Tap Water Nuclear Waste Air Quality Saving Wildlife Nevada Main   More Communities 2002 Report Download a PDF of the Nevada report.

How Bush Administration Policies Harm Nevada Communities Mr. President: There Is a Better Way to Protect Nevada's Families and Communities! Nevada is rich and abundant with forests, wildlife, and desert vistas. Regardless of the season or region, we Nevadans enjoy a special relationship with the outdoors. We know that protecting our natural inheritance and the state's scenic beauty makes Nevada's economy stronger and our families healthier. From Lake Tahoe to the Ruby Mountains to the Colorado River, the natural resources that brought fur trappers and mountaineers to Nevada have always been important to our residents and civic leaders. Today, however, our state's treasured environment has been put at risk. Bush administration policies that weaken and ignore federal environmental safeguards are already harming our community's health and our natural heritage. The Bush administration is allowing electric companies, chemical companies, coal companies, and other industries to rewrite and weaken the laws and regulations that protect the health and safety of Nevada's families. The administration is allowing corporations to benefit at our expense, giving electric companies incentive to build more outdated, polluting coal-fired power plants instead of encouraging cleaner, more innovative renewable power generation facilities. George W. Bush broke the promise he made during his 2000 presidential campaign not to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain until all scientific concerns were addressed, and his administration has encouraged the nuclear industry to build more plants and create more nuclear waste. The Administration has proposed the weakening of the Clean Water Act, endangering nearly all of the wetlands in Nevada, and his administration has put much of the state at risk by refusing to protect us from rocket fuel in our drinking water. The Bush administration's undermining of our nation's most basic environmental protections leaves the people of Nevada exposed and vulnerable to increased amounts of asthma-triggering smog, hazardous contaminants on our land, toxic chemicals in our drinking water, and increased risk of nuclear accidents. This report documents the consequences of Bush administration actions-and lack of actions-on the health and safety of families in communities across Nevada. This report also serves to remind us what we have learned over the last thirty years-that there is a better way to protect the people of Nevada; that we have the know-how and a successful track record cleaning up the pollution in our air and water and the poisons in our soil. But know-how is clearly not enough when the Bush administration is determined to let corporations off the hook and de-fund the agencies responsible for enforcing environmental laws. Only pressure on public officials will ensure that the last three decades of progress are not lost and that we instead continue to keep our communities safe, protecting our children's legacy of clean air, water, and still-wild lands. At risk in Nevada: Tap Water Nuclear Waste Air Quality Working to Save Wildlife Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club