Bob Giaquinta for Congress

The Environment

Global warming is probably the second most dangerous factor to the way humanity will exist in the future, second only to a nuclear holocaust with its ability to happen instantaneously. Nature is the most potent uncontrollable source of destruction. We cannot stop volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc., but when the great majority of scientists, worldwide, are adamant that we are accelerating these natural forces towards global warming, and its severe, life altering consequences, we should take heed. We must control the output of greenhouse gases. We don't have to believe the scientists, all that we have to do is watch the newsreels of the receding glaciers, the ice pack that broke away from Antarctica (the size of Delaware), and the melting of ice in the Arctic. Or ask the ranchers and farmers throughout the world, they will tell you. There have been mass extinctions in the past, however, humans are a fragile species, and will succumb faster than crocodiles and cockroaches. If we do work towards this goal, what will the consequences be; the upside is that the world may be able to function as it has for thousands of years. The down side is that we may have cleaner air, cleaner water, decrease in disease, and so forth. If we don't work towards these goals: the upside is polluted water and air, probable increases in disease, etc. The downside is probably the end of the world as we know it. Do we really have a choice? Our government, over the past 30 years, more profoundly in the last seven years, has been choosing the wrong path.

The Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, and other environmentally sane programs have been around for about thirty years. The way our government works is that Congress will create laws, but it is the duty of the Executive branch to enforce the laws, sometimes with their own interpretations. They can choose not to enforce the laws, and cut the budgets of the controlling agencies at their will.

The environmental acts were first assaulted in the Ford era. Guess who was the catalyst for this assault, that's right Ford's chief of staff Dick Cheney, the anti-environmentalist. He gave Russ Peterson, the chairman of the Council of Environmental Quality, a hard time at every opportunity. In 1983, Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, James Watt, who later was convicted for withholding evidence from Congress, was selling federal lands for $2.50 an acre, and leasing mining and drilling rights to large corporations. He was forced to resign in 1983 due to outlandish statements. His Undersecretary, Griles, still worked for the mining industry while working for the Department of the Interior. A report showing his guilt was thrown out by the Reagan administration. Representative Dick Cheney was instrumental in Reagan's veto of the Wilderness Bill. In 1979 President Carter implemented the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ), the economy rose 7.5%, which led to an oil glut and reduced pollution. Reagan rolled this back in 1986.

Bush I signed the Rio treaty to voluntarily reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. With Clinton in office, he tried to get a BTU tax to help limit the emissions. Unfortunately, the Republicans, who are funded by the oil and auto industries, and the Democrats, who must bow to labor unions, had the same special interests in this case killed the bill before it even came out of committee. In 1995, in Berlin, and subsequently in Kyoto, the voluntary reduction was changed to mandatory, for the developed countries. We signed the treaty but it was never ratified. The treaty that we negotiated was never ratified. The main point was that China and India, developing countries, were not mandated to follow the rules. Since when do two wrongs make a right? Having six percent of the worlds population, we emit twenty five percent of the greenhouse gases, and have been doing it for decades. We have been the world leader in many areas, why not lead now, civilization is at stake.

In the 2000 Presidential campaign, Gore did not mention global warming, avoiding Republican backlash. Bush upstaged him by making a campaign pledge to lower emissions. While EPA chairman Christie Whitman was in Trieste to finalize the negotiations on mandatory limitations, Bush, on the behest of Cheney, pulled the plug on her. A short time later he publicly denounced the Kyoto Protocol. The EPA had just finished an assessment showing how our lives would be affected by global warming. It was ignored and taken off the government web site. This showed the rest of the world that the US was only interested in their own welfare, ignoring them. Don't we realize we are a part of the world, and it would be our consequences also?

The current Bush administration has been even worse than Reagan's when it comes to the environment. They have rolled back 300 environmental laws, suppressed and manipulated scientific data, intimidated enforcement officials and other civil servants. They have appointed anti-environments as the heads of Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the Interior, Department of Agriculture, Superfund, White House Council of the Environment, and Bureau of Land Management. In 2003 Bush did not extend the environmental corporate taxes on oil and chemical companies, which paid for the Superfund, causing its bankruptcy. The Superfund worked like this; If corporations were told to clean an area up and didn't respond, the Superfund would do the job and charge the corporations three times as much as their costs. The corporations no longer have this incentive to clean up or avoid making a mess of the environment. We no longer have a functioning Superfund to keep the polluters in check.

The National Environmental Policy Act requires public participation, and requires analysis of decisions made on the environment. Bush has excluded much information, prolonged access of the Freedom of Information Act, stopped enforcing laws, dropped pending cases, reduced fines, has turned down the Federal Trade Commission's investigation of price gouging by the oil and gas companies, and killed the regulations that barred participation by those that repeatedly violate standards.

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