Dear
Lyndon, I thought you might like to see the
environmental "record" of the Republican
who is running for President and what his employees
think about him: the web site article is entitled:
Toxic Texas - The Environmental Legacy of Governor
George W. Bush
Texas
Governor George W. Bush wants to bring the agenda
he championed as governor to Washington D.C.
as the next U.S. president. But so far little
has been made public about the actual substance
of those policies, particularly concerning the
environment.
As
an organization made up of public employees
who are concerned about Texas' environmental
policies, Texas PEER feels we're in
a unique position to explain Gov.
Bush's actual environmental record in his
home state to the rest of the country.
After
five years in office, Gov. Bush's mantra for
governing, "Let Texans run Texas",
more correctly should have been stated as "Let
Texas Industry run Texas." His administration's
environmental policies have consistently catered
to the interests of industrial moguls, big landowners
and large contributors, particularly at the
Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission,
the state environmental agency.
Under
George W. Bush's leadership, Texas ranks number
one in a many categories of pollution and environmental
degradation. For example, Texas is:
#1
in the Emission of Ozone Causing Air Pollution
Chemicals
#1 in Toxic Chemical releases into the Air
#1 in use of Deep Well Injectors as method of
Waste Disposal
#1 in counties listed in top 20 of Emitting
Cancer Causing Chemicals
#1 in Total Number of Hazardous Waste Incinerators
#1 in Environmental Justice Title 6 complaints
#1 in production of Cancer causing Benzene &
Vinyl Chloride
#1 Largest Sludge Dump in Country
Texas air quality has worsened significantly
under Gov. Bush's administration. The Houston-Galveston
area has had eight of the top ten ozone (smog)
peaks in the nation, far surpassing Los Angeles.
But as concern over the health and environmental
consequences rise, the governor's policy has
been only to fight the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's attempts to impose stricter air quality
protections.
When
confronted with the option of enforcing regulations
or bypassing them, Gov. Bush has consistently
chosen the latter. After research showed that
1,000 unregulated, "grandfathered"
industrial plants accounted for a huge proportion
of Texas air pollution, Bush opposed legislation
that would force the companies to clean up and
instead cut a back room deal to install a "voluntary"
program. The heads of these companies include
some of the Governor's largest campaign contributors.
The
Governor intervened to ask the federal government
to let the state handle planning to protect
endangered species, then supported legislation
and other actions to allow development and other
threats to the species to continue, so far indefinitely.
Under
Bush's watch Texas has deregulated many aspects
of its environmental policy, including policies
governing wastewater discharges, pesticides,
air pollution and even certain types of nuclear
waste.
Industry
consultants and board members of polluting companies
have been appointed to run Texas key regulating
agencies. As a result, state environmental regulators
have become largely ineffective, with inadequate
resources or direction to enforce even the regulations
still on the books. Texas environmental agency
inspectors are now actually required as agency
policy give notice of compliance inspections
one to two weeks in advance. Texas PEER frankly
fears for the nation's environmental well being
if Gov. Bush's agenda rises to the federal government
level. Governor Bush has said, "What Texans
can dream, Texans can do." Clearly, Gov.
Bush never dreamed of cleaning up Texas' environment.
Over
the next few months, Texas PEER will explore
all these issues and many more related to Governor
Bush's Texas environmental policies. Once per
week Texas PEER will be updated to include one
or more new stories related to the Governor's
Texas environmental record. (If you'd like to
be notified when new material is posted to this
site,
please sign up for our Texas PEER mailing
list.)
Other
Stories availabe at Texas PEER:
1.
Airing It Out In Texas (intro 3 part story)
2.225,000 Texas Children Attend School near
Grandfathered Polluters (Part I)
3. The Bush Environmental
Agenda in Action: Protecting Grandfathered Air
Polluters (Part II)
4. Polluters Bet Big On Bush
On The Campaign Money Trail (Part III)
5. The Privileged Class: Bush
pushes secrecy for environmental audits (Part
I)
6. The Privileged Class II:
Promoting compliance or facilitating a cover-up?
7. The Privileged Class III:
Bush Contributors Back Audit Privilege Law
8. Home on the Range at the
Nation's Largest Sewage Dump
9. Bush's quiet little war
on the Texas environment: Assault on the regulatory
front (Part I)
10. Bush's quiet little war
on the Texas environment: Assault on the regulatory
front (Part II)
11. Superfund a Super Deal
for Texas Polluters (Part I)
12. Bush's quiet little war
on the Texas environment (Part III): Merry Toxic
Christmas in Texas
13. Superfund a Super Deal
for Texas Polluters (Part II)
14. Superfund a Super Deal
for Texas Polluters: Money Talks (Part III)
15. "Local Control"
- Texas Style (Part I)
16. "Local Control"-
Texas Style: Special Favors for Special Interests
(Part II)
17. Privatizing Texas Public
Parks - Public Land, Private Profit
18. Bush Presides Over Hazardous
Waste Barbecue
19. Bush Romances the Atom
in Texas
Well
Lyndon, as a public employee will you protect
the people and the environment or will you protect
your "boss" and your "registered"
POISONS? I cheer these public employees who
are actually trying to protect our people and
our precious environment rather than their "boss"
and the polluters! It seems to me that if we
would not elect the Dad why would we elect his
kid?
Respectfully,
Stephen L. Tvedten.
