for sweeping exemptions from environmental and public health laws, despite absolutely no evidence that any further such exemptions are needed for national security. The President has abandoned the principle of "polluter pays" and shifted the cost of cleaning up Superfund sites - the nation's most toxic areas - from the polluters to the taxpayers. In some cases, he has halted funding for cleanups altogether. He is the first President in more than 25 years to not support a tax on polluters to pay for Superfund cleanup. Right after the 2002 elections, President Bush moved forward with the most sweeping roll back of the Clean Air Act in its 30 year history in order to allow the oldest, dirtiest industrial facilities to increase pollution. And when individual states exercise the Constitutional right to protect their citizens, the President has intervened in order to protect corporate special interests. In my state of California, the administration fought in court against California's right to protect its coast from offshore oil and gas drilling. Most recently, he joined the auto industry in court to argue against California's right to clean up its air and decrease auto emissions. After two years, it is clear that President Bush has a consistent and systematic environmental policy: to sacrifice the health of our families and each and every natural resource - including grasslands, wetlands, forests, oceans, rivers, parks, and wildlife - in favor of special interests. In doing so he has turned his back on California values and American values. As the new Congress begins its work this month, I will continue to fight for these values - and for a safer, cleaner environment for our people, our planet, and future generations. |
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (Photo courtesy Office of the Senator)
Senator Barbara Boxer tours security improvements at the Port of Oakland with US Coast Guard Vice Admiral Terry Cross, Pacific Area Commander. August 12, 2002 (Photo courtesy Office of the Senator)